REC Networks is pleased to hear the news today that AT&T and Deutsche Telekom have announced that they will no longer be pursuing the proposed merger of AT&T with T-Mobile.

REC was one of a few dozen entities who filed a formal Petition to Deny with the Federal Communications Commission to oppose this merger. In our filing, we pointed out that the merger would create a single Global System for Mobile (GSM) provider which would eliminate handset portability between competing providers. It would have also created a "captive audience" environment for foreign travelers visiting the United States with GSM handsets from their home countries this creating only one possible rate for international roaming services.

REC Networks has released a new version of the LPFM Search Tool for the PC only. The mobile-friendly version will be updated at a later time.

The following updates were made:

SECOND ADJACENT CHANNEL WAIVER PART II

As a result of multiple requests for this functionality, REC has added second adjacent channel waiver functionality to all results, even those that have available channels not needing a second adjacent channel waiver.

We have arrived at REC East safely. We estimate that services impacted during the Facility Move will be restored in the evening on November 14 or during the day on November 15, 2011.

We believe that the network connection here will be stable and we should hopefully have less ongoing downtime due to ISP issues than we had in Prescott Valley at REC West.

REC East is located in Mardela Springs, MD just west of Salisbury on Maryland's eastern shore.

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts, well wishes, prayers and most importantly, your patience during this outage and facility move. Our goal was to make this outage as brief as possible.

REC has received word that Bill Baran, amateur call sign N2FNH had passed away on Sunday, October 30, 2011. Baran had a regular segment on the on-air amateur radio bulletin service "This Week in Amateur Radio" and the broadcast version "This Week in Amateur Radio International" called "The Random Access Thought". These short segments included subject matter that was loosely related to amateur radio and featured sound effects and sound bites that added a lighter touch to what are normally very serious amateur radio bulletins. TWIAR and TWIAR International were featured on former REC audio services W0KIE West and Hardcore XTRA.

While REC policy regarding "pirate radio" is to take a position of being sympathetic but not endorsing the engagement of unlicensed broadcasting, we are deeply concerned though about the reasons leading up to this specific forfeiture. If this forfeiture is permitted to stand, it will set a bad precedence against webcasters.

We take issue with the statement made in the Forfeiture Order that was written by Rebecca Dortch, Western Regional Director, Enforcement Bureau: