June 2003 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[ARRL-ODV:8856] Everyone wants to study spectrum
by Tom Frenaye 06 Jun '03

06 Jun '03

( I suspect this can't be good news, but hope it is...) -- Tom Bush Orders Review of Radio Airwaves Use By DAVID HO The Associated Press Thursday, June 5, 2003; 6:00 PM WASHINGTON - President Bush ordered a broad review Thursday of how government and industry can better use the nation's radio airwaves, a resource growing increasingly congested with signals from cell phones, wireless gadgets and the military. Bush directed the Commerce Department to lead the yearlong initiative and produce recommendations for legislation and other policy changes to promote more efficient use of airwaves. The radio spectrum is a "vital and limited national resource" needed for economic growth, scientific research and homeland security, Bush said. "The existing legal and policy framework for spectrum management has not kept pace with the dramatic changes in technology," Bush said in a memo to federal agencies. "We must unlock the economic value and entrepreneurial potential of U.S. spectrum assets while ensuring that sufficient spectrum is available to support critical government functions." Bush said the way government now reviews every change in airwaves use is "a process that is often slow and inflexible and can discourage the introduction of new technology." The Commerce Department is to hold a series of public meetings to develop recommendations for airwaves use by local governments and industry. To study federal spectrum use, that department will guide a task force that includes representatives from more than a dozen executive branch departments and agencies. The cell phone and wireless industries, in need of increasing amounts of airwaves space, welcomed the announcement. "The tools we have for formulating spectrum policy are broken and we look forward to working with the task force," said Tom Wheeler, president of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees U.S. airwaves not used by the federal government, will have a consulting role in the review. In April, the FCC doubled the airwaves available for emergency and public safety workers, giving a boost to police seeking better crisis communications and firefighters wanting to send video from inside burning buildings. The agency decided last month to allow cell phone companies and others to lease unused portions of their airwaves, letting them make deals for slices of spectrum to fill cell phone dead zones or provide wireless services to certain locations for limited times. l ===== e-mail: k1ki(a)arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444

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[ARRL-ODV:8855] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 06 Jun '03

06 Jun '03

IN-Newsletter Vol. 26, No. 22 June 4, 2003 Development Campaign Updates: The 2003 Education & Technology Campaign has reached $74,300 from 1408 donors for an average contribution of $52.77. The Special Campaign for WRC-03 has raised $32,019 from 706 donors for an average contribution of $45.35. These results bring the campaign total for 2003 Spectrum Defense to $334,464 from 7,223 donors. The test campaign for Historic Preservation is scheduled to mail the week of June 9 to 10,000 ARRL members Diamond Club solicitations were mailed to Life Members and select prospects the week of May 27. Other news: The month of June will be filled with activity around our Emergency Communications grants. A response to the CNCS report from our site visit is due June 9. A progress report on the national UTC grant is due June 20. And the application and budget for the second year of the CNCS grant is due in early July. Development will attend the ARRL National Convention in Dallas. Media Relations A recap of the PR Committee meeting in Dayton was posted to the PRC reflector. Some of the committee members have begun tackling the individual projects they volunteered to take on during the meeting. The next conference call will be scheduled shortly. The March "clip reports" have been sent out to Directors, and Derek Riker has been added to the distribution list. During visits on the Hill, he's found that presenting positive news stories from a representative's district is a helpful tactic. Thanks go to Lisa Kustosik for her invaluable assistance with the clip report project. A fill-in-the-blank Field Day release has been posted to the PR site. During the last week, Jennifer has been working one-on-one with some PR volunteers who needed help with their Field Day publicity efforts. Publicizing the ARRL National Convention, including the Homeland Security connection is high on the list of priorities. Work has begun on that project, and Jennifer is working with PR staff from the Office of Homeland Security in Washington. Final details on the PR forum at HamCom will be firmed up shortly. PR projects for the month also include the national Field Day release and Kid's Day publicity. Production/Editorial Welcome back Helen! Technical Secretary Helen Dalton has returned to the Book Team area after recovering from a serious injury. Dave Hassler compiled the monthly "ARRL in Action" feature for the ARRLWeb. Rick Lindquist filed stories for the Web on the first Amateur Radio on the International Space Station school group contact for the current two-person crew, an advancer for Kid's Day (June 21 this year), and an update (in cooperation with Jon Bloom and Dave Patton) on the "Logbook of the World" beta-testing effort. He also edited and posted the latest FCC enforcement letters. The ARRL Letter (Vol 22, No 22) distributed to 66,045 subscribers on May 30, up from 65,853 the previous week. With voiceover assistance from Brennan Price and Jennifer Hagy, Rick also edited, voiced and produced ARRL Audio News for May 30. As the July issue of QST was being wrapped up, Shelly Bloom pitched in to assist the Advertising Department in completing ad production. Sue Fagan worked over last weekend to finish the 2002 Annual Report. Despite his illness, Larry Wolfgang continued to work from home on the Technician video course revisions. Maty Weinberg assisted Helen Dalton in cleaning up the Technical Advisor database. Sales & Marketing Members of the Sales & Marketing group collaborated on a new full-page ad for QST advertiser Array Solutions. The customer is delighted with the finished ad which features the OptiBeam product line. Array Solutions will track the ad closely, and provide feedback on its impact over the next few months. Another created effort resulted in an ARRLWeb ad banner for Black Feather Electronics featuring their key chain products. Meanwhile, Joe Bottiglieri is finishing up with advertising insertions for the July/August issues of both NCJ and QEX. We are already beginning work on insertion orders for August QST. Bob Inderbitzen wrapped up planning for the exhibit at the ARRL National Convention. An attractive special commemorative button has been designed to handout to convention attendees. With the additional orders received during the Memorial Day weekend web special, Fulfillment staff took time out of their holiday weekend to come in to process a number of these orders. Staff wanted to be sure we stayed within our order fulfillment standards. It also proved to be a very busy end of the week at the warehouse. Our Dayton consignment returns were received back in Newington and quite a few incoming product shipments arrived. In addition, several large dealer orders came at the very end of the sales month and were turned around in record time. Deb Jahnke worked with Bob Inderbitzen to provide feedback for the ARRL E-Store parameters document. Bob turned in material to complete the cover of the upcoming FCC Rule Book--13th edition. The book has a slightly modified title which more closely follows our book-naming conventions. It will be titled The ARRL FCC Rule Book. The following items are now available for ordering via the ARRLWeb catalog: * 2002 DXCC Yearbook (order from dxcc(a)arrl.org <mailto:dxcc@arrl.org>); description at <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=no-dxyb> * Antenna Topics (RSGB) <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8963> * Practical Projects (RSGB) <http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=8971> Membership Services Awards Branch WAS QSL Cards Checked 150 WAS Ends. (150 QSLs F/C) 3 WAC Certs. 11 L/T Member Inquiries 3 A-1 Operator Noms. 5 RCC Awards 3 Friendship Award 1 VUCC Initial Apps. 1 Grids 216 VUCC End. App. 2 Grids 128 Awards Mailed 15 Also, completed filing chores from LTMA correspondence from the year 2002. Processing Status: Current or up to three weeks. For the coming week-WAC QSL card checking, Basic WAS awards for May, OTC awards, filing chores associated with all LTMA correspondence from this year to date, and on-going VUCC awards processing/mailing. Contest Branch A scoring error was discovered in the 10-Meter Log Checking software and was corrected. This entailed a complete review and revision of the 2002 10-Meter Results for QST and the web. The changes/corrections were completed and the revised article for QST was completed in time. The web changes were made and the web material re-opened to the public. The checked scores for the 2003 January VHF SS and 2003 International DX CW contest were received, formatted and incorporated to their respective master databases. Raw data was provided to the authors to begin the work on the result articles. Field Day queries continue to flow in and are being addressed. Work on updating various Overall and Division records for several contests is being done in-house. DXCC Branch Weekly Report June 1, 2003 Beginning Cards 120,283 Cards Received 6,337 Cards Processed 25,326 Ending Cards 101,294 Applications Pending 819 Processing Time 6.4 Weeks Year-to-date (2003) Cards Received 225,500 Cards Returned 327,177 QRPs Issued this week 0 QRP's Issued total 294 DXCC is currently mailing applications received on April 16, 2003. DXCC is currently entering cards received on April 24, 2003. Diana Lamson-Lucas left our employ on Friday May 30. She is finishing up coursework needed for a position in the insurance industry. She was an asset to the DXCC program and we'll miss her. We wish her luck in her new career. Bill Moore is interviewing to fill her position in the DXCC Branch. QSL Branch QSL Service Status: Current. Cards mailed as of 06/01/003: 623,125. No cards were mailed this week. Heather Dzamaba spent 3 hours conducting tours around HQ. Martin and Bill Moore covered the morning bulletins at W1AW for the vacationing Joe Carcia. There is a significant decrease in cards coming in from members for processing. At this time in 2002, we had processed 951,000 cards. Field & Educational Services The Klem South School in Webster, NY, was the first successful ARISS QSO for the new ISS crew, and got good local media coverage. Rosalie worked with NARTE and Rick Lindquist to publicize NARTE's new technical net; ARRL and NARTE have an MOU. She developed a story on three of NASA's Aerospace Education Specialists who tout ARISS. She prepared a talk for the Rocky Mountain Division Convention on volunteerism, and made notes for the traffic-handling, ARISS and youth forums. EmComm Grants Dan Miller says registrations have slowed just a bit, probably due to summertime, as in past years. Level I registrations remained open a little longer -- 16 hours. Level II registration remained open 40 hours. Level III remained open for a week and closed with 5 vacant seats. Dan prepared for ARECC Seminars at the Rocky Mountain Division Convention on May 30, and at EMCOMM WEST in Reno on May 31. Field & Education Support Team Jean Wolfgang is receiving many suggestions for a future Web youth page. She developed a glossary and short explanations of radio to be included. Some awards rating sheets have been returned, so Jean will begin assembling recommended winners packets for the VRC. She has been reviewing the 20 meter JOTA CW frequency; a few PSK-31 hams think JOTA signals at the suggested CW frequency (14.070) may overpower PSK-31 signals. Margie Bourgoin sent affiliation paperwork for 8 new Clubs to the Executive Committee for a vote. She also processed one new SSC application, this one in Hawaii, and one SSC renewal. She and Linda are making progress proofreading the future online Club Primer. Linda Mullally compiled emergency communications reports to be reviewed. She updated 39 club records. She registered 10 Volunteer Instructors and 3 schoolteachers. She sent 14 Exhibit Kits and 2 JOTA Kits, and 10 Videos to HandiHams. She sent 23 Initial Supply Packages to new Field appointees. Gail Iannone sent 6 hamfest approval letters and 2 convention approval letters to the sponsoring committees confirming the Division Directors' approval of the events as ARRL-sanctioned; she sent 33 packages of handouts for upcoming events and processed 16 door prize orders and 1 label request. CCE Howard Robins has been going over revisions to the new RF Propagation course; he feels it will be a super course for our members. For the CCE Web site, he revised the registration calendar to make it clearer to readers. Jerry Ellis has processed results from field exam sessions received recently, along with the usual phone and email inquiries. CNCS, UTC, and field exam graduates were mailed their printed certificates, ID cards and refund checks (where appropriate). Regulatory Information John Hennessee turned over final updates to Production for the FCC Rule Book; updates were held pending FCC's decision on 60 meters and the upgrade in status of 2400-2402 MHz. John assisted an amateur with a local zoning matter in Jenks, OK (KC5TJT). He processed 3 new VC applications: Paula Uscian, K9IR, IL; Michael Sandor, N2NMB, NY; and Gregory Douds, KB3GDD, GA. Field Organization/ Public Service Team SM Al Shuman, N1FIK, reports that Governor Benson proclaimed June as Amateur Radio Month in New Hampshire; the proclamation text is on Al's NH Section Web Page. Arkansas SM Dennis Schaefer, W5RZ, announced that Governor Huckabee has scheduled the signing of a proclamation for June 23-30 as Amateur Radio Week in Arkansas; former SM Bob Ideker, WB5VUH (now Arkansas PIC and SGL), was instrumental in making these arrangements. Steve Ewald is working work with the following Section Leaders who have not, in the last month or so, been active on their ARRL Web sites or electronic messages: AL, ENY, LAX, MDC, NFL, SBAR, TN, UT. Leona Adams continues to work with SMs and Section Leaders to update Field Organization appointment records. Some 20 initial appointee supply packages were shipped including a half dozen OO test packages to those who have been recommended. Amateur Radio Education and Technology Program Three more schools have just sent applications to be Big Project Schools. Rosalie acknowledged them, but will let our new staffer Mark Spencer, WA8SME, correspond with them. He hopes to be in the office for his first day on June 9, and has already been reviewing emails. 73, Sincerely, Mark Wilson, K1RO Chief Operating Officer MW: lk Staff Absentee List Name Date(s) Reason All Staff 7/4 Holiday Dave Sumner 6/3-7/6 WRC 2003, Geneva Mark Wilson 6/13 Vacation Jennifer Hagy 7/7-7/11 Vacation `` 7/18-7/22 Vacation Chuck Skolaut 5/27-6/6 Vacation Bart Jahnke 5/29-6/5am Vacation Brennan Price 6/6 Georgia State Convention 6/13 Iowa State Convention Joel Kleinman 6/10 Vacation Rick Lindquist 6/20-6/22 National Convention Mary Lau 6/1-6/4 Vacation Dan Miller 6/9 Vacation `` 6/12-6/15 SeaPac, Oregon Steve Ewald 6/13-6/14 TN State Convention `` 6/16-6/20 Vacation Eileen Sapko 6/6 Vacation Jon Bloom 6/13-7/7 Vacation Monique Levesque 6/30-7/3 Vacation Kristy Perillo 7/7-7/18 Vacation

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[ARRL-ODV:8854] New Licensees
by Shelley, Barry, N1VXY 06 Jun '03

06 Jun '03

The files containing new and upgraded licensees for the month of May have been uploaded to the ODV section of the ARRL Web page. 73. Barry, N1VXY

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[ARRL-ODV:8853] US Proposals on 1.23 and 1.36
by Wilson, Mark K1RO 04 Jun '03

04 Jun '03

Dave Sumner asked me to forward this to the ODV reflector. 73, Mark K1RO _______ Greetings from Heathrow, where I am logged on via wireless LAN in between flights. The US proposals for agenda items 1.23 and 1.36 have just been published. Here they are. I am sending both because they are related to one another. Also related is another proposal, which I am not sending at this time, to suppress the HF agenda item at WRC-07 on the grounds that WRC-03 is competent to deal with the HF BC expansion issue. That is not a popular stance with other administrations. The 1.23 proposal is modeled on the European Common Proposal but makes the shared allocation at 7200-7300 kHz worldwide and limits the impact on fixed/mobile in Region 2. It is not as good as an exclusive allocation, but it's a lot better than the status quo and is not that different from, for example, 3750-4000 kHz which we also share on a similar basis. The key factor is that broadcasting would be removed. Of course, it remains to be seen what the conference will do. 73, Dave K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:8852] Time to write
by W5JBP＠aol.com 04 Jun '03

04 Jun '03

I know it has been a while since I sent a note to the board and for that I apologize. The amount of work during the past few months has been great both for the ARRL and in my own world. There are two conventions that I want to mention while they are fresh on my mind. Dayton--Again, it was a good show for us. I tend not to listen to the management but rather rely on what we do in our booth and a "gut feeling" on the amount of traffic. First of all, we edged out last year both in sales of merchandise and in membership. Not by much, but still an increase. On the "gut feel" again, I did not get any major complaints. The few that were voiced, were minor and I believe there were only 2 or 3 at that. On the other hand (more about that in a minute) literally hundreds of hams came by the booth over the 3 days that I was there and said how good the ARRL was doing. Quite a reversal from 2000. As to the hand, Saturday afternoon when I got back to the hotel, I soaked it in cold water for a few minutes to get the swelling down. That is how many hands were shook! It is my feeling that the rank and file still feel good about what were are doing, now, if we could get a few thousand more to join the organization. . . . All the officers there at Dayton, along with a number of directors and at one time or another, we all were busy with visitors. All in all, another good one even if it did rain (as usual). It is always good for the inside vendors and we are no exception. Estes Park, CO. What I can say is, Director Stinson and his people know how to do a convention. First of all Estes Park is just absolutely gorgeous but it gets better. The Rocky Mountain Division Convention was held at the Holiday Inn and my first thought before I left, oh well, as long as the room is clean, but as it turns out this is a fabulous facility! The staff went the extra mile to make sure everything was just right! While I don't have the numbers, the forums were all full and the attendees were very responsive and participated with a lively question and answer session in both the ARRL forum as well as Wayne Mills, and Rosalie White's. The kids forum was standing room only and was just great with the kids on a panel taking questions. Saturday night was the banquet and I stood in for Riley Hollingsworth as the featured speaker. I had a lot of fun, and from the audience, they did as well. All during the convention they teased me as to being a "flat-lander" but I did pay them a compliment during my talk. I had noticed that they still use studded tires which shows on the highways. I told the audience that I did feel that the mountain people did have something on us "flat-landers" in that "they tenderized their road kill." The only down side is that they plan to have their next convention in 2006. That is too bad in that I think it rates in the top 10 that I have been to over the past 3-1/2 years. So, in 2006, if you get a chance be sure and mark it on your calendar and be sure to either go up early or stay late, as the park is just stunning. Now, for the business side. Chris, Derek, Ed Hare and I are working overtime on the BPL issue. We are looking for partners in this effort as it is obvious that we cannot do this alone. I have had a number of conversations with other affected organizations and state agencies that I am certain will sign up with us on this effort. I said in both the forum at Estes Park and in my dinner speech, that in all the years I have been an amateur, this is the greatest threat I have seen. In my opinion, this is more of a political issue than a technical one. So, I am depending on Ed for the technical and Chris, Derek and I will handle the political. Speaking of political, we have penciled in on our calendars June 11, for possible testimony before the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications for our Spectrum Protection Bill. I hope to have that pinned down tomorrow afternoon. Then it is in high gear to get the verbal part and written part ready. I look forward to seeing you in Dallas. CUL es 73 Jim Haynie, W5JBP

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[ARRL-ODV:8851] AG0X at RMD convention
by Bruce Frahm K0BJ 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

Folks, Many of you remember ex-Rocky Mtn Director Marshall Quiat AG0X. He attended the division convention in Estes Park last weekend and looked well. In the photo he's visiting with Larry N2WW / UA6HZ, who was head of SRR (Russian ARRL) immediately after the Soviet era for a number of years, and has trained all the MIR/ISS cosmonauts in ham radio. BTW this was a FB convention, with a full slate of informative forums. Tnx Walt and Rev. 73 Bruce

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[ARRL-ODV:8850] Re: Heading east
by Jim Weaver 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

Dave, Good luck! 3, Jim W. Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division k8je(a)arrl.org - Tel. 513-459-0142 ARRL -- The reason Amateur Radio is! GREAT LAKES DIVISION CONVENTION, September 6, 2003: See http://greatlakes.arrl.org

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[ARRL-ODV:8849] Heading east
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

Dear All, In a few minutes I will be leaving the office and heading to Boston for the flight to Geneva. My first couple of days there will be devoted to organizing the IARU office, which is located about five minutes' walk from the conference center. Because of budget restrictions, the ITU will not be providing copies of documentation to each attendee; we will only be receiving one copy for the IARU team and will have to make copies ourselves as required. The office also gives us a place to meet away from the eyes and ears of delegates and other participants. The WRC gets underway next Monday. The first day will be mostly ceremonial and organizational, so there will not be a lot to report right away. However, we do expect initial discussion of the principal amateur issues within the first few days of the conference. The conference is divided into Committees and then into Working Groups. The Committees of most interest to us are 4 and 5. The Working Group with the Article 25, Article 19, and 7 MHz issues is WG 4C. The Working Group with the 70-cm SAR issue is WG 5D. So, those are the ones we will be following the most closely. Delegates operating from 4U1ITU will be signing 4U1WRC during the Conference (not that there will be that much time to operate!). I expect to be able to access email. President Haynie and staff know how to get hold of me in an emergency. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:8848] Re: Fw: FCC Regulators or Cheerleaders? Money talks.
by Fried Heyn(3rd VP) 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

Chris, what can you tell us about Amateur Radio involvement in the current effort of the 41-member Federal Advisory Committee that will be making recommendations for delivery of emergency information to the public? See: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-234929A1.doc. 73/Fried(ô¿ô)"choice=responsibility" -----Original Message----- From: W3KD(a)aol.com [mailto:W3KD@aol.com] Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 6:01 AM To: arrl-odv Subject: [ARRL-ODV:8847] Re: Fw: FCC Regulators or Cheerleaders? Money talks. In a message dated 6/2/2003 9:12:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, w6rgg(a)sbcglobal.net writes: To succeed against BPL with this FCC, therefore, we must align ourselves with HF commercial interests along with similarly well-funded Defense and Homeland Security HF interests. The ARRL and the Amateur Radio community cannot stand alone on this issue. An excellent point. We are doing that exactly, having talked with potential coalition partners, including the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, The Association of Public Safety Communications Officers, and a few others so far. Jim Haynie determined that strategy from the get-go. Chris

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[ARRL-ODV:8847] Re: Fw: FCC Regulators or Cheerleaders? Money talks.
by W3KD＠aol.com 03 Jun '03

03 Jun '03

In a message dated 6/2/2003 9:12:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, w6rgg(a)sbcglobal.net writes: > To succeed against BPL with this FCC, therefore, we must align ourselves > with > HF commercial interests along with similarly well-funded Defense and > Homeland > Security HF interests. The ARRL and the Amateur Radio community cannot stand > > alone on this issue. > > An excellent point. We are doing that exactly, having talked with potential coalition partners, including the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Public Safety Telecommunications Council, The Association of Public Safety Communications Officers, and a few others so far. Jim Haynie determined that strategy from the get-go. Chris

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