[SFDXA] A Message from Jeff

[Bill]

Greetings to all,


March has been a busy month for ham radio in SFL. I attended the Palms
West ARC Free Flea on the 12th, the Stuart Hamfest on the 19th and the
Titusville ARC Free Flea on the 26th where I presented club President
Jan Furguson, W4REN an award for 50 years of ARRL club affiliation. It
was great to visit with many of you during these events.


At the March Gold Coast ARA meeting, ASM Barry Porter, KB1PA presented
the 40 year ARRL club affiliation award to club President Melanie
Fernandez, KJ4VCT. Barry and I also attended meetings of the Davie-
Cooper City ARC and the Jupiter Lighthouse RG.


Congratulations to the members of the Martin County ARA upon
qualification for the prestigious ARRL Special Service Club
designation. A formal presentation will be made to the club at an
upcoming meeting.


April events in SFL:


04/16/2016 | Flamingo Net / University of Miami ARC Free Flea
Location: Coral Gables, FL
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Flamingo Net & University of Miami Amateur Radio Clubs
Website: http://www.FlamingoNet.8m.net


04/23/2016 | Cy Harris Memorial Free Flea
Location: Oakland Park, FL
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Broward Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://browardarc.net/free-flea


04/30/2016       Florida QSO Party sponsored by the
Florida Contest Group         Info: www.floridaqsoparty.org


It’s not too late to start preparing for Field Day. This year it’s
the weekend of June 25-26. Don’t forget to list your activity on the
Field Day Locator at the ARRL website. We are once again planning our
annual FD Tour in SFL. More about FD in upcoming editions of this
newsletter.
                                                

If you are in range of the 147.045 repeater in West Palm Beach, check
in to their “New Hams Tech Info Net” on Thursday evenings at 7:00
PM. Hope it is a huge success as we need more of these type of support
nets around the Section.

Southern Florida ARES Volunteers Support Biennial Nuclear Power Plant
Drill

ARES teams from five Florida counties took part in a February 24
exercise at the St Lucie Nuclear Power Plant on Hutchinson Island in
Jensen Beach. The plant is required to hold a exercise every 2 years to
test and evaluate the responses of plant personnel, law enforcement,
emergency managers, and communication personnel in the event of an
emergency, such as a radiation release. The exercises are evaluated by
personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The 2016 scenario involved
overloaded and unusable public telecommunication systems. In a real
emergency, ARES volunteers would provide radio communication among the
county emergency operations centers and other critical entities and
locations.
ARES teams participated from St Lucie, Palm Beach, Martin, Indian
River, and Brevard counties. Operators successfully employed the linked
UHF repeater-based Statewide Amateur Radio Network (SARnet) for most
communication, as well as an HF net on 7.245 MHz. The dual nets
provided for redundancy and reliability for the ARES mission to support
the EOCs. SARnet serves the State of Florida; it’s interconnected by a
Florida Department of Transportation network.
All ARES communication tests and requirements were successfully passed
and met, and evaluators praised the use of dual nets for enhanced
reliability. Martin County ARES also had a display of Go-Kits. A FEMA
representative visited with ARES EC Steve Marshall, WW4RX, who
discussed the kits and answered questions about SARnet and its
coverage


  ARRL HF Band Planning Committee Seeks Suggestions on IARU
Region 2 HF Band Plan

The ARRL Board of Directors' HF Band Planning Committee is inviting
input from the US Amateur Radio community regarding possible changes
to the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Band Plan.
The band plan can be found on the web at,
http://www.iaru-r2.org/band-plan/ .

That band plan and other significant Amateur Radio spectrum issues
will be high on the agenda at this fall's IARU Region 2 General
Assembly in Chile. Leading up to that gathering, the ARRL and other
IARU member societies in the Americas will be seeking comments and
suggestions regarding the Region 2 HF Band Plan. The HF Band
Planning Committee will review the current plan, consider comments
from the US Amateur Radio community, and recommend any changes to
the ARRL Board for submission to IARU Region 2.

"The ARRL HF Band Planning Committee wants to stress that the IARU
Region 2 Band Plan is a voluntary guideline and does not supersede
FCC regulations related to spectrum usage," Committee Chairman and
ARRL Second Vice President Brian Mileshosky, N5ZGT, noted. He also
pointed out two other issues for radio amateurs to consider.

* Most Region 2 countries outside the US do not have the sort of
detailed sub-band regulations contained in the FCC's Part 97. For
radio amateurs in these countries, the Region 2 Band Plan may serve
as the only source of guidance on spectrum usage.

* The designation of a calling frequency or band segment for a
particular purpose or mode in any IARU band plan does not convey any
special rights or exclusivity of use. On the other hand the absence
of a calling frequency or band segment associated with a particular
purpose or mode should not suggest that these have been overlooked
or are viewed negatively.

The Committee is urging US radio amateurs who are considering
suggesting revisions to the IARU Region 2 Band Plan first to study
the existing IARU Region 2 Band Plan. They then should formulate a
clear statement of any proposed changes, including a brief
explanation of why each particular change would benefit all IARU
Region 2 spectrum users. Participants should include name and call
sign. Submit input via e-mail by June 1, 2016 to,
bandplan2016 at arrl.org . Messages will be automatically acknowledged.

Radio amateurs licensed in Region 2 countries other than the US
should contact their own IARU member society for information on how
to participate in the band-planning process.  A list of societies
can be found on the web at, http://www.iaru-r2.org/directory/ .

The 19th IARU Region 2 General Assembly will take place in
mid-October in Vina del Mar, Chile. Held every 3 years, the Region 2
Conference is attended by delegations from IARU member societies in
throughout the Americas


ARRL Tells FCC to Restore Balance of Modes on 80 and 75
Meters

In comments filed on March 23 on its Petition for Rule Making (RM
11759) seeking changes to 80 and 75 meters, the ARRL has told the
FCC that its primary objective is to "rebalance" the bands by
correcting a 10-year old FCC error.

"ARRL's proposal is not fairly viewed as a proposal to take anything
away from anyone," the League's comments assured. "It is more
properly viewed as the effectuation of a fair, equitable, and
efficient 'band plan' looking forward for the foreseeable future
that balances everyone's needs, and which remedies a plainly unfair
plan, imprudently created in the 2006 Report and Order in WT Docket
04-140."  The Report and Order can be found on the web at,
http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/comment/view?id=5513680269 .

Prompting the League's assurances were comments filed on the ARRL's
Petition by a number of Amateur Extra class licensees, who felt that
refarming 3600 to 3650 kHz for data modes could prove to be a
disincentive to General licensees to upgrade. Others commenters saw
it as an unfair spectrum grab. The ARRL noted that prior to 2006,
the band was evenly divided between RTTY/data and phone/image
subbands, with the RTTY/data subband extending from 3500 to 3750
kHz, and the phone/image subband extending from 3750 to 4000 kHz.

The 2006 FCC Report and Order "substantially altered" what the
League called "this even division of emission types." In outlining
the history of the proceeding, the ARRL pointed out that the FCC's
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in Docket 01-140 would have shifted
the line between the 80 meter RTTY/data subband and the 75 meter
phone/image subband from 3750 kHz to 3725 kHz, pursuant to a 2002
ARRL Petition for Rule Making, RM-10413. This would change the ratio
of spectrum between phone/image and RTTY/data segments on 75/80
meters from 50/50 to 55/45, and it is what the FCC proposed in its
NPRM.

In its Report and Order in Docket 04-140, however, the FCC made "a
very substantial and unjustifiable departure" from what it had
proposed in its NPRM, the ARRL recounted. The Commission expanded
the phone/image subband at 75 meters to 3600-4000 kHz, and it
reduced the 80 meter RTTY/data subband to 3500-3600 kHz, eliminating
RTTY operation above 3600 kHz and changing "the entire dynamic of
this band," the League said.

The FCC had said in its proposal that no licensees would lose
operating privileges. Nonetheless, the FCC's phone band expansion
reduced by 100 kHz the spectrum between 3500 and 4000 kHz that was
previously available to General class licensees, while Advanced
licensees lost 75 kHz. In an apparent FCC oversight, the Report and
Order completely eliminated access by automatically controlled
digital stations (ACDS) to 3620 to 3635 kHz. A subsequent FCC Report
and order and Order on Reconsideration only made the situation worse
by replacing the deleted ACDS segment with 3585-3600 kHz.

"It resulted in a sudden and severe dislocation of traffic-handling
nets using telegraphy, without advance planning or notice," the ARRL
said. "It disaccommodated net participants with General and Advanced
class licenses; and it worsened the effect of the overexpansion of
the 75 meter phone/image subband."

The result, the ARRL noted, has been "a shortfall in available
RTTY/data spectrum on 80 meters" that has created a significant
obstacle to narrowband digital data communications and
experimentation. The League said its current Petition "simply
restores that which was disrupted in 2006 in error."

In its comments, the League conceded that compromises are inevitable
in managing a heavily used band like 75/80 meters, no matter the
band planning approach. "Looking forward, it is necessary, in order
to encourage experimentation with and expand the use of digital
communication techniques, to rebalance the 75 and 80 meter
subbands," the ARRL concluded.


SFL ARES Report for February from SEC Larry, W4LWZ

Total number of ARES members: 312

Change since last month (+, -, same): 0

Number of DECs/ECs reporting this month: 6

Number of ARES nets active: 6

Number of nets with NTS liaison: 4

Calls of DECs/ECs reporting: AD4RZ, W9GPI, KJ4AWB, KB1PA, K1UQE, WW4RX

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 27

Person hours: 287

Number of public service events this month: 0

Person hours: 0

Number of emergency operations this month: 0

Person Hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 27

Total Person hours: 287

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


Clayton S. “Clay” Jones, WV4H of West Palm Beach. Clay was a member
of the West Palm Beach ARC and the AREC Repeater Group. He was a friend
and “Elmer” to many hams in Palm Beach County.


Neil R. Leibowitz, KC4VU of Plantation. Neil was a member of the South
Florida DX Association.


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