December 2007 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

RE: Web Story on R2 Band Plan
by Bill Edgar 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

Joel, This is a good article. Thank you. - Bill N3LLR From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 10:53 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: Web Story on R2 Band Plan Tomorrow, the attached story will be placed on ARRLWeb as well as appear in the ARRL Letter. The Vice President's (Kay, Rick, Rod & Dave) and I worked up and agreed on the story. This information is public information and may be distributed and/or used in any necessary replies to members (and non-members) in your division, but of course it will be on the web and in the ARRL Letter. This evening I went back and reviewed the emails I have received regarding this matter. The email I received was all the same form letter email. This is provided for info only. I'm not looking for analysis and I don't believe any conclusion can be drawn from it so please don't waste your time looking for one. Again, this is just for info only. In each response, the appropriate division director was copied on my response. Total Emails (all the same form letter email) - 51 Breakdown by Division: Atlantic - 7 Central - 4 Dakota - 1 Delta - 2 Great Lakes - 5 Hudson - 1 Midwest - 1 New England - 9 Northwest - 5 Pacific - 2 Roanoke - 6 Rocky Mountain - 0 Southeast - 5 Southwest - 2 West Gulf - 1 Email from Members - 33 (1 Diamond Club) Email from Non-members - 18 Members - 64.7% Non-members - 35.3% Of the non-members, the breakdown is this: Never been a member - 4 Membership lapsed 1-5 years - 6 Membership lapsed 5-10 years - 2 Membership lapsed 15-20 years - 2 Membership lapsed 20-25 years - 3 Membership lapsed >25 years - 1 After my response, 19 responded by saying thank you for clarifying the matter and setting the record straight. 5 responded (all non-members) and said I was a liar and there was no response from the remaining 27. 73 Joel W5ZN

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Web Story on R2 Band Plan
by Joel Harrison 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

Tomorrow, the attached story will be placed on ARRLWeb as well as appear in the ARRL Letter. The Vice President's (Kay, Rick, Rod & Dave) and I worked up and agreed on the story. This information is public information and may be distributed and/or used in any necessary replies to members (and non-members) in your division, but of course it will be on the web and in the ARRL Letter. This evening I went back and reviewed the emails I have received regarding this matter. The email I received was all the same form letter email. This is provided for info only. I'm not looking for analysis and I don't believe any conclusion can be drawn from it so please don't waste your time looking for one. Again, this is just for info only. In each response, the appropriate division director was copied on my response. Total Emails (all the same form letter email) - 51 Breakdown by Division: Atlantic - 7 Central - 4 Dakota - 1 Delta - 2 Great Lakes - 5 Hudson - 1 Midwest - 1 New England - 9 Northwest - 5 Pacific - 2 Roanoke - 6 Rocky Mountain - 0 Southeast - 5 Southwest - 2 West Gulf - 1 Email from Members - 33 (1 Diamond Club) Email from Non-members - 18 Members - 64.7% Non-members - 35.3% Of the non-members, the breakdown is this: Never been a member - 4 Membership lapsed 1-5 years - 6 Membership lapsed 5-10 years - 2 Membership lapsed 15-20 years - 2 Membership lapsed 20-25 years - 3 Membership lapsed >25 years - 1 After my response, 19 responded by saying thank you for clarifying the matter and setting the record straight. 5 responded (all non-members) and said I was a liar and there was no response from the remaining 27. 73 Joel W5ZN

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[arrl-odv:16193] December along the Northwest Coast
by jfenster＠pacifier.com 07 Dec '07

07 Dec '07

Hi Gang, Last year, it was the rain/wind/ice storms that caused over 1,000,000 people to lose power, trees, and lives in the Seattle area. This year, it was a massive rain storm and wind that hit Oregon and Washington earlier this week. I trust you have seen the pictures and articles of the current storm and conditions in our area along with the kudos to the Amateur Radio community for providing the communications links in the hard-hit communities. After spending the weekend at our Vancouver, WA QTH (with Shirley wielding the whip, encouraging me to finally finish the kitchen remodel that started in early 2005), we got back on the road to Seattle sometime after midnight on the morning of December 3. The forecast of a severe windstorm and "some" rain was on my mind as we began the 175 mile trip to our Seattle condo. The first 20 miles were relatively calm. Then, we ran (literally) into gusts of 50-60 MPH on I-5 just north of Woodland, WA. What impressed me was the volume of rain blowing sideways. I haven't seen this kind of water since we left the midwest nearly 25 years ago. Around 2:30 AM, we motored through the communities of Chehalis and Centralia, just half-way to Seattle. Even then, we could see water beginning to collect at the side of the road. About 2 hours later, we finally docked in the condo parking lot, listening to the wind and continuing to watch the sideways blowing rain. Just 1/2 mile to the west of the condo near the Puget Sound shore, a large mudslide washed away a road (fortunately the driver of the car it captured escaped). An apartment complex just north of us in a lower area was under 8 feet of water! But, most of the damage and flooding was in the area we drove through in the early morning with over 10 feet of the muddy mess covering I-5 where we were traveling a few hours earlier. Yes, it rains a lot in the Pacific Northwest but most of this is mist or light rain. Here at the condo, we had 4" of rain in 24 hours. Just south of our place (2 miles) and closer to the Sound, the paper reported over 5 1/2 inches in the same time period. The highway (I-5) is still closed and many homes in SW Washington and NW Oregon are still awaiting searches and hopefully rescues of people and animals. To get back to Vancouver/Portland areas, one has to take a 400+ mile detour through Ellensburg, Yakima, Richland WA then down through the Columbia Gorge. During this time, our ARES folks and hams in general, showed the populace our ability to communicate with "old fashioned" technology and just plain perseverance. The new WWA Section Manager, Jim Pace, K7CEX, lives in Centralia so he really got his baptisim by fire (or should it be flood water?). Jim is OK and lives far enough above the river that he has no flooding but has to commute by boat! All in all, it has been a rough week out here. I hope this is our winter excitement. We need a break to clean up and get things back to normal...what ever that is. 73 Jim Fenstermaker K9JF

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[arrl-odv:16192] Repeater Directory Survey
by Kramer, Harold, WJ1B 06 Dec '07

06 Dec '07

FYI, In case you here anything, we sent out an email survey about the Repeater Directory yesterday. As we have in the past, we used Zoomerang survey software. We sent the survey to about 1,000 previous purchasers of the Repeater Directory. The survey had about ten questions about the Directory and what features we should include and how the information should be presented. If you have any questions, please contact either Bob Inderbitzen or me. 73, Harold Harold Kramer, WJ1B Chief Operating Officer ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio 225 Main Street Newington, CT 06111 Telephone: 860 594 0220 email: hkramer(a)arrl.org web: www.arrl.org/ <http://www.arrl.org/>

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[arrl-odv:16191] Re:CQ December Editorial
by Henry R. Leggette 06 Dec '07

06 Dec '07

Joel, Very excellent letter! 73, Henry - WD4Q ----- Original Message ----- From: Joel Harrison To: arrl-odv Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:56 PM Subject: FW: CQ December Editorial ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:55 PM To: 'cqletters(a)cq-amateur-radio.com' Cc: 'w2vu(a)cq-amateur-radio.com' Subject: CQ December Editorial Please see the attached letter regarding the December "Zero Bias" editorial in CQ magazine. 73 Joel W5ZN

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Information in my letter to CQ
by Joel Harrison 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

A couple of Directors have asked whether the information in my letter to CQ can be used, or if the letter could be forwarded, to anyone inquiring about the CQ article. The letter is factual, expresses current board policy and I regard the letter as public information, so it may be used as needed to respond to inquiries. 73 Joel W5ZN

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Web Story
by Joel Harrison 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

In addition to the letter to CQ and email to ARNewsline, I have prepared a rough draft of a web story I am working on with Dave and the Vice Presidents. The target is to have it completed and posted by the end of the week. Joel

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RE: CQ December Editorial
by K8JE 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

EXCELLENT! Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director ARRL Great Lakes Division 5065 Bethany Rd. Mason, OH 45040 E-mail: <mailto:k8je@arrl.org> k8je(a)arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142 ARRL - The Reason Amateur Radio Is! Members - The Reason ARRL Is! -----Original Message----- From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:56 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: FW: CQ December Editorial _____ From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:55 PM To: 'cqletters(a)cq-amateur-radio.com' Cc: 'w2vu(a)cq-amateur-radio.com' Subject: CQ December Editorial Please see the attached letter regarding the December "Zero Bias" editorial in CQ magazine. 73 Joel W5ZN

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FW: Inaccurate Statements in ARNewsline
by Joel Harrison 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

The email below was sent to Amateur Radio Newsline this evening. _____ From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:59 PM To: 'wa6itf(a)arnewsline.org' Cc: 'newsline(a)ix.netcom.com' Subject: Inaccurate Statements in ARNewsline Editor, ARNewsline, Recently, a story was published in Amateur Radio Newline calling attention to a CQ editorial that made several accusations against ARRL but was based on rumor and false information. It is unfortunate that you chose to publish the story without even contacting ARRL to determine if there was any validity to it, or as a minimum to seek out the facts in this matter. The December CQ editorial is based on the mistaken assumption that the new IARU Region 2 band plan is an ARRL initiative. It is not, nor is it in anyway a vehicle to achieve regulation by bandwidth. That premise is based on a false rumor that you have unfortunately fallen prey to. The genesis of the Region 2 band plan, available at http://www.iaru-r2.org/band-plan/, is actually based on the band plan adopted by IARU Region 1 at its conference in Davos, Switzerland in September 2005 and available at http://www.iaru-r1.org/Spectrumbp.htm. If you compare the two you will see there are striking similarities, including most of the features that you incorrectly attribute to the ARRL which has no standing or membership in IARU Region 1. It happens that the ARRLs regulation by bandwidth petition, the now-withdrawn RM-11306, also drew on the Region 1 band plan. This is acknowledged on page 10 of the petition, which is available at http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/rm-11306/RM-11306-asFiled.pdf. The similarities between RM-11306 and the Region 2 band plan are the result of having some common roots, but the two are not otherwise related. In particular, the Region 2 band plan is not a vehicle for achieving what has not yet been achieved through FCC rulemaking. ARRL representatives did participate in the discussion of the band plan in Committee B/C at the Region 2 Conference in Brasilia in mid-September and I cast the vote on behalf of the ARRL for the plenary meeting to adopt the committees recommendation. I did so knowing that the new band plan isnt perfect committee work inevitably involves compromise and accepting the views of others that are different from your own but also knowing that it is a significant improvement over the old one. In any case, band plans are simply voluntary guidelines and do not have the force or significance of regulations. CQ is well aware of this, since participants in their contests routinely violate band plans with impunity but risk disqualification or worse if they knowingly violate FCC rules. The continuing support from CQ for the concept of regulation by bandwidth is greatly appreciated. The ARRL Board remains of the same view. Regulation by bandwidth is essential to the orderly introduction of new digital modes into the HF bands. However, the ARRL will not be pursuing rulemaking until some degree of consensus can be achieved in the amateur community. It is particularly important to avoid unintended consequences for traditional modes. The original RM-11306 petition accomplished that through the combination of a specific provision for AM and the replacement of the existing FCC Part 97 definition of bandwidth which currently is based on occupied bandwidth, with the definition of necessary bandwidth. The distinction is important because it avoids the difficult issue of measuring the actual bandwidth of transmitted signals. By definition, the necessary bandwidth of an SSB signal is 2700 Hz. If the rules specified a bandwidth limit of 2700 Hz, an SSB signal would comply regardless of its actual bandwidth as long as an existing rule, §97.307(a), also was observed. This is not a change from the present situation. The editorial properly credits the ARRL with having conducted an open process of soliciting input during the three-year period of development of RM-11306. As one of the 39 member-societies of IARU Region 2 the ARRL will, as always, continue to openly work to improve the Region 2 band planning process prior to the next conference and to give its members ample opportunity to offer comments and suggestions. 73, Joel Harrison, W5ZN ARRL President

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FW: CQ December Editorial
by Joel Harrison 05 Dec '07

05 Dec '07

_____ From: Joel Harrison [mailto:w5zn@arrl.org] Sent: Tuesday, December 04, 2007 10:55 PM To: 'cqletters(a)cq-amateur-radio.com' Cc: 'w2vu(a)cq-amateur-radio.com' Subject: CQ December Editorial Please see the attached letter regarding the December "Zero Bias" editorial in CQ magazine. 73 Joel W5ZN

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