October 2015 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[arrl-odv:24745] RA-15 and WRC-15
by Price, Brennan, N4QX 23 Oct '15

23 Oct '15

I will be leaving Saturday for Geneva to attend (in chronological order) the 2015 Radiocommunication Assembly, WRC-15, and the first session of the Conference Preparatory Meeting for WRC-19. Tomorrow will be my last day in the office until Thursday, December 3. Jon Siverling will be joining me for WRC November 1-28. I plan to report toward the end of each week while in Geneva, and more frequently if events warrant. For my final pre-trip report, I'll focus on next week's Radiocommunication Assembly (RA) and update where we are on our 5 MHz effort. The RA has three main tasks (in addition to a few smaller, unlisted ones): 1. Complete any necessary and unfinished technical work from the previous ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) study cycle, 2. Establish procedures, organizational structures, and certain objectives for the conduct of ITU-R studies and development of ITU-R documentation, and 3. Elect leadership for the various Study Groups within which said studies are conducted and said documentation is developed. Compared to a WRC, and barring an issue of popular interest (like the leap second in 2012), the RA is an utter snoozefest. But it is as important as it is boring. While all of the technical work necessary for Amateur Radio to have a chance of success at WRC-15 is finished, there are two issues on which I will be focusing my attention next week: 1) A contribution from CEPT calling on ITU-R to produce a handbook on satellite coordination procedures for developers and operators of small satellites (cubesats). In the preface to the contribution, CEPT has omitted Study Group 5, which is responsible for the amateur-satellite service, from the list of groups that should contribute to the work. At my urging, the United States will call for our inclusion, and I hope we can get CEPT to agree to this early (a word with the person introducing the document early in the week should go a long way). 2) The incumbent chairman of Study Group 5, Dr. Akira Hashimoto of Japan, is term limited, and it is in our interest for the new Study Group chairman to be at least as familiar with and respectful of the amateur and amateur-satellite services as Dr. Hashimoto has been. In my view, one of the two known candidates is preferable on these grounds, and I've let our head of delegation know that. If he wins, great. If the other guy or a compromise candidate wins, then we'll need to begin to foster the relationship as soon as possible (ideally that day). WRC-15 begins November 2. Earlier, I reported that while four regional organizations are supporting us on our 5 MHz effort, the list of countries that aren't on board includes some big and influential names. Some of these countries, including Thailand, Iran, and the United States so far, have made their opposition to an allocation clear through formal proposals to the conference. While we have some offline assurances that the United States will likely reconsider its stance if discussions coalesce around a relatively small allocation (they would like no more than 25 kHz), there are no such assurances or indications of flexibility within the four corners of the proposal they have submitted to WRC. Supportive countries and regions will undoubtedly be fighting vocal opposition in the opening week of the conference, and I have no reason to expect that our own government will be silent. As United States private sector delegates, the best that Jon and I can do in such a situation is quietly suggest routes to a compromise to the United States spokesperson when we see them, and support the spokesperson in an effort to compromise if and only if he is permitted or ordered to do so. Fortunately, on most other issues affecting Amateur Radio at WRC-15, the United States position is at least somewhat accommodating of our interests. And on the 5 MHz issue, representatives of IARU and several of our sister societies will be able to present our case without the constraints of being on the United States delegation. On many issues, we are in good shape, and on 5 MHz, we are prepared for the fight. I can't promise success. I can promise that we'll leave no stone unturned, and that whatever news we have, good or bad, you'll be the first to hear. Until next week, 73 de Brennan N4QX Brennan T. Price, N4QX Chief Technology Officer American Radio Relay League PO Box 3470 Oakton VA 22124-9470 Tel +1 860 594-0247

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[arrl-odv:24741] #104
by Kay Craigie 22 Oct '15

22 Oct '15

Rep Jackson Lee, Sheila [TX-18] - 10/21/2015 She has helped us in the past. Mike sealed the deal this time. 73, Kay Sent from my iPhone

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[arrl-odv:24742] But wait ... There's more
by Kay Craigie 22 Oct '15

22 Oct '15

Rep Clark, Katherine M. [MA-5] - 10/21/2015 Rep MacArthur, Thomas [NJ-3] - 10/21/2015 73, Kay N3KN Sent from my iPhone

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[arrl-odv:24740] January Board Meeting Dates
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 21 Oct '15

21 Oct '15

Two people in the space of less than an hour have asked me the dates of the January Board Meeting, so on the theory that there may be others wondering the same thing let me respond on ODV. The Board Meeting dates and locations are set out in Bylaw 25: 25. The Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors shall be held in the vicinity of Newington, Connecticut, beginning on the 3rd Friday of January. The Second Meeting of the Board of Directors shall be held in the vicinity of Newington, Connecticut, beginning on the 3rd Friday of July. The places of the meetings shall be designated by the President and notified by the Secretary. The times and places of the meetings may be changed provided that specific provision is made therefor by (1) majority vote of the directors at the next preceding Annual or Second Meeting, or (2) majority vote of the directors by mail initiated by the Executive Committee or on petition of at least five directors, such mail vote to be taken at least 60 days previous to the date proposed for the meeting. The third Friday in January 2016 is January 15, so the meeting will begin on that date unless changed by mail vote of the Board under provision (2). The provision (1) option was not exercised when the Board met in July, after which staff made arrangements for hotel room and meeting space at our usual hotel in Windsor. 73, Dave Sumner, K1ZZ

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[arrl-odv:24739] 3 more
by Kay Craigie 21 Oct '15

21 Oct '15

Dan Henderson notes 3 additional co-sponsors: Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1] - 10/20/2015 Rep Bost, Mike [IL-12] - 10/20/2015 Rep LoBiondo, Frank A. [NJ-2] - 10/20/2015 Relevant Directors, please ask your members to thank these Congressmen now. 73, Kay N3KN

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[arrl-odv:24738] HR 1301 Now has 100 Co-Sponsors
by dick＠pobox.com 21 Oct '15

21 Oct '15

20 OCT 2015 - 2115 CDT U.S. Representative Larry Buschon, R-IN-8 became the 100th HR1301 Co-Sponsor within three days after I had a very nice conversation with one of his Legislative Assistants at 10:30 AM on Tuesday, OCT 13th. - Dick Isely, W9GIG

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[arrl-odv:24736] selling microwave bands
by Tom Frenaye 17 Oct '15

17 Oct '15

If you've ever wondered what our spectrum is worth... http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-spectrum-auct… KVCR is analog channel 24, from 530-536 MHz, and digital channel 26, from 542-548 MHz. So they will get $628.6m or about $52m per Mhz. Guess that means 430-450 Mhz would be worth $1.0B if it was all in the San Bernardino/Los Angeles market. So the FCC is buying the spectrum from broadcasters so the FCC can auction it. How can the FCC even think about paying broadcasters for frequencies? I thought that wasn't even possible... The broadcasters don't own the spectrum, it's all of ours! Can we sell a microwave band? We probably have a spare 100 MHz somewhere. -- Tom ===== 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:24735] IN-News
by Kustosik, Lisa, KA1UFZ 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

IN-Newsletter Vol. 40, No. 36 October 14, 2015 - Covers the period October 4-10. Upcoming In-Person Meetings and Events LoTW Study Committee November 13 @ 9:00am - ARRL HQ Administration & Finance Committee November 14 @ 8:30am - ARRL HQ Director/Vice Director Elections November 20 @ 9:00am - ARRL HQ Media & Public Relations Reported by Sean Kutzko, KX9X On Thursday, October 15, we rolled out the ARRL National Parks on the Air event. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. In less than 20 hours since the rollout, we already have five registered activations on the Activations calendar, which is part of the NPOTA leader Board area at http://npota.arrl.org Anticipation is high, especially among the outdoor radio groups like Summits on the Air. We are fielding questions via email, on the NPOTA Facebook group, and on the NPOTA Twitter feed. Most of the questions we are fielding are things we address in our NPOTA FAQ page; we simply point them to that online resource. There is a ton of initial buy-in, and there will be activity on January 1. Thanks again to all departments and staffers who assisted on this project. Here's to a successful event! Sales and Marketing Reported by Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R All Hands on Deck! Steve Capodicasa reports that the warehouse has been busy fulfilling backorders of the new editions of the Handbook and Antenna Book. This is some of our busiest activity of the year. Following a staff resignation a couple of weeks ago, a temporary employee has been capably helping the other warehouse clerks until we fill the open positon. Special thanks to Ally Riedel, Margie Bourgoin, Yvette Vinci, and the mailroom staff for lending lots of extra help. It has been a team effort! Yvette completed the annual Statements of Ownership, Management, and Circulation for each of ARRL's periodicals. The corresponding statements will be published in the December issue of QST and the Nov-Dec issues of QEX and NCJ. Bob Inderbitzen finalized planning for ARRL's exhibit at Pacificon, the Pacific Division Convention. The convention is October 16-18 in San Ramon, California. Our booth will support letter-generating for the Amateur Radio Parity Act, handheld radio testing sponsored by the ARRL Lab, and membership sign-ups. The booth will be staffed by Director Bob Vallio, W6RGG; Vice Director Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT; and Section Managers Jim Latham, AF6AQ - East Bay; John Bigley, N7UR - Nevada; Bill Hillendahl, KH6GJV - San Francisco; Dan Pruitt, AE6SX - San Joaquin Valley; Brandon Bianchi, NI6C - Santa Clara Valley; Dr. Carol Milazzo, KP4MD, Sacramento Valley; Bob Schneider, AH6J - Pacific Section; and ARRL Lab volunteer Matthias Zapatka, AJ4BB. Vice President Jim Fenstermaker, K9JF will lead a presentation, sharing an update with members on behalf of the Strategic Planning Working Group. Bob will also be making a presentation during the Pacificon banquet on the 'value of ARRL membership.' Yvette prepared a report for the recent Executive Committee Meeting with a listing of the elected Life Members since the last EC meeting-264 new Life Members. Yvette reported that on Wednesday, September 23, a reminder emailing was sent to members with a summary of "What's trending" in October QST-taking advantage of some early analytics shared by Alli Barbieri. The notification was sent to 121,887 members. Jackie Ferreira reports that the fall/winter ARRL publications and product catalog is being completed. A Columbus Day weekend sale featuring ARRL Amateur Radio maps was distributed Friday morning. Jackie shared some good results from a mailing promoting the new editions of the ARRL Handbook and ARRL Antenna Book. The mailing includes a coupon for customers ordering both books-which has been redeemed over 645 times. This compares better to a similar mailing in 2011, redeemed 498 times. We have started to receive new products supporting our suite of "National Parks on the Air" merchandise. The product line will be introduced with the NPOTA announcement on October 15. Diane Petrilli organized an appreciation luncheon for +30 tour guides and other headquarters volunteers who do so much to support ARRL members and our staff. During the lunch, the volunteers were invited to share their own ideas for the ARRL Strategic Plan, which Bob Inderbitzen will carry to the working group committee as suggestions and feedback. Diane reported that we have started to insert a buck slip in all membership related mailings, disclosing the dues rates effective January 1. Similar information is included in all e-mailed renewal notices. Accompanying this information is some background supporting the "value of ARRL membership." For more information, visit www.arrl.org/dues<http://www.arrl.org/dues>. A special membership appeal was designed to accompany a mailing organized by Section Manager Jim Larsen AL7FS (Alaska). The mailing includes a special redeem code, so that we can track membership applications to measure the effectiveness of the effort. Membership appeals were prepared for email-including some seasonally-themed messages for Pacificon, Columbus Day, and Halloween. A website graphic was created to promote the upcoming School Club Roundup. A similar promotion was made on the ARRL Facebook page. Summary of warehouse fulfillment activity, reported by Steve Capodicasa: Week ending Packages fulfilled Member Premiums 10/9/2015 1,439 220 10/2/2015 1,078 417 9/25/2015 657 428 9/18/2015 612 529 Lab Reported by Ed Hare, W1RFI Radio Frequency Interference Mike worked on assembling a Working Group for IEEE P-1897, which will be a Recommended Practice for the Resolution of Power Line Noise Complaints. He also updated the existing document. Greg Kwasowski now reports that the expense to make these proposed modifications to fix the interference from the HVAC system to W1HQ will be considerable. There is also no guarantee that the fix will eliminate the interference. This would also appear to contradict the previous report that there was a delay due to shipment of parts from Japan. At this point, Mike Gruber has done all he can with regard to this situation A decision must be made by management as whether or not they want to spend the money. Mike Gruber investigated the marketing of Class A Part 18 ballasts at a nearby Walmart. Electronic Publications Travelplus GPS continues to be unusable to most hams. Garmin's developer web page now warns Notice: Plugin Support Is Ending. We have temporarily discontinued sales of this product. Due to evolving web standards, modern browsers are ending support for most third-party plugins, including the Garmin Communicator Plugin. If you're using the Communicator Plugin on your website, be aware that most major browsers will not be supporting plugins in the future. http://www.garmindeveloper.com/web-device/garmin-communicator-plugin/ Field Services & Radiosport Reported by Dave Patton, NN1N DXCC Paper/Fieldcheck Processing Time 3 Weeks Logbook Processing Time 2-4 Business Days Number of Centennial applications processed: Centennial Challenge QSO 2700 W1AW/WAS 1907 W1AW Joe processed two Qualifying Run certificates. He also modified an audio/PTT/FSK interface to be used with a Kenwood HF/6 transceiver that was sent to the Azores Islands. Scott worked on fast and slow code practice files for the week. He also processed some VUCC applications and certificates. Field Organization/Public Service Team The main focal-point weekend for the annual Simulated Emergency Test was October 3 and 4, and Steve Ewald has noticed that many SET reports are already arriving at ARRL Headquarters. Please note that many SETs are scheduled throughout the fall season to help maximize participation and coordination with served agencies. Headquarters also heard from several Section Leaders and ARES groups along the U.S. Eastern seaboard who were on alert during the first weekend of October while watching the track of Hurricane Joaquin. Leona Adams has been receiving and processing a number of Field Organization appointments and updated information for the data base from our Section Managers and Section Leaders. A few Section Manager election ballots for the Santa Barbara election have already been delivered to ARRL HQ. The receipt deadline for these ballots is November 20th. Chuck Skolaut compiled and forwarded the monthly ARRL Monitoring System/Intruder Watch report to the Region 2 IARU Monitoring Coordinator. A number of Official Observers assisted in a monitoring request regarding an unlicensed operator on 20 meters. The FCC's Laura Smith praised the actions of an OO and the program in an email to the recipient of an advisory who had responded to the OO in a very negative way. Updated information was forwarded to the FCC regarding a 6 meter interference case in Oregon. The Orange OOC is working on some reported interference on 40 meters. A question was received regarding AMTS operation in southern California. A report of interference occurring on the OMISS net on 75 meters was received and is being checked out. Sincerely Compiled by, Lisa Kustosik, KA1UFZ Assistant to the CEO Hamfest/Member Contact/ARRL Representative/Meetings/Vacations All Staff 11/26-11/27 Holiday All Staff 12/25 Holiday Bob Allison 10/18 Connecticut State Convention, Meriden, CT Lauren Clarke 11/25 PTO `` 12/24 PTO Mike Corey 11/13-11/15 HamJam, Alpharetta, GA Steve Ford 10/16-10/18 AMSAT Symposium, Dayton, OH Mike Gruber 10/16 NEAR-Fest, NH Dan Henderson 10/8-10/18 RSGB Convention, Milton Keynes, UK / PTO `` 11/23-11/25 PTO Gail Iannone 10/16-10/21 PTO Bob Inderbitzen 10/16-10/18 Pacific Division Convention, San Ramon, CA Debra Johnson 10/8-10/20 PTO `` 11/16 PTO `` 11/25 PTO Harold Kramer 10/13-10/15 PTO Brennan Price 10/16-10/18 Microwave Update, San Diego, CA Steve Sant Andrea 10/16-10/20 PTO Chuck Skolaut 10/8-10/16 PTO Dave Sumner 10/5-10/19 IARU Reg.3 Conference/AC Meeting, Indonesia

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[arrl-odv:24734] CAI 2015-10 Washington DC Conference Registrant List
by dick＠pobox.com 16 Oct '15

16 Oct '15

15 OCT 2015 - 2153 CDT I returned from my latest capital hill legislative mission early this afternoon and I'm still digging through a large pile of 270+ filtered email messages. It will probably take me about two days to respond to those messages that require one. In two days I talked with staff members in a mix of 20 Senators' and Representatives' offices. I also dropped off Amateur Radio Parity Act Literature and my ARRL business card at the offices of both (currently non-responsive) Illinois Senators. Thanks to an email posting by Brian Mileshosky that provides the URL for the Community Associations Institute (CAI) website, I have learned a bit more about our political opponents as follows: 1. Virtually all the registrants for the upcoming CAI congressional effort opposing HR 1309 and SR 1685 are real estate sales organizations, lawyers providing services to RE sales organizations, homeowner association management companies, and various suppliers of goods and services to homeowners associations. Very few of the registrants are HOA members. It appears to me that CAI represents the groups making money from residential real estate rather than the actual owners of said real estate. 2. CAI membership is in the 64,000 range, but there is no description of this membership. Are they individuals? or HOAs? I suspect CAI membership is a people headcount. 3. CAI states it is active in several other areas of the world. 4. CAI's audited 2014 assets are a bit less than 2 million dollars. 5. As many of you already know, CAI leadership is either ignorant, dishonest, or both, in their descriptions of the alleged Amateur Radio danger to the HOA world. As soon as I correlate TKG-supplied notes on my latest series of capital hill visits with my notes, I plan to post the data to TKG and ODV. - Dick Isely, W9GIG

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[arrl-odv:24733] VHF+ Contest use of 146.52 MHz simplex
by Brian Mileshosky 15 Oct '15

15 Oct '15

Greetings - At its July 16 meeting, the Programs and Services Committee unanimously accepted and approved a recommendation from its VHF and Above Revitalization Committee to remove the prohibition of making contest contacts on 146.52 MHz simplex. This rule, as we understand it, originated back to when 2-meter radios were mostly rock-bound and the use of 146.52 MHz was commonplace. The restriction, it is believed, has never applied to the calling frequency of any other band. VHF and Above Revitalization Committee's research concluded that the 146.52-exclusive restriction is unnecessary today. Permitting the use of 146.52 MHz would allow new/curious contesters possessing only FM mode radios to stumble on more contacts, increasing the chances that they will be drawn further into VHF+ contesting, which is the primary aim of the Revitalization committee. Word of the Revitalization committee's recommendation and PSC's subsequent approval was floated at last July's Central States VHF Conference and met with great enthusiasm. Both PSC and the Revitalization committee seek to have this restriction removed ahead of the 2016 contest season. The January VHF Contest is first up, and its rules need to be published online and in QST in December (at the latest). We wanted to provide a quick heads up about this prior to asking staff next week to proceed with removing this restriction from applicable contest rules. Thank you and 73, Brian N5ZGT

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