[ARRL-OK] Mena Hamfest

[Eddie Manley]

Report from Mena AR Hamfest: [Also see the pic and article on 
<www.arrl.org>]

We enjoyed seeing our many, many friends at the Queen Wilhelmina annual 
hamfest.  It was foggy in the mornings, but it burned off by 10am and we 
enjoyed a beautiful day.  Lots of prizes, even on Friday evening and every 
hour on Saturday.

A lot of very distinguish speakers attended the Hamfest and especially 
interesting was the digital demonstration by Icom who was one of the vendors 
at this meeting.

Ed Hare, W1RFI from ARRL headquarters gave a very impressive forum regarding 
interference to amateur radio.  The main culprit continues to be Broadband 
Over Powerlines [BPL].  He gave us statistics showing S 9+ interference, and 
played sound bites recorded in several locations across the US.   He 
discussed notching and low power applications, which seem to be working to 
mitigate interference to amateur radio.  Ed mentioned that we are making 
progress with some vendors asking for his input in their endeavor to make 
BPL work.  Ed emphasized that ARRL is not opposed to BPL, but just the 
interference that it is causing .
Secondly is the interference that power lines are causing.  The FCC has 
issued several 'show cause' letters and seems that they are taking strong 
interest to abate loss of electrical power.  Indirectly, it is a benefit to 
electrical company's to save electricity which causes this interference.
Third, we visited briefly about the interference that 70cm is causing to 
some military PAVE PAW radar sites.  Amateur radio is secondary on these 
frequencies, so some locations will need to shut down to abate this 
interference.  These are mostly along the coastal regions of the US.

Davis Norris, K5UZ, Section Manager for Arkansas gave very timely 
information about the activities ongoing in his State.

But still to come, at the banquet Saturday evening, State Representative 
Mike Ross, WD5DDR, gave the group a very informative speech regarding the 
importance of Amateur Radio and an update on his bill in Congress.  H.R. 
462, the Emergency Amateur Radio Interference Protection Act of 2007. 
Currently there are only 7 co-sponsors and Representative Ross would like to 
have more.  The bill is in the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the 
Internet.  The jest of this legislation is "To request a study by the 
Federal Communications Commission on the interference caused by broadband 
internet transmission over power lines."

Representative Ross urged all of us to contact our State Congressmen and 
women to co-sponsor this legislation with him.  Ask them to visit with 
Congressman Ross and sign on to H.R. 462.

Eddie -K5EMS = 73