Greetings,
This past weekend I attended the Central States VHF Society Conference, held
this year in Wichita, Kansas, along with Director Bruce Frahm, K0BJ and
Kansas Section Manager Ron Cowan, KB0DTI. Also attending were ARRL VUAC
Chairman Lauren Libby, W0LD and QST World Above 50 MHz contributing editor
Gene Zimmerman, W3ZZ.
Other notable radio amateurs attending included:
Rod Blocksome, K0DAS, Curator of the Collins Radio Museum in Cedar Rapids,
IA
Dave Blaschke, W5UN - 2 meter DXCC #1 (now at 201 countries on 2 meters)
Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV - Yaesu & 6 meter DXpeditioner
Al Ward, W5LUA - first 24 GHz and 47 GHz EME Contact & 1296 WAS #1
Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR - member ARRL SDR Working Group and President of
Flexradio
Sam Jewell, G4DDK - RSGB
The event this year was held at the Hilton Airport Hotel & Conference Center
adjacent to the Mid-Continent Airport in Wichita. This conference always
begins with a family outing on Thursday evening and continues Friday morning
with an antenna range set up in an adjacent hotel parking lot for gain
measurement of antennas from 50 MHz through 24 GHz.
After lunch on Friday seminars begin as has been customary in past years
which continued through Saturday. The technical and operational
presentations this year were not sufficient in number to fill the allotted
time slots nor were the proceedings of any significant size. In fact, the
number of presentations this year was quite disappointing. The presentations
available were very informative, just lacking in number from previous years
and reflected in the very small size of the proceedings as well. It is my
personal opinion, based on my years of experience with not only the Central
States Conference but the Southeast VHF Society Conference and Microwave
Update Conference that this year's lack of content reflected the organizers
effort rather than a shift in interest in this area. As a comparison, the
Southeast VHF Society Conference included 19 presentations and did not have
time to accommodate all of the individuals that wanted to present and their
proceedings included 32 papers in 250 pages. The Central States proceedings
this year only contained 7 papers in 82 pages and was published by Central
States this year rather than ARRL.
The attendance was down from previous years as well with approximately 100
hams attending (this does not include spouses, companions & family members).
I was the speaker at a Saturday luncheon that had 85 in attendance. This
topic covered various things the League in currently involved in on the
regulatory, legislative and operational front.
I did not receive any complaints during the entire weekend, but received
several compliments about ARRL's direction as well as comments from five
different individuals that asked me to thank the board for the volunteer
time we spend on ARRL matters. I can tell you, though, that the interest
among this group to have VUCC awards available on LoTW is extremely high and
was by far the major comment I received from a majority of the attendees.
The CSVHFS board did vote to ask ARRL to investigate an amateur allocation
at 70 MHz. Such an allocation exists in Europe and G4DDK's talk centered
around 70 MHz. There is no possibility of a Region 2 amateur allocation at
70 MHz. It remains a TV BC allocation and there will continue to be TV
stations on the air using it, albeit fewer full-power stations than at
present. Such a proposal, or even an inquiry, to use television channel 4
(70 MHz) for Amateur Radio would immediately be rejected by FCC and ARRL
would look pretty foolish in pursing such a thing. Not only are there DTV
Channel 4 allotments for full power television; there are LPTV channel 4
stations (which do not have to change to DTV on February 17, 2009); class A
TV stations, and broadcast auxiliary stations. Even if none of these were
there the FCC plans to allow TV White Spaces devices under Part 15 on those
channels. So, this is a mute subject.
Approximately 150 attended the Saturday evening banquet with Sam Jewell
speaking to the group comparing Europe and USA VHF activities.
The 2009 Central States VHF Society Conference will be held in Chicago under
the leadership of Kermit Carlson, W9XA.
73 Joel W5ZN
