Thank you and good evening everybody.  From Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 1802, these are the Ham Nation headlines for Tuesday, February 28, 2012.

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With the 2012 World Radiocommunications Conference in the rear view mirror, we look back to WRC-07 where a Cuban proposal for a new Amateur allocation at 5-MHz lacked support.  That has changed.  2015 Agenda Item 1.4 seeks 5.25 to 5.45 MHz. If passed, it is then up to the various national communications authorities to create new rules. That vote is 3-years away.  Implementation – who knows?

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The International Telecommunication Union has also announced the official callsign prefix block for the new nation of the Republic of South Sudan. It is Z8A through Z8Z. The Republic of South Sudan joined the United Nations on July 14, 2011 when it became the 193rd member state.

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If you were watching last week's preshow, there was a short discussion about lavellier microphones.  Leo showed footage of David Garraway, original host of "The Today Show" in about 1954 wearing an RCA Model BK-6A pressure microphone – RCA’s term for “dynamic.” and were reasonable but unremarkable dynamic microphones. This is a close-up of the 1956 Model BK-6B. No great improvement, But the necessity for program participants to be mobile with their hands free, propelled development long before.

Here is today's state-of-the-art, a Sennheiser Model MKE-2, an electret condenser microphone at about $600 list.  But in the late 1960s, Sony started the miniaturization revolution with their Model ECM-50 "tie clip" and Model ECM-51 handheld electret condenser microphones.  

let's rewind to 1936. An RCA Type 30-A velocity – meaning ribbon – microphone.  Ignore the microphone and look at the rig it's attached to. Its 1957 where we see Red Rowe, host of Channel 2’s "Panorama Pacific" in LA.  And yes, that is an RCA BK-1A hand and desk microphone hung around his neck in one of those horse collar rigs. This is the BK-1 in a more traditional setting. In the late 50s-early 60s, Electrovoice made their foray into “wearable” mics. This is an E-V Model 647. As you can hear, unremarkable. 

But we've run out of time for the history lesson.  Next time, the microphone shrinks… But not by much.  Don't miss it if you can.

And for this week, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline – your independent source of amateur radio news, brought to you each week without interruption, for almost 35 years at www.arnewsline.org or join us on Facebook.

Special thanks to Chris Clementson for sharing his microphone collection with us.

I'm Robert Sudock, WB6FDF.  73 and we'll see you next time on Ham Nation.