[TCARC-NTX] ARRL Letter

[David Johnson KB5YLG]

***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 24, No. 42
October 28, 2005
***************

IN THIS EDITION:

* +Hurricane Wilma Amateur Radio support continues
* +"Ham Aid" extended to cover Hurricane Rita, Wilma
volunteers
* +ISS Expedition 12 commander completes first school
group contact
* +Comments on Morse proposal fast and furious as
filing deadline nears
* +Vanity processing suspension could run through late
December
* +ARRL 2005 Holiday Toy Drive ramping up
*  Solar Update
*  IN BRIEF:
     This weekend on the radio
     ARRL Certification and Continuing Education
course registration
     ARRL invites Amateur Radio disaster volunteers to
log their 
service
    +Amateur Radio volunteers fill communication gap
when telephones 
fail
    +SSETI Express satellite goes silent
    +Yardley Beers, W0JF, SK
     K5ZD to provide chance to eavesdrop firsthand on
contest operation
     AMSAT-NA announces Executive Team
     RAC president, board pledge greater support to
ARES/NTS
     Portions of Handbook on Emergency
Telecommunications now available

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

===========================================================
==>Delivery problems (ARRL member direct delivery
only!):
letter-dlvy at arrl.org
==>Editorial questions or comments: Rick Lindquist,
N1RL, n1rl at arrl.org
===========================================================

==>FLORIDA AMATEUR RADIO VOLUNTEERS ANSWER THE CALL

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio
Amateur Civil 
Emergency
Service (RACES) volunteers from all three Florida ARRL
sections 
answered the
call this week to provide communication support in the
wake of 
Hurricane
Wilma. Millions of residents in South Florida remained
without power at
week's end, and relief agencies were continuing
efforts to meet basic 
needs
of affected residents. Ham radio volunteers turned out
in force to 
assist
them, although the need for additional Amateur Radio
support 
waned--perhaps
only momentarily--toward week's end.

"Things seem to be winding down," ARRL Southern
Florida Section 
Emergency
Communications Coordinator Jeff Beals, WA4AW, said
October 28. "We've 
put a
temporary hold on new operators to assist the affected
counties in the
Southern Florida Section." As of week's end, Beals
said, some 60 
Amateur
Radio volunteers from Florida plus a few from outside
the state were
deployed in hurricane-affected counties.

Beals has been coordinating the deployment of Amateur
Radio volunteers 
in
his section with assistance from ARRL West Central
Florida SEC Neil
Lauritsen, W4NHL, and ARRL Northern Florida SEC Joe
Bushel, W2DWR. 
Since
Wilma raked the Florida peninsula, Amateur Radio
volunteers have been
providing vital tactical communications for the Red
Cross and its 
shelters,
special care facilities, county emergency operations
centers (EOCs), 
state
logistical staging areas (LSAs), and points of
distribution (PODs) for 
food,
ice and water, Beals said

At week's end Beals was visiting EOCs in Broward and
Palm Beach 
counties to
determine their present and future needs for Amateur
Radio 
communication
support. He said things could pick up again next week.
"I believe the
situation is as good as it can be at the moment,"
Beals explained 
October
28, "but we believe there may be additional needs next
week and the 
week
after, as well as to replace people who have been
working long hours at
their posts."

Earlier in the week in Palm Beach County, ARRL
Emergency Coordinator 
Dave
Messinger, N4QPM, reported Amateur Radio volunteers
were staffing three 
Red
Cross shelters, a special care unit, the Red Cross
Chapter house, the 
LSA at
the county fairgrounds and the county EOC. Staging
areas for volunteers 
in
Southern Florida are in the Palm Beach and W Palm
Beach and Broward 
County
EOCs.

Beals said the Amateur Radio link between the Broward
EOC and the Palm 
Beach
Fairgrounds distribution point has proven invaluable
as a primary
communication channel because of problems with
satellite telephones.

The Wellington RACES team spearheaded by RACES Radio
Officer Larry 
Lazar,
KS4NB, was handling local health-and-welfare traffic.
The Salvation 
Army
Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) on 14.265 MHz
also was taking
Hurricane Wilma health-and-welfare traffic. HF traffic
nets have been
running smoothly throughout the activation.

Northern Florida State Government Liaison Ted Zateslo,
W1XO, reported
generators in high demand this week as widespread
power outages 
hampered
relief efforts. Southern Florida SM Sherri Brower,
W4STB, still without
electricity, was told it could be up to two weeks
before power is 
restored
in her area, Zateslo said. Brower does have telephone
service, however.

Beals said that he and Brower "wish to express our
appreciation to all 
the
amateurs who have answered the call for assistance to
our section."

==>"HAM AID" ELIGIBILITY EXPANDED TO RITA, WILMA
VOLUNTEERS

Thanks to the Corporation for National and Community
Service (CNCS), 
the
ARRL's "Ham Aid" program has been expanded. In
addition to Hurricane 
Katrina
Amateur Radio volunteers, Ham Aid now will cover those
who are serving 
or
have served in the wake of hurricanes Rita and Wilma.
CNCS provided 
ARRL
with $170,000 in grant extensions to support Ham Aid.
The fund offers
limited reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses to
ham radio 
volunteers who
are providing or have provided emergency communication
support in
communities devastated by hurricanes Katrina, Rita and
Wilma.

"To date, there is adequate funding to support the
hundreds of hams who
traveled to the Southeast since late August," said
ARRL Chief 
Development
Officer Mary Hobart, K1MMH. She points out that the
same reimbursement
procedures already in place for Hurricane Katrina
Amateur Radio 
volunteers
will apply to hurricane Rita and Wilma volunteers
<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/forms/cncs/>.

In an effort to distribute funding to as many ham
radio volunteers as
possible, Hobart says expense reimbursements at
present are limited to 
$25
per day for a maximum of four days, or a total
reimbursement per radio
amateur of $100. Amateur Radio volunteers are eligible
for one expense
reimbursement per hurricane event. For now, the
program only covers 
per-diem
reimbursements between September 1 and December 31,
2005. The period 
may be
extended, however, based on availability of funds.

Hobart says she wants to allay fears of Amateur Radio
volunteers who 
believe
accepting the money is contrary to FCC Part 97 rules.
§97.113 prohibits
"Communications for hire or for material compensation,
direct or 
indirect,
paid or promised, except as otherwise provided in
these rules." Hobart 
says
Ham Aid reimbursements are not for providing
"communications" but to 
help
with such costs as travel, meals, lodging and other
necessities.

"These out-of-pocket expenses can be a hardship for
some Amateur Radio
volunteers," Hobart said, noting that some hurricane
volunteers have 
come
from the ranks of the unemployed or seniors on fixed
incomes. "If we 
can
help one ham to serve where badly needed, that's what
this grant is 
intended
to do." She encouraged all who served in the field in
the aftermath of
Katrina, Rita or Wilma to put in for the reimbursement
nonetheless--if 
for
no other reason than to honor those who have
volunteered before them
throughout ham radio's history.

"These volunteers should consider applying anyway and
then donate the
reimbursement to their club or to another emergency 
communication-related
project," she said. "I'd like to see this money
support ARES and our
emergency response capabilities in the field." Hobart
says the CNCS 
grant is
a tangible expression of the value that the federal
government puts on
Amateur Radio as an emergency communication asset.

"I hope people take advantage of the helping hand CNCS
has extended," 
Hobart
says. "Let's put this funding to work as CNCS
intended."

Hobart says the League will accept reimbursement
request applications 
on a
first-come, first served basis for as long as funds
are available.
Reimbursement checks will be mailed to the address the
radio amateur
provides on the form.

The CNCS grant is an extension of the ARRL's
three-year Homeland 
Security
training grant, which has provided certification in
emergency 
communication
protocols to nearly 5500 Amateur Radio volunteers over
the past three 
years.
This grant extension does not cover additional ARRL
Amateur Radio 
Emergency
Communications training program reimbursements,
however.

Cash donations from individuals are also being
accepted by the ARRL to
support hams in the field assisting with hurricane
relief and recovery
efforts. To make a donation go to the ARRL general
donation form and 
select
"Ham Aid" (this is a secure site)
<https://www.arrl.org/forms/development/donations/basic/>.

==>NEW ISS COMMANDER DELIGHTS JAPANESE YOUNGSTERS VIA
HAM RADIO

Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, the new commander of the
International Space 
Station,
delighted youngsters at Tomioka Elementary School in
Urayasu City, 
Japan,
October 24 by answering 14 of their questions via ham
radio. The direct 
VHF
contact between 8J1UTE at the school and NA1SS in
space was arranged 
via the
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station
(ARISS) program. 
Answering
one interesting question, McArthur told the youngsters
that mold, while 
rare
on the ISS, comes in for some scrutiny when it does
show up.

"If we do find mold, then we take pictures of it to
send to the 
ground,"
McArthur said. "We send samples to the ground for
analysis, and then we
clean it off." He said the crew tries to keep
everything extremely 
clean,
wipes surfaces with a disinfectant cloth at least once
a week, and is 
very
careful to clean up any moisture that forms on panels
or surfaces.

Responding to a question about the first thing he
wants to do when he 
gets
back to Earth next spring, McArthur said he wants to
"smell nature."

"Our atmosphere here is very clean, but it doesn't
have the things that
smell . . . that you really enjoy, such as trees,
flowers, grass and 
those
things," McArthur replied. "And then I'm very excited
to see my family
again."

The Tomioka Elementary School QSO was the first ARISS
school group 
contact
of McArthur's six-month duty tour, which began early
this month. 
McArthur
said he's found it "very, very comfortable" to be
weightless aboard the 
ISS.
Once he got used to it, he said, it was a "very
pleasant place to be."
McArthur's also said that he and his crewmate, Russian
cosmonaut and 
flight
engineer Valery Tokarev, enjoy looking at Earth from
the ISS in their 
spare
time.

An audience of some 650 parents, faculty members and
other visitors was 
on
hand for the contact, along with reporters from two TV
stations and 10
newspapers. Control operator for the ARISS event was
Noriyasu Itho, 
JE1OWA,
and Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ/AD6GZ, served as the mentor
for the ARISS
contact.

ARISS <http://www.rac.ca/ariss> is an international
educational 
outreach
with US participation by ARRL, AMSAT and NASA.

==>COMMENT POSTINGS RAMP UP AS FILING DEADLINE NEARS

With three days to go, nearly 3200 comments had been
filed--more than 
500 of
them in the past week--in response to the FCC "Morse
code" Notice of
Proposed Rule Making and Order (NPRM&O) in WT Docket
05-235. The NPRM&O
proposes to do away with the 5 WPM Morse code
requirement for all 
license
classes. The July NPRM&O also denied several proposals
to create a new
entry-level license class.

The closing date for comments is Monday, October 31.
Reply 
comments--ie,
comments on comments filed by October 31--are due
Monday, November 14.

To file on-line comments on the FCC NPRM&O in WT
Docket 05-235 or to 
view
others' comments in the proceeding, visit the FCC
Electronic Comment 
Filing
System (ECFS) <http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/>. After
clicking on "Submit 
a
Filing" or "Search for Filed Comments," enter "05-235"
(without the
quotation marks but including the hyphen) in the
"Proceeding" field. 
The FCC
will accept brief comments in a comment window or more
lengthy filings 
as
attachments.

Alternative filing formats are available for people
with disabilities.
Contact the FCC to request reasonable accommodations
(accessible format
documents, sign language interpreters, CART, etc) by
e-mail 
<FCC504 at fcc.gov>
or telephone 202-418–0530 or TTY 202-418–0432.

For additional information, contact William T. Cross,
Public Safety and
Critical Infrastructure Division, Wireless
Telecommunications Bureau,
<William.Cross at fcc.gov>; 202-418–0680; TTY
202-418–7233.

An FCC Report and Order ending this proceeding and
announcing the 
effective
date of any rule changes is not likely until sometime
in 2006.

==>VANITY PROCESSING COULD BE ON HIATUS UNTIL LATE
DECEMBER

Thanks to Hurricane Wilma, the FCC likely will not be
processing any 
vanity
call sign applications until late December. The
Wireless 
Telecommunications
Bureau (WTB) halted vanity processing on or about
September 23 after
realizing that filing and regulatory deadline
extensions for licensees 
in
certain states affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita
could affect the
vanity program. This week, the FCC announced an
additional 
extension--until
December 22--for licensees adversely affected by
Hurricane Wilma. 
Because
all three extensions apply to Amateur Radio's two-year
"grace period," 
they
could have an impact on vanity call sign processing. A
WTB spokesperson 
said
that the Wilma deadline extension probably would have
the same effect 
on
vanity processing as the previous two.

"It looks like it's going to be the same thing carried
forward," Tracy
Simmons told ARRL. He said amateur licensees can
continue to file 
vanity
call sign applications, but these will not be acted
upon until the WTB
resumes vanity processing. Then, all pending vanity
call sign 
applications
will be processed in the order they were received.
Simmons indicated 
that
the WTB would revise its Universal Licensing System
(ULS) Web page 
"alert"
telling applicants that vanity processing has been
suspended "until 
further
notice" to reflect the latest deadline extension.

In a public notice issued October 25, the WTB made
clear that the 
Hurricane
Wilma deadline extension only applies to "affected
licensees and 
applicants
in Florida and the Gulf of Mexico." For Part 97
licensees, the 
extension
applies primarily to license modification and renewal
application 
deadlines.
According to this week's public notice, the WTB will
require affected
applicants to attach a "Hurricane Relief
Certification" with any 
filings
taking advantage of the extended deadlines.

"WTB will rely on certifications by licensees and
applicants at the 
time
they submit their filings as proof that relief is due
and the filings 
are
timely," the FCC said.

The FCC halted vanity processing to avoid such
potential problems as
re-issuing the call sign of an affected individual in
one of the 
designated
states whose license has expired but remains within
the two-year grace
period for renewal.

Under Part 97, Amateur Radio licensees have two years
from the date of
license expiration to renew their tickets without
having to retest or 
risk
losing their call signs to a vanity applicant. WTB has
temporarily 
disabled
the "auto-termination" feature of the ULS so that it
will not 
automatically
cancel any licenses not renewed by the end of the
grace period.

On September 1, the FCC extended until October 31 all
filing and 
regulatory
deadlines falling between August 29 and October 30 for
licensees in
Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana affected by
Hurricane Katrina. On
September 24, it extended until November 21 all filing
and regulatory
deadlines falling between September 20 and November 20
for licensees in
Louisiana and Texas affected by Hurricane Rita.

The FCC has not announced when vanity processing will
resume, but at 
this
point it appears unlikely that the date will be any
sooner than 
December 23.
It typically takes approximately three weeks for the
FCC to process a 
vanity
call sign application. In August, the FCC raised the
vanity application 
fee
to $21.90.

The October 25 public notice is available on the FCC's
Web site
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-05-2778A1.pdf>.

==>ARRL 2005 HOLIDAY TOY DRIVE KICKING INTO GEAR

Toys already have begun showing up in Memphis,
Tennessee, in response 
to the
ARRL 2005 Holiday Toy Drive appeal. The League has
partnered with The
Salvation Army for this year's effort to brighten the
holiday season 
for
children in the coastal areas of Alabama, Mississippi
and Louisiana 
left
homeless or displaced in the aftermath of hurricanes
Katrina and Rita.

"As The Salvation Army continues to provide assistance
to the victims 
of the
largest natural disaster in modern US history, we are
excited to 
partner
with the ARRL in providing toys for children affected
by hurricanes 
Katrina
and Rita this holiday season," said Mark Jones, The
Salvation Army's 
public
relations director.

Because it still has the facilities to manage a large
toy drive, The
Salvation Army will handle the distribution end of the
program. Its 
facility
in Jackson, Mississippi, will coordinate distribution
throughout the 
Gulf
Coast region.

Country music artist Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ, is the
Holiday Toy Drive's
national chairperson.

The collection point for the toys is in Memphis,
Tennessee, where the 
League
has secured a warehouse facility. Between now and
December 10, the ARRL 
is
encouraging ham radio operators throughout the US to
purchase new, 
unwrapped
toys for children ages 1 through 4 and send them with
a QSL card to 
ARRL Toy
Drive/The Salvation Army, 1775 Moriah Woods
Blvd--Suite 12, Memphis, TN
38117-7125.

Volunteers in Memphis will sort and stock the toys,
and in early 
December,
the toys will be transported to The Salvation Army
facilities in 
hurricane
areas that need help the most at that time.

Amateur Radio volunteers turned out in force to
support communication 
for
relief and recovery operations in the Gulf Coast. ARRL
Media and Public
Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, says the Amateur
Radio community 
is
once again in a position to make a difference.

"Thousands of families are without a place to live and
will be homeless 
over
the coming holiday season," he said. "For a child
living out of a tent 
or
car, FEMA trailer or someone else's home, the 2005
holiday season will 
be
anything but jolly. But hams from all across the
country are coming to 
their
rescue again through the ARRL Holiday Toy Drive."

Cash donations from ARRL members also are welcome.
League members may 
send
checks to ARRL Holiday Toy Drive, 225 Main St,
Newington, CT 06111.

"Knowing that someone 'out there' remembers you is a
start for these
children," Pitts said.

More information about the ARRL 2005 Holiday Toy Drive
is available on 
the
League's Web site <http://www.arrl.org/pio/>.

==>SOLAR UPDATE

Solar Seer Tad "Sunshine Superman" Cook, K7RA,
Seattle, Washington, 
reports:
NO SUNSPOTS! The average daily sunspot number from the
previous 
reporting
week to the current dropped six points to 7.7. There
were no visible
sunspots over the four days October 24-27. Do not
expect an improvement 
for
the CQ World Wide DX Contest (Phone) this weekend.
Thankfully 
geomagnetic
conditions are stable, and the longer nights as we
head toward winter
solstice are good for 160, 80 and 60-meter operation.

Solar flux should remain around 70 over the next few
days, rising to 80
around November 4. Predicted planetary A index for
October 28-31 is 15, 
12,
8, and 5. Geophysical Institute Prague predicts
unsettled conditions 
for
today, October 28, unsettled to active conditions for
Saturday October 
29,
and unsettled conditions for Sunday October 30.

Sunspot numbers for October 20 through 26 were 15, 15,
13, 11, 0, 0 and 
0,
with a mean of 7.7. The 10.7-cm flux was 76.7, 75.3,
74.7, 74.2, 73.4, 
73,
and 72, with a mean of 74.2. Estimated planetary A
indices were 3, 2, 
6, 2,
4, 19 and 8, with a mean of 6.3. Estimated
mid-latitude A indices were 
2, 1,
7, 2, 3, 17 and 8, with a mean of 5.7.

__________________________________

==>IN BRIEF:

* This weekend on the radio: The CQ Worldwide DX
Contest (SSB), the 
eXtreme
CW World-Wide Challenge, the 10-10 International Fall
Contest (CW) and 
the
F.I.S.T.S. Coast to Coast Contest are the weekend of
October 29-30. 
JUST
AHEAD: The ARRL November Sweepstakes (CW), the North
American 
Collegiate ARC
Championship (CW), the IPARC Contest (CW and Phone),
the Ukrainian DX
Contest, High Speed Club CW Contest and the DARC
10-Meter Digital 
Contest
are the weekend of November 5-6. 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 remains open through Sunday, November 6,
for these ARRL
Certification and Continuing Education (CCE) Program
on-line courses:
Emergency Communications Level 2 (EC-002), Emergency
Communications 
Level 3
(EC-003), Antenna Modeling (EC-004), VHF/UHF Beyond
the Repeater 
(EC-008),
and Propagation (EC-011), Digital Electronics
(EC-013). Classes begin
Friday, November 18. To learn more, visit the CCE
Course Listing page
<http://www.arrl.org/cce/courses.html> or Contact the
CCE Department
<cce at arrl.org>.

* ARRL invites Amateur Radio disaster volunteers to
log their service: 
The
ARRL is asking Amateur Radio volunteers who helped to
provide or 
support
communication during one of the recent hurricanes or
other incident. An
Amateur Radio Service Volunteer Form now is available
on the ARRL Web 
site
<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/agencies/vol-report.html>.
The League 
is
asking radio amateurs to complete the form each time
they complete 
volunteer
service. "Your commitment and dedication to using ham
radio in 
community
service sends a strong message that volunteer radio
operators are 
essential
to a successful response to any disaster," said ARRL
COO Harold Kramer,
WJ1B. "The details of your service strengthens Amateur
Radio and its 
voice
in official Washington, to the public and to the
press. When we can 
document
the thousands of hours you serve, we can use the
information to build a
strong case for radio spectrum protection at home and
abroad." The 
on-line
form includes a "Your Comments" box to ask questions
or to supply 
additional
information. The ARRL will use the information
provided for internal
purposes only and will not share any individual's
information with any 
other
organization.

* Amateur Radio volunteers fill communication gap when
telephones fail: 
When
a telephone outage occurred in Southern California
October 18, the Long
Beach Emergency Communications and Operations Center
(ECOC) declared a
"communication failure protocol," and ARES/RACES
members and other ham 
radio
volunteers stepped in to help. The outage disabled 911
service in
communities along the coast and through parts of Los
Angeles and Orange
counties. It also cut off at least 150,000 telephone
and Internet 
service
customers for up to 12 hours along with many cell
phone users. Radio
amateurs worked with police and fire officials to
support the 
departments
with auxiliary communications. Hams also were
stationed at 17 of the 
largest
nursing homes in town. The emergency net successfully
relayed traffic
through the ECOC to the hospitals, nursing homes and
ambulance 
services,
ensuring access to 911. When the City of Long Beach
built its new ECOC 
three
years ago Emergency Services Coordinator Casey Chel,
KD6DOV, had the
foresight to include a complete Amateur Radio facility
for those rare
occasions when all other communication systems might
fail. Those plans 
paid
off on October 18.--Associated Radio Amateurs of Long
Beach

* SSETI Express satellite goes silent: The Student
Space Exploration 
and
Technology Initiative (SSETI) Express satellite, sent
into orbit from 
Russia
October 27, was reported silent at week's end. "We
have not heard 
anything
from Express on UHF since last night [October 27] when
the telemetry 
seemed
to indicate a very negative power budget," Graham
Shirville, G3VZV, 
said on
the AMSAT BB as he was departing Russia following the
launch. "If it 
does
not recover then it will be a sad end to a wonderful
mission." 
Shirville
said ground controllers were going to attempt a blind
command of the
satellite over the weekend in an effort to revive the
satellite, which
carries an Amateur Radio package and three CubeSat
picosatellites. The
spacecraft had been transmitting AX.25 telemetry at
9k6 bps on 437.250 
MHz.
Plans call for the satellite will be turned into a
single-channel 
amateur FM
voice Mode U/S transponder after the transmitter
serves initial 
telemetry
duty. The AMSAT-UK <http://www.uk.amsat.org/> and
AMSAT-NA
<http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/sat_summary/SSETI.php>
Web 
sites
have additional information on this European Space
Agency-sponsored 
project,
in which SSETI Express was built by a distributed team
of university
students and radio amateurs throughout Europe.
Additional details are 
on the
SSETI Express Web site
<http://sseti.gte.tuwien.ac.at/express/mop/>.

* Yardley Beers, W0JF, SK: Yardley Beers, W0JF
(ex-W3AWH, W2AWH, 
W0EXS), of
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, died recently. He was
92. An ARRL Full 
Charter
Life member, Beers, was a contributing writer to QST
from the 1930s 
until
the late 1990s and was the author of the book, The
Theory of Error. He 
also
was an avid DXer and a member of the A-1 Operator
Club. Beers was among
those involved in the construction of the WWV time and

frequency-standard
station at Ft Collins, Colorado, where he oversaw
maintenance of the 
cesium
atomic clock. He detailed the experience in "WWV Moves
to Colorado," 
which
appeared in the January and February 1967 issues of
QST. More recently, 
his
wife, Dorothy, detailed her husband's life and ham
radio activities in 
the
"Old Radio" column in the November 2004 issue of
QST.--some information 
from
Jack Ciaccia, WM0G/Boulder Amateur Radio Club

* K5ZD to provide chance to eavesdrop firsthand on
contest operation: 
In
what appears to be a contesting first, streaming audio
<http://www.k5zd.com/live> from the Western
Massachusetts contest 
station of
Randy Thompson, K5ZD, will be available on the
Internet during the CQ 
World
Wide Phone Contest. Dave Pascoe, KM3T, a contest
veteran, will be at 
the
helm of K5ZD for a serious single-operator, all-band
effort. "This will 
be a
full blown SO2R [single-operator, two radio] effort,
and the stream 
will be
in stereo, so you hear exactly what he is hearing,"
Thompson said. He
advises listeners to look for audio streaming to start
a few hours 
before
the contest. E-mail comments to K5ZD
<k5zd at contesting.com>.

* AMSAT-NA announces Executive Team: AMSAT-NA has
announced that one 
key
action at the Board of Directors meeting October 7 was
the election of 
its
new Executive Team. Here are the results. AMSAT Board
of Directors: 
Rick
Hambly, W2GPS; Barry Baines, WD4ASW; Gunther Meisse,
W8GSM; Tom Clark,
W3IWI; Lou McFadin, W5DID; Paul Shuch, N6TX; Emily
Clarke, W0EEC; Bob
McGwier, N4HY (first alternate), and Lee McLamb, KU4OS
(second 
alternate).
AMSAT Officers: Rick Hambly, W2GPS, president; Lee
McLamb, KU4OS, 
executive
vice president; Mike Kingery, KE4AZN, vice president
operations; Frank
Bauer, KA3HDO, vice president of human spaceflight;
Bob McGwier, N4HY, 
vice
president engineering; Barry Baines, WD4ASW, vice
president Marketing 
and
user services; Steve Diggs, W4EPI, secretary; Gunther
Meisse, W8GSM,
treasurer, and Martha Saragovitz, manager. Stan Wood,
WA4NFY, has 
retired as
vice president of engineering, and AMSAT thanked him
for his years of
service in that capacity.

* RAC president, board pledge greater support to
ARES/NTS: Radio 
Amateurs of
Canada (RAC) President Earle Smith, VE6NM, and its
Board of Directors 
have
committed to increasing tangible support to RAC's
Field Organization,
including its Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)
and National 
Traffic
System (NTS). The move is part of an effort to heal
rifts that have
developed within RAC's Field Organization. "We are
listening and are 
ready
to take appropriate action to turn the situation
around," Smith told 
RAC
ARES volunteers during an address in Ontario. He said
the RAC wants to 
do
more to recognize ARES/NTS volunteers through
individual contact, 
public
forums, on the RAC Web site and in The Canadian
Amateur magazine. Smith 
also
said the importance of RAC's Field Organization needs
to be brought to 
the
forefront in discussions at all levels of government
to enhance the 
image of
Canada's Amateur Service. In turn, he called on
ARES/NTS field 
volunteers to
present a professional and unified front to gain the
public recognition 
they
deserve. "The Field Organization and ARES/NTS must be
taken seriously, 
must
be recognized as an integral operating arm of Radio
Amateurs of Canada, 
and
must be promoted as such," Smith concluded. The text
of his remarks is 
on
the RAC Web page
<http://www.rac.ca/downloads/RAC_ARES_StatementofPurpose_2005-10-24.pdf>

* Portions of Handbook on Emergency Telecommunications
now available: 
The
International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has made
significant 
portions of
the 2005 edition of its Handbook on Emergency
Telecommunications 
available
for free download in English, French or Spanish. The
ITU says the 
Handbook
is designed to serve as a close companion to those
involved in 
providing and
using telecommunications for disaster mitigation and
relief. Details 
are on
the ITU Web site
<http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/emergencytelecoms/publications.html>.

===========================================================
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--- automatic signature follows...

David Johnson
MCP,MCSE,MCSD,MCDBA,CWS
david at justcalldavid.com
kb5ylg at yahoo.com

---

Emergency and public service communications,
a hobby of myriad facets, an enhancement to any
other hobby:  The Amateur Radio Service.

Find out more at http://www.arrl.org


		
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