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SM--Tom Ciciora KA9QPN
ASM/SRM--Ron Morgan, AD9I
ASM/SEC--Brad Pioveson, W9FX
ACC--Scott DeSantis KB9VRW
SGL--Charles Richey, K9DUE
STM--Roy Eades, KA9MZJ
PIC--Fritz Bock, WD9FMB
TC--John Dinella, WA9IL
OOC--Tim Childers, K9CQ
ASEC--Curtis Williams, W5DTR
ASEC--Kelly Robertson, KC9FVK
ASEC--Pat Ryan, KC6VVT
ASEC--Pat Stowell, N9PN
ASEC/Digital Ops--Danny Pease NG9R
DEC: Region 2--Lloyd Sherman KB9APW, Region 3--Dale Marzano N9JH, Region 4--Neil Ormos N9NL, Region 6--Gary Shanks KA9FAJ, Region 7--OPEN, Region 9--Jim Hudson WB9QPM, Region 8--Curtis Williams W5DTR, Region 11--Bruce Talley WA9APQ

From the top...
**The Amateur Radio Parity Act has cleared the House of Representatives. Now, we need to get the Senate to process and pass the bill. We only have to the end of this session, or we have to start over again. And, we're thisclose. The League has made it simple for you to contact our Senators by putting a dedicated routine on the ARRL website. It's at https://arrl.rallycongress.net/ctas/urge-senate-to-support-amateur-radio-parity-act. If you have not yet done so, please follow the directions and make your voice heard.
**There has been ample explanation that this measure does not interfere with private contracts as some have alleged. A contract is something that's arrived at via negotiation. Anyone who lives in a covenant controlled community knows that those covenants were set before you and you were instructed to "sign this, too". Nothing was negotiated.

Get informed...
**There was some brief confusion in Sen. Durbin's office, which registered our communications as opposition to the Bill. That has been fixed.
**Strangely, there is some opposition to this measure within our own Amateur Radio community. I've detected what appears to be two groups of thought to the opposition. First are the people who believe that the measure interferes with private contracts. School's out on that one, as has been explained months ago by HQ personnel. There is a second faction who seems to believe that anything less than carte blanche to put up any antenna available is not acceptable. I saw several discussions to that effect on some of the "brick through the window" Internet forums. PRB-1 doesn't give us carte blanche, and neither does Illinois PA 97-0720. Both of those call for "reasonable accommodation", which is the same thing that we're getting from the HOA people. The compromise wording gives the HOAs the same ability to regulate as we have with municipalities. Nothing more. There are some who believe that HOAs by nature are thoroughly unreasonable and should not have any latitude, but we are not going to get that in the Real World. This is the best thing available: "something" instead of "nothing".

Around the Section...
**From Tom Novey W7TAN: "(A) National Parks On The Air mini dx-pedition held on Saturday, September 10th, was a successful event. The site was located at the Robert O. Cook Arboretum in Janesville, WI. The Park Unit activated was TR05, the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. It runs approximately 1200 miles from Northern Door County, down through the Janesville Area (through the Arboretum) then back up the state to a termination point in proximity to the Twin Cities. The crew consisted of: Tom W7TAN (event coordinator), Barry W9JBL, John WA9JON, Kris KD9AHK, Zach W9CLR, Jose' KD9FDX, Mike WD9GNX, Sean KD9CFO, Gabriel KD9GRK, and Dan W9DDH. An IDOT report obtained on Friday indicated that all lanes ware open on I-39 at the interchange with US 20 on the south side of Rockford.  In Addition the Wisconsin DOT reported that two lanes were open in both directions from the state line to Janesville with only nightly lane closures. This meant that the trip up and back should not be (and was) not impaired by construction. Most of us met at the PETRO truck stop on Rt. 38 west of I-39 between 0800 and 0830.  We convoyed from there, chatting on the club simplex frequency. The forecast was for AM rain then clearing and mostly sunny.  We ran into a heavy downpour as we were traveling adjacent to Rockford on I39. This led to a bit of skepticism as to the success of our mission.  We had light rain off and on until around 1100 but then the sun began pushing through the clouds and the rest of the day was pleasant.  The temperature was ideal and a mild breeze help keep the mosquito population down. We saw very few people using either the trail or the arboretum facilities, perhaps due to the AM rain. Because of this, we were unable to share our ham radio experience with outsiders. Barry operated a PSK station, Tom and John operated HF (20 and 40), Sean operated 2 meter on 146.520 (actually getting one SSB contact on 2 meters!!) . Zach and Jose' operated HF (40 and 20). Mike got a chance to work a couple of stations in Ohio on 40 m. We had somewhere in the neighborhood of 22-25 QSO's, W7TAN is still waiting for a final log from Zach/Jose'. Once that is tallied, we will have an exact number. At any rate, we have at least the minimum of 10 to make the activation "official" according to the rules. Couple of interesting side notes- it was Ohio State Parks on the Air weekend; we heard many CQ's and QSO's related to that event, as well as getting some "park-to-park" contacts ourselves. There were also at least 9-10 other NPOTA activations scheduled for the same day as ours in various parks throughout the country. Shortly after 1500 we did a photo op than packed up our gear and did one more photo op in the parking lot.   From there we headed to the Outback Steak House in Rockford and had an excellent steak dinner. It was a good opportunity to unwind, relax, and enjoy some ham-to-ham fellowship. W7TAN would like to put out thanks to the following: KARC, for endorsing and supporting the event, the attending participants and club members, the ARRL for putting up with hi seemingly endless phone calls with questions, and the city of Janesville, Wisconsin- Sandi Walton representing- for being gracious enough to allow our operation in their beautiful arboretum. Thank you everybody, sincerely, for helping make our event both fun and successful!"
**From Dave Harr KF9IO (Yes, it's late, but the link is still good.): "Naperville Community TV recently did a short piece reporting how volunteers in Naperville's Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) serve during weather events. The reporter conducted the interviews during the June 22 severe weather outbreak, which saw a string of tornadoes charging eastward on a line just south of I-80.  (Luckily for us, the severe weather did not impact Naperville directly.) The report highlighted two units of NEMA - the "Weather Unit" and the "Communications Unit."  The volunteers who were interviewed were both hams:  Al Fisher, KC9CWM, a retired NOAA meteorologist who leads the Weather Unit, and myself, Dave Harr, KF9IO, in charge of our ham-based communications unit."

Ye Olde Traffic Report DE KA9MZJ...