[FPARC] The ARRL Letter Vol. 25, No. 31 August 4, 2006

[W4kkw at aol.com]

***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 25, No. 31
August 4,  2006
***************

IN THIS EDITION:

* +FCC tweaks BPL rules,  denies reconsideration petitions
* +BPL interference report "flawed" and  "misleading," ARRL says
* +ARRL Board boosts support for legislative action  volunteers
* +Vanity call sign fee falls to $20.80 in September
* +League  announces Hiram Percy Maxim, W1FB memorial award winners
*  Solar  Update
*  IN BRIEF: 
This weekend on the  radio
ARRL Certification and Continuing Education course  registration
WRTC 2006 announces prize winners
+Montenegro operations continue apace
+IARU Region 3  Conference special event on air
Irish radio amateurs seek  500 kHz allocation
Jack W. Herbstreit, ex-W0DW,  SK

+Available on ARRL Audio News  <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/>  

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==>FCC  DENIES RECONSIDERATION PETITIONS, ADOPTS MINOR CHANGES TO BPL RULES

An  FCC that's still optimistic and enthusiastic about BPL met August 3  to
consider and unanimously adopt a Memorandum Opinion and Order (MO&O)  in
response to several petitions for reconsideration of its BPL rules  -
including one from ARRL. But one commissioner stressed that the FCC has  an
obligation to protect Amateur Radio operators from BPL interference and  to
respond promptly to interference complaints. ARRL President Joel  Harrison,
W5ZN, and General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, were on hand for this  week's
meeting, during which the FCC suggested it was attempting to strike  a
balance between interference to licensed services and the BPL  industry's
needs.

"This rule making proceeding was initiated to  provide regulatory certainty
that will encourage investments in BPL,  particularly so that consumers can
reap the benefits," the FCC Office of  Engineering and Technology (OET) told
the commissioners. "Equally important,  the Commission sought to ensure that
licensed radio services are protected  against harmful interference." The OET
said the Commission also wanted to  provide guidance so compliance
measurements "are made in a consistent manner  with repeatable results."

The FCC adopted its current BPL rules - under a  new Subpart G of its Part 15
rules governing unlicensed devices - in October  2004. 

Commenting after the OET's presentation of the MO&O,  Commissioner Michael J.
Copps reiterated that the FCC must also ensure that  BPL providers protect
existing spectrum users from interference.  

"This applies with special force to Amateur Radio operators whose skills  and
dedication once again proved so valuable in the aftermath of  Hurricane
Katrina," Copps remarked. "Amateur radio serves the public interest  in so
many ways that we must be always mindful of its needs."

Copps  said he believes the FCC's MO&O "strikes an acceptable balance,"  but
added that the Commission "must be available and positioned to respond  to
interference complaints with alacrity. Amateur operators shouldn't have  to
wait for months to get complaints resolved - they deserve  better."

The FCC denied a BPL industry request to extend the effective  date to meet
equipment certification requirements, but it did create a  limited exception,
the OET's Anh Wride said. BPL systems now will have  another year to continue
installing or replacing equipment "that otherwise  meets the Part 15 rules"
in their present coverage areas. "This relief is a  reasonable accommodation
that will limit the proliferation of non-compliant  equipment," Wride said.

In addition, the Commission rebuffed the BPL  industry's request to drop the
30-day advance notification requirement for  the public BPL database. Wride
said the advance notification provision  ensures that licensed users are
aware of new BPL deployments in advance of  their startup..

The Order also turned down requests by the ARRL and  individual Amateur Radio
operators to exclude the use of the HF ham bands for  BPL operations. The
Commission also denied petitions from the ARRL and others  to prohibit BPL
deployment "pending the adoption of a definition for 'harmful  interference,'
the completion of all ongoing studies of BPL and the  initiation of further
studies of BPL interference characteristics," Wride  said.

The FCC further denied requests to keep BPL signals off  overhead
medium-voltage power lines and to impose more stringent  technical
restrictions and measurement requirements on BPL  operations.

Wride said the OET believes the requirements the FCC adopted  in 2004
regarding emission levels and notching "are adequate to fully  protect
amateur operations." She said going along with ARRL's request to  reconsider,
rescind and re-study the BPL rules in further proceedings could  leave radio
amateurs with less protection than they now have.

The FCC  did grant a request from the National Telecommunications and
Information  Administration (NTIA) to expand BPL exclusion zones in the
vicinity of  certain radio astronomy systems.

"We continue to believe that the  interference concerns associated with the
operation of these systems are  adequately addressed through the adoption of
Access BPL rules in Part 15,  particularly as a new generation of BPL
equipment that complies with our  rules becomes available," Wride concluded.

The FCC released a public  notice to report its August 3 BPL-related  actions
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-266773A1.pdf>.  The
MO&O it adopted is not expected to become available to the public for  a few
weeks.

==>LEAGUE CALLS MANASSAS BPL INTERFERENCE REPORT  "FLAWED," "MISLEADING"

The ARRL has told the FCC it has found a radio  interference report filed on
behalf of the Manassas, Virginia, BPL system  "flawed in numerous respects."
The League responded this week to a July 17  letter and BPL interference
study the FCC mandated following repeated  complaints from local radio
amateurs.

"ARRL objects to the report  because it is based on improper engineering
practice and contrary to the  instructions provided by your office in your
letter dated June 16, 2006,"  ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, wrote
FCC Spectrum Enforcement  Division Chief Joseph Casey on August 2. In June,
Casey had ordered the City  of Manassas and BPL provider COMTek to
investigate complaints from several  Manassas radio amateurs of BPL
interference to their mobile operations and  report back to the Commission on
their findings. The League, and local  amateurs, contend the BPL system is
still causing harmful interference to  Amateur Radio operations, despite the
clean bill of health the engineering  report purports to present.

"It did so both before and after the tests  conducted by COMTek; and there is
no doubt at all that the interference is  from the COMTek BPL system operated
in the City of Manassas and not from any  other source." The League
reiterated its demand that the system be shut down  immediately.

"Unless the Enforcement Bureau is willing to do that, you  are going to have
to send Commission staff to observe this interference and  conduct their own
measurements in the presence of both COMTek and the local  Amateur Radio
operators who are receiving the interference," Imlay asserted.  Manassas
radio amateurs who have complained to the FCC about the BPL  interference
also have suggested that the FCC must investigate the problem  firsthand.

The League maintained that COMTek "has filed incorrect and  misleading
reports" and has "manipulated the BPL system to show false  readings." In
particular, the ARRL -- and local radio amateurs -- suggest  that the BPL
system was not operating at peak user loading during the  testing, as the FCC
had ordered. Either that or COMTek and BPL equipment  manufacturer Main.net
adjusted system power levels downward for the testing,  Imlay told the FCC. 

"The Commission is going to have to investigate this  matter itself, without
advance notice to COMTek or the City, so that the  system is not powered down
or otherwise manipulated to show other than peak  loading characteristics at
the power levels typically used in Manassas," the  ARRL stated. The League
said it's clear that the FCC can't rely on reports  from consultants hired by
the system's operators while excluding the victims  of the interference. 

In its dealings with the Manassas BPL system, the  League concluded, the FCC
has "completely ignored" Part 15 rules requiring a  BPL operator, upon
learning of harmful interference, to investigate and  resolve it successfully
within a reasonable time. "The recent submission of  COMTek and the City have
produced no resolution of the interference at all,"  ARRL said. "Rather,
COMTek and the City have shown a complete inability, and  now, by their
denials, the unwillingness, to resolve the  interference."

==>BOARD OKAYS SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATIVE ACTION  VOLUNTEERS, HONES ETHICS
POLICY

Meeting in Windsor, Connecticut, July  21 and 22, the ARRL Board of Directors
agreed to make $5000 already budgeted  to the Grassroots Legislative Action
Committee available to cover volunteers'  travel and administrative costs
and, on a trial basis, to recruit and train  volunteers in several ARRL
divisions. The Grassroots Legislative Action  Program is aimed at encouraging
ARRL members to contact their members of  Congress to urge their
co-sponsorship and support of Amateur Radio-related  legislation. It also
supports the efforts of legislative action volunteers to  contact members of
Congress directly on behalf of their Amateur Radio  constituents.

"Authorizing the committee to use funds currently budgeted  to it as seed
money to support development of the project throughout several  test
divisions will enable the committee to develop the basis for  requesting
appropriate funding levels for the future," explained Grassroots  Legislative
Action Committee Chair and Great Lakes Director Jim Weaver, K8JE,  in
offering the motion.

The resolution said the Grassroots Legislative  Action Program "offers great
potential to increase the effectiveness of the  ARRL to influence legislative
efforts." It pointed out, however, that travel  and administrative expenses
are often required to recruit and train ARRL  volunteers to make the program
work.

In its most complex action of the  weekend, the Board agreed to amend the
League's Articles of Association and  By-Laws, to clarify conflict of
interest criteria as they apply to ARRL  directors and vice directors (or
candidates) as well as to the League's  president, vice presidents and
treasurer. Dakota Division Director Jay  Bellows, K0QB, offered the motions
needed to put the changes into  effect.

"This is really an attempt to open up candidate eligibility and  to make sure
our members are aware of any conflicts that might arise,"  Bellows said
afterwards. "These changes clearly define conflicts of interest,  establish
an affirmative obligation on the part of covered individuals to  disclose
conflicts of interest -- actual and potential -- and now provide a  mechanism
to address them as they arise."

Bellows' amendments noted  that present policy and rules could effectively
exclude otherwise eligible  candidates, don't distinguish between present and
potential conflicts of  interest and don't provide a means to review
conflicts that might occur  during a director's or officer's term. 

Board members or prospective  candidates having a financial interest in an
entity "engaged in an ongoing  business or activity that directly competes
with" League business or activity  would be "deemed to have a pervasive and
continuing conflict that would  render him or her ineligible to be a Board
member."

The new policy  provides that Board members must promptly disclose any
conflicts and recuse  themselves from being present for discussion or from
voting in any matter in  which they have a material financial interest. In
that event, the division's  vice director would act in the director's stead
during any discussion and  vote on the matter in question.

Board members also accepted an invitation  to hold the next ARRL National
Convention at the 2007 Huntsville Hamfest in  Alabama. The event will take
place August 18-19 at the all-air-conditioned  Von Braun Center.

On Saturday, the Board focused on a review and revision  of the ARRL
Strategic Plan and the consideration selection of strategies for  2007. The
review process included "breakout sessions" to develop possible  strategies
to address each of five goals to guide the League over the next  three to
five years.

The ARRL Executive Committee will complete  refinement of the strategy
document when it meets October 7 and recommend it  for approval at the
Board's January 2007 meeting.

==>VANITY CALL  SIGN FEE TO DROP SEPTEMBER 6

The regulatory fee to obtain or renew an  Amateur Radio vanity call sign will
drop slightly starting with applications  received by the FCC on or after
Wednesday, September 6, the FCC's Wireless  Telecommunications Bureau (WTB)
said this week. The new fee will be $20.80  for the 10-year license term.
This year promises to be a big one for vanity  call sign renewals, since the
initial round of vanity grants under the  current system occurred in 1996.
Licensees who want to retain vanity call  signs issued under the current
(post-1995) system must pay the regulatory fee  when renewing.

"Consistent with our established practice, we plan to  collect these
regulatory fees in the August-September 2006 time frame in  order to collect
the required amount by the end of the fiscal year," the FCC  explained in a
July 17 Report and Order (R&O), "Assessment and Collection  of Regulatory
Fees for Fiscal Year 2006," in MD Docket 06-68. The FY 2006  vanity fee is a
bit higher than the $20.10 for the license term that the  Commission had
proposed in a Notice of Proposed Rule Making last March. The  current vanity
call sign fee of $21.90 remains in effect for applications  received by the
FCC before September 6.

Amateur Radio licensees may  file renewal applications no sooner than 90 days
of their license expiration  date. While the regulatory fee payment is
required from licensees wishing to  keep their current vanity call signs
after renewal, vanity holders can opt to  get a sequential call sign and
avoid paying any fee when they  renew.

ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, says the FCC has been  handling vanity
call sign license renewals from June without any delay or  problems. "I'm
sure Gate 2 will go just as smoothly if you use one of the  automated methods
of filing, such as via the ARRL or using the Universal  Licensing System
(ULS)," she predicted. "Paper filings to the FCC can be  confusing and
difficult." The FCC renewed nearly 3000 vanity call sign  licenses during
June and July.

Amateur Radio licensees holding vanity  call signs granted prior to 1996 do
not have to pay a regulatory fee when  renewing. This is because Congress did
not begin requiring the FCC to  annually recover its regulatory costs until
1993. Additionally, such  licensees are not specifically tagged as vanity
call sign holders in the  ULS.

The ARRL VEC will process license renewals for vanity call sign  holders for
a modest fee. The service is available to ARRL members and  nonmembers,
although League members pay less. Routine, non-vanity renewals  continue to
be free for ARRL members. Trustees of club stations with vanity  call signs
may renew either via the ULS or through a Club Station Call  Sign
Administrator, such as ARRL VEC.

Somma says the ARRL's new  license renewal/modification Web  pages
<http://www.arrl.org/fcc/memberlicenseinstructions.html> contain  complete
information on license-filing procedures, including  step-by-step
instructions on how to renew or update a license using the  ULS
<http://wireless.fcc.gov/uls/>.

==>ARRL BOARD DESIGNATES  AWARD WINNERS 

A 13-year-old ARRL member and Amateur Extra class  licensee, Jimmy Carter,
KG4SGP, of Burke, Virginia, is the winner of the 2005  Hiram Percy Maxim
Memorial Award. Jimmy is a student at Lake Braddock  Secondary School, where
he organized the Lake Braddock Secondary School  Amateur Radio Club, which he
serves as president. He says he got interested  in ham radio from his
parents, both of whom are licensed. He envisions an  engineering career.

"I don't know if it's ham radio becoming my career or  my career becoming ham
radio," said Jimmy, reflecting how his interest in  electronics has prompted
him toward further self-study as well as trying to  enjoy as many different
facets of ham radio as he can. "I just get interested  in a lot of different
things in ham radio," he said. That included a recent  foray into 6 meters as
well as improving his Morse code speed, chasing DX and  even building some of
his own gear.

"I just really like everything  about ham radio," he said.

The HPM Memorial Award goes each year to a  radio amateur under the age of 21
whose accomplishments and contributions are  of the most exemplary nature
within the framework of Amateur Radio  activities. The award was established
in 1936, and formal nominations come  from ARRL section managers. 

After organizing his schools ham radio club,  Jimmy found a teacher to
sponsor it and several classmates to join. The club  now boasts 15 members, 6
of whom are licensed. Jimmy also was instrumental in  his school's successful
application for an ARRL Education and Technology  Program grant.

Aside from his club activities, Jimmy participates in  weekly nets of the
Alexandria Radio Club and is a volunteer responder for  disaster relief. He
is in several honor classes and is a varsity athlete.  Jimmy recently took
third place in the Virginia regional science fair with  his project, "How Q
Affects Bandwidth and Signal Strength." 

The  winner of the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award receives a cash award  of
$1500, an engraved plaque, and travel and accommodations to the site of  a
formal presentation. 

Roger Hayward, KA7EXM, of Beaverton, Oregon,  is the recipient of the 2005
Doug DeMaw, W1FB, Technical Excellence Award.  Created to honor the late Doug
DeMaw, W1FB -- one of the most widely  published technical authors in Amateur
Radio history -- the award is bestowed  upon the author or authors of the
best QST or QEX technical article during  the prior year, as judged by the
ARRL Technical Advisor group. DeMaw served  as ARRL Technical Department
Manager and Senior Technical Editor from 1970 to  1983. Hayward's article, "A
PIC-Based HF/VHF Power Meter," appeared in the  May/June 2005 issue of QEX.
Hayward says he's honored to have his work  recognized through the DeMaw
Award. 

"What excites me further is to  see so many hams continuing to design, build
and experiment on their own  workbenches at home," he said. "It has been
great to correspond with so many  hams using the meter for SA construction,
QRP projects and receiver design.  The project was just as much fun to write
about as it was to  design."

An ARRL Life Member, Hayward was first licensed in 1979. He is  active in
portable VHF hilltopping as well as experimenting in the shack. His  first
QST article, "The 'Ugly Weekender,'" appeared in the August 1981  issue.

The DeMaw Award consists of an engraved nine-inch pewter  cup.

SOLAR UPDATE

Solar Seer Tad "(The mornin' sun is shining like  a) Red Rubber Ball" Cook,
K7RA, Seattle, Washington, reports: Last Friday,  July 28, a high speed solar
wind stream hit earth, and created a geomagnetic  disturbance that drove the
planetary and mid-latitude A index up to 29 and  26, respectively.  This
actually began in the early hours of Friday UTC,  which was Thursday
afternoon and early evening in North America.  Both  mid-latitude and
planetary K index rose to six.  If you noticed some  periods of high
absorption, or when the only propagation seemed to occur  north to south,
that would be why.

Now we are moving slowly toward the  fall equinox, and HF radio conditions
tend to get better when the hours of  light and darkness are equal between
the northern and southern  hemispheres.

This week we saw the average daily sunspot number rise over  five points to
20.  We will see little variations like this as the solar  cycle declines
toward its minimum next year.  Solar activity still seems  too high to be at
the bottom though.  A glance at graphs of smoothed  sunspot numbers shows we
are still experiencing more sunspots than the  minimum back in 1996. The
prediction for the smoothed sunspot number for  August 2006 is the same as
for August of next year, and the minimum is  somewhere in between. a year
from now the new solar cycle will be bouncing  back from the minimum, and
rising past the point where we are now.  The  smoothed numbers are averaged
over many months to help us see past the  "noise" of daily variations. July
is over, so we can look at some monthly  averages of sunspot numbers and
solar flux.

For more information  concerning radio propagation, see the ARRL Technical
Information Service  Propagation page  at
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html>.

The average  daily sunspot numbers for the months July 2005 through July 2006
were 68.7,  65.6, 39.2, 13, 32.2, 62.6, 26.7, 5.3, 21.3, 55.2, 39.6, 24.4 and
22.6.   Average daily solar flux for the same months was 96.5, 92.4 , 91.9,
76.6,  86.3, 90.8, 83.4, 76.5, 75.5, 88.9, 80.9, 76.5 and  75.8.

__________________________________

==>IN BRIEF:

*  This weekend on the radio: The North American QSO Party (CW), the ARRL  UHF
Contest, the TARA Grid Dip Shindig, the 10-10 International Summer  Contest
(SSB), the European HF Championship, the RSGB RoPoCo 2 and the SARL  HF Phone
Contest are the weekend of August 5-6. The NAQCC Straight Key/Bug  Sprint is
August 9. JUST AHEAD: The WAE DX Contest (CW) and the Maryland-DC  QSO Party
are the weekend of August 12-13. The ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest,  the North
American QSO Party (SSB), the SARTG World Wide RTTY Contest, and  the New
Jersey QSO Party are the weekend of August 19-20. The Run for the  Bacon QRP
Contest is August 21, See the ARRL Contest Branch  page
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/> and the WA7BNM Contest  Calendar
<http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html> for more  info.

* ARRL Certification and Continuing Education course  registration:
Registration remains open through Sunday, August 13, for these  ARRL
Certification and Continuing Education (CCE) online courses: Amateur  Radio
Emergency Communications Level 1 (EC-001), Radio Frequency  Interference
(EC-006), Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009), Analog  Electronics
(EC-012) and Digital Electronics (EC-013). Classes begin Friday,  September
1. These courses will also open for registration Friday, August 11,  for
classes beginning Friday, October 6. To learn more, visit the CCE  Course
Listing page <http://www.arrl.org/cce/courses.html> or contact  the CCE
Department <cce at arrl.org>.

* WRTC 2006 announces prize  winners: World Radiosport Team Championship 2006
(WRTC 2006) in Brazil has  announced its various post-event prize  winners
<http://www.wrtc2006.com/release64.html>. Winners of the WRTC  2006
"lottery," picked at random from among operators who sent in their IARU  HF
World Championship logs before the deadline -- 1322 in all, were  Michal
Tomec, OK7MT, and Charlie Hansen, W0HW. Each wins a visit for two of  up to
four days at one of the WRTC 2006 contest stations in Southern Brazil.  The
prize includes accommodations, meals, transport to and from the airport  plus
tours of the area. The 72 stations working all of the WRTC 2006  stations
will receive certificates and T-shirts. The two stations working all  46
competing stations on SSB and CW -- KA9FOX and PY0FF -- will get plaques  as
well. The 212 stations working at least 25 WRTC 2006 stations will  get
certificates. Recipients were based on the logs of WRTC 2006  participants.
The WRTC 2006 Committee will contact stations at the addresses  given in
their log files. Direct questions to Thomas Carlsson,  PY2ZXU/SM0CXU
<thomascarl at gmail.com>.

* Montenegro operations  continue apace: As of late July, the Montenegro
International DX Festival  4O3T  operation
<http://www.yu6scg.cg.yu/international-dx-festival-montenegro-2006/>  already
had put 50,000 QSOs in the log with a couple of more weeks to go. An  online
searchable log is available on the SRACG Web  site
<http://www.yu6scg.cg.yu/log-book-search.html>. Martti Laine,  OH2BH, said
the first wave of operators from various parts of the continent  and the US
did "a mammoth job." They also contended with setting up camp  in
temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees F. "They have not seen clouds  or
rain during the entire week," he said. During a dinner cruise for  home-bound
operators July 27 on the Bay of Kotor, International Amateur Radio  Union
(IARU) Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ, announced that he was looking  forward
to circulating a proposal on behalf of Montenegro to become an  IARU
member-society. DXpedition leader Ranko Boca, YT6A, indicates  that
everything is on track for the next 50,000 contacts with the fresh fleet  of
operators that came aboard over the July 29-30 weekend. The 4O3T  stations,
operating from sites in Obosnik and Klinci, have been putting loud  signals
into North America. Meanwhile, the unrelated YU6AO Montenegro  DXpedition
team <http://www.yu6ao.info/> also has been making the new  DXCC entity
available on several bands and modes. There is a log search  engine for YU6AO
too <http://www.yu6ao.info/log.html>.

* IARU  Region 3 Conference special event on air: India telecommunication
authorities  have authorized the operation of a special event station in
conjunction with  the 13th International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 3
Conference. Using  the call sign VU13IARU, the station commenced operation
August 3 and will  remain active until August 11 on HF and VHF from the
conference venue, Hotel  Hari International in Bangalore. Amateur Radio
Society of India (ARSI)  Governing Council member A.R. Prathap Kumar, VU2POP,
will manage the special  event station.--ARSI

* Irish radio amateurs seek 500 kHz allocation:  According to the Radio
Society of Great Britain (RSGB), the Irish Radio  Transmitters Society has
applied to Irish communications regulator ComReg for  a small allocation in
the region of 500 kHz for Amateur Radio  experimentation. The move follows a
similar proposal made by the RSGB to UK  regulator Ofcom in 2004. Ofcom has
not yet made a decision on the RSGB  proposal, but the society is hopeful of
an allocation between 501 and 504  kHz. There is also a possibility that
Ofcom might designate the spot  frequency of 500 kHz as a maritime memorial
frequency. In recent years, there  has been little traffic on the band 415 to
526.6 kHz, after most countries  stopped using it as a Morse emergency
maritime frequency in the  1990s.

* Jack W. Herbstreit, ex-W0DW, SK: Jack W. Herbstreit, ex-W0DW, of  Boulder
Colorado, died May 1. He was 88. Among the pioneers in radio  propagation
research, Herbstreit was a radio engineer with the Central Radio  Propagation
Laboratory of the National Bureau of Standards (now National  Institute of
Standards and Technology) from 1946 to 1965. An ARRL member, he  was director
of the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR), a  predecessor of
the International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication  Standardization
Sector (ITU-T) in Geneva from 1966 to 1974. He served briefly  as consultant
to the director of the Institute of Telecommunication Sciences  (a CRPL
successor organization) until retirement in 1975. Following  graduation from
the University of Cincinnati, Herbstreit briefly worked for  WLW and the FCC.
During World War II, he and Kenneth A. Norton conducted  radio communication
studies in Panama and the South Pacific for the military  and participated in
the development and evaluation of a wartime LORAN (Long  Range Aid to
Navigation) system. At the CRPL following the war, Herbstreit  participated
in a wide range of radio wave propagation and noise studies,  including
investigations of air-to-ground propagation for the military. One  study for
the US Air Force resulted in his winning a Department of Commerce  Gold
Medal. Herbstreit became an internationally known telecommunication  expert
by participating on the US delegation at the HF broadcasting  conferences in
Mexico City (1948-1949) and in Rappolo, Italy (1950) and in  CCIR plenary
assemblies in the 1950s and 1960s. He became a fellow of the IRE  (now IEEE)
in 1958 and received the IEEE Harry Diamond Award in 1959. His  son-in-law,
Bruce Miller, now holds W0DW.-Based on information compiled by C.  Gordon
Little and Ernest K. Smith  

=========================================================== 
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Radio Relay  League: ARRL--the National Association For Amateur Radio, 225
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==>How to Get The ARRL Letter

The ARRL  Letter is available to ARRL members free of charge directly from
ARRL HQ. To  subscribe, unsubscribe or change your address for e-mail
delivery: 
ARRL  members first must register on the Members Only Web  Site
<http://www.arrl.org/members/>. You'll have an opportunity  during
registration to sign up for e-mail delivery of The ARRL Letter,  W1AW
bulletins, and other material. To change these  selections--including
delivery of The ARRL Letter--registered members should  click on the "Member
Data Page" link (in the Members Only box). Click on  "Modify membership
data," check or uncheck the appropriate boxes and/or  change your e-mail
address if necessary. (Check "Temporarily disable all  automatically sent
email" to temporarily stop all e-mail deliveries.) Then,  click on "Submit
modification" to make selections effective. (NOTE: HQ staff  members cannot
change your e-mail delivery address. You must do this yourself  via the
Members Only Web Site.)

The ARRL Letter also is available to  all, free of charge, from these
sources:

* ARRLWeb  <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/>. (NOTE: The ARRL Letter will  be
posted each Friday when it is distributed via e-mail.)

* The  QTH.net listserver, thanks to volunteers from the Boston Amateur Radio
Club:  Visit Mailing  Lists at QTH.Net
<http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/letter-list>.  (NOTE: The ARRL
cannot assist subscribers who receive The ARRL Letter via  this listserver.)