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Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1554 - May 25, 2007
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1554 - May 25, 2007
Now, Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1554 with a release date of Friday, May 25th, 2007 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1. The following is a Q-S-T. Two mayors say that the Hamvention will remain in Dayton while thousands flock to the HARA Arena for three days of mid-West ham radio fun. Hear more on Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) report number 1554 coming your way right now. (Billboard Cart Here) ** HAMVENTION 2007: TWO MAYORS SAY IT WILL STAY IN THE DAYTON AREA The Dayton Hamvention will remain in the Dayton, Ohio, area for a long, long time. This, if two well respected politicians have anything to say about it. Speaking at the awards presentation ceremony, Dayton mayor Rhine McLin and Trotwood, Ohio, mayor Donald McLaurin, both pledged the support of their respective cities to keep the Hamvention at its long time home at the Hara Arena. Mayor McLaurin made it very clear that the annual ham radio gathering in a very important to the region and its economy: -- Mayor McLaurin: "-Our pledge to you all is to work as hard as we have in the past to keep you here in the Dayton region. We believe that it is important for the economy. We believe it is important for our friends who come in from around the world. And we want you here." -- Over the years there have been rumors that the Hamvention was seeking to move to a new venue. None of these have ever proven true. Most of the more recent ones were traced to the Chicago area, where the trail went cold. No matter. The Hamvention and the local political leaders have put the matter to rest once and for all. And Mayor McLauren had these words of welcome for all who travel to the Dayton area to attend Hamvention: -- Mayor McLaurin: "We want you to continue to come here and talk about this region because we will love to continue to have you (here). And on behalf of the City of Trotwood, my colleagues and the City of Dayton, we welcome you here and we want you back next year. Thank you so much." -- So please pay no attention to what you might read on some Internet rumor blog or hear on the air. The real word is that the Hamvention is keeping its home in Dayton, and it likely there to stay. (ARNewsline(tm)) ** HAMVENTION 2007: THE AWARDS CEREMONY As we said, Mayor McLaurin's remarks regarding keeping the Hamvention in the Dayton area came at a banquet held to honor this years award recipients. It took place on Saturday night, May 19th. This year saw three of the worlds best known radio amateurs receiving accolades for their personal contributions to Amateur Radio. First up was Technical Achievement award winner David Cameron, VE7LTD. Cameron is the force behind the Internet Radio Linking Project better known simply as IRLP. In his acceptance speech he paid homage to the youth of the hobby: -- Dave Cameron, VE7LTD: "One thing that really got to me today was the Youth Forum. I at there and one of the speakers -- actually the first speaker whose name was Sam from Syracuse-and he talked to me about how it was that IRLP got him into ham radio-and that actually almost brought a tear to my eye because looking at him at the age of 17 caused me to turn around and look at myself 14 years ago and that's exactly where I would have been if I had my license at the time. So I was really glad that we got to him and he had a whole group of friends - there were about 4 or 5 hams ranging in age from 14 to 18 that were all there because of the IRLP and it certainly made me feel good inside to know that my contribution..my technical contribution to Amateur Radio albeit targeted the people I had aimed at being the young." -- Cameron was followed by Special Achievement Award winner Ed Hare, W1RFI. Among other things, Hare was honored for his role in building the case against permitting Broadband over Powerline communications to take root in the High Frequency Amateur bands. Hare, who runs the ARRL lab, said he was sharing the award with Many hams who were all a part of the B-P-L fight: -- Ed Hare, W1RFI: To me this recognizes the strength of Amateur Radio. Many who helped are just as deserving if not more so. I think of the hams who went out every day and checked out the BPL systems and listening. They did not have a boss telling them 'hey-you done good' when they went out and did it. They went out. They did what they did and they gave of themselves for no more than their love of Amateur Radio." -- The love of Amateur Radio was something also quite evident in the remarks of the 2007 Radio Amateur of the Year, Jim Haynie, W5JBP. In his acceptance speech, Haynie, a former president of the American Radio Relay League, paused to relate a story detailing the success of the ARRL's Amateur Radio Educational and Technology program better known as the Big Project. A big project that helped to create: -- Jim Haynie, W5JBP: "The day that Colonel McArthur made a contact from the space station I sat out in the audience with the families. They did not know who I was nor what I had to do with it. They had no clue. But what I heard them say was hoe excited they were that their kids were getting interested in science. Now I know that some of you know K1JT, Joe Taylor, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. If our work at the League can inspire one Joe Taylor every 10 years, then its been a success and I would be extremely happy." -- All three winners received a rounds of applause along with a special surprise from Dayton Mayor, Rhine Lin: -- Mayor Lin: "At this time I would like to take mayoral privileges and I would like to have the 3 honorees come up because I have Mayors Greetings for them and then I would like to have a picture taken with all three of these gentlemen. (audience laughter)." -- All in all, its likely an evening that neither Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, Ed Hare, W1RFI nor Jim Haynie, W5JBP, will ever forget. (ARNewsline(tm)) ** HAMVENTION 2007: THE SHOW While it will be a few weeks before the official Hamvention attendance figures are in, nobody is complaining. -- Carl Simonow WA6JOW/7: "I haven't been here in 5 or 6 years and its just a great as ever." -- That's Carl Siminow, WA6JOW, who traveled all the way from Coos Bay, Oregon to attend Hamvention 2007. Another ham who flew many miles was Californian Dick Mc Kay, K6VGP. McKay has attended many of the Dayton shows over the years. He says that this year was at least as good as 2006 and the great weather outside may have made for less crowding indoors: -- Dick Mc Kay, K6VGP: "Its about the same as last year. The weather is better and there's a few new toys. Possibly one or two less vendors but it is a good show." -- Yes, Mother Nature smiled on Dayton this year with three days of sunshine and comfortable temperatures. This got many to go outside and visit the Flea Market making for more room for those prowling for bargains among the inside exhibitors. Hamvention attendee Charlie Gilliland, WA0KDC of Hiawatha, Kansas is a 35 year veteran attendee and he says that less crowding was fine with him: -- Charlie Gilliland, WA0KDC: "I would say that it appear to have a few less people and it is a little less crowded than it has been because they have spread it out a little bit. So its kind of hard to tell but I like it a little more elbow room." -- But the size of a crowd is really relative to where you are at any given time. And if your name happens to be Chip Margelli, your callsign K7JA and you are working at the Heil Sound booth, you get a completely different perspective: -- Chip Margelli, K7JA: "Its actually been an incredible weekend so far. Its now Saturday afternoon and the crowd has been significantly improved over recent years. We have seen a lot of interest in new products and we have quite a few new items coming out. But overall, there's just been more excitement this year than I have seen in a lot of years and I think this bodes well for the future of Amateur Radio. -- More on Hamvention 2007 after this. Right now its time for you to identify your station. (ARNewsline(tm)) -- Break 1 From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world including the W4CN repeater serving Louisville, Kentucky. (5 sec pause here) ** DAYTON HAMVENTION: NEW PRODUCTS What about this years hot new products. Over the next several weeks Newsline's Fred Vobbe, W8HDU, will be highlighting a number of them. One of the first to catch his eye was at the Vertex Standard booth. The folks who make Yaesu brand products: -- Fred Vobbe, W8HDU: Were here at the Yaesu booth with Dennis. Tell us, what is the new hot product that Yaesu has come out with this year?, Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV: "We have two very interesting products and both are very unique. Its been quite a while since we had a good HF radio for entry level and we have developed our FT-450 which a radio with a goal being to be in (priced) at under $1000, weigh under 10 pounds with 100 watts. It came out to be a really good radio because we had the learning curve from the FT-2000 and we were able to drop that IF DSP into that radio. O, in a very small package that only weighs 8 pounds, it's a heck of a (good) receiver and its going to be a good radio for the desktop as well as being able to go mobile." (ARNewsline(tm)) -- HAMVENTION 2007: THE FORUMS More product release news next week, but right now we turn our attention to the forums. And according to Forums Chair Ron Moorefield, W8ILC, this may have been a record year for people who attended the sessions: -- Ron Moorefield, W8ILC: "Last year we had about 4700 people attend the forums. I think that by midday on Saturday we were up almost to that point. So were are probably well above 5000." -- One of the forums that's always packed solid is that of the FCC. This year was no exception with the probable reason being the man that many came to hear -- the chief rules enforcer Riley Hollingsworth, K-4-Zed-D-H. His message this year seemed to be one of our all needing to respect one another, no matter what mode we choose to operate: -- Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH: To the Nets: Just because you have been on the same frequency for 75 years that doesn't mean you own it. All frequencies are shared. If you vary your frequency, or even if you don't have a net one night, the radio world isn't going to end. To the widebanders: If you want to be a Broadcaster, apply for a broadcast license. Using extraordinarily wide bandwidth on crowded frequencies at peak operating time is rude and selfish and inconsiderate. To the contesters: Be more courteous. You are responsible for the frequency you are operating on and realize that's true even when you operate split. All frequencies are shared. To those who don't like contesters: Lighten up!! Contests are short lived. Use the WARC bands. Wash the car. Cut the grass. Learn from the contesters and this applies to you Traffic net folks too learn from the contesters they pass information a lot faster and more efficiently than you do. Contesters are some of the best radio operators on planet Earth. If the contesters operated at the same pace as some of the emergency traffic nets, the contest would be over after the first few dozen signal strengths were exchanged! To repeater owners: Just because you are coordinated doesn't mean you own the frequency. Coordination is a recommendation, not a frequency assignment. Nobody asked you to start a repeater. If you shut it down tomorrow, what would happen? People would use OTHER repeaters! It's no different than leaving your den door open, if that's where your station happens to be. If you let people in and they misuse it, lock the door! Don't ask us to be baby-sitters: That's what control operators are for. -- The bottom line to Hollingsworth's message: We all share one world of Amateur Radio and it is up to all of us to make it a fun place to be. (ARNewsline(tm) with Hollingsworth audio supplied by RAIN) ** HAMVENTION 2007 - THE RAIN PROMO There's lots more to cover in regard to Hamvention 2007, and we will have all that for you, next week. But if you cant wait to hear more with Riley Hollingsworth, all you need to do is to tune into this weeks RAIN Report. That's because Part 1 of Riley's Hamvention presentation is now on-line at www.therainreport.com. Or if you prefer, you can dial it up on the phone at area code 773-249-0720. Its definitely a talk that all of you will want to hear. (ARNewsline(tm)) ** REGULATORY NEWS: ARRL SUBMITS INTERFERENCE MITIGATION PLAN The ARRL says that it has submitted a radio interference mitigation plan to the US Department of Defense. This, as part of an effort to resolve reported interference from dozens of 70 cm amateur repeaters to a pair of U-S military radar systems on the East and West coasts. As reported in the ARRL Letter a few weeks ago, earlier this year, the Air Force asked the FCC to order dozens of repeater systems to either eliminate interference to its "PAVE PAWS" missile and satellite detection and tracking radar installations, or to shut them all down. The situation affects 15 repeaters within less than 100 miles of Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and more than 100 repeaters within some 140 miles of Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. PAVE PAWS radar occupy essentially the entire 70 cm band and is one factor that makes mitigation difficult. Feeding upward of 1800 active antenna elements, the broadband radar transmitters emit an average power output of more than 145 kilowatts. ARRL Regulatory Information Specialist Dan Henderson, N1ND, says that the League is waiting for a response of the Department of Defense representative to its proposal. Henderson also says that the ARRL will continue to provide information as to its status when it becomes available. (ARRL) ** ENFORCEMENT NEWS: PRETEXTING OUTLAWED The FCC has approved new privacy rules that require telephone customers to provide a password before they can get account information. This, in a move against pretexting, which is the practice of impersonating a phone customer to gain access to his or her phone records. Pretexting first came to light last year when Hewlett-Packard executives were accused of hiring private detectives to investigate board members. The move by the Federal Communications Commission comes months after President Bush signed a law criminalizing pretexting and imposing prison sentences and other penalties. (FCC) ** PUBLIC SERVICE: HAM RADIO AND IRELAND'S ROAD RACING CHAMPIONSHIPS Hams will be helping at the National Under-23 Road Racing Championship. This event is scheduled to be held in Waterford, Ireland, on July 1st. The race will feature over 160 riders taking part. Radio amateurs and Civil Defense volunteers will help with marshalling and numerous other event related duties including communications. This year there will be an even heavier reliance on Amateur Radio networks than in the past. As a result, Ireland's Amateur Radio Emergency Network is also providing the communications for traffic management and accident reporting. (Southgate) ** RADIO POLITICS: SM ELECTION RESULTS ANNOUNCED Back in the U-S-An and on in the only contested ARRL Section Manager race in the spring election cycle, Sterling Eanes, AK1K, has been re-elected to a second term as ARRL New Hampshire Section Manager. Eanes received 277 votes, while challenger Russell Santos, K1TSV, polled 236 votes. Ballots were counted May 22 at ARRL Headquarters. .. Elsewhere, John Dyer, AE5B, will be returning to the West Texas Section Manager's post he once held when he succeeds outgoing S-M Bill Lawless, W5WRL, who did not run for a new term. Dyer, who ran unopposed in the current election cycle, served as West Texas Section Manager from October 2002 through June 2005. Several incumbent SMs faced no opposition in their bids for new terms and were declared elected. They include Bob Beaudet, W1YRC, in Rhode Island; Jim Cross, WI3N, for Maryland-DC; Dick Flanagan, K7VC, of Nevada; Charles McConnell, W6DPD, of California's San Joaquin Valley; and Mel Parkes, NM7P, representing Utah. Terms for all successful candidates in the current election cycle begin July 1st. A re-solicitation for nominations for Section Manager in Northern New Jersey will be announced in July and August editions of QST magazine. (ARRL) ** NAMES IN THE NEWS: CQ ANNOUNCES HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES CQ Amateur Radio magazine has announced this year's inductees into its CQ Amateur Radio, CQ Contest and CQ DX Halls of Fame. This year there are 15 inductees into the Amateur Radio Hall of Fame. We do not have time to list all of them, but there are several that will be easily recognizable. These include such well known hams as NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, NR3A, Swan Electronics founder Herb Johnson W6QKI, along with S-S-T-V pioneers Copthorne MacDonald, VY2CM, Don Miller W9NTP and Farrell Winder, W8ZCF. Also being honored this year is ARRL Senior News Editor Rick Lindquist, N1RL. Maybe best known as the voice of the ARRL Audio News, Lindquist has also been responsible the past decade for keeping the amateur community updated on new developments, via the ARRL Letter and the ARRL Web news pages. The honor comes at a very special time since Rick will retire from the Headquarters staff on Friday, June 1. We at Amateur Radio Newsline wish him well along with a lot of good D-X in the days, months and years ahead. There are three new inductees this year into the CQ DX Hall of Fame. Roger Western, G3SXW, and Nigel Cawthorne, G3TXF, were nominated together. Both are avid DXpeditioners and have activated many rare locations with their two-man, CW-only, expeditions. Also inducted was Mauro Pregliasco, I1JQJ, the co-editor of Europes 425 DX News. The CQ Contest Hall of Fame inducts three new members this year as well. They are Fred Capossela, K6SSS, Tom Taormina, K5RC, and the late Phil Goetz, N6ZZ. The announcement of this years lists of inductees was made public at the Dayton Hamvention on Saturday, May 19th. Check www.cq-amateur-radio.com for more. (CQ, ARNewsline(tm)) ** BREAK 2 This is ham radio news for today's radio amateur. From the United States of America, We are the Amateur Radio Newsline with links to the world from our only official website at www.arnewsline.org and being relayed by the volunteer services of the following radio amateur: (5 sec pause here) ** HAM HISTORY: WW2 HAM SURVIVORS MEET IN THE U-K Surviving World War II radio operators who intercepted the highly secret traffic from the German Secret Service attended a reunion at the Bletchley Park monitoring post in the United Kingdom on April 29th. Hams who attended were previously involved with Ultra, the top secret operation which was deciphered at Bletchley Park and disseminated only to those who had direct responsibility for directing the war.Mike Coleman, G1YVR, gave the group an illuminating history of Direction Finding from before WWI to the present day. Direction Finding was a vital part of the WW II operations and was directed by Major Dick Keen with assistance from G5RV, G6LL, G8LT and G6CJ working on aerial systems and distribution wideband amplifiers. Another well-known Direction Finding operator was G2BTO, who unfortunately could not attend the reunion. The 1,500 hams who became Voluntary Interceptors during the war were recruited by various, sometimes bizarre, means. The RSGB was called upon to help but due to the sensitive nature of the work it could not be advertised. The T-hunters who came to Bletchley Park were mostly selected via the word of mouth old boys network. (GB2RS) ** EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: AGREEMENT ON DTV CONVERTERS In a rare alliance, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Association for Maximum Service Television and the Consumer Electronics Association have actually agreed on something. The three have filed joint comments with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration regarding the $1.5 billion federal program under which consumers will get coupons for low-cost converter boxes that will display DTV programming on their current analog sets. The move was described as groundbreaking by members of both industries. This is particularly true since the comments include recommended receiver-performance standards for the digital-to-analog converter boxes. That is something the manufacturing community has opposed for full-fledged D-T-V sets. Until now, broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers have often been at odds in regard to the total digitalization of broadcasting. But the two industries have now found common ground in the challenge of how an estimated 70 million sets will continue to receive TV when analog broadcasts cease on Feb. 17,th of 2009. That's the date that all television in the United States goes digital and analog is relegated to the scrap heap. (Technology OnLine) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: AMSAT SYMPOSIUM SEEKS PAPERS A first call has gone out for papers to be presented at the 2007 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Meeting. Its slated for October 25th to the 28th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Proposals for papers, symposium presentations, and poster presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite program. An emphasis for this year is an educational outreach to middle and high School students. AMSAT does request a one-page abstract to be submitted by June 1st. Camera ready copy on paper or in electronic form will be due by September 1st for inclusion in the printed symposium proceedings. Abstracts and papers should be sent to Daniel Schultz by e-mail to . (ANS) ** HAM RADIO IN SPACE: OSCAR 11 RECEPTION REPORTS REQUESTED! OSCAR-11 might switch itself on between now and the 8th or 9th of June. However, due to solar eclipses the satellite is likely to switch itself off, almost immediately. Probably after less that one orbit. This brief period of activity could occur when the satellite is over any part of the world. As such AMSAT is requesting anyone hearing the bird to report its presence. Send reports via the AMSAT Bulletin Board or direct to G3CWV. (ANS) ** WORLDBEAT - AUSTRALIA: BIG SHOW PLANNED DOWN-UNDER While Dayton may be the big show here in America, another is getting ready foe a fall opening. The 2007 North Queensland Amateur Radio Convention will be taking place in twin cities of Thuringowa and Townsville from Friday 21st to Sunday 23rd of September. For an electronic copy of the Venue and Events notes and a Registration Form send a message to (WIA News) ** DX In DX, word that the West Lancashire Scouts' Expedition to Renland, East Greenland will be taking place from the 23rd July to 20th August. A party of 50 Scouts and Leaders from West Lancashire in the U-K will be exploring the ice cap and mountains of Renland. As well as mountain exploration a number of scientific and wildlife studies and experiments are being carried for various academic bodies. The Expedition will also be operating an amateur radio station for a considerable period of time. Operation will be on the 40, 30 and 20 meter bands using SSB, data and some CW, under the call sign G3WGU portable OX. QSL as directed on the air.Special station LZ07KM will be active on 1st to 31st May to celebrate Sts. Kiril and Methodius' Day. QSL via LZ1PJ direct, or bureau requests can be sent to . Lastly, HF750C, which will be active through the 30th of June. This, to celebrate the 750th anniversary of Krakow Poland's city rights. QSL via SP9BRP. Also, you can expect also a large number of local operators to use special prefix SN0 during the year. (Above from various DX news sources) ** THAT FINAL ITEM: MORSE A HIT A HAMVENTION 2007 And finally this week, we return to the 2007 for a story about the Morse code. Not a sad story of how hams are mourning its demise as a test element. Rather it's the good news we received from Nancy Kott, W-Zed-8-C of the FISTS Morse preservation society. She says that the code is now growing in popularity as almost never befo -- Nancy Kott, WZ8C: "Its been wonderful! People have been coming through like crazy and I think the interest in code has absolutely skyrocketed. Its just amazing. People are seeing it as a challenge now, rather than an obstacle and we have been very busy." ARNewsline: "So the doom-sayers were wring?" Kott: "Absolutely." -- Needless to say that Nancy Kott and many other Morse aficionados are rather elated with this turn of events. So, the only question left: Now that Morse is rapidly growing in popularity, what will all of the hams without radios who live only on Internet chat rooms have to argue about now? Well, I guess they will find something. They also do. (ARNewsline(tm) ) ** NEWSCAST CLOSE With thanks to Alan Labs, AMSAT, the ARRL, the CGC Communicator, CQ Magazine, the FCC, the Ohio Penn DX Bulletin, Radio Netherlands, Rain, the RSGB, the Southgate News and Australia's W-I-A News, that's all from the Amateur Radio Newsline(tm). Our e-mail address is . More information is available at Amateur Radio Newsline's(tm) only official website located at www.arnewsline.org. You can also write to us or support us at Amateur Radio Newsline(tm), P.O. Box 660937, Arcadia, California 91066. Two reminders before we go. First about our on-line poll regarding upgrading now that Morse is no longer an issue. To take part, take your web browser to www.arnewsline.org. Scroll down and watch for the word "Polls" on the left hand side of the page. Then click on the box that is closest to your view. As soon as you cast your vote you will see the current results. Also, this is the very last call to nominate a youngster for this years Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award. The cutoff date is midnight on May 30th. That's only a few days away. If the Award Judging Committee does not have a nomination in hand by midnight on May 30th its to late. By way of background, any radio amateur age 18 or younger residing in all 50 United States, plus Puerto Rico and all 13 Canadian Provinces can qualify. Full details and nominating forms are on our special website at www,yhoty.org. Also see the Vertex-Standard sponsored ad on page 8 of the March issue of QST Magazine. For now, with Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, at the editors desk, I'm Don Wilbanks, AE5DW, saying 73 and we thank you for listening. Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) is Copyright 2007. 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