January 2003 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[ARRL-ODV:8163] Executive Committee Memo on Spectrum Policy Task Force Report
by W3KD＠aol.com 04 Jan '03

04 Jan '03

Greetings, and Happy New Year. Attached is the "white paper" called for by the Executive Committee at Minute 4 of its December 5, 2002 teleconference. It addresses the FCC's Spectrum Policy Task Force report, on which public comment is due January 27, 2003 (an extended date). The document was requested by the EC, but the issues are of obvious interest to the full Board. The paper could not fulfill its function if limited to the SPTF report only. There are other documents and recent matters related to FCC spectrum policy that have to be considered in the aggregate, in order to understand what ARRL's response to the SPTF report should be. Please read this in advance of the Board meeting. Please also consider this to be ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGED COMMUNICATION AND SUBJECT TO WORK-PRODUCT PROTECTION FROM DISCLOSURE. It should not be disclosed other than to officers, directors, vice-directors and key staff. The additional addressee of this message, incidentally, is my associate, Amy Pedersen, Esq. who assisted in drafting the memo. 73, Chris W3KD

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[ARRL-ODV:8162] [ARRL-ODV:8160] LoTW First test
by sysop＠bfdin.com 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

Dave, I had a chance to test this out. And for others testing this out, I offer this advice, when the certificate generator asks you to select a password to protect your certificate, DO NOT DO IT. Downloading the program was a breeze. Installing the program was equally as simple. Requesting the certificate generator to issue a certificate went well until it asked me to select a password, which I did. I sent the certificate request out to the requested email address and received a prompt reply back. The reply essentially told me that since I requested a password that my password would be printed on a postcard in the mail. Above that text, I was told that no passwords are being mailed out and that "Either your certificate is automatically sent to you (in a separate message) or it's not." Assuming that if one sends the certificate request with the requested selection of a password, that they will not be able to test this system. Is this correct? - Bill Edgar N3LLR AR>This afternoon I had an opportunity to try out Logbook of the World. If you have a log in ADIF or Cabrillo format, you can, too! The "greetings" message from Dave Patton, NT1N, that follows this note provides the instructions on how to download the beta version of the program. Further instructions are included in the download. For test purposes the DX logs submitted for the 2002 ARRL CW DX Contest are in the database. Converting my Cabrillo log of about 4,000 QSOs into "TQSL" format took about 90 seconds. Uploading and matching with the QSOs already in the database took another 97.6 seconds and yielded 1,675 confirmed QSOs. As they say, your mileage may vary. Note that at this stage the "query handler" is a bit primitive. The critical elements to be tested right now are the certificate generation and data conversion/uploading functions. 73, Dave K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:8161] Re: Clueless in Costa Mesa
by Art Goddard 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

Perhaps a key issue for January is to "un-enact" Tod's motion... Meanwhile, my report will be sent to Kay and Fried for their summary. 73, Art or dARTh, take your pick ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ" <dsumner(a)arrl.org> To: "arrl-odv" <arrl-odv(a)reflector.arrl.org> Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 1:19 PM Subject: [ARRL-ODV:8159] Re: Clueless in Costa Mesa The standing order Art cites reads: 99-2.61) Sixty days prior to each meeting of the Board, the officers, led by the president, are directed to identify one of more key issues that should be discussed by the Board at its next meeting. When the topics have been selected, the directors will be notified in a timely fashion and asked to consider each topic from the standpoint of the status of Amateur Radio within their division. The second and third vice presidents are responsible for collecting comment from each director and writing a summary report for the Board based upon those comments. The summary reports are to be distributed sufficiently in advance of each Board meeting to allow directors time to review the report prior to the meeting. This seems to fall into the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" category. On a historical note, it was the last motion offered by retiring Director Tod Olson, K0TO. Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Goddard, Art (Vice Dir, SW) Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 2:41 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:8157] Clueless in Costa Mesa Pursuant to ARRL Standing Order 99-2.61, what is (are) the key issues for the January 2003 Board Meeting? 73, Art or dARTh, take your pick

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[ARRL-ODV:8160] LoTW First test
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

This afternoon I had an opportunity to try out Logbook of the World. If you have a log in ADIF or Cabrillo format, you can, too! The "greetings" message from Dave Patton, NT1N, that follows this note provides the instructions on how to download the beta version of the program. Further instructions are included in the download. For test purposes the DX logs submitted for the 2002 ARRL CW DX Contest are in the database. Converting my Cabrillo log of about 4,000 QSOs into "TQSL" format took about 90 seconds. Uploading and matching with the QSOs already in the database took another 97.6 seconds and yielded 1,675 confirmed QSOs. As they say, your mileage may vary. Note that at this stage the "query handler" is a bit primitive. The critical elements to be tested right now are the certificate generation and data conversion/uploading functions. 73, Dave K1ZZ Greetings This is the first, by-invitation-only notice to participate in the initial testing of the ARRL's Logbook of the World. Jon, KE3Z and Mark, WA1VVB have been hard at work on this project and we are prepared to get general testing going. The basic premise of this system is to provide an electronic means for confirming QSOs. The ARRL will act as a central depository for signed QSO data. Custom software will compare QSO records to one another as they enter the system. The data must match in five categories: Call, date, time (plus/minus 5 minutes right now), band, and mode. A failure to match any one of those categories will not return a confirmed QSO. The main feature/requirement of this system is the use of digital signatures by means of digital certificates. Each QSO will be signed using a digital certificate (cert) issued by ARRL. Each, single call sign must have a cert. N6TR and N6TR/7 require different certs. Each of you will create one or more "station locations" that will be stored on the system. When you select a log to be signed (prior to submittal to LoTW) you will assign a station location to that log. This process will allow, for instance, a log from K1KI in FN32, and a log from K1KI in FN33 to be recognized as different grids and attach that geographic information to the QSO. The QSO dates for each operation are entered into the system during the certificate request. One catch: If K1KI wants to enter his callsign as K1KI/m or K1KI/r, that will require a new certificate. The system recognizes exact matches on callsigns for the certificate process. In other words, K1KI doing a rover operation can submit logs from various grids under one cert as long as his call stays the same. It is also easy to create another station location for 8P8P in Barbados, but I have to obtain another cert for that call. To get started go here and download "TQSL" http://www.arrl.org/lotw/tqsl-beta.exe During installation you will be able to view and print "Quick Start" which contains instructions to use during this testing phase. You will receive a message saying that you were successful with the download. In the Start/Programs/TrustedQSL menu you will find the program tqslcert. Run this program. You'll get a message reporting that you have no certificates and asking if you want to request one. Say YES. You can then follow along with the instructions in Quick Start. For future reference, when you submit logs from callsigns other than your home call (like K7RAT or N1RL/VY2), you will need to obtain new certs. When you apply for the new cert, you need to "sign" the new request with your home call cert. You will be prompted to do that (see item 4 in Quick Start). After a successful upload of a log that has matches to other data in the system, this is the sort of message you will receive: The Logbook of the World system response to your message follows: 2003-01-02 20:55:36 LOTW_QSO: Certificate found for NT1N - UNITED STATES (291) 2003-01-02 20:56:30 LOTW_QSO: Successfully processed 1640 QSO records in 54.473013 seconds 2003-01-02 20:56:30 LOTW_QSO: 823 QSL records entered 2003-01-02 20:56:30 LOTW_QSO: No errors encountered We have already loaded in all the electronic logs received from the 2002 ARRL CW DX contest. So, if you participated in that contest you will find matches to your entries--and reported like line 3 in my example message just above. Then, if Trey elects to upload his HC8N logs, or some of them, we will see many more matches to test. Enter any logs you like. They will all be removed before the system goes live at which time we will all start over with obtaining new certs and downloading the latest TQSL version, etc. Here's what the TQSL Cabrillo converter knows at present for contest logs: ARRL-SS-CW ARRL-SS-SSB ARRL-DX-CW ARRL-DX-SSB ARRL-10 ARRL-160 ARRL-RTTY IARU-HF CQ-WW-CW CQ-WW-SSB CQ-160-CW CQ-160-SSB CQ-WPX-CW CQ-WPX-RTTY CQ-WPX-SSB If you have quick questions I can try to answer them, or Jon and staff can address them on the bug reporting system at http://www.arrl.org/notes/bugzilla/ . You will need to sign up for an account http://www.arrl.org/notes/bugzilla/createaccount.cgi on that page initially. The Logbook web site is at http://p1k.arrl.org/lotw/ You will need to use your callsign for username and the password that was returned to you with your certificate. In fact, it wouldn't hurt to go there as soon as you have your cert and check it out! 73 and thanks guys. Dave, NT1N

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[ARRL-ODV:8159] Re: Clueless in Costa Mesa
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

The standing order Art cites reads: 99-2.61) Sixty days prior to each meeting of the Board, the officers, led by the president, are directed to identify one of more key issues that should be discussed by the Board at its next meeting. When the topics have been selected, the directors will be notified in a timely fashion and asked to consider each topic from the standpoint of the status of Amateur Radio within their division. The second and third vice presidents are responsible for collecting comment from each director and writing a summary report for the Board based upon those comments. The summary reports are to be distributed sufficiently in advance of each Board meeting to allow directors time to review the report prior to the meeting. This seems to fall into the "it seemed like a good idea at the time" category. On a historical note, it was the last motion offered by retiring Director Tod Olson, K0TO. Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Goddard, Art (Vice Dir, SW) Sent: Friday, January 03, 2003 2:41 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:8157] Clueless in Costa Mesa Pursuant to ARRL Standing Order 99-2.61, what is (are) the key issues for the January 2003 Board Meeting? 73, Art or dARTh, take your pick

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[ARRL-ODV:8158] Re: Clueless in Costa Mesa
by W5JBP＠aol.com 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

Art, and the board, there are several that come to mind right away. 1. Reintroduce the CC&R bill and discuss the fact that while the League can to the mechanics of introduction, the amateur community will be the key in getting anything passed. 2. Strategy on 5 MHz. This will depend a lot on the collective information that Chris, Dave and I will present. 3. Reintroduction of the Spectrum protection bill and why it would be a good thing. 4. Our efforts on emergency communications training and its relationship to homeland security. What might be expected of us in the homeland security program. 5. Membership numbers and its relation to the report of the Ad-Hoc Plan Committee. Not necessarily combined as one. 6. WARC-2003 and what we might expect on our 40 meter efforts. Dr. Larry Price will be giving us a report from his prospective as President of the IARU. I am certain that Mr. Sumner will also have a report as well. Just a few items that I deem key issues. 73 Jim Haynie, W5JBP

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[ARRL-ODV:8157] Clueless in Costa Mesa
by Art Goddard 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

Pursuant to ARRL Standing Order 99-2.61, what is (are) the key issues for the January 2003 Board Meeting? 73, Art or dARTh, take your pick

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[ARRL-ODV:8156] New (beta) spam program
by Fried Heyn(3rd VP) 03 Jan '03

03 Jan '03

For those of you that use Outlook (2000/XP/2002) and are looking for a better way to handle spam, may I suggest you try SpamNet from Cloudmark: http://www.cloudmark.com/products/spamnet/. The FREE program is an Outlook plug-in that is simple and easy to use. It catches most of the spam and almost never mistakes my legitimate mail for spam. The spam is automatically put into the created "Spam" folder and you can have the messages automatically deleted permanently after a determined length of time. 73/Fried(@___@)character=everything

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[ARRL-ODV:8155] DXAC report for January board meeting
by Bruce Frahm K0BJ 01 Jan '03

01 Jan '03

DX Advisory Committee Semi-Annual Report December 31, 2002 for the American Radio Relay League Board of Directors Meeting Submitted by Clifford H. Ahrens K0CA Chairman, DX Advisory Committee Midwest Division Representative Introduction During the second half of 2002, the major DXCC news items were: 1. On September 4, 2002, the DXCC Desk announced the addition of a 30-Meter (10 MHz) Single Band DXCC award. Applications for this award were accepted beginning October 1, 2002. 30-Meter credits will count toward the DeSoto Cup competition ending September 30, 2003. They will also be included in the DXCC Annual List totals for the period ending on that date. A 30-Meter endorsement to 5 Band DXCC will also be available. Agenda Items 1) New Entity/Removal Issues None 2) Other Issues 1. The DXAC has informally discussed the increasing number of illegal "freeband" operations which take place in the frequency spectrum between the amateur ten-meter and the CB band. Discussion has focused on what effect these operations could have on the DXCC program. Concerns have been voiced that illegal "freeband" activity by persons who are also amateur radio operators who are also engaging in amateur radio operations could have a negative impact on amateur radio relations with the government agencies involved. The DXAC has not been requested to do a formal study or express an opinion as a committee. But the individual DXAC members are giving feedback to DXCC staff on this issue. DXAC Status The DXAC continued informal discussions of several important issues facing the DXCC program. These include: 1. The status of development of the "Logbook of The World" (LOTW) system for electronic logbook and QSO information for DXCC awards. ARRL staff are continuing to work on the design of LOTW. 2. Publicizing the "Logbook of the World", the DXCC Challenge program, the new QRP DXCC award, and the 30 meters DXCC award. 3. Continuing to promote the use of DXCC Card Checker services. As of December 17, 2002, there are 155 card checkers. These were nominated by the following: Directors - 6, Section Managers - 63, DX Clubs - 53, Foreign Society pilot program - 33. Currently nominations are still available from 8 ARRL sections. Over 4,750 applications have been verified by DXCC Card Checkers to date. 4. Illegal "freeband" operations. 5. DXpedition QSLing practices. The DXAC will continue to listen to feedback from the DX community on important current DX issues and pass those opinions on to the MSC and ARRL staff. It will also be ready to discuss and make recommendations on any matters or issues referred to DXAC by the MSC. Respectfully submitted, Clifford H. Ahrens K0CA Chairman, DX Advisory Committee Midwest Division Representative

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