 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
 Previous: Dayton Hamvention 2001: A Very Good Year |  Next: ARRL Asks FCC to Investigate Long-Range Cordless Telephone Sales |
May 30, 2001
(In alphabetical order:)
AMSAT-NA president appoints archivist, special assistant: AMSAT-NA President Robin Haighton, VE3FRH, has appointed AMSAT-NA Board member Dick Daniels, W4PUJ, as the organization's official archivist. A founding member of AMSAT-NA, Daniels has collected numerous photographs and information concerning AMSAT. In addition, he's begun converting many existing slides to a digital format for archiving. Daniels will present his concepts for the long-term preservation of the organization's records to the AMSAT-NA Board. Haighton also has appointed Ed Collins, N8NUY, as special assistant to the president. Both appointments are effective immediately.--AMSAT News Service
BBC to drop North American short-wave transmissions: The chimes of Big Ben and the words "This is London calling" soon will disappear from the short-wave dial in North America. The BBC World Service has announced that it's eliminating its English short-wave transmissions to North America, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands on July 1. "The Beeb" will continue short-wave broadcasts to the Caribbean and South America, and this will usually allow out-of-target reception in the US. The BBC World Service says it will focus its delivery in English via its FM and medium-wave "re-broadcasting partnerships," together with 24-hour on-line audio service. "We know that our listeners have migrated away from short-wave and are now accessing us on FM, via the Internet and also in some areas on satellite, cable and on mobile devices," the BBC said. "In the US, three times as many people listen to us on FM as on short-wave, and one and a half million users access on-line each month." The BBC says the money saved by closing short-wave transmissions to North America will go towards funding its investment in future technologies. It's been reported that the move will save the BBC some $700,000 a year.
FCC makes minor alterations to scanner rules: The FCC has affirmed its decision to require manufacturers to make scanning receivers more difficult to modify by making circuitry inaccessible. But the Commission this month agreed to make minor changes in labeling requirements for certain scanning devices and to clarify the compliance measurement rules. The FCC issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order May 22 in response to petitions for partial reconsideration filed by Tandy Corporation and Uniden of America to its Report and Order in ET Docket 98-76, adopted in 1999. Tandy and Uniden had requested that scanning receivers that only operate in the range 30 MHz to 512 MHz be exempted from the circuit inaccessibility and warning label requirements. The FCC declined. "The fact that a scanner is intended to tune only below 512 MHz does not ensure that reception of cellular telephone frequencies will not occur," the Commission said, citing the image response of some receivers. The FCC did agree to make exceptions in the labeling requirements for very small devices where labeling is impractical. The FCC agreed with Tandy and Uniden that the wording of the signal rejection ratio rule might not be well-understood. The FCC amended §15.121(b) to make it clear that scanning receivers "must reject cellular service signals that are 38 dB or lower based upon a 12 dB SINAD specification."--FCC
FCC puts paper on par with e-filing for vanities: The FCC has put paper vanity call sign applications on an equal footing with electronic filings in terms of processing priority. The change was instituted a few months ago, according to Bill Cross, W3TN, of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, who spoke May 20 at the Dayton Hamvention FCC forum. Previously, the FCC had given priority to electronic applications for vanity call signs. "There is no preference anymore for electronically filed vanity applications," Cross said. "What they do now is key them in all together, and then the paper-filed applications have the same chance of being selected as the electronically filed ones." Vanity applicants should be familiar with acceptable call sign formats before filing. Cross warned that applications seeking unavailable call sign formats will be dismissed.
FCC seeks public comment: The FCC has asked for public input on reorganizing the agency. The project is being led by FCC Special Counsel Mary Beth Richards, who plans to unveil a reform plan later this year. To better respond to the convergence of services offered across industry sectors, the FCC's industry-specific bureaus such as Mass Media, Wireless and Common Carrier and are expected to be realigned along functional duties such as licensing, enforcement and consumer affairs. No specific due date for comments was posted, but FCC officials said they would be collected "over the next several weeks."--Bill McConnell/Broadcasting & Cable via ShopTalk
Florida ARES group activates to cover 911 outage: On May 13, a water leak shorted out Jacksonville Fire-Rescue Department's telephone and radio systems, including the 911 trunk to the Jacksonville Sheriff's office. This event knocked out all emergency radio and telephone traffic. All police and rescue traffic was diverted to the single UHF repeater normally used for routing private ambulances to area hospitals--resulting in an instant frequency overload. JFRD officials turned to Amateur Radio. The ARES Quick Response Team was on-scene within 30 minutes of the call-up. Travis Maclay, N4TJM, assisted in setting up a temporary link. Bill Sander, KA4OBP, General Dailey, KD4VVZ, Al Elmore, W4FHP and Don Ferris, W4JSO, established a direct link from the JFRD center to the police communications center. In all, 21 hams assisted in passing continuous fire and rescue radio traffic over the 146.76 MHz repeater--for approximately 2.5 hours. The team secured operation at approximately 1:30 AM the following morning. In a note to the volunteers, ARES Duval County Emergency Coordinator Miller Norton, N4RYX, said, "Your contributions and willingness to assist the community and our served agencies is what makes our organization so vitally important. We are the last defense and simply cannot fail to respond when called. Job well done."--Miller Norton, N4RYX; Nils Millergren, WA4NDA
His dog and ham radio are this man's best friends: Emergencies can happen at any time. On the evening of May 4, Buffalo County, Nebraska, ARES members had an emergency of their own. Jerry Schram, KC0HOX, a Handi Ham and an ARRL Official Emergency Station, was on the phone with Joe Mettenbrink, KB0SUH, when Jerry became quiet and stopped responding to Mettenbrink's questions. Aware of Schram's medical situation, Mettenbrick called Buffalo County EC Danny Baer, KA0DBK, and asked him to check on Schram. When Baer and his wife, Peggy, KC0JGD, arrived they found Schram's dog, Mandy, barking at the telephone and pawing at the receiver. Schram was unconscious in a chair with his H-T. Baer called 911, and emergency medical help responded minutes later and had Schram talking and nearly back to normal within an hour. In the meantime, Mettenbrink used his H-T to locate Shram's wife, Carla. As Baer sees it, Amateur Radio, Mandy the dog, and good friends came to Jerry Shram's rescue in his time of need. "Be ready for an emergency," he said. "When it comes, it could be one of your friends who needs your help." He reports that Jerry Shram did not require hospitalization and has recovered from his emergency.
IARU information paper available on-line: The International Amateur Radio Union has published a 26-page, four-color booklet, Amateur Service Spectrum Requirements at 7 MHz. The document is available as a PDF file for downloading on the IARU Web site. The paper makes the case that an exclusive 7-MHz amateur band is essential to the effective use of the Amateur Service in disaster mitigation and relief operations worldwide. It quotes a September 2000 ITU Study Group recommendation, approved by ITU-D in April 2001, recommending that "administrations are invited to reduce and, where possible, remove, barriers to the effective utilization of the amateur services for disaster communications." There are charts, tables and graphs to strengthen the argument for an exclusive, harmonized amateur band for use of all 152 countries represented by the IARU.
Barnegat lighthouse in New Jersey. 
|
Bob Larkin, W7SLB, with the 18-foot K1FO-style antenna arranged for circular polarization. The hybrid coupler is hanging from the antenna and Beb is holding the receiver preamp. All other equipment, including the DSP-10, 8-W Brickette and 150-W amplifier were inside the ham shack. |
Minimalist EME: Bob Larkin, W7PUA, reports that he and Beb Larkin, W7SLB, completed an Earth-Moon-Earth QSO on 2 meters May 5 using single Yagis and 150 W or less of transmitter power. "The PUA43 mode was used in the DSP-10 transceiver," he reports. "To our knowledge, this is quite a bit less capability than has been used previously for this type of QSO." He says copy was via the computer screen. "The average signal strength was estimated to be about 20 dB below the level that can be copied by ear," he said. "The QSO was not 'pretty,' in that a total elapsed time of 6-1/2 hours was needed over three days! But the principles were demonstrated, and that was our goal!" Larkin said work continues to get the QSO time down to an hour or less, without resorting to "big power." Details of the equipment and procedures are linked from the DSP-10 Web page.--Bob Larkin, W7PUA
RAC President Ken Oelke, VE6AFO (right), greets ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, who was a guest at the RAC Board's April meeting in Ontario. [Earle Smith, VE6NM, Photo] |
President Haynie attends RAC Board meeting: ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, was a guest at the Radio Amateurs of Canada Board of Directors meeting April 26-29 in Cornwall, Ontario. RAC President Ken Oelke, VE6AFO, and Federacion Mexicana de Radio Experimentadores (FMRE) President Pedro Mucharraz Gonzales, XE1PM, attended the ARRL Board's January meeting. The RAC returned the honor in April. "It is important that the respective organizations work together in establishing a strong association and establishing common goals in the Americas," Haynie said. "With WRC-2003 looming closer and closer, our goal of representing Amateur Radio requires a united effort." During its April meeting, the RAC Board adopted eight "core values" that included a pledge to "actively seek and protect adequate spectrum and antenna space for Amateur Radio activities and work in cooperation with other organizations and governments to ensure their availability at all times." The full list of "core values" is on the RAC Web site.
Senate confirms FCC chairman, commissioners: The US Senate has confirmed President George W. Bush's nominees for the FCC, giving Republicans a 3-2 majority. FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell was confirmed for a new five-year term. The new Commissioners are Republicans Kevin Martin, a White House aide and deputy general counsel of the Bush campaign and Kathleen Abernathy, a telecommunications attorney and former advisor to FCC Commissioner James Quello, and Democrat Michael Copps, a former aide to Sen Ernest Hollings of South Carolina, the incoming Senate Commerce Committee Chairman. Confirmation by the full Senate followed a 17-0 vote in favor of the nominees by the Senate Commerce Committee.
Space stories: From Kurt Alexander, WB9USA: "I thought the following was interesting. KB9NPU, Richard, of Muncie, Indiana, had a QSO with the International Space Station on May 9. Later that day, I was piloting my hot air balloon. I heard him telling KB9KZX about his contact on 2-meter simplex, and I gave him a call. So, Richard, on the same day, had a QSO with the most modern, sophisticated flying object, and also had a contact with the oldest--a hot air balloon. It has to be a unique circumstance." From Al Emer, N2YAC: "As I listened on the downlink in the car in traffic, I heard Jim Voss make a contact with my son Sean, KC2DIJ, here in New Jersey. Seems Sean ran all the way home from school and fired up the station to check out the last pass of the day. Guess my wife and I have to get busy; we only worked Susan Helms. Now Sean's got us beat by having worked not only Susan but Jim Voss. He'll probably put the QSL card where I'll have to see it every day. What a wonderful program ISS is turning out to be. When I was 13 I raced home from school to watch The Three Stooges." From Richard Glueck, N1MDZ: "My students and I had the opportunity to listen to Susan Helms in the ISS as she cruised overhead around 11:10 AM. We are in Maine. Susan was making rapid-fire contacts by voice. She remarked how she was able to absorb all of New York and Long Island yesterday, and she conversed with another ham operator in Montreal for a bit. My students were thrilled! I became a ham operator to talk to Mir and eventually exchanged messages with Viktor Afanasyev. We met the following month at Star City, Russia. I hope this contact does the same for my kids as well. The power of spaceflight comes through really well with Amateur Radio."
Vote on QST Cover Plaque Award: The winners of the QST Cover Plaque Award for May was Bob Lewis, AA4PB, for his article "An Automatic Sealed-Lead-Acid Battery Charger" Congratulations, Bob! ARRL members are reminded that the winner of the QST Cover Plaque award--given to the author of the best article in each issue--is determined by a vote of ARRL members. Voting takes place each month on the Cover Plaque Poll Web page (ARRL Members only). As soon as your copy arrives, cast a ballot for your favorite article in the June issue of QST. Voting ends June 15.
The vintage W8FYO key. [ARRL photo] |
W1RM operates W1AW using vintage paddle: Pete Chamalian, W1RM, visited W1AW recently to try his vintage W8FYO paddle on a modern transmitter. The rare 1960s-era paddle was designed and sold by J.A. Hills, W8FYO, whose name appears on each unit. A modern Bencher unit used at W1AW shows a remarkable resemblance to this 1964 design. Chamalian, a high-speed CW operator, was a staff member at ARRL from 1963-67. He lives in Burlington, Connecticut, with his wife Bobbie, WB1ADL, also a former HQ staffer.
Writers wanted! We're looking for a few good stories--well, lots of them, actually. ARRLWeb seeks your Amateur Radio-related feature stories for posting on our site. You don't have to be a pro--you just have to have something to say that others will want to read. We'll correct your spelling and grammar errors and pay you to boot. Submittals should be organized and coherent and deal with a topic that others in the amateur community will want to read. Good photographs are a real plus, and we'll consider some submittals for use in QST. Articles on everything from antennas to zeners are welcome in electronic form, with text and images e-mailed as separate files. Submit articles for consideration to Rick Lindquist, N1RL, n1rl@arrl.org.
| Previous: Dayton Hamvention 2001: A Very Good Year | Next: ARRL Asks FCC to Investigate Long-Range Cordless Telephone Sales |
