[SFDXA] A Message from Jeff

[Bill]

Greetings to all,


March has been a busy month for ham radio in SFL. I attended the Palm
Beach County Hamfest on the 14th and the Southern Florida Section
Convention held in conjunction with the Stuart Hamfest on the 21st. We
were pleased to visit with SE Division Director Doug Rehman, K4AC and
Sean Kutzko,KX9X, our Media and Public Relations Manager from ARRL HQ,
at the convention. It was good to see so many SFL members supporting
both events. The SFL Section Convention in 2016 will be hosted by the
Ft. Myers ARC.

Our new Gold Coast District EC Charlie Benn, WB2SNN, Monroe County EC
Chris Vasilenko, K4FLL and I traveled to Cudjoe Key to visit with
members of the K3ML Repeater Club and the Florida Keys ARC on March
28th. On the way south, Charlie and I visited with members of the Boca
Raton ARA for their annual open house picnic at their clubhouse in West
Delray Beach.


Congratulations to Kai Siwiak, KE4PT, the winner of the March 2015 QST
Cover Plaque award for his article “An Off Center Fed Dipole for
Portable Operation on 40 to 6 Meters.” I will have the pleasure of
presenting Kai with his award at an upcoming club meeting in Broward
County.


April events in SFL:

4/11/2015

Broward County Club Council
Dunkin Donuts, 9170 SR 84, Davie at 1:00 PM
Info: Marty Falk, KI4IQZ


04/18/2015 | Flamingo Net / UMARC Free Flea

Location: Coral Gables, FL
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Flamingo Net ARC & University of Miami ARC
Website: http://FlamingoNet.8m.net
  

4/25/2015

SFL Section wide ARES and Cabinet meeting
Palm Beach County EOC at 9:00 AM
Info: Larry Zimmer, W4LWZ, SFL SEC


The AREC Repeater Group of West Palm Beach is our latest ARRL
Affiliated Club. Welcome to the ARRL Club family !  For more info on
how your club can become an affiliated society, contact our Affiliated
Club Coordinator Steve Lowman, N4SGL at n4sgl at arrl.net or visit
http://www.arrl.org/affiliated-club-resources


You can follow the SFL Section on Twitter at arrl_SFL. Check it out!
Thanks to Barry Porter, KB1PA, Palm Beach ARES Training Coordinator for
setting this up.


If you are in range of the 145.290 repeater in Boca Raton, check in to
their “New Hams Info Net” on Monday evenings at 7:00 PM. Hope it is
a huge success as we need more of these type of support nets around the
Section.


If your club or ARES group publishes a newsletter, please add me to
your mailing list. This info will keep me better informed on Section
activities.



  Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 Introduced in Congress


"The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015" - H.R.1301 - has been
introduced in the US House of Representatives. The measure would
direct the FCC to extend its rules relating to reasonable
accommodation of Amateur Service communications to private land use
restrictions. US Rep Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) introduced the bill March
4 with 12 original co-sponsors from both sides of the aisle - seven
Republicans and five Democrats. Kinzinger also sponsored "The
Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2014, which died at the end of the 113th
Congress. H.R. 1301 is an essentially identical piece of
legislation.

"The introduction of H.R. 1301 with so many original co-sponsors, so
early in this session of Congress, is very encouraging," said ARRL
President Kay Craigie, N3KN. "Several additional members of Congress
already have agreed to be co-sponsors. This bill has momentum, but
introduction is only the first step. Many of the next steps will be
taken as ARRL members contact their US Representatives urging
co-sponsorship and thanking them as they sign on to the bill."
If Congress approves the legislation, and it is signed by the
president, H.R. 1301 would require the FCC to amend its Part 97
Amateur Service rules to apply the three-part test of the PRB-1
federal pre-emption policy to include homeowners' association
regulations and deed restrictions, often referred to as "covenants,
conditions, and restrictions" (CC&Rs). At present, PRB-1 only
applies to state and local zoning laws and ordinances. The FCC has
been reluctant to extend the same legal protections to include such
private land-use agreements without direction from Congress.

H.R. 1301 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce
Committee. Rep Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR), chairs that panel's
Communications and Technology Subcommittee, which will consider the
measure. The League had worked with Walden on the 2014 bill during
the 113th Congress.

Among H.R. 1301 initial co-sponsors is Rep Joe Courtney (D-CT), who
attended the ARRL National Centennial Convention last summer to
speak with League officials and those attending the event about the
earlier bill.

Craigie encouraged ARRL members to urge their US House members to
sign on to the bill as a co-sponsor. The ARRL has an H.R. 1301
resources page on its website at, http://www.arrl.org/hr-1301 . If
the House member is already a co-sponsor, call the member's local
office or send an e-mail via the member's official website to
express their thanks. She called on League members to encourage
other hams to do the same, and to be sure to refer to the bill by
its number, H.R. 1301.

"Remember what those pile-ups on the W1AW portable stations sounded
like last year?" Craigie said. "Let's be that avid in calling for
even greater support in Congress for this essential legislation."



ARRL Centennial Points Challenge, W1AW WAS Awards Application Window
Open


The window to apply for ARRL Centennial Points Challenge and W1AW
Worked All States awards is now open! The ARRL Centennial operating
events were hugely successful, with participation way beyond anyone’s
expectations.
“This was the biggest on-the-air operation in the history of Amateur
Radio,” ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, said. More
than 5.5 million Centennial event contacts were recorded in Logbook of
The World (LoTW) during 2014. That number includes contacts with W1AW
portable operations as well as those with individual ARRL members and
Field Organization volunteers. W100AW completed about 70,000 contacts.
For most applicants, the process will be simple and largely automated,
explained Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, Assistant Manager, Field Services and
Radiosport Department.

“The form will auto-populate, if we have your information on file,
and the form can be edited to update name and address information
only,” Fusaro said. “The system will select the awards for which
you qualify. Certificates will be printed daily, so fulfillment will be
ongoing, while plaques will be shipped directly from the supplier.”
Fusaro said ARRL Headquarters has hired extra staff members to handle
the added workload.
Certificates will be available for the Centennial Points Challenge
Award, while W1AW WAS Award participants will have the option of a
certificate or a plaque. Certificates are $16, and plaques are $60.
Fusaro said the task of checking and double-checking electronic logs,
entering paper logs into LoTW, and resolving various anomalies put an
unexpected burden on staff resources and delayed the opening of the
awards window. ARRL Headquarters also had to recalculate all submitted
scores to come up with final tallies.
“It’s been a very time and staff-intensive process, researching
busted call signs and running down claimed contacts and mode
discrepancies for operators,” Fusaro said.
Centennial Points Challenge logs must have been submitted through LoTW
by January 22, but participants may apply for Centennial operating
awards indefinitely. The system automatically looks for
points-qualifying QSOs from submitted logs and applies them to each
participant’s Centennial Points Challenge total. While most
Centennial QSO Party participants entered their contact information
into LoTW, operators do not have to use LoTW to apply for Points
Challenge certificates or W1AW WAS awards.
Qualifying for the Top Level Award requires 15,000 points. The Third
Level Award requires 7500 points, while the Second and First Level
awards require 3000 and 1000 points, respectively. Point totals will be
printed on certificates.
US stations that worked W1AW/p and W100AW during the Centennial may
request QSL cards via the Incoming QSL Service on the Centennial QSO
Party web page. This is a one-time only use of the QSL Bureau for this
purpose, and those who want to receive cards via the Bureau should
ensure that their accounts are sufficiently funded, because cards will
not be held. Cards destined for stations outside the US will be sent
via the QSL Bureau. Participants also may request cards directly,
providing one SASE for up to six cards per envelope.
W1AW/p and W100AW will not confirm every contact on the traditional
paper QSL cards, but will confirm QSOs for each mode and on most bands
on a single card for each weekly operation.


World Amateur Radio Day is April 18!


On Saturday, April 18, radio amateurs worldwide will take to the
airwaves to celebrate World Amateur Radio Day (WARD) 2015. It was on
April 18, 1925, that the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) was
founded in Paris, with ARRL Co-Founder Hiram Percy Maxim, 1AW, as its
first president. The primary purpose of World Amateur Radio Day is to
highlight Amateur Radio and its benefits to countries and communities.
The IARU said World Amateur Radio Day is an opportunity for IARU
member-societies to demonstrate Amateur Radio to the public and make
friends with other amateurs around the world. Special event stations
will be on the air over the April 18-19 weekend to highlight World
Amateur Radio Day and the IARU’s 90th anniversary.
  
“Since its founding, the IARU has worked tirelessly to defend and
expand the frequency allocations for Amateur Radio,” the IARU said in
marking World Amateur Radio Day. “Thanks to the support of enlightened
administrations in every part of the globe, radio amateurs are now able
to experiment and communicate in frequency bands strategically located
throughout the radio spectrum.”
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has recognized the IARU
as representing the interests of Amateur Radio. Amateur Radio is more
popular than ever today, with more than 3 million enthusiasts around
the world, the IARU has estimated. As 2015 also will mark the 150th
anniversary of the ITU, the IARU has adopted the theme, “ITU & IARU:
Celebrating 150 years of Advancing the Telecommunication Art” for
World Amateur Radio Day 2015.
>From 25 countries in 1925, the IARU has grown to include more than 160
member-societies in three regions. IARU Region 1 includes Europe,
Africa, the Middle East, and Northern Asia. Region 2 covers the
Americas, and Region 3 is comprised of Australia, New Zealand, the
Pacific island nations, and most of Asia.
“April 18 is the day for all of Amateur Radio to celebrate and tell
the world about the science we can help teach, the community service we
can provide, and the fun we have,” the IARU said.
On the Air Activity
World Amateur Radio Day special event stations on April 18 will include
A43WARD in Oman — 0500-1700 UTC; KP4FD in Puerto Rico — 0000-2359
UTC, and World Radio Network on IRLP, 1600-1730 UTC via the World
Conference Server (IRLP Node 9251) and the Hi-Gate Server (IRLP Node
9250).

The IARU encourages groups to promote their World Amateur Radio Day
activities on social media, using the hash tag #WARD2015 on Twitter and
Facebook. To have your World Amateur Radio Day activity listed on the
IARU WARD page, contact ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Sean
Kutzko, KX9X.


Silent Keys- It is with deep regret that we report the passing of the
following SFL members:


Charles I. “Chuck” Baer, W4ROA of Sunrise. Chuck was a long time
ARRL SE Division Assistant Director and a very active member of the
Broward County amateur radio community.

John W. Coffey, Sr., KK4FCU of Jensen Beach. John was a member of the
Martin County ARA.


Well, I guess that’s about it for now. My thanks for all that you do
for Amateur Radio. Get on the air, Elmer a new ham, support your local
club and ARES group but most of all, have fun.

Vy 73,

Jeff, WA4AW

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ARRL Southern Florida Section
Section Manager: Jeff Beals, WA4AW
wa4aw at arrl.org