[Letter-List] The ARRL Letter for January 21, 2010

Thu Jan 21 15:06:06 EST 2010

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            The  ARRL Letter

Published by the American Radio Relay League
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January 21, 2010

Editor: S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA <k1sfa at arrl.org>

ARRL Home Page <http://www.arrl.org/>ARRL Letter Archive
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/>Audio News
<http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/> IN THIS ISSUE

- + Haiti Earthquake: Dominican Hams Attempt to Install Repeaters in
Haiti
- + ARRL Leadership: Board Ramps Up Focus on EmComm Issues, Looks to
League's Centennial
- + Public Service: Ham Helps Out in Riverside County Desert Rescue
- + ARRL Recognizes: ARRL Board Bestows Awards at 2010 Annual Meeting
- + Now You Know!: The ARRL Amateur Auxiliary
- Solar Update
- This Week on the Radio
- + Silent Key: CQ Magazine Columnist Dave Ingram, K4TWJ (SK)

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

==> + HAITI EARTHQUAKE: DOMINICAN HAMS ATTEMPT TO INSTALL REPEATERS IN
HAITI

   Members of the Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) -- the Dominican
Republic's IARU Member-Society -- and Union Dominicana de Radio
Aficionados (UDRA) arrived in Haiti late last week to install an
emergency radio communications station and a mobile station. Shortly
after they arrived, the hams returned to the Dominican Republic for
safety reasons.

"Within a few hours though, reports via the RCD Facebook page reported
that the HI8RCD team of eight amateurs was back in the [Dominican
Republic] border town of Jimani," said IARU Region 1 Emergency
Communications Coordinator Greg Mossop, G0DUB. "Their convoy, which
included other non related Dominicans, was assaulted. The radio
amateurs are uninjured, but they decided to leave the capital for
safety [reasons] and return to the border unescorted. They report the
situation as 'extremely unsafe.'"

The team was able to install two VHF repeaters: one in the Dominican
Republic border town of JumanÃ and another Port-au-Prince. Mossop said
that these repeaters have been used by the Red Cross and Civil Defense
since, until quite recently, there has been no other way to
communicate. The station at the embassy in Haiti could not be
activated.

"The HI8RCD team of amateurs is still in JumanÃ, where many wounded are
arriving," said IARU Region 2 Secretary RamÃ³n Santoyo, XE1KK. "They are
helping Haitians to contact their relatives and friends outside of
Haiti, but they can't help the world to find specific individuals in
Haiti. They are receiving many e-mails with such requests, but security
and road conditions make impossible to look for specific individuals in
Haiti at the present." Read more here
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/18/11293/?nc=1>.

==> + ARRL LEADERSHIP: BOARD RAMPS UP FOCUS ON EMCOMM ISSUES, LOOKS TO
LEAGUE'S CENTENNIAL

 <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/16/11292/?nc=1>   The ARRL
Board of Directors held its 2010 Annual Meeting on January 15-16 in
Windsor, Connecticut, under the chairmanship of President Joel
Harrison, W5ZN, to consider and act on a number of recommendations from
committees, as well as motions by Directors. With the election of ARRL
First Vice President Kay Craigie, N3KN, as the League's 15th President,
the 2010 Annual Meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors was off to a
fast-paced start. Craigie, who ran unopposed, takes over the top
leadership position from Harrison, who in October announced that he
would not be seeking re-election. Craigie officially took office as
President at the adjournment of the Annual Meeting. Read more here
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/19/11294/?nc=1>.

==> + PUBLIC SERVICE: HAM HELPS OUT IN RIVERSIDE COUNTY DESERT RESCUE

   On the afternoon of Saturday, January 16, Christopher Walsh, KJ6BBS,
of Irvine, California, was listening to radio traffic on 446.760 MHz, a
channel used by the Los Angeles area-based Pocket Auto-Patch
Association (PAPA) system -- an Amateur Radio network of 22 interlinked
analog and digital D-STAR repeaters that provides extensive coverage of
the Southern California region and beyond -- when he heard an emergency
radio call break from Jose Hernandez, KI6PCK, of Thousand Oaks,
California, reporting an injured male who had broken some ribs from an
ATV-type accident. Read more here
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/20/11296/?nc=1>.

==> ARRL RECOGNIZES: BOARD RECOGNIZES OUTGOING ARRL PRESIDENT JOEL
HARRISON, W5ZN

   After more than 27 years of elected volunteer service to the ARRL,
outgoing ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, has retired. In
recognition of his dedication to the League over nearly three decades,
the ARRL Board of Directors bestowed their thanks in the form of an
engraved plaque. Presented by incoming President Kay Craigie, N3KN, on
behalf of the Board, the plaque recounts Harrison's elected service to
the ARRL: Arkansas Section Manager, 1983-1988; Delta Division Director,
1988-1996; Vice President, 1996-2000; First Vice President, 2000-2006,
and President, 2006-2010.

==> + ARRL RECOGNIZES: ARRL BOARD BESTOWS AWARDS AT 2010 ANNUAL MEETING

   The ARRL Board of Directors had the pleasure and distinction of
bestowing two annual awards at its 2010 Annual Meeting -- the inaugural
George Hart Distinguished Service Award and the Bill Leonard, W2SKE,
Professional Media Award. The Hart Award -- established by the Board at
its 2009 Second Meeting -- is named in honor of George Hart, W1NJM, who
served as Communications Manager at ARRL Headquarters and was the chief
developer of the National Traffic System (NTS). The award is conferred
upon an ARRL member whose service to the League's Field Organization is
of the most exemplary nature. Selection criteria include the nominee's
operating record with the National Traffic System, participation within
the Amateur Radio Emergency ServiceÂ® (ARESÂ®), or station appointments
and/or leadership positions held within the ARRL Field Organization.

The Bill Leonard, W2SKE, Professional Media Award is a national level
award given each year to honor three professional journalists whose
outstanding coverage in audio, video and print formats best reflect the
enjoyment, importance and public service value of the Amateur Radio
Service. Read more here
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/21/11300/?nc=1>.

==> + NEW ARRL WEB SITE COMING SOON!

   It's almost here! After more than two years of planning, designing
and writing, we are eagerly awaiting the launch of the new ARRL Web
site. We've been able to make the online experience easier for our
members -- from the online store, to registering for a class, to
finding a club -- plus we've created a new, enhanced member profile
with many more options available. We've made improvements with you in
mind, making sure that our members will have the easiest, most
enjoyable online experience possible. The new Web site will be
available the first week of February.

==> + NOW YOU KNOW!: THE ARRL AMATEUR AUXILIARY

By ARRL News Editor S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA

The Amateur Auxiliary is composed of approximately 700 ARRL
volunteer-appointees known as Official Observers (OO
<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/org/oo.html>). Located across the
country, they monitor the bands and notify amateurs of technical and
operating discrepancies as a service to their fellow hams. Time and
again, the FCC has indicated the responsibility to keep our operating
standards and spectrum in shape rests with the Amateur Service. The
Amateur Auxiliary program and its OOs are the League's answer to this
challenge.

   The OO Program has four main objectives: to foster a wider knowledge
of and better compliance with the FCC rules; to extend the concepts of
self-regulation and self-administration in the Amateur Service; to
enhance the opportunity for individual amateurs to contribute to the
public welfare, and to enable the FCC's Enforcement Bureau to
efficiently and effectively utilize its limited manpower and resources.
The role of the Amateur Auxiliary is to provide an unbiased forum for
technical and operational advice and other assistance to amateurs who
are receptive. The task is not to find fault or lay blame. It is to
identify cause and effect, many of which are not based upon technical,
but behavioral or social issues, as well as to find ways to achieve
solutions to promote good amateur operating and engineering practice on
our bands.

Even though you might consider yourself a good operator (and don't we
all consider ourselves to be good operators?), you might receive an OO
Notice. If you do get one, don't worry! The OO post card is simply a
friendly note to alert you to possible equipment factors or operating
practices that might have contributed to an apparent departure from a
rule or the good amateur practice standard. Remember, OOs are friendly
helper-advisors; their mission is to assist those who are receptive to
being assisted. You do not need to reply to the notice, but you may
want to take a few minutes to determine what caused the apparent
problem and then take steps to fix it. Your corrective actions might
even head off an FCC "pink slip" down the road (which, by the way, are
not pink!).

Keep in mind that OOs are advised to avoid hair-splitting and to deal
only with black-and-white rule discrepancies only. For example, an OO
should not send a notice to someone who forgot to identify his station
for 10 minutes and 8 seconds! If you feel that the OO sent you a notice
that violates the principles of the program, send a copy to your
Section Manager <http://www.arrl.org/sections/> or to Headquarters
<k0bog at arrl.org> for evaluation and possible action -- quality control
is critically important in a program as sensitive as this one.

   To emphasize the positive nature of the Amateur Auxiliary Program,
OOs will also send out "Good Operator Reports" to those operators whose
radio signals and/or operating practices are consistent with the
highest standards and are a model for others to follow. Every amateur
should strive to pattern their operating and signals after your
example.

Prospective OOs must pass a comprehensive examination based on a set of
study materials before they can be certified as members of the Amateur
Auxiliary; they must also be an ARRL member and be licensed for at
least four years. If you are interested in becoming an OO, contact your
Section Manager <http://www.arrl.org/sections/>. Now you now!

==> SOLAR UPDATE

   Tad "Whose dwelling is the light of setting Suns
<http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html>" Cook, K7RA, reports: We saw
just one day with a blank Sun this week -- Tuesday, January 19 -- when
sunspot group 1040 moved over its western limb. New sunspot 1041, which
is really old sunspot group1039, emerged from the east, bursting with
solar flares (five so far) and as a result, both the planetary and high
latitude K index jumped to 5 at 1800 UTC on January 20. The M-class
solar flare on Wednesday caused an SID, or Sudden Ionospheric
Disturbance, and Friday's bulletin will talk about a Stanford
University project encouraging homebrew SID detectors for ham station
and classroom, allowing you to detect these events when they happen --
no more guessing as to why your receiver suddenly seems dead. Look for
more information in the Solar Update, available on the ARRL Web site on
Friday, January 22. For more information concerning radio propagation,
visit the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation page
<http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/propagation.html>. This week's "Tad
Cookism" brought to you by William Wordsworth's Lines Written a Few
Miles Above Tintern Abbey <http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww138.html>.

==> + ARRL PUBLICATIONS: THE 2009 ARRL PERIODICALS ON CD-ROM NOW
SHIPPING

   The 2009 ARRL Periodicals on CD-ROM
<http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=1486> is now available and includes
the complete 2009 fully searchable collection of three ARRL journals --
QST <http://www.arrl.org/qst>, QEX <http://www.arrl.org/qex>, and the
National Contest Journal (NCJ <http://www.arrl.org/ncj>). In addition,
the CD-ROM includes source code for software projects and PC board
patterns, Section News, as well as the ever-popular Contest Soapbox and
Contest Results. Search the full text of every article by entering
titles, call signs or names. See every word, photo -- most in color --
drawing and table in technical and general-interest features, columns
and product reviews, plus all advertisements. Print what you see, or
copy it into other applications. System requirements: Microsoft Windows
and Macintosh systems, using the industry standard Adobe Acrobat Reader
software. CD-ROMs for other years are also available
<http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?category=What%27s+New&words=periodicals>.

==> THIS WEEK ON THE RADIO

   This week, be sure to check out the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/01/13/11282/?nc=1> on January
23-25. On January 22, there is a running of the NCCC Sprint. Look for
the YL-ISSB QSO Party (SSB), the MIE 33 Contest and the BARTG RTTY
Sprint on January 23-24. The SKCC Sprint is January 27. Next week,
there is another running of the NCCC Sprint on January 29. The CQ 160
Meter Contest (CW) is January 29-31. The REF Contest (CW), the UBA DX
Contest (SSB) and the SPAR Winter Field Day are January 30-31. The
Classic Exchange (CW) is January 31-February 1. All dates, unless
otherwise stated, are UTC. See the ARRL Contest Branch page
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/>, the ARRL Contest Update
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/update/> and the WA7BNM Contest Calendar
<http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/index.html> for more info.
Looking for a Special Event station? Be sure to check out the ARRL
Special Event Station Web page
<http://www.arrl.org/contests/spev.html>.

==> + SILENT KEY: CQ MAGAZINE COLUMNIST DAVE INGRAM, K4TWJ (SK)

   Dave Ingram, K4TWJ, who penned the "World of Ideas" and "How It
Works" columns in CQ Magazine, passed away Wednesday, January 20, from
complications due to a heart attack late last year. He was 67. A writer
and columnist at CQ since 1981, Ingram -- an ARRL member -- began his
career at the magazine writing the amateur television "World of Video"
column that later morphed into the "World of Ideas," covering code
keys, stealth antennas, building "new vintage" tube gear, mobiling and
more. Ingram also served as CQ's QRP Editor. "His enthusiasm for
whatever caught his interest was contagious and spread widely through
his informal, yet educational writing style," recalled CQ Managing
Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU. Ingram also wrote for RadCom -- the Radio
Society of Great Britain's member journal -- and other international
ham magazines. Funeral arrangements are pending. -- Information
provided by CQ Magazine

==> ARRL CONTINUING EDUCATION COURSE REGISTRATION

   Registration remains open through Sunday, January 24, 2010, for
these online course sessions <http://www.arrl.org/cep/student/>
beginning on Friday, February 10, 2010: 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 CEP Course Listing page
<http://www.arrl.org/cep/student> or contact the Continuing Education
Program Coordinator <cce at arrl.org>.

The ARRL Letter is published Thursdays, 50 times each year. ARRL
members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member
Data Page as described at http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/.

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