July 2003 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[ARRL-ODV:8952] Explanation of new Article 25
by david.sumner＠ties.itu.int 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

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[ARRL-ODV:8951] New Article 25
by david.sumner＠ties.itu.int 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Here is the new Article 25, just adopted on second reading in Plenary. I have inserted the paragrahs that did not change in order to provide a complete text of the new Article. By the way, there was editing going on right up to the first reading, when Canada proposed that "demonstrate" replace the word "prove" in MOD 25.5 in the phrase that previously read "shall prove the ability to send and receive texts in Morse code signals." The change was agreed. Michael Owen has written a paper explaining the significance of the changes to Article 25. I will send it separately. Dave K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:8950] WRC-03 Approves 7-MHz Package
by david.sumner＠ties.itu.int 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

History was made today. Never before in the history of radiocommunication has an HF broadcasting band been shifted to accommodate the needs of another service. But that's what happened at WRC-03 this morning during the final working Plenary, which is still going on at this writing. A carefully crafted compromise was approved on first and second reading that calls for broadcasters in Regions 1 and 3 to vacate 7100-7200 kHz on 29 March 2009 and for the band to be allocated to the amateur service from that date forward. The fact that this was done to accommodate the amateur service has left more than a few other delegates somewhat incredulous. The only previous case of an HF broadcasting band being relocated or narrowed occurred at WARC-79, when the broadcasting service relinquished 70 kHz of its little-used 26 MHz band. That cost the broadcasters nothing -- they didn't use the band very much, and still don't -- and helped them mask the magnitude of the expansions they were seeking elsewhere at WARC-79. But we are not gloating, even for a moment. It took the cooperation of broadcasters and many, many others to enable us to bring this home for radio amateurs. The people who worked with us who are not radio amateurs -- including some who were strongly opposed at the start but who acceded to the compromise -- deserve much of the credit. Attached is what I believe is an accurate, but unofficial, Table (with all footnotes that were changed or added) as adopted this morning. The reason it is unofficial is because there were some edits of the footnotes made during the course of presentation of the document that I have picked up but that are not yet reflected in the official conference documentation. Again, the main feature is the move of broadcasting out of 7100-7200 kHz in Regions 1 and 3 and the introduction of the amateur service. This provides a worldwide amateur allocation of 200 kHz less than six years from now -- a relatively short period of time for the ITU -- with no change at 7000-7100 kHz and with the existing additional 100 kHz, 7200-7300 kHz, retained by amateurs in Region 2 on an exclusive basis. Thus, the incompatibility between amateur and broadcasting use of the 7-MHz band will be cut in half; the spectrum available to amateurs in Regions 1 and 3 will double; the useful spectrum for Region 2 amateurs at night will double; and we have lost nothing in the process. This result falls short of our goal of a 300-kHz worldwide, exclusive band for amateurs at 7 MHz. We knew that it would. ITU decisions are made by consensus. Building consensus requires give and take, and we didn't have much to give. The conference could easily have concluded, as did a number of the participants, that the cost to other services of even a partial realignment outweighed the benefits to amateurs. But somehow, when the dust settled we had gained a significant improvement in the 7-MHz amateur allocation -- and on a reasonable schedule. Dates as far out as 2033 were proposed during the course of negotiations. For comparison purposes, broadcasting expansion agreed at WARC-92 does not take effect until 2007 15 years later. In the Table of Frequency Allocations, 7000-7200 kHz will be exclusively amateur in Regions 1 and 3 (and 7000-7300 kHz in Region 2). By footnote, a number of countries mostly in Region 3 and the Arab States have also allocated 7100-7200 kHz to the fixed and mobile services. None are in Region 2 or in Europe. The story of how this all came about will be fun to write, but its not one that I should try to tell in my current sleep-deprived state. Good ITU compromises and virtually every decision made here is a compromise -- are sometimes described as leaving everyone equally unhappy. Your Geneva team is tired, and pretty happy. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:8949] Slashdot on FD
by Bruce Frahm K0BJ 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Not a very meaty leader article like ZDnet, but Slashdot has a story and thread on Field Day that my son KB0MBS tipped me off to. http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/06/27/1430201&mode=thread&tid=137&tid= 193 The sarcasm often flows on this site, and I enjoyed this post which (I THINK...?) lampoons the *crusty old whiner* crowd: It just hasn't been the same since they started selling pre-made capacitors. Hell, you can hardly find galena and cat's whiskers anymore! Why, in my day we didn't even have coaxial cable; you licked your fingers and stuck'em in the spark gap to make an antenna, and that's the way we liked it! -:- Our club had the usual alottment of fun, although QSOs were more sparse than usual. Soapbox on the website, call W0WOB. We worked Jim McCobb and Walt, and not sure who all else was masquerading behind club calls like me. Maybe we should whip up a "Board Family decoder ring" b4 FD each year? 73 Bruce - - - - - - - - - - - - - Bruce Frahm KØBJ http://carrollsweb.com/bfrahm

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[ARRL-ODV:8948] Plenary recesses, not over yet
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 03 Jul '03

03 Jul '03

Wednesday's Plenary began at 9 AM and ended at 3:30 AM Thursday. It will resume at 9:00 AM. The 7 MHz document is in the delegates' hands but there are some edits that will need to be read out when it is considered. We think the concerns of administrations, including the Arab Group and Iran, have been addressed and adoption should go fairly smoothly -- but we won't really know until the document comes up. Bob Jones is heading home in a few hours. He's been a great help to us. The rest of us are going to get some sleep. 73, Dave K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:8947] Re: August QST Arrived!
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Well, that blows my whole editorial theme! The issue wasn't supposed to arrive until after the conference is over (and at the moment it looks as if it could continue to August -- just kidding, but only slightly). Dave K1ZZ -----Original Message----- From: Isely, Dick (Dir, Central) Sent: Wed 7/2/2003 9:46 PM To: arrl-odv Cc: Subject: [ARRL-ODV:8946] August QST Arrived! 2 JUL, 2003 - 1540 CDT My hat's off to the QST staff. The August issue arrived in the mail today. I believe it's the earliest delivery of any monthly magazine at this address (25 years). I hope our members don't get confused about which issue this is. :) 73 - Dick, W9GIG

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[ARRL-ODV:8946] August QST Arrived!
by dick＠pobox.com 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

2 JUL, 2003 - 1540 CDT My hat's off to the QST staff. The August issue arrived in the mail today. I believe it's the earliest delivery of any monthly magazine at this address (25 years). I hope our members don't get confused about which issue this is. :) 73 - Dick, W9GIG

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[ARRL-ODV:8945] Notice of Second Meeting
by david.sumner＠ties.itu.int 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

No. 2191-N July 2, 2003 NOTICE OF SECOND MEETING ALL DIRECTORS: In compliance with the requirements of the Articles of Association and the relevant provisions of the Bylaws, the 2003 Second Meeting of the Board of Directors of The American Radio Relay League, Incorporated, is hereby called for 8:30 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, Friday, July 18, 2003, at the Windsor/Hartford Airport Marriott, 28 Day Hill Rd., Windsor, Connecticut. Arrangements have been made for a group dinner on the Thursday evening preceding: attitude adjustment at 5:30 P.M. and dinner at 6:00 P.M. Other group meals are Friday and Saturday breakfast and lunch, and Friday dinner. We expect the meeting will conclude by dinnertime on Saturday. Honorary vice presidents, directors emeritus, past presidents, and past directors are invited to attend in observer status at personal expense. Vice directors are authorized to attend with expenses charged to the Board Meeting account. Cash advances are available upon request for those traveling at League expense. Transportation from and to Bradley International Airport will be provided by Marriott. There is a Marriott courtesy phone located in the baggage claim area. An accommodation form is enclosed; please return the form or respond by email as soon as possible to Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ, at HQ. Accompanying spouses are invited to attend breakfast and dinner with the Board family. The tentative agenda for the meeting is attached to this letter. The only planned proposal for amendment of the Articles of Association or Bylaws was sent to officers and directors on June 3. It is requested that insofar as possible, motions to be submitted at the meeting be prepared in advance in writing so that a copy can be handed to the Secretary at the time of presentation. It is important that the motion as handed to the Secretary be the same as that submitted for Board consideration. While we will have word-processing and duplicating capability at the meeting site, this should not replace advance preparation. If you wish to have a proposed motion circulated in advance, either send it to me as soon as possible or post it on the Boards electronic remailer. Please also note Standing Order 30: Each Director offering a motion requiring the expenditure of funds for implementation shall include with the motion his [or her] estimate of the costs involved and the suggested method of funding those costs. Sincerely, David Sumner, K1ZZ Secretary

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[ARRL-ODV:8944] Re: Good story on ZDNet
by Jim Weaver 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Kay, Yes, the ZDNet story was good and all but one comment was equally good. I think you need to brush up on your gene chemistry, still, because you might be able to help KA8VLZ (a commenter) who does not appear to exist in ARRL or UARK files even though he was favorably impressed by the article and Amateur Radio. Weird! 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:8943] Good story on ZDNet
by Kay Craigie 02 Jul '03

02 Jul '03

Check out this Field Day-related story on ZDNet: http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2914159,00.html I read the reply messages commenting on the story, too, and all but one were very positive. The last commenter (as of this writing) is the only one who goes into a rant about how ham radio has gone completely to pot. (Maybe it's because I took biology in school before they started teaching about DNA and gene-splicing -- but how *do* you cross a crab with a dinosaur??) Anyhow, the story's good stuff. 73 - Kay N3KN

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