[TCARC-NTx] Fwd: The ARRL Letter, Vol 21, No 15

[david johnson]

--- ARRL Letter Mailing List <letter-dlvy@arrl.org>
wrote:
> From ARRL Letter Mailing List Fri Apr 12 15:37:35
> 2002
> Subject: The ARRL Letter, Vol 21, No 15
> Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 18:37:35 -0400
> To: kb5ylg@yahoo.com
> From: "ARRL Letter Mailing List"
> <letter-dlvy@arrl.org>
> 
> ***************
> The ARRL Letter
> Vol. 21, No. 15
> April 12, 2002
> ***************
> 
> IN THIS EDITION:
> 
> * +Ham radio praised at hurricane confab
> * +FCC nails vanity backlog
> * +Texas high schoolers query ISS crew member
> * +ARRL debuts HF Digital Communications course
> * +IMAX "Space Station" film to include ARISS school
> contact
> * +Amateur Radio represented at international
> conference
> * +Question Pool Committee releases draft Tech
> syllabus
> *  Solar Update
> *  IN BRIEF:
>      This weekend on the radio
>      ARRL Certification and Continuing Education
> course registration
>      Club provides reimbursements for ARRL emergency
> communications course
>      Cost of QSLing to rise again
>      Dayton Hamvention announces 2002 banquet
> speakers
>      Pacific Seafarer's Net handles emergency call
>      PCsat back in the black
> 
> +Available on ARRL Audio News
> 
>
===========================================================
> 
> ==>PRAISE FOR AMATEUR RADIO AIRS DURING NATIONAL
> HURRICANE CONFERENCE
> 
> At the National Hurricane Conference
> <http://www.hurricanemeeting.com>
> April 1-5 in Orlando, Florida, representatives of
> Florida-based served
> agencies praised the role of Amateur Radio in
> hurricane-related
> communication emergencies. Meteorologists, emergency
> management
> professionals and disaster-relief organizations from
> hurricane-prone
> states use the annual conference to exchange ideas
> and learn about new
> developments and issues involving emergency
> preparedness.
> 
> "Amateur Radio really shines during callouts," said
> John Fleming, the
> communications officer of the Florida Division of
> Emergency Management
> during an April 2 Amateur Radio training session
> organized by Mike Carter,
> N3PDK. Carter chairs the Amateur Radio Topic
> Committee for the conference.
> 
> Fleming said his agency "just wants effective
> communication" during
> emergencies, and he described how Amateur Radio fits
> into Florida's
> emergency plans. Since the state capital of
> Tallahassee is in the ARRL
> Northern Florida Section, Fleming explained, his
> office follows the
> Northern Florida ARES plan to take advantage of
> Amateur Radio resources.
> 
> Santa Rosa County, Florida, Director of Emergency
> Management Dave Ling
> echoed Fleming's sentiments to the Amateur Radio
> operators in attendance.
> "We really appreciate your efforts, and I got a
> whole lot out of this
> conference," he said.
> 
> During the hurricane season, which starts June 1 and
> runs through
> November, the National Hurricane Center in Miami
> benefits from the support
> of a corps of Amateur Radio volunteers who staff the
> center's W4EHW
> <http://www.fiu.edu/org/w4ehw> amateur station.
> W4EHW Amateur Radio
> Coordinator John McHugh, KU4GY, and Assistant
> Coordinator Julio Ripoll,
> WD4JR, talked about their ongoing work and provided
> an update on the
> Caribbean Amateur Radio Meteorological Emergency
> Network, or CARMEN (See
> "Public Service," Jan 2002 QST, p 85). W4EHW gathers
> real-time storm data
> from members of the Hurricane Watch Net on 20 meters
> as well as from other
> sources, including the Internet.
> 
> ARRL is among the many sponsors of the annual
> National Hurricane
> Conference. ARRL Field Organization/Public Service
> Team Leader Steve
> Ewald, WV1X, represented ARRL Headquarters during
> the event.
> 
> Amateurs representing Florida's three ARRL sections
> were on hand for the
> conference. Attending from the Northern Florida
> Section were Section
> Manager Rudy Hubbard, WA4PUP, and Assistant SM Steve
> Richbourg, KO4TT.
> From West Central Florida were Section Manager Dave
> Armbrust, AE4MR,
> Section Emergency Coordinator/Assistant SM Paul
> Toth, NA4AR, and Public
> Information Coordinator Jack Doyle, WX1JAD. In
> attendance from Southern
> Florida was SEC and Assistant SM Jim Goldsberry,
> KD4GR.
> 
> During the gathering, Jerry Herman, N3BDW, formally
> announced his
> retirement as manager of the Hurricane Watch Net
> <http://www.hwn.org>.
> Mike Pilgrim, K5MP, of Boca Raton, Florida, was
> introduced as the new net
> manager.
> 
> Colorado State University hurricane expert Dr. Bill
> Gray announced his
> latest predictions for the upcoming season on April
> 5 at the Orlando
> conference. Gray predicted 12 "named" storms and 7
> hurricanes--three of
> them major.
> 
> ==>FCC VANQUISHES VANITY BACKLOG
> 
> The longstanding vanity call sign application
> backlog that had built up as
> a result of mail problems last October is now
> history. The FCC issued
> another 328 vanity call signs this week. That
> completed the processing of
> applications received at the FCC's Gettysburg,
> Pennsylvania, office
> through March 25--right at the typical 18-day vanity
> application waiting
> period.
> 
> "We are back on track for vanity processing," an FCC
> Private Wireless
> Division Licensing and Technical Analysis Branch
> staff member told ARRL.
> While not ruling out any problems down the road, she
> indicated that
> everything was working fine now and that the FCC
> would resume its normal
> nightly vanity runs.
> 
> ARRL VEC Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, congratulated
> the FCC's licensing
> staff on the accomplishment. "It's been a long time
> coming," he said. "A
> great deal of effort on the part of the FCC
> personnel in Gettysburg and
> some on the part of ARRL went into making this
> happen.
> 
> Among the latest happy customers was ARRL Chief
> Development Officer Mary
> Hobart, who traded in her government-issue KB1HYD
> for K1MMH, reflecting
> her initials.
> 
> At its peak, the vanity backlog was estimated at
> more than 2000
> applications. Routine vanity processing resumed in
> early March. With the
> exception of a four-day hiatus to deal with a
> processing anomaly later
> that month, the FCC has been slowly but surely
> whittling away the
> application stack. The processing of routine Amateur
> Service applications
> was unaffected by the vanity problems.
> 
> The vanity holdup began after some two weeks of
> paper vanity applications
> sent off last October for anthrax decontamination
> were not returned to
> Gettysburg. Since FCC policy continues to give equal
> priority to paper and
> electronic vanity applications, vanity processing
> was halted when the
> paper applications didn't come back. FCC
> staffers--with help from the
> ARRL--used payment information to contact those who
> had filed and have
> them submit new applications. Last month, the FCC
> began receiving the
> applications that had been missing.
> 
> The FCC has proposed increasing the regulatory fee
> it charges vanity call
> sign applicants from $12 to $14.50 for the 10-year
> license term. Comments
> on the proposal are due April 23, and reply comments
> are due May 3. The
> new, higher fee likely would go into effect in
> September. The vanity fee
> is paid at the time of application for a new,
> renewal or reinstated vanity
> license.
> 
> ==>SPACE STATION COMES TO TEXAS CLASSROOM VIA HAM
> RADIO
> 
> The teenaged daughter of International Space Station
> crew member Dan
> Bursch, KD5PNU, was among several juniors and
> seniors at Pflugerville High
> School in Texas who got to speak to the astronaut
> April 5 via Amateur
> Radio. The contact was arranged via the Amateur
> Radio on the International
> Space Station--or ARISS--program. Emily Bursch
> declined, however, to
> submit a question to her dad, in deference to her
> fellow students.
> 
> After he'd answered a few of the students'
> questions, Bursch took a moment
> to acknowledge his daughter's presence. "Hello,
> Emily! I miss you," he
> said. "Hi, Daddy," Emily Bursch replied--at that
> point, in the background.
> While her father replied to several more questions,
> a teacher escorted
> Emily to the speakerphone the class was using.
> 
> "Hi, this is Emily. Over!" she said to her father,
> at the time some 200
> miles above Earth over Australia. Bursh replied
> excitedly, "I love you,
> too, and I miss you."
> 
> "I love you too," Emily responded. The students'
> questions then resumed.
> At the tail end of the contact, she attempted to
> speak with her dad again,
> but the spacecraft already had gone out of range by
> then. During an
> earlier ARISS contact with St Thomas the Apostle
> Episcopal School in
> Nassau Bay, Texas, last month, Bursch got to chat
> briefly with his two
> younger children--daughter Robyn, and son Jackson,
> both of whom also asked
> questions.
> 
> "Emily admitted that she is able to talk to her
> father often through NASA
> provided 'phone calls' and e-mail, but it was fun to
> watch her friends as
> they experienced space communications for the first
> time," said Roy
> Walker, WA5YZD, who was on hand for the contact.
> 
> More than 100 other Pflugerville High School
> students listened in as their
> classmates asked about life aboard the station and
> safety concerns
> relating to space travel--14 questions in all. Most
> of the students were
> enrolled in physics and science classes at the Texas
> high school. Bursch
> told student An Tong that his most favorite thing to
> do during his free
> time is look out the window and view Earth as it
> passes by.
> 
> Several students asked about physical fitness and
> staying in shape while
> enduring long periods in microgravity. Others wanted
> to know what kind of
> education, training and experience it takes to
> become an astronaut. As for
> space tourists, Bursch said, he didn't have anything
> against the idea. He
> noted that South African Mark Shuttleworth is
> scheduled to visit the ISS
> soon.
> 
> Providing Earth station facilities for the event was
> Tony Hutchison,
> VK5ZAI, in Australia--an ARISS veteran. Science
> Department Supervising
> Principal Larry Bradley expressed appreciation to
> all who made the
> experience possible for his students.
> 
> Listening in on the conference connection during the
> contact were members
> of the ARISS international team, which was meeting
> in Montreal, Canada.
> "We broke out in grins and with sighs of relief at
> the start of the QSO
> and in simultaneous applause at the end," said
> ARRL's Rosalie White,
> K1STO, a member of the ARISS committee.
> 
> ARISS is an international project with U.S.
> participation by the ARRL,
> AMSAT and NASA. More information is available on the
> ARISS Web site
> <http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov>.--Roy Walker, WA5YZD,
> and Gene Chapline,
> K5YFL, provided information for this report
> 
> ==>ARRL TO OFFER HF DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS COURSE
> 
> The ARRL Certification and Continuing Education
> (C-CE) Program soon will
> introduce its newest on-line course--HF Digital
> Communications (EC-005).
> Registration for the new course opens Monday, April
> 15. It marks the fifth
> course in the growing list of continuing education
> offerings from ARRL.
> 
> "Students will understand the scope of HF digital
> Amateur Radio
> communications as they exist today," said ARRL C-CE
> Program Coordinator
> Dan Miller, K3UFG. "This course will develop your
> awareness and skills for
> the HF digital modes and assist you to use and
> benefit from them."
> 
> Students taking the course will become familiar with
> the scope of HF
> digital Amateur Radio communication modes available
> and learn how to use
> all of them. The curriculum was developed by QST
> Editor and digital
> enthusiast Steve Ford, WB8IMY, the author of ARRL's
> HF Digital Handbook.
> 
> "Having a resident expert like Steve Ford is a
> definite plus!" Miller
> said. The course covers many of the topics contained
> in Ford's book as
> well as some new ones. Early in the ARRL HF Digital
> Communications Course,
> students will learn how to configure a station for
> HF digital work, then
> learn about such topics as chasing digital DX and HF
> digital contesting.
> Students will become acquainted with RTTY, PSK31,
> MFSK, Hellschreiber,
> PACTOR, PACTOR II, WinLink 2000, Clover and HF
> packet, and they will need
> no prior experience with any of them.
> 
> Tuition for HF Digital Communications (EC-005) is
> $60 for ARRL members and
> $90 for nonmembers. Registration for the HF Digital
> Communications course
> opens Monday, April 15, at 4 PM Eastern Daylight
> Time, and there's a
> 50-seat class limit this month. Registration will
> remain open through the
> following weekend or until all seats are
> filled--whichever comes first.
> Students will have up to eight weeks to complete the
> course of study.
> 
> More course information is available at the C-CE
> Course Listing Page
> <http://www.arrl.org/cce/courses.html>. The ARRL
> Certification and
> Continuing Education offered its first on-line
> class--in Amateur Radio
> Emergency Communications--in December 2000. Since
> then, the highly
> successful emergency communications series has
> expanded to three levels
> and benefited hundreds of amateurs. Last December,
> the program added its
> first technical offering, a class in Antenna
> Modeling (EC-004) that also
> has proven very popular.
> 
> Additional details about the ARRL Certification and
> Continuing Education
> Program are on the ARRL Certification and Continuing
> Education Web page
> <http://www.arrl.org/cce/>. To learn more, contact
> C-CE Program
> Coordinator Dan Miller, K3UFG, cce@arrl.org.
> 
> ==>AMATEUR RADIO HITS THE BIG SCREEN (AGAIN) IN NEW
> IMAX FILM
> 
> Amateur Radio again is getting a role on the silver
> screen, this time in
> the new IMAX film called Space Station. The film
> includes a segment
> depicting the Amateur Radio on the International
> Space Station (ARISS)
> program in action. ARISS team members will be on
> hand to demonstrate ham
> radio to the press and invited moviegoers when the
> film has its first
> screening Tuesday, April 16, at the National Air and
> Space Museum in
> Washington, DC.
> 
> Several ham-astronauts also are expected to be in
> attendance. The movie
> opens to the general public Friday, April 19. US
> International Space
> Station crews have included at least one Amateur
> Radio operator. The
> current Expedition 4 crew--Commander Yury
> Onufrienko, RK3DUO, and
> astronauts Dan Bursch, KD5PNU, and Carl Walz,
> KC5TIE, is the first to have
> all three members licensed.
> 
> The IMAX earthbound segments were filmed last August
> at Seabrook
> Intermediate School in Texas. Students there enjoyed
> an ARISS contact on
> September 4. The ISS segments was shot in January
> 2001 with Expedition 1
> Commander Bill Shepherd, KD5GSL. The two segments
> were pieced together
> during editing.
> 
> 
> An international educational program, ARISS brings
> students from the US
> and throughout the world together with ISS
> astronauts via ham radio, which
> was one of the first payloads accepted aboard the
> ISS by NASA. ARISS is
> sponsored by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.
> 
> Coinciding with the IMAX film debut on April 16,
> second through
> sixth-grade students at The Quogue School in Quogue,
> New York, will get
> their turn behind the microphone to talk with either
> Bursch or Walz.
> 
> In 2000, Amateur Radio had a featured role in the
> science fiction thriller
> Frequency.--Jennifer Hagy, N1TDY
> 
> ==>AMATEUR RADIO REPRESENTED AT INTERNATIONAL
> CONFERENCE
> 
> Amateur Radio was well-represented during the recent
> 2002 World
> Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-02)
> in Istanbul, Turkey.
> WTDC-02 was sponsored by the International
> Telecommunication Union. The
> International Amateur Radio Union delegation
> included IARU President Larry
> Price, W4RA; IARU Region 1 Vice Chairman Tafa Diop,
> 6W1KI; and IARU Region
> 1 Working Group on Promotion of Amateur Radio
> Chairman Hans Welens, ON6WQ.
> ARRL Technical Relations Specialist Jon Siverling,
> WB3ERA, was a member of
> the US delegation to the conference, which wrapped
> up March 27.
> 
> Chairing WTDC-02 was Turkish Telecommunications
> Authority Chairman and
> President Fatih Mehmet Yurdal, TA2MY. Amateurs from
> various parts of the
> world in other delegations represented the interests
> of their employers.
> 
> WTDC-02 was the culmination of several years of work
> by the IARU. The
> conference recognized the Amateur Service's
> involvement in disaster
> communications, the ITU Development Sector Handbook
> on Disaster
> Communications--in which IARU and ARRL played an
> important role--and an
> ITU-D Recommendation on effective use of the Amateur
> Services in disaster
> communications. The conference included a report on
> the state of world
> telecommunication development. It also considered
> proposals for reform of
> the Telecommunication Development Sector and
> reviewed the ITU-D strategic
> plan.
> 
> The conference provided a backdrop for the signing
> of a memorandum of
> understanding between CITEL (Inter-American
> Telecommunication Commission)
> and CEPT (European Conference of Postal and
> Telecommunications
> Administrations), which could lead to mutual
> recognition--or possibly a
> combining--of CEPT Recommendation T/R 61-01 and the
> CITEL International
> Amateur Radio Permit (IARP). Such an arrangement
> would facilitate
> operation by European amateurs throughout the
> Americas and by operators in
> Organization of the American States (OAS) countries
> in Europe.
> 
> The conference provided an opportunity for IARU to
> renew its contacts with
> the African Telecommunication Union (ATU). Agreement
> was reached for IARU
> and ATU to sponsor training of regulators of the
> Amateur Services in the
> near future.
> 
> Attending WTDC-02 were more than 1000 delegates from
> around the world,
> including representatives of the FCC and other
> regulatory agencies. ITU
> Secretary-General Yoshio Utsumi told the
> conference's opening session that
> the telecommunications sector must take urgent steps
> to bring basic
> telecommunications to all the world's inhabitants.
> "We must take a fresh
> look at our policies and modify them to fast-track
> our objectives," he
> said.
> 
> The Turkish Amateur Radio Club--Telsiz Radyo
> Amatorleri Cemiyeti--or
> TRAC--marked WTDC-02 with an Amateur Radio special
> event station,
> TA2KA/ITU, at the conference site.--Paul Rinaldo,
> W4RI
> 
> ==>DRAFT ELEMENT 2 SYLLABUS RELEASED FOR COMMENT
> 
> The Question Pool Committee of the National
> Conference of Volunteer
> Examiner Coordinators has released a draft syllabus
> for the Element 2
> (Technician) Amateur Radio examinations. The QPC is
> inviting comments on
> the document.
> 
> The syllabus is an outline of 10 question topic
> areas--called
> "subelements"--from which actual examination
> questions will be developed.
> For Element 2, these include FCC rules, methods of
> communication, radio
> phenomena, station licensee duties, control operator
> duties, good
> operating practices, basic communications
> electronics, good engineering
> practice, special operations, and electrical,
> antenna structure and RF
> safety practices. Subelement T0, Electrical, Antenna
> Structure and RF
> Safety Practices, has been expanded to include all
> safety
> issues--electrical, antenna/tower and RF.
> 
> A question pool based on the revised syllabus will
> be released later this
> year to take effect July 1, 2003. The QPC will
> invite public input on the
> Technician questions as well.
> 
> A new Amateur Extra class question pool released
> last November takes
> effect in the exam room on July 1 of this year.
> 
> QPC chairman Scotty Neustadter, W4WW, requested
> comments to the committee
> by May 9. The draft Technician (Element 2) syllabus
> <http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/tech-syllabus.html> is
> available on the ARRL
> Web site, which also includes all current question
> pools
> <http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/pools.html>. The
> amateur community may e-mail
> comments to the Question Pool Committee at
> qpc@arrl.org.
> 
> Commenters also may e-mail individual members
> directly: Scotty Neustadter,
> W4WW, w4ww@arrl.net; Bart Jahnke, W9JJ,
> w9jj@arrl.org; Fred Maia, W5YI,
> fmaia@texas.net and John Johnston, W3BE,
> johnston.john1@worldnet.att.net.
> 
> ==>SOLAR UPDATE
> 
> Peerless propagation pro Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle,
> Washington, reports:
> Sunspot numbers and solar flux rose again this week.
> Average daily sunspot
> numbers for April 4-10 were up nearly 40 points, and
> average daily solar
> flux rose by more than 11 points, when compared with
> the seven-day period
> that ended April 3.
> 
> Solar flux is expected to decline over the short
> term--to below 190 after
> this weekend, and below 180 after next Wednesday.
> There is a chance of
> geomagnetic unrest this weekend due to a solar flare
> and coronal mass
> ejection on April 10 at 1230 UTC. This wasn't aimed
> exactly at Earth, so
> the effects are a little hard to predict, but
> Thursday morning's forecast
> from the US Air Force has the planetary A index at
> 12 on Friday, 15 on
> Saturday and 20 on Sunday.
> 
> Sunspot numbers for April 4 through 10 were 176,
> 200, 234, 227, 245, 212
> and 220, with a mean of 216.3. The 10.7-cm flux was
> 216.2, 217.4, 206.3,
> 207.9, 206.2, 205 and 194.3, with a mean of 207.6.
> Estimated planetary A
> indices were 8, 6, 5, 7, 5, 6 and 7 with a mean of
> 6.3.
> 
> __________________________________
> 
> ==>IN BRIEF:
> 
> * This weekend on the radio: The JIDX HF CW Contest,
> the QRP ARCI Spring
> QSO Party, the EU Spring Sprint (SSB), His Majesty
> the King of Spain
> Contest, the Yuri Gagarin International DX Contest
> and the UBA Spring
> Contest (SSB) are the weekend of April 13-14. JUST
> AHEAD: YLRL DX to NA YL
> Contest (SSB), the 432 MHz Spring Sprint, the
> Holyland DX Contest, the
> TARA Spring Wakeup PSK31 Rumble, the ES Open HF
> Championship, the YU DX
> Contest, the GACW CW DX Contest, the EU Spring
> Sprint (CW), and the
> Michigan and Ontario QSO parties are the weekend of
> April 20-21. The Harry
> Angel Memorial Sprint is Apr 25 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 for the new HF Digital Communications
> (EC-005) and for the
> Level III Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
> (EC-003) courses opens
> Monday, April 15, at 4 PM Eastern Time. Registration
> for the Level II ARRL
> Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course
> (EC-002) and for the Antenna
> Modeling Course (EC-004) will remain open through
> Sunday, April 14, or
> until all available seats are filled. Registration
> for the Level I Amateur
> Radio Emergency Communications Course (EC-001) opens
> Monday, May 6, at 4
> PM. Emergency Communications courses must be
> completed in order, starting
> with Level I. To learn more, visit the ARRL
> Certification and Continuing
> Education Web page <http://www.arrl.org/cce> and
> C-CE Links found there.
> For more information, contact Certification and
> Continuing Education
> Coordinator Dan Miller, K3UFG, cce@arrl.org. [C-CE
> graphic]
> 
> * Club provides reimbursements for ARRL emergency
> communications course:
> The Northern Lakes Amateur Radio Club of Itasca
> County, Minnesota, has
> approved reimbursements of $40 apiece to the first
> 20 members who complete
> the ARRL's Level I Emergency Communications course.
> "I recently completed
> Level I and recognize the obvious benefit this
> course would have in
> getting our club members on the same track toward
> being good
> communicators," said club president Bruce Aiton,
> K0NII, who made the
> reimbursement recommendation to the club. "I'm
> pleased to say the plan was
> met with enthusiasm and received unanimous
> approval." To learn more, visit
> the ARRL Certification and Continuing Education Web
> page
> <http://www.arrl.org/cce> and the C-CE Links found
> there. For more
> information, contact Certification and Continuing
> Education Program
> Coordinator Dan Miller, K3UFG, cce@arrl.org.
> 
> * Cost of QSLing to rise again: The United States
> Postal Service has
> announced that new postal rates will go into effect
> June 30. The
> single-piece, one-ounce first-class mail rate will
> increase three
> cents--from $0.34 to $0.37. The additional ounce
> rate for single-piece
> first-class mail will remain at $0.23. The
> single-piece card rate (eg, QSL
> cards) will increase by two cents--from $0.21 to
> $0.23. For details, visit
> the USPS Web site <http://www.usps.gov/ratecase/>.
> 
> * Dayton Hamvention announces 2002 banquet speakers:
> Dayton Hamvention has
> announced that the Bill Cross, W3TN, of the FCC and
> Paul Reid, N4EKW, of
> the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will
> share the podium as
> speakers at the Hamvention grand banquet, Saturday,
> May 18. Cross is a
> senior program analyst in the Public Safety and
> Private Wireless Division
> and is the FCC's point person for Amateur Radio
> regulatory issues. He'll
> also appear at the Hamvention FCC Forum. Reid is
> responsible for managing
> FEMA's worldwide HF radio system--FEMA National
> Radio System (FNARS). He
> is also a senior communications advisor to the
> President's Office of
> Science and Technology Policy. Returning as master
> of ceremonies for the
> 2002 Hamvention banquet is Carl Nichols, N8WFQ, a
> Dayton TV meteorologist.
> For more information, visit the Dayton Hamvention
> Web site
> <http://www.hamvention.org>.
> 
> * Pacific Seafarer's Net handles emergency call:
> Clark Lowry, N7AAC, in
> Arizona reports that the Pacific Seafarer's Net
> <http://www.tidepool.com/~psn/> handled an emergency
> call that came in
> April 9 during the net's roll call on 20 meters.
> Roll call was moved to
> another frequency, and Lowry (as net control), Jim
> Donaldson, VE7ZVT, and
> Fred Moore, W3ZU, remained on the net's 14.313 MHz
> frequency to handle the
> call with help from Jeff Nelson, N6NXL; Martin
> Stitt, KD6RGV/XE2 and Peter
> Bowman, VE7YAP/XE2. Lowry said the initial call,
> without a call sign,
> indicated that the vessel Sunrise had struck a log
> off the Baja Peninsula
> and was sinking. "The caller indicated that he was
> busy transferring the
> crew and passengers to another vessel and could not
> give us a better
> position report," he said. A subsequent transmission
> indicated that
> everyone had been transferred safely. Lowry called
> the US Coast Guard,
> which, in turn, contacted Mexican naval authorities.
> He later ascertained
> from a YOTREPS
> <http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/index.asp> report
> that
> all four passengers had been rescued by the vessel
> Fisher II.
> 
> * PCsat back in the black: Bob Bruninga, WB4APR,
> reports that over the
> April 6-7 weekend, PCsat (NO-44) made it back into a
> positive power budget
> and achieved a full charge on its batteries. This
> allows the spacecraft to
> remember its commands for more than the one hour
> sunshine of each orbit,
> he said. Bruninga also expressed thanks to the
> various command stations
> around the world that attempted commands on more
> than 400 orbits since the
> problem began March 10. PCsat had been resetting and
> running the batteries
> dead on every eclipse. In addition, the satellite
> has one faulty solar
> panel. "We have enabled the digipeater again for
> limited operations
> probably through 10 May," Bruninga said. Because
> PCsat's batteries were
> severely weakened, Bruninga has requested that
> operations be limited to
> daylight only and that operators cease when
> telemetry packets display
> "11111111." Bruninga advised users to be
> conservative, and minimize the
> number of packets they digipeat. He also requested
> no routine automatic
> unattended operations. For more information, visit
> the PCsat Web site
> <http://www.ew.usna.edu/~bruninga/pcsat.html>.
> 
>
===========================================================
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> 860-594-0259;
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