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William M. Pasternak September 28th 07 10:10 AM

Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1572 -September 28, 2007
 
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) Report 1572 - September 28, 2007

NOTICE: Due to the fact that key Newsline
personnel will be attending the QCWA convention
in Colorado, next weeks newscast number 1573 will
be delayed by about 48 hours. Look for it to be
released at about noon, Sunday October 7th,
Pacific time. Our normal Friday release schedule
will resume with newscast 1574 on October 12th.

**

Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1572 with a
release date of Friday, September 28, 2007 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a Q-S-T. The National Frequency
Coordinators' Council asks the FCC to declare all
digital voice repeaters follow the same rules as
analog F-M repeaters, Australia makes ready for
digital voice operations and four New England
repeaters voluntarily shut down over interference
to Pave Paws radar. Find out the details on
Amateur Radio Newsline(tm) report number 1572 coming your way right now.


(Billboard Cart Here)

**

RADIO LAW: NFCC ASKS FCC TO DECLARE DIGITAL VOICE REPEATERS THE SAME AS
ANALOG

Is a digital voice repeater really a repeater or
is it something else yet to be defined in
law? The National Frequency Coordinators'
Council believes that anything that repeats voice
in close to real time is a repeater, and its now
asked the FCC to declare this to be the
case. Jay Maynard, K5ZC, is president of the
NFCC. He explains the back story that lead his organization to act:

--

K5ZC: "When D-Star started really taking off,
somebody wanted to put up a D-Star repeater. He
went to his local coordination council and wanted
to put up a 2 meter D-Star repeater. He went to
his local coordination council but was told no
because we do not have any frequencies available
for you. In desperation -- I don't know if
that's a truly accurate word but its close enough
-- they (the want to be repeater owners) went to
the FCC and described what D-Star did in such a
way that the FCC -- specifically Bill Cross --
concluded that a D-Star repeater really wasn't a
repeater and therefore did not have to operate in the repeater subbands."

--

That night be all well and good if it were only
D-Star and other digital repeaters that fell into
this category. Unfortunately, many of today's
analog FM systems also include a slight audio
delay to facilitate control or linking. And it
soon became apparent that this opinion by Bill
Cross could lead to a lot of problems on the VHF and UHF bands:

--

K5ZC: "This guy said 'fine' and he put his
machine up on 145.61MHz with a minus 1.2 MHz
offset and went to town That gave D-Star a
foothold in that area, but it also opened up a
real can of worms because the way that Bill Cross
wrote the message, he said that its not
simultaneous because there is a delay in the
path between the input and the output.

The problem there is that lots of (analog)
repeaters have delays between the input and the
output. Anyone that's running an RC-850
(controller) or other computerized controller has
a delay. And it was only a matter of time before
some bright spark read that message and said: 'Ah
hah! My repeater does not transmit
simultaneously either. Its not a repeater and I
can get on outside the repeater subbands and go to town-"

--

And that's what had frequency coordinators
concerned. They did not want to see a return to
the repeater turf wars that marked the early days of FM relay operation:

--

K5ZC: "In the late 1960's and early 1970' there
was a lot of proliferation of repeaters. That
was really the 'golden age' of repeater
construction. And in that era is when frequency
coordination first came about because you had
people wanting to put their repeaters up all on
the same frequency, and that did not work very well -- as you might imagine.

Part of the regulation that came down to stem
that tide was restricting repeaters to parts of
the ham bands so that they wouldn't take over the
entire band. After all, there are folks that do
other things than operate FM repeaters on 2
meters and on some of the other bands and they
have just as much right to operate on the ham
bands as repeater operators do. And that's where
the restriction (of repeaters) to certain subbanbds comes from."

--

After debating the matter for several months as
more and more digital voice systems took to the
air, the majority of NFCC members agreed that it
was imperative for them to let the FCC know that
they believe any device that retransmits an audio
signal in near to real time is a repeater and should be treated as such.--

--

K5ZC: "What the NFCC did was vote to ask the FCC
to treat anything that asks like a repeater, as a
repeater. This was a formal motion and vote of the council."

--

Specifically, the letter states that the NFCC
believes that any amateur station, other than a
message forwarding system, that automatically
retransmits a signal sent by another amateur
station on a different frequency while it is
being received, regardless of any delays in
processing that signal or its format or content,
is a repeater station within the meaning of
paragraph 97.3(a)(39) of the FCC rules and should
be treated as such. In practical terms, it means
that D-Star, APCO 25 and any other repeatable
digital voice system that comes along would be
restricted to operation in the FCC recognized
repeater subbands. That they could not simply
set up shop on any frequencies that the system
owner might choose to the detriment of weak
signal, satellite or any other user of any ham
radio band. It's an action likely to be lauded
by groups like those just mentioned but likely
will be condemned by those wanting to put up
digital voice repeaters. If the FCC finds itself
agreeing with the NFCC, then it will mean digital
voice relay enthusiasts will have to get in line
behind all of the others waiting for repeater
pairs for their old line F-M systems.

**

MORE WITH K5ZC ON THE RAINREPORT

Obviously we have only scratched the surface of
this controversial topic. If you want to learn
more, take your web browser over to
www.therainreport.com. That's where you will
find Part 1 of a two-pard in-depth interview with
NFCC President Jay Maynard, K5ZC. Again that's
www.therainreport.com or on the phone at area code 773-358-7845
(ARNewsline(tm))

**

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: AUSTRALIA MAKES READY FOR D-STAR

The United States is not the only place where
digital voice repeaters are coming of
age. Australia's National Technical Advisory
Committee or NATC has been considering how best
to accommodate narrow band digital voice
technologies such as D-Star. They have now made
a number of proposals. Peter Young, VK3MV, of the WIA News reports:

--

Firstly, in the 2 meter band, digital repeaters
will be assigned to frequencies in the 146 to 147
MHz band, using the space between existing FM
repeater channels. This is known as inter-leaving
and is a common method of assignment to increase
spectrum efficiency. The are some compelling
reasons to take this approach for 2 meters, one
is to remove the potentially annoying "drone" of
digital signals, and secondly, the lack of normal
FM repeater channels in some parts of Australia.
It also seems to make sense to have the uniform
arrangements across all of Australia.

The arrangements for simplex operations, again to
separate digital and FM emissions, NTAC has
recommended the best area for simplex D-Star
activity would be the 145 MHz segment. One
suitable channel that is clear of other use is
145.125 MHz and should be used as the national simplex digital channel.

On 70cms, where there is less congestion, NTAC
has recommended that the first fifteen repeater
channels, that is, 438.025 to 438.375 MHz, be used for D-Star type activity.

NTAC has recommended that the arrangements for
simplex activity on 70cm be centred on a national
channel of 438.900 MHz, with secondary channels
12.5 KHz either side of the national channel.

For the 23cm band, NTAC has recommend that
repeater channels be assigned in the high end of
the 1293 to 1294 MHz repeater segment. And on the
23cm, there is already a digital simplex segment
between 1298 and 1300 MHz. As D-Star on this band
uses a 128 KHz emission bandwidth, it is
suggested that channels are spaced at 200 KHz
intervals, beginning at 1298.1 MHz.

I'm Peter Young VK3MV

--

Australia's National Technical Advisory Committee
will review these arrangements as D-Star digital
activity develops. Further information can be
found on the W-I-A website and will be included
in the next edition of the WIA call book. (WIA News)

**

ENFORCEMENT: HAMS HELP NAB FLORIDA BURGLERS

Back in the U-S, three Florida juveniles who
allegedly used Amateur Radio gear to coordinate
at least one burglary and possibly more have been
taken into custody. This, after two they showed
up on a wide area repeater that two hams were
monitoring. One of them was a retired police officer.

It all started back on September 8th . Albert
Moreschi, AG4BV, of Jupiter Farms and John Levey,
KI4HTL, of Palm Beach Gardens, were listening to
the repeater when some unexpected transmissions
were heard. Some unlicensed operators showed up
and what they were talking about caufght KI4HTL's
ear. As a retired police officer, Levey, he knew
what it was being discussed. So he began
recording the radio transmissions from the
suspects while he and Morsechi notified local law
enforcement. Unfortunately, the would-be
burglars didn't describe the house well enough to get the exact address.

Then on September 21st the same group of
bootleggers again showed up on the repeater. It
was evident to Levey what was happening, so he
again began recording the transmissions while
coordinating with Morsechi by cellphone.

Meantime, the owner of the house being
burglarized was huddled in her bedroom closet,
calling sheriff's deputies for help. They
arrived on scene and the hams listening to the
repeater knew it because the last transmission
from the suspects was "Code Red, Code Red, Code
Red. There are cops everywhere, dude!"

But for Levey, the work didn't end with the
suspects arrest. He then headed to the Jupiter
Farms Sheriff's Office substation where one of
the suspects had been taken. KI4HTL identified
himself as a former police officer and a ham
radio operator. He told the deputy on duty that
he had recordings of the suspects radio
transmissions. The Sheriff's Office is now in possession of the tapes.

Oh yes. We forgot to mention that the repeater
that the suspects chose to use has coverage
Boynton Beach to Port St. Lucie. That's several
hundred square miles. Its also a Citizens
Emergency Response Team Repeater so there is
always someone listening in. (Palm Beach Post, others)

**

Break 1

From the United States of America, We are the
Amateur Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin
stations around the world including the WB2FKZ
repeater serving West Babylon New York.

(5 sec pause here)


**

HAM RADIO VS.THE MILITARY: THE LATEST ON PAVE PAWS

The reduction of interference to the governments
Pave Paws radar on the 70 centimeter band has
taken its first toll. This, even as the ARRL
works toward finding a solution that will appease
the military and the Department of Defense in
eliminating interference to its Pave Paws radar
system. Amateur Radio Newsline's Don Carlson, KQ6FM, in Reno, has mo

--

Chris Smith, K1CJS, reports via eHam dot net
that at least four U-H-F repeaters have
terminated their operation. All are in
Massachusetts and located within 30 miles of the
East coast Pave Paws radar site.
The machines now gone are the Barnstable Repeater
on 442.950, the Dennis Repeater on 443.500, the
443.800 machine at Dartmouth and the Falmouth
Repeater on 444.250 MHz. Smith adds that other
repeaters, including the 447.825 system in
Coventry, Rhode Island, are likely soon to follow.

Meantime the ARRL Letter says that the League
participated with the Department of Defense in a
teleconference call on Wednesday, September 19th,
regarding Amateur Radio repeaters interfering
with the Air Force's Pave Paws radar
system. According to Regulatory Branch Manager
Dan Henderson, N1ND, the Department of Defense
acknowledged that it has seen changes at some
repeater sites, but not all of them. He
confirmed that some Massachusetts repeater owners
have volunteered to completely turn off their
systems. Others have made changes, but more is
needed at both of the nations two Pave Paws radar sites.

Meantime, the Department of Defense has
identified additional sources of interference in
Massachusetts. Henderson says that this was not
really unexpected and is part of what has become
an ongoing project. He says that the ARRL will
begin working with these repeater owners as soon
as the Department of Defense provides the League with specific information.

In California, where more than 100 repeaters are
being scrutinized Henderson said the majority of
these systems have not been mitigated. That's
because the Air Force has not had a chance to
revisit Beale Air Force Base for new
measurements, but it will be happening soon.

Meantime, reports circulating that a number of
California repeater owners have decided to take
no further action about eliminating the
interference unless they receive official notice
from the Federal Communications Commission have
proven to be false. California repeater owner
operators appear more than willing to cooperate
in any way necessary, but they need guidance on
what to do next. As soon as they receive
directives, they will be taken care of. Repeater
owner operators are usually good about handling such things.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Don Carlson, KQ6FM, in Reno.

--

The real problem on the Western horizon may turn
out to be those repeater users who are
disenfranchised as their favorite systems. This,
as repeaters reign in coverage of leave the air all together.

More and more reports are surfacing of hams in
the affected area installing high power UHF
amplifiers to try to keep in contact with the
same group they used to talk in over a repeater.
From the standpoint of interference mitigation,
its a lot easier to deal with 10, 20 or even 100
repeaters whose location is cast in concrete than
it is thousands of high power mobile operators
wandering the roads in the same geographic
zone. (ARNewsline(tm), ARRL, eHam, K1CJS)

**

RESCUE RADIO: JOINT CANADA - USA EMCOMM PREPAREDNESS EVENT

A demonstration of cooperation in emergency
communications preparedness between Canadian
radio amateurs and those in the United States was
being planned for September 29th and 30th. This,
with the installation of special event station
VO1ARES at historic Signal Hill, in St. John's, Newfoundland.

The objectives of the event is
three-fold. First, is to highlight the
capabilities of Amateur Radio in providing
emergency communications in times of
crisis. Also, to illustrate the cooperation
between Canada and the United States on emergency
preparedness. Lastly, to create a database of
communications ‘first responders' that the
Government of Canada can contact for emergency
communications assistance in times of crisis.

Sponsors are Foreign Affairs and International
Trade Canada and Radio Amateurs of
Canada. Facilities, provided by Parks Canada,
are being coordinated by the Society of
Newfoundland Radio Amateurs. The site is the
Marconi memorial station on Signal Hill where
reception of the first trans-Atlantic wireless transmission occurred in
1901.

This is the first time an official activity of
its type has been conducted and radio amateurs
from all across Canada and the U.S. A. were
invited to participate and to talk up the value
of Amateur Radio as a valuable community resource. (RAC)

**

RESCUE RADIO: RAYNET ASSISTS AT UK PLANE CRASH

The United Kingdom's South Sussex RAYNET group
were on hand to help when a plane crashed at the
recent Shoreham Airshow. Jeramy Boot, G4NJH, has the details:

--

Each year an emergency plan is rehearsed and
refined, in the hope that it will never be
needed. However on the weekend 15th and 16th
September that practice paid off.

On the Saturday a Hurricane nose-dived into the
ground, killing its pilot instantly. The
incident happened off-field, and no one else was involved.

Two members of the team who witnessed the
incident informed Control, who put everyone on
high alert. The emergency channel sprang into
use. The pre-prepared messages and procedure for
Incident Off Field was broadcast, and
acknowledgements sought from all on that
net. This resulted in all access and departure
gates being closed, all senior safety and
administrative personnel being briefed. The PA
Caravan being informed, and members of the public kept aware of the
situation.

Jeramy Boot, G4NJH

--

Shortly after the accident, a group of Spitfire
aircraft flew the 'man missing' formation. This,
in tribute to the downed pilot. (GB2RS)

**

RECUE RADIO: DARC OFFERS ASSISTANCE TO GERMAN AUTHORITIES

The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club has sent a
letter to the German Federal Office of Civil
Protection and Disaster Assistance. This to
offer Amateur Radio assistance in cases of emergency.

In a letter signed by president Jochen Hindruchs,
DL9KCX, the German national society underlines
the fact that Amateur Radio stations are
technically independent and that the Deutscher
Amateur Radio Club structure with districts and
local clubs fits the communications needs of the
regional authorities. (Southgate)

**

HAM RADIO ON THE WEB: NEW UK D-STAR WEBSITE

Icom U-K is in the process of creating up a new
website in the United Kingdom for D-Star
users. Located in cyberspace at
www.d-staruk.co.uk, the site will be content rich
and will be a comprehensive guide to D-Star
related including sections about the history,
features and technical matters regarding the
D-Star system. Also included will be links to
some successful forums that have already built-up
a wealth of information about setting up and
running a D-Star system. Again that URL is www.d-staruk.co.uk (Icom UK)

**

HAM RADIO PROMOTION: MGM FILM PRESENTS RADIO HAMS

A film from Metro Goldwayn Mayer that promotes
Amateur Radio has surfaced on the
Internet. Produced in 1939 by Pete Smith, "Radio
Hams centers on a family called to dinner. All
but the teenage son respond. When family members
go looking for him, one by one they are snared
into a world of ham radio high adventure. One
that includes a rescue in Alaska and a tragic
search for a downed aircraft at sea.

Unlike most films promoting ham radio, this one
is not a documentary. It's a fully scripted 10
minute dramatic presentation featuring a cast of
professional actors well directed by Felix
Fiest. E. Mauriece Adler is credited with writing the screen play.

"Radio Hams" is really a nostalgic look back at
ham radio the way it never was, You can see it on-line at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBGIdf0VjQ4 (YouTube)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: THE 2007 QCWA INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION IN COLORADO

The 2007 QCWA International Convention takes
place October 4th through the 7th at the
Doubletree Hotel in Denver. Seminars on Friday
and Saturday, include Station Grounding
Procedures, Health and Safety Tips in the Shack,
Amateur Radio Operations from the South Pole, an
IARU Update, the QCWA Forum and much more. Friday
night's Meet & Greet will feature The 4th U.S.
Artillery Regimental Brass Band for your
listening pleasure. More information is on-line
at qcwa-58.rmhcn.org/convention/ (QCWA)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: ROCK HILL HAMFEST OCT. 6 IN S.C.

The 53rd Annual Rock Hill Hamfest and Computer
Expo takes place on Saturday, October 6th at the
Rock Hill American Legion Post 34 and the York
County Fairgrounds in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Gates open at 7am with V-E License Testing
starting at 10am. Talk-in is on the 147.03 MHz
repeater. More information is on-line at www.rockhillhamfest.com (eHam)

**

THE SOCIAL SCENE: HALL OF SCIENCE HAMFEST IN NY ON OCT 7

The Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
takes place on Sunday, October 7th from 9 a.m. to
2 p.m. Eastern time. The venue is the New York
Hall of Science Museum Parking Lot located in New
York City's Flushing Meadow Corona Park. Talk in
is on the 444.200 repeater with a 136.5 hz. Tone
access or on 146.52 simplex. More information is
on-line at www.HOSARC.org (Via e-mail)

**

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)

**

NAMES IN THE NEWS: HAMS TO HEAD OPERATIONS AT TWO NASA CENTERS

Veteran astronaut Ellen Ochoa, KB5TZZ, who has
been named Deputy Director of NASA's Johnson
Space Center. Ochoa has served as Director of
Flight Crew Operations at Johnson. She will
succeed Bob Cabana, KC5HBV, who was named
Director of NASA's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

According to an ARRL release, Ochoa and Cabana
have each flown in space four times. Ochoa flew
on space shuttle missions STS-56 on Discovery in
1993, STS-66 on Atlantis in 1994, STS-96 on
Discovery in 1999 and STS-110 on Atlantis in
2002, logging a total of 978 hours in space. She
became Deputy Director of Flight Crew Operations
at Johnson in December 2002 and Director of
Flight Crew Operations in September 2006.

Cabana has logged more than 1010 hours in
space. He served as pilot on STS-41 in 1990 and
STS-53 in 1992, both on Discovery. He was mission
commander on STS-65 on Columbia in 1994 and
STS-88 on Endeavour in 1998, the first
International Space Station assembly mission. (ARRL, NASA)

**

CHANGING OF THE GUARD: TOM ATKINS, VE3CDM - SK

Amateur radio has lost a great ambassador and
advocate. This with the sad news that former
ARRL Canadian Division Director and IARU Region 2
President Tom Atkins, VE3CDM, passed away Tuesday, September 18.

Atkins was the last Director of the ARRL's
Canadian Division before the Canadian Radio Relay
League began to operate independently in
1988. The CRRL eventually gave way to today's
Radio Amateurs of Canada.. VE3CDM also served
for two terms as President of Region 2 of the
international Amateur Radio Union . He also
served on the IARU Administrative Council and as an IARU Expert Consultant.

In addition to his work with IARU, Tom Atkins was
a QCWA Life Member as well a member of Wild Rose
Chapter 151. He was the President of the Fred Hammond Chapter 73.

Tom Atkins, VE3CDM, dead at age 82. (RAC, ARRL, QCWA)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: SCOUTS ASSIST IN SUIT-SAT 2 PROJECT

A group of young scouts are going into space. At
least they are headed there vicariously.

On Saturday, September 15th, approximately 58
boys, ages 6 to18 in Maricopa, Arizona met to
assemble two non-flight safety boxes for
SuitSat-2. The scouts from Cub Scout packs 983,
977, 778, 997, troop 993 and ham radio explorer
post 599 also drew pictures to be included on the SuitSat-2 DVD.

As an addeed bonus, the older boys were also
taught how to solder and lace cables. Photos from
the Explorer Scouts working this project can be
found on line at http://www.briansnapped.com/content/pics/SuitSat_2007/
(ANS)

**

HAM RADIO IN SPACE: CELEBRATING SPUTKIK 1

AMSAT-North America will mark the 50th
anniversary of the launch of Russia's first
Sputnik artificial satellite with a special event
on AO-51 on the evening of Wednesday, October 3rd
local U-S time. To commemorate the occasion,
AO-51 will rebroadcast original Sputnik telemetry
and a congratulatory message to mark the event
during passes over North America on the evening
which translates to October 4th UTC. At this
time, only the passes over North America will be
able to carry the special event. (ANS)

**

RADIO IN SPACE: LOOKING FOR THE TINIEST LIGHTS IN THE SKY

Speaking about radio from space, when you look up
at the night sky you see the brightest stars in
the firmament. But astronomers and radio
astronomers see lots more. Burt Hicks, WB6MQV, has their latest discovery:

--

An international team of astronomers has
uncovered the faintest stars ever seen in any
globular star cluster. Using NASA's Hubble Space
Telescope, the team took hundreds of
high-resolution photos that were then radioed
back to Earth. The astronomers then compared the
images pixel-by-pixel to identify the dimmest
stars in the globular star cluster NGC 6397. The
researchers say that the light from these faint
stars is so dim that it is equivalent to that
produced by a birthday candle on the Moon, as seen from Earth.

--

Now those are truly faint stars! (Space & Science)

**

WORLDBEAT - SOUTH AFRICA: RTA PRESENTATIONS NOW AVAILABLE ON THE WEB

The first of the presentations made at the South
African Radio League's Radio Technology in Action
days are now available on the web. The
presentations are in PDF format and can be
downloaded for printing or viewing on
screen. The URL is www.sarl.org.za, click on
activity and then on RTA. The South African
Radio League also invites everyone to visit the
RTA section of the web regularly as presentations
will be added over the next few weeks. (Southgate)

**

WORLDBEAT - UK: NEW LOOK FOR BARTG MAGAZINE AND WEBSITE

The British Amateur Teledata Group also known as
BARTG, has undergone some changes
recently. The group now has a new website
www.bartg.org.uk which offers extra features. It
also gas a brand new look for irs Datacom magazine. (GB2RS)

**

DX

In D-X, woird that a large group of Dutch
amateurs will be going to Qawra, Malta for their
20th holiday DXpedition. They will operate on 80
through 6 meters using CW, SSB and digital modes
until September 30th. Listen out for
the special callsign 9H20 and QSL via PB9ZR.

And the city of Cotacachi, Ecuador will be the
temporary Q-T-H of EA1APV operating portable
HC1. This through the 20th of October. Reports
are that Marcos is working there so ham radio
occupies only very little of his spare time. QSL via his home call.

And the U-K's Border Amateur Radio Society is
planning an on the air operation as GS0BRS and
GX0BRS through 29th December. Activity will be
on HF and VHF. For more details contact Ray Evans, GM0CDV.

Lastly, SU8BHI will be the Egyptian callsign of
HA3JB through November 30th. He plans to
work CW, RTTY, SSTV, PSK and a little SSB on all
of the H-F bands. QSLs only direct to HA3JB.

(Above from various DX news sources)

**

THAT FINAL ITEM: THE FRIENDLY QSO PARTY

Turning to the world of radio sports, the
Pennsylvania QSO Party is celebrating it's 50th
anniversary as the Friendly QSO Party. The dates
this year are October 13th and 14th. Amateur
Radio Newsline's Mark Abramovich, NT3V, has mo

--

Next to California's state party, Pennsylvania's
is one of the most active fall events on the bands.
Michael Coslo, KB3EIA, is PA QSO Party chairman.

"Participation has been steady," Coslo says. "We
keep track of the number of logs that have been
submitted and we have been just about the same
for the last four, five years, which is
interesting because participation does tend to go
down and up with the sunspot cycle."

Coslo says lots of people are participating in
the party and he'd like to see some more logs.

"We know there's a lot more activity out there
than from what the log submissions have been and
I know there are some people who I've seen their
call signs in the logs, they would have actually
won their county if they had submitted a log," Coslo says.

"So, we try to encourage everybody, even though
it's at the low ebb of the sunspot cycle to send
in a log because we're all playing in the same pond, so to speak."

Coslo, who has been chairman of the PA Party for
the past few years, says this is the year he and
the Nittany Amateur Radio Club, sponsor of the
event, decided to tackle the rules.

"We had always tried to keep things simple and
down to one page. But, finally decided that with
the demand for clarification I was going to start
defining things. And, it's been a good thing. We
now have a lot of things that there used to be
questions asked every year that things are pretty
well defined. But it also makes the rule pages a
lot larger. We went from one page to eight pages."

But Coslo says among the rules you'll find a few nice changes.

"We've added SSB-only class which there had been
some call for that since we offer a CW-only
class," Coslo says. "And, we've also added what's
called a 'Good Neighbor Plaque.'

"This was started to encourage operation on 20
meters because some of our friends in places like
Florida and California, other places out West -
they'd like to get involved in the party, too.
And, what we need is operators from Pennsylvania to be working them."

He says last year's experiment with digital modes
will continue with operations on RTTY and PSK 31.

The best place to find out more about the PA QSO
Party is by going to the group's website
at http://www.nittany-arc.net/paqso.html

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia.

--

Again, the dates this years Pennsylvania QSO
Party are October 13th and 14th. Hope to hear you on the air.
(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.

Before we go, one quick announcement. Due to the
fact that key Newsline personnel will be
attending the QCWA convention in Colorado, next
weeks newscast number 1573 will be delayed by
about 48 hours. Look for it to be released at
about noon, Sunday October 7th, Pacific
time. Our normal Friday release schedule will
resume with newscast 1574 on October 12th.

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. All rights reserved.









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