[CVRC] The ARRL Letter for October 22, 2009

Thu Oct 22 20:15:34 EDT 2009

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October 22, 2009
Editor: <mailto:k1sfa at arrl.org>S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
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    * + Regulatory : FCC Issues Public Notice on 
Amateur Service Communication During Government Disaster Drills
    * + Regulatory : ARRL General Counsel, 
Regulatory Information Manager to Present Webinar
    * + Four Radio Amateurs Killed in Plane Crash 
En Route to CQWW Phone Contest
    * + Advocacy : HR 2160 Gains More Cosponsors
    * + International : IARU Administrative 
Council Adopts Preliminary WRC-12 Positions
    * + International : ARRL HQ Hosts Amateur 
Radio Course for USTTI Participants
    * Solar Update
    * This Week on the Radio
    * + Amateur Radio in Space : SumbandilaSat Now OSCAR 67

+ Available on <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/>ARRL Audio News
+ Regulatory: FCC Issues Public Notice on Amateur 
Service Communication During Government Disaster Drills

On October 20, 2009, the FCC released a Public 
Notice clarifying the Commission's rules relating 
to the use of Amateur Radio by licensed amateurs 
participating in drills and exercises on behalf 
of their employers. Entitled Amateur Service 
Communications During Government Disaster Drills, 
the Public Notice addresses participation by paid 
employees of organizations taking part in drills.

The Public Notice -- 
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-09-2259A1.pdf>DA 
09-2259 -- affirms that the Commission's rules 
"specifically prohibit amateur stations from 
transmitting communications 'in which the station 
licensee or control operator has a pecuniary 
interest, including communications on behalf of 
an employer.'" ARRL Regulatory Information 
Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, said that "This 
Public Notice is intended to clarify a difficult 
issue. A wide range of unofficial -- and frankly 
some incorrect -- interpretations have been 
offered on this topic in various public forums 
recently. DA 09-2259 is the official FCC notice 
on this issue. Though issued jointly by the 
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau 
(<http://wireless.fcc.gov/>WTB), the Enforcement 
Bureau (<http://www.fcc.gov/eb/>EB) and the 
Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau 
(<http://www.fcc.gov/pshs/>PSHSB) under delegated 
authority from the Commission, the Notice makes 
it clear that WTB is the Bureau at the FCC with 
jurisdiction over the Amateur Radio Service rules and their interpretation."

The Public Notice states that, in order to 
facilitate participation by employees who wish to 
engage in government-sponsored drills and 
emergency exercises on behalf of their employers, 
a waiver can be requested from the WTB by the 
government agency sponsoring the drill or 
exercise (and not by the individual who wishes to 
participate in the drill or exercise). The 
government entity conducting the drill must 
include in its waiver application the following information:
    * When and where the drill will take place,
    * Identification of the amateur licensees 
expected to transmit amateur communications on behalf of their employer,
    * Identification of the employer(s) on whose 
behalf the amateur(s) will be transmitting, and
    * A brief description of the drill.

"It should be noted," Henderson said, "that the 
waiver request must be filed and acted upon in 
advance of the drill. The waiver must be actually 
granted by the Commission before the amateurs 
participate in the drill. It is not enough to 
apply -- the waiver must be granted first."

Henderson added that the Public Notice also 
emphasizes that in an actual emergency, the Part 
97 rules "provide that an amateur station may use 
any means of radiocommunication at its disposal 
to provide essential communication needs in 
connection with the immediate safety of human 
life and the immediate protection of property 
when normal communications systems are not 
available." In those specific circumstances, the rule waiver is not necessary.

Government entities requesting a waiver for their 
emergency/disaster drill should submit a written 
request addressing the factors listed above to 
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, 445 12th St 
SW, Washington, DC 20554, Attn: Scot Stone.

A waiver is needed only for those licensees 
transmitting messages on behalf of their employer 
during the State and local government public 
safety agency's "occasionally conducted emergency 
preparedness or disaster drills test or drill." 
This may, after analysis, turn out to be very few 
licenses or, by rearranging functions of 
participants, a waiver may not be needed. The 
Commission has also emphasized that only 
governmental agencies may apply for a waiver.

In September, the ARRL released 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/09/25/11094/?nc=1>guidelines 
that address numerous aspects of the issue of 
business communications in the Amateur Service.
+ Regulatory : ARRL General Counsel, Regulatory 
Information Manager to Present Webinar

Click 
<https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/326759760>here 
to register for this free webinar, hosted by ARRL 
Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR.

ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, and ARRL 
Regulatory Information Manager Dan Henderson 
N1ND, will present a webinar beginning at 9 PM 
EDT on Wednesday, October 28. This session will 
discuss the issues behind, and the reasoning for, 
the ARRL's recent report, 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/files/ARRL_AppropriateUseGuidelines.pdf>The 
Commercialization of Amateur Radio: The Rules, 
The Risks, The Issues. According to webinar 
sponsor and host ARRL Atlantic Division Director 
Bill Edgar, N3LLR, all amateurs need to be aware 
of these issues. The webinar, available at no 
cost, is open to all amateurs. Please click 
<https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/326759760>here 
to register for this informative interactive Internet meeting.
+ Four Radio Amateurs Killed in Plane Crash En Route to CQWW Phone Contest

Robert Biss, W8ZA (far right), accompanied Ed 
Steeble, K3IXD/C6AXD (left), Dallas Carter, W3PP, 
Pete Radding, W2GJ/C6APR, and Randy Hargenrader, 
K4QO (not pictured), to the Bahamas for the 2008 
running of the CQWW SSB Contest. [Photo courtesy of Bob Biss, W8ZA]

Just after take-off -- around 6:30 AM on 
Wednesday, October 21 -- a twin-engine plane 
carrying four Amateur Radio operators crashed 
into the woods, only 250 yards off the end of the 
runway in Jedburg, South Carolina, about 20 miles 
northwest of Charleston. The plane -- piloted and 
owned by Peter Radding, W2GJ -- carried Ed 
Steeble, K3IXD, Dallas Carter, W3PP, and Randy 
Hargenrader, K4QO. The four men were on their way 
to the Bahamas to operate in this weekend's CQ 
World Wide Phone Contest as C6APR, competing in 
the Multi/2 category. Radding, of North 
Charleston, South Carolina, was 69; Steeble, of 
Summerville, South Carolina was 68; Carter, of 
Laurel, Delaware, was 67 and Hargenrader, also of 
Summerville, was 55. All were ARRL members; 
Radding and Steeble were Life Members. Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/21/11157/?nc=1>here 
for more information.

Robert Biss, W8ZA, of Harpers Ferry, West 
Virginia, accompanied Steeble, Carter, Radding 
and Hargenrader to the Bahamas for the 2008 
running of the CQWW SSB Contest. Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2009/10/22/11158/?nc=1>here 
for Biss' remembrances of his four 
friends.<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2009-10-22&p=0>
+ Advocacy: HR 2160 Gains More Cosponsors

As of October 14, five more Congressional 
Representatives -- Tom Latham (R-IA-4), Dana 
Rohrabacher (R-CA-46), Scott Garrett (R-NJ-5), 
Candice Miller (R-MI-10) and John Olver (D-MA-1) 
-- pledged their support for 
<http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2160ih.txt.pdf>HR 
2160, The Amateur Radio Emergency Communications 
Enhancement Act of 2009, bringing the total 
number of cosponsors to 30, 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/04/30/10792/?nc=1>including 
original sponsor Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX-18). HR 
2160 is also sponsored by W. Todd Akin (R-MO-2), 
Michael Arcuri (D-NY-24), Roscoe Bartlett 
(R-MD-6), John Boozman (R-AR-3), Madeleine 
Bordallo (D-Guam), Geoff Davis (R-KY-4), Bob 
Filner (D-CA-51), Bart Gordon (D-TN-6), Brett 
Guthrie (R-KY-02), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY-22), 
Michael Honda (D-CA-15), Mary Jo Kilroy 
(D-OH-15), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA-16), Blaine 
Luetkemeyer (R-MO-9), Thaddeus McCotter 
(R-MI-11), Charlie Melancon (D-LA-3), Dennis 
Moore (D-KS-3), Bill Posey (R-FL-15), Bennie 
Thompson (D-MS-2), Michael Turner (R-OH-3), Peter 
Welch (D-VT), David Wu (D-OR-1) and Don Young 
(R-AK). Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/05/12/10818>here 
for information on how to encourage your 
Congressional representative to sponsor HR 2160.
+ International: IARU Administrative Council 
Adopts Preliminary WRC-12 Positions

The Administrative Council (AC) of the 
International Amateur Radio Union 
(<http://www.iaru.org/>IARU) held its annual 
meeting on October 17-18, 2009 in Christchurch, 
New Zealand and took 16 actions. Attending the 
Christchurch meeting were IARU President Tim 
Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA; Vice President Ole Garpestad, 
LA2RR; Secretary Rod Stafford, W6ROD; regional 
representatives Hans Blondeel Timmerman, PB2T; 
Dennis Green, ZS4BS; Ramon Santoyo, XE1KK; Daniel 
Lamoureux, VE2KA; Michael Owen, VK3KI; Shizuo 
Endo, JE1MUI; Peter Lake, ZL2AZ, and recording 
secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ. The next scheduled 
in-person meeting of the AC will be held in the 
vicinity of San Salvador, El Salvador in 
conjunction with the Region 2 Conference in 
October 2010. The officers will investigate 
holding a Web-based "virtual meeting" early in 
2010. Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/20/11149/?nc=1>here 
for more information.
Did You Know? WWV and WWVH

Today, most amateurs know that radio stations WWV 
and WWVH broadcast time and frequency information 
24 hours a day, seven days a week to millions of 
listeners worldwide. Administered by the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), WWV 
is located in Fort Collins, Colorado, about 60 
miles north of Denver; WWVH is located on the 
Island of Kauai, Hawaii on a 30 acre site near 
Kekaha at Kokole Point. Both stations broadcast 
information that includes time announcements, 
standard time intervals, standard frequencies, 
UT1 time corrections, a BCD time code, 
geophysical alerts, marine storm warnings and 
Global Positioning System (GPS) status reports. 
Most hams today think of WWV and WWVH as "time 
stations." According to QST Editor Steve Ford, 
WB8IMY, that's only half-true: they are really 
time and frequency stations. "The time signals 
that you hear are regulated by an atomic clock 
that uses the oscillations of Cesium atoms as its 
standard -- 9,162,361,770 oscillations equal 1 
second," wrote Ford in the June 1994 issue of 
QST. Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/21/11155/?nc=1>here<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2009-10-22&p=1> 
to discover this part of Amateur Radio history.
International : IARU Officials Attend Region 3 Conference in New Zealand

Hosted by the New Zealand Association of Radio 
Transmitters (NZART), officials from the 
International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) attended 
the IARU Region 3 14th Triennial Conference on 
October12-16, in Christchurch, New Zealand. Joel 
Harrison, W5ZN, ARRL President, represented the 
ARRL and ARRL Chief Executive Officer and former 
IARU Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ, was also in 
attendance. Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/18/11147/?nc=1>here 
for more information
+ International: ARRL HQ Hosts Amateur Radio Course for USTTI Participants

Click 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ImJ7LTUeg0>here 
to watch a video of the USTTI participants building their 40 meter receivers.

Students from Ghana, Mauritius, the Philippines, 
Sri Lanka and Zambia attended the United States 
Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) 
Amateur Radio Administration Course (ARAC) at 
ARRL Headquarters October 12-16. ARRL Technical 
Relations Manager Brennan Price, N4QX, 
coordinated the session and led the course. "The 
curriculum covered a wide variety of Amateur 
Radio topics and concerns, including licensing, 
spectrum requirements, disaster communications 
and antenna requirements," Price said. The 
curriculum also covered the ITU and its 
regulations, as well as the process leading to 
the next World Radiocommunication Conference 2012 
(WRC-12). Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/22/11154/?nc=1>here 
for more information.
+ Historical: University Researchers Need Your 
Help as they Study Early Amateur Station Logs

Researchers are seeking copies of amateur station 
logs from 1913-1927, in hopes they may offer 
insights into the relationship between 
individuals' work and leisure activities, 
technology, and their social networks.This 1XM 
log from the Second Trans-Atlantic Test is signed 
and certified by Marconi Inspector and test 
referee D.E. Pearson. [Log courtesy of the MIT Radio Society]

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin and 
Miami University of Ohio are seeking copies of 
amateur station logs from 1913-1927 in hopes they 
may offer insights into the relationship between 
individuals' work and leisure activities, 
technology, and their social networks. "Early 
hams laid the foundation for today's use of 
technology for communications and entertainment," 
said Director of Engineering and Operations for 
Wisconsin Public Radio Steve Johnston, WD8DAS. 
"Many operators did not work in a technical 
field, but pursued Amateur Radio as a hobby for 
its own sake. This is a true success story about 
how a pastime can develop into an entirely new 
commercial and social phenomenon." Click 
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/10/21/11153/?nc=1>here 
for more information on how you can help out with 
this study.<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&t=i&i=2009-10-22&p=2>
Solar Update

Tad 
"<http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odetoanightingale.html>Dance, 
and Provencal song, and sunburnt mirth" Cook, 
K7RA, this week reports: Sunspot group 1028 
emerged for only a few hours on Tuesday. This is 
another one of those phantom spots that briefly 
appears, only to vanish, teasing us with hints of 
an increase in activity that never seems to come. 
Along with the quiet Sun, we are still seeing 
extremely quiet geomagnetic indices, a nice 
upside to the lack of solar activity. Solar flux 
until the end of this month is expected to be 
around 72. The average solar flux for this week 
was 70.6, up 0.7 points from 69.9 the week 
before. Look for more information in the Solar 
Update, available on the ARRL Web site on Friday, 
October 23. For more information concerning radio 
propagation, visit the 
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html>ARRL 
Technical Information Service Propagation page. 
This week's "Tad Cookism" brought to you by John 
Keats' 
<http://englishhistory.net/keats/poetry/odetoanightingale.html>Ode 
to a Nightingale.
This Week on the Radio

Sarah Wright, W0SMW, operates mobile with her 
father Scott, K0MD, in this year's Minnesota QSO 
Party. Would you like to see yourself in The ARRL 
Letter? Send us a picture of you operating your 
rig -- tell us your name and call sign and what 
you're doing! Don't forget to tell us who took 
your picture; if they have a call sign, let us 
know. Send your pictures to ARRL News Editor S. 
Khrystyne Keane, <mailto:k1sfa at arrl.org>K1SFA -- 
be sure to put "ARRL Letter Photos" in the 
subject line of your e-mail.[Scott Wright, K0MD, Photo]

This week, look for an NCCC Sprint on October 23. 
The CQ Worldwide DX Contest (SSB), the CW and 
Digital runnings of the 10-10 International Fall 
Contest and the 50 MHz Fall Sprint are October 
24-25. The SKCC Sprint is October 28. Next week, 
look for more runnings of the NCCC Sprint on 
October 30 and November 5. The High Speed Club CW 
Contest is November 1 and the ARS Spartan Sprint 
is November 3. All dates, unless otherwise 
stated, are UTC. See the 
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/>ARRL Contest 
Branch page, the 
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/>ARRL 
Contest Update and the 
<http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html>WA7BNM 
Contest Calendar for more info. Looking for a 
Special Event station? Be sure to check out the 
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/spev.html>ARRL Special Event Station Web page.
+ Amateur Radio in Space: SumbandilaSat Now OSCAR 67

The South African Amateur Radio satellite 
<http://www.arrl.org/?artid=9183>SumbandilaSat 
has been officially designated 
SumbandilaSat-OSCAR 67, or simply OSCAR 67. Last 
weekend, the satellite was successfully activated 
and tested with a number of contacts made through 
its transponder, but it is not yet open for 
routine use. The satellite was launched from the 
<http://www.russianspaceweb.com/baikonur.html>Baikonur 
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on September 17. The 
main payload is a multi-spectral imager, but the 
satellite also carries an Amateur Radio component 
consisting of a 2 meter/70 cm FM repeater. After 
SumbandilaSat is fully commissioned, the repeater 
will be activated with an uplink at 145.880 MHz 
and a downlink at 435.350 MHz; there will also be 
a voice beacon at 435.300 MHz. The transponder 
mode will be controlled by a CTCSS tone on the 
uplink frequency. SumbandilaSat was sponsored by 
the Department of Science and Technology and was 
built at <http://www.sunspace.co.za/>SunSpace in 
cooperation with the 
<http://www.sun.ac.za/>Stellenbosch University. 
In addition to the SA-AMSAT amateur module, the 
satellite carries Stellenbosch University' s 
radiation experiment and software defined radio 
(SDR) project, an experiment from Nelson Mandela 
Metropolitan University and a VLF radio module 
from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
ARRL Continuing Education Course Registration

Registration remains open through Sunday, October 
25, 2009, for these online course sessions 
beginning on Friday, November 6, 2009: Amateur 
Radio Emergency Communications Level 1; Antenna 
Modeling; Radio Frequency Interference; Antenna 
Design and Construction; Ham Radio (Technician) 
License Course; Propagation; Analog Electronics, 
and Digital Electronics. To learn more, visit the 
<http://www.arrl.org/cep/student>CEP Course 
Listing page or contact the 
<mailto:cce at arrl.org>Continuing Education Program 
Coordinator<http://www.arrl.org/nladclick.php?n=al&i=2009-10-22&t=r&p=0>.

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