[SFDXA] The ARRL Letter for August 22, 2013

[Bill Marx]

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> If you are having trouble reading this message, you can see the original at:
> http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/?issue=2013-08-22
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> August 22, 2013Editor: Rick Lindquist, WW1ME
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> Regulatory: Vanity Call Sign Fee Goes Up August 23!
> Regulatory: Pending Amateur Service Rule Changes Are Not on Back Burner, FCC Assures VECs
> Regulatory: FCC Cites More Retailers for Marketing Unauthorized RF Devices
> Ham Radio in Space: ISS Astronaut Savors Random "Messages in a Bottle" via Ham Radio 
> Ham Radio in Space: Ham Radio Payloads Preparing to Launch
> Public Service: ARES Supports Emergency Communications During Colorado Flooding
> Public Service: MARS Members to Join Asian Hams to Test Transpacific Disaster Response
> Your League: Balloting Set for ARRL Southeastern Division Director, Vice Director
> Your League: New Delta Division Vice Director Named
> Your League: Nominations Open for the George Hart Distinguished Service Award
> Solar Update
> This Week in Radiosport
> Upcoming ARRL Section, State and Division Conventions and Events
> Regulatory: Vanity Call Sign Fee Goes Up August 23!
> The new FCC regulatory fee of $16.10 to apply for an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will go into effect Friday, August 23, when the new regulatory fee schedule will appear in the Federal Register. Earlier this year the FCC had proposed upping the vanity call sign fee from its current $15 to $15.20, but in the Report and Order in MD Docket 13-140, released August 12, the Commission offered no explanation for the higher fee.
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> In another change, starting in FY 2014, the FCC will require that all regulatory fee payments be made electronically.
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> The R&O ordered a broad schedule of new fees and waived the usual 30-day waiting period following Federal Register publication, because it feared there would not be time for FY 2013 fees to become effective before the start of the new federal fiscal year on October 1.
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> The FCC says it expects $230,230 in revenue to cover the costs of administering the vanity call sign program. It anticipates 14,300 vanity call sign applications.
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> Regulatory: Pending Amateur Service Rule Changes Are Not on Back Burner, FCC Assures VECs
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> Speaking in late July at the 28th annual National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) meeting, Bill Cross, W3TN, of the FCC's Mobility Division within the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB), assured attendees that pending proposals to modify the Amateur Service Part 97 rules are not on the back burner but still under review. FCC personnel addressing the teleconference were unable, however, to predict when the Commission would take action on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Order (NPRM) in WT Docket 12-283.
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> Bill Cross, W3TN
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> Among the FCC proposals: Granting exam credit for expired and beyond-the grace-period licenses; shortening the grace period during which an expired ham ticket may be renewed; correspondingly revising the time a call sign remains unavailable to vanity applicants; and reducing the number of volunteer examiners needed to administer examinations. The docket also seeks comment on amending the rules to permit remote test administration and proposes allowing Amateur Radio stations to transmit certain emission types.
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> FCC Program Analyst Rebecca Williams of the FCC's Gettysburg Office told meeting participants that the FCC will not remove or conceal a licensee's name or address from its public database. She said she's received numerous complaints from licensees about their information being public. According to §97.23, licensees must provide a valid mailing address, but as Williams pointed out, that can be any US address where the licensee can receive mail, such as a work address or a post office box. Licensees can protect their privacy and remain within the rules, she said.
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> She also reminded her audience that since February 14, 2011, a radio amateur can serve as a trustee for only a single club and may not also be a club license trustee for another club. The rules further prohibit clubs from having more than one vanity call sign. Amateurs who served as trustees for more than one club, and clubs holding more than one vanity call sign before the change may continue to do so, she said.
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> NCVEC Chair Larry Pollock, NB5X, presided over the teleconference. ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, Assistant Manager Perry Green, WY1O, and Regulatory Information Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, represented the ARRL VEC for the session. Representatives from 12 of the nation's 14 VECs took part in the meeting. Read more.
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> Regulatory: FCC Cites More Retailers for Marketing Unauthorized RF Devices
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> The FCC this month cited retailers in California and Texas for illegally marketing non-certified amplifiers. According to an August 15 Citation and Order, the FCC's San Francisco office investigated complaints and "confirmed that DNJ Radio of Fremont was offering for sale non-certified RM Italy linear amplifiers and amplifier kits capable of operation with both CB 11 meter transceivers and [Amateur Service] 10 meter transceivers." The FCC said the devices listed in the Citation have not received FCC grants of certification, required for external RF power amplifiers operating below 144 MHz and marketed in the US. The Commission also cited Radio Master, a CB shop catering to truckers -- for similar violations. According to a Citation and Order released August 20, FCC agents from its Dallas office in February inspected the Radio Master shop at a truck stop in Rockwall, Texas, where they observed a used Palomar 250 RF amplifier offered for sale.
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> "The unit did not have an FCC identification number to confirm that the model had been granted an FCC certification," the Commission said in the Radio Master Citation, noting that under its Part 2 rules, external RF power amplifiers capable of operating below 144 MHz "may not be offered for sale unless they have first been authorized in accordance with the Commission's certification procedures."
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> The FCC discounted a disclaimer on DNJ Radio's website that the devices it's marketing "are for industrial, scientific, medical, or export use only," and that using them on 11 meters would violate FCC rules. "The amplifiers...are being offered for sale from within the United States, and anyone within the United States could buy the devices regardless of the disclaimer," the FCC said. Future violations by either retailer could result in hefty fines and/or equipment seizure, the Commission said.
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> The Commission told both firms to take immediate steps to discontinue marketing unauthorized RF devices, and it gave them 30 days to provide certain information in writing.
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> In June, the FCC issued a Citation and Order to a Nebraska-based online retailer for illegally marketing unauthorized RF devices -- including 10 and 12 meter amplifiers capable of putting out up to 8200 W.
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> Ham Radio in Space: ISS Astronaut Savors Random "Messages in a Bottle" via Ham Radio
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> Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP, aboard the ISS (NASA photo)
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> Amateur Radio recently offered a means for European Space Agency Astronaut Luca Parmitano, KF5KDP, to reconnect with Earth from the ISS during a period when it was difficult to see the planet from space. His experience, recounted in his blog, also gave him a greater appreciation for the ham radio gear aboard the station as well as for the greater ham radio community on Earth. As Parmitano explains, the space station's "beta angle" had resulted in long periods in sunlight, putting Earth in shadow and making him feel a little isolated.
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> "It's like looking out of the window at night when you have the lights on in the room, and there's not one streetlight lit outside," he said. "We've been travelling immersed in completely black space." With no available photo opportunities, Parmitano thought about the ESA Columbus module's ham radio gear, which he described as "sometimes a little neglected by us astronauts."
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> Parmitano has used ham radio to chat with student groups on Earth as part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program, but he concedes that he has "never been into Amateur Radio." Yet he found himself sitting at the radio looking for the first time "to establish some kind of 'contact' between the station and Earth." Not knowing what to expect, he set the radio in simplex mode while somewhere above Europe. "[S]uddenly, a voice surfaced above the other sounds." It was a man's voice calling NA1SS, the US Amateur Radio call sign for the ISS.
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> "I was taken aback by the emotion that rose in me as I tried to reply to the call, usi