QRZ! Ham Radio 4/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 4.iso/files/arrl/hiram/ltr12n6.txt

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The ARRL Letter
Vol. 12, No. 6
March 24, 1993

W2HD is "Ham of the Year" Former ARRL president gets top
Hamvention award

     For the third time in the past four years an ARRL dignitary
has been named the Dayton Hamvention Ham of the Year. This year
the winner is Harry J. Dannals, W2HD, ARRL president from 1972 to
1982. Dannals was cited for his three decades of volunteer work
on behalf of Amateur Radio in ARRL positions ranging from section
manager to the top spot as president.
     The Hamvention's Technical Excellence Award this year goes
to AMSAT Vice President of Engineering and ARRL Technical Advisor
Richard Jansson, WD4FAB. Jansson has volunteered his engineering
expertise to a number of ARRL book and magazine presentations,
and for AMSAT has helped in the design of several Oscar
satellites.
     Robert Adams, WA9ZMO, was picked for the Hamvention's
Special Achievement Award, for his 3,328 phone patches run for
military personnel during the 1991 Gulf war.  That work earned
Adams a place in the Guiness Book of World Records, according to
the Hamvention Awards Committee.  Adams, 46, is a decorated
veteran of the Vietnam War.  He lives in Palos Heights, Illinois.
     Harry Dannals, 65, was first licensed in 1946 as a teen-ager
with W2TUK, a call sign he held until receiving W2HD in 1976. His
father was W2GG/K4GG (now a Silent Key) and a brother, Frank, is
W2DRL.
     Dannals learned the Morse code at age 10 and was sending
code practice to Naval Communications reservists a few laters
later; his father was commanding officer of a USNR communications
unit on Long Island. Dannals says he probably wouldn't have
waited quite so long (9 years) to get his first amateur ticket if
the family hadn't moved quite so often and the Second World War
hadn't intervened. After moves from Long Island to Pennsylvania,
then Virginia, then to Balboa in the U.S. Canal Zone, Dannals
joined the Navy three days after graduating from Balboa High
School.
     Dannals served two years in the Navy as a Radioman Second
Class and was the youngest supervisor of the watch at a major
Navy shore station, NBA. After discharge in 1946 he went to the
Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn to earn a B.S. in electrical
engineering. During his freshman year he joined the ranks of
amateurs as W2TUK.
     Dannals first worked for ERCO Radio Labs on Long Island, a
small company owned by W2GYL and whose chief engineer was W2FI.
He then went to work for Sperry (now called Unisys), where he met
his wife, Kay, and from where he retired 38 years later.
     Harry Dannals has been an integral part of the ARRL for
nearly 40 years, beginning with election as NYC-LI Section
Communications Manager in 1955 through Hudson Division vice
director (1961-64), division director (1965-72), and culminating
in ARRL president from 1972 to 1982. Since 1984 he has been ARRL
President Emeritus.
     During his 10 years as president Dannals logged more than
half a million miles of air travel and visited all 50 states as
well as Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, Canada, and Mexico.
     Dannals is most proud of the ARRL success at the World
Administrative Radio Conference in 1979, although he did not
attend. "Such a trip wouldhave been a waste of money," he said,
"just to wave the League flag when there were so many talented
and experienced staff people and others doing the job so
capably."
     Today, W2HD is in his second term as president of the
Quarter Century Wireless Club. Locally, he's a director of the
Albemarle Amateur Radio Club, and a volunteer examiner. In 1992
he received the club's Elmer of the Year award.

Busy in retirement

     When Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, took a medical retirement from
Martin Marietta Aerospace in 1982, at age 52, Amateur Radio was
the boost he needed at what he describes as a "low point" in his
life, enabling him to continue challenging work on behalf of
other amateurs. That work has now been recognized by the
Hamvention awards committee.
     As a senior staff engineer at Martin Marietta, Jansson did
research in "cryogenic thermal design," as he told *QST* in early
1982. He simultaneously was helping AMSAT in the thermal design
of the Phase 3 satellites.
     Jansson has now channeled his mechanical engineering
pursuits into a high-tech hobby, and notes that he has more
analytic capability at home today with his personal computers
than was available professionally to him ten years with a
mainframe computer.
     Jansson uses three computers for his AMSAT efforts from his
home in Maitland, Florida: a 80486/DX2-66 for "the heavy-hitting
number crunching" of engineering analyses; a '386 for the
"mundane tasks of word processing"; and and a '386 notebook p.c.
for use on the road. All are LAN-connected.
     Interestingly, Dick Jansson was picked by the Hamvention for
his *mechanical* (not electrical) achievements, possibly a
"first" in our electronics hobby.
     Other recent Hamvention Ham of the Year winners include
former ARRL General Manager and International Affairs Vice
President Richard Baldwin, W1RU, in 1992; John Johnston, W3BE,
chief of the FCC's Personal Radio Branch, in 1991; and ARRL
Hudson Division Director Steve Mendelsohn, WA2DHF, in 1990.
     The 1993 winners will receive their awards at the Hamvention
banquet on April 24, 1993.

Ham with scanner hears apparent death plot

     An Arizona amateur has been credited with helping expose an
apparent plot by two teen-agers to poison a teacher and
classmate.
     Wayne Spaulding, KB7JYG, of Mesa, Arizona, east of Phoenix,
overheard a cordless telephone conversation on the 46 MHz band on
the evening of March 10, in which poisoning was mentioned.
Spaulding taped the conversation and the next day called the
police.
     Police played the tape for the Mesa High School track coach,
Gary Butler, who identified the two voices on the tape as those
of students in his home room, one a 16-year-old, the other 17
years old. Butler one of the youths' targets, as was a 15-year-
old girl.
     Police have booked both teen-agers on suspicion of
conspiracy to commit murder. Police said one of the teens had a
"sizable amount" of poisonous drain cleaner with him at the time
of his arrest, according to *The Arizona Republic*.
     Police told the newspaper that eavesdropping on cordless
telephones is not illegal but implied that the reception was made
on a "ham radio," when in fact Spaulding was listening on a
ordinary consumer scanner radio.
     The two youths are scheduled for hearings in early April to
determine whether they should be tried as adults on the
conspiracy charges.
     Wayne Spaulding has been a licensed amateur for about two
and a half years and his primary interests are on the UHF amateur
bands. He and his wife, Cheri, both hold Technician class
licenses. Cheri is N7PHR.
     Wayne Spaulding, coincidentally, works for the Mesa school
system, designing and building electronic equipment to enable
disabled students to use computers.


FCC PROPOSES GREATER USE OF 902-928 MHz SPECTRUM

     The FCC has proposed new rules to allow greater use of the
902-928 MHz band for so-called automatic vehicle monitoring
systems. The proposed new rules would replace interim rules
adopted in 1974.
     An FCC news release says "The Commission proposed to expand
the service to encompass location of all objects, animate and
inanimate, and to allow licensees to provide service on a private
carrier basis to individuals, the Federal Government, and Part 90
eligibles. The Commission also proposed to rename the AVM service
as the Location and Monitoring Service (LMS) and to define LMS as
the use of non-voice signalling methods from and to radio units
to make known the location of such units.
     "Comments are requested on this proposal and on whether LMS
systems and other entities currently occupying the 902-928 MHz
band will be capable of handling any increased congestion.
     "In the 902-928 MHz band, the Commission proposed that wide-
band and narrow-band LMS systems not be licensed on the same
spectrum. The Commission proposed the wide-band LMS systems be
licensed on the 904-912 and 918-926 MHz bands and the narrow-band
LMS systems be licensed on the 902-904, 912-918, and 926-928 MHz
bands. The Commission believes that wideband systems are capable
of operating in a shared environment, with cooperation among the
various licensees, but solicits comments on the need and
desirability of providing for exclusivity for some period of
time...."

FCC PLANS 449-MHZ NPRM ON WIND PROFILER SYSTEMS

     Tthe FCC on March 10 agreed to issue a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry on the subject of wind profiler
radars (ET Docket 93-59).
     The FCC said it "has proposed to allocate the 449 MHz band
for wind profiler radar systems (wind profilers) and requested
comment on whether wind profilers also should be accommodated in
the 915 MHz band, as proposed by Radian Corporation, or in some
other frequency band .... The 449 MHz band that the Commission is
proposing for wind profiler radars currently is allocated on a
primary basis for Government radiolocation operations by the
military.
     "In addition, the 449 MHz band is allocated on a secondary
basis to the Amateur Radio Service and to Government and non-
Government radiolocation systems for coastal radars."
     A major topic of the docket proceeding is expected to be the
exact nature of the sharing arrangement.

FCC PROPOSES NEW GUIDES ON EFFECTS OF RADIATION

     The FCC has proposed changing its guidelines for evaluating
environmental RF radiation, to reflect the guidelines adopted in
1992 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. (IEEE).
     "The new guidelines differ significantly from those they
replace," the Commission said.  "For example two 'tiers' of
exposure levels are now recommended, one for 'controlled'
environments, and another, generally more restrictive, for
'uncontrolled' environments. Also, new restrictions are placed on
currents induced in the human body by RF fields below 100 MHz.
     "Another significant change is the imposition of stricter
limitations on automatic exclusions for low-power devices, such
as hand-held radios and telephones, based on operating power.
The 1982 guidelines generally excluded such devices with powers
of seven watts or less. The new guidelines contain more complex
and more restrictive criteria for such exclusions, with allowable
power decreasing as frequency increases."

FCC Issues formal 219-220 MHZ proposal

     The FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in its
proposal to create a new shared band for amateurs at 219-220 MHz.
In RM-7747 to Commission would allocate 219-220 MHz to amateurs
on a secondary basis for amateur auxiliary station (point-to-
point) packet backbone networks and other amateur point-to-point
fixed communications.
     "The proposed allocation would allocate," the FCC says,
"frequency congestion that amateurs are experiencing in certain
areas of the country in the 222-225 MHz band and would facilitate
establishment of regional and nationwide backbone networks for
amateur packet communications."
     The FCC also proposes requirements "to ensure that secondary
use of the 219-220 MHz band by amateurs does not interfee with
primary and existing secondary licensees in this and adjacent
bands.
     "These proposals," the FCC's NPRM continues, "are in
response to a petition for rule making (RM-7747) filed by the
American Radio Relay League." A detailed report on the League's
filing appears in *QST* for August, 1991, page 58.
     The FCC's proposal acknowledges that most outside parties
responding to the League's petition support it, including amateur
groups; the Chief Regulatory Counsel of the Defense Information
Systems Agency (DISA, on behalf of the National Communications
System; and the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management.
     The 216-218 and 219-220 MHz bands currently are occupied on
a primary basis by the maritime mobile service for Automated
Maritime Telecommunications Systems (AMTS) and the 218-219 MHz
band is allocated on a primary basis to Interactive Video and
Data Services (IVDS). Additional frequencies between 216 and 220
MHz are allocated on a secondary basis to wildlife telemetry,
radiolocation, fixed and land mobile services, and the
aeronautical mobile service.
     The only service to oppose the petition was the Association
for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), saying that no amateur
operations should be allowed in the 216-220 MHz range because of
a potential for interference to TV channel 13 (at 210-216 MHz).
     The FCC has concluded that amateur access to 216-219 MHz
range is not feasible because of potential interference to other
point-to-point services, and to TV channel 13.
     The FCC does, however, support amateur use of 219-220,
saying that amateurs can divide the one megahertz into ten 100-
kHz channels, allowing them the additional packet backbones they
need. The FCC also says it believes amateurs have the technical
expertise to design their packet systems to operate in the 219-
220 MHz band without interference to other services.
     The FCC also agreed that power limits suggested by the ARRL
in its petition 25 watts PEP for Novices, 50 watts PEP for all
others) "are appropriate and reasonable."
     In 1991 the ARRL and Watercom (an AMTS service) had
suggested mandatory coordination of amateur operations, but the
FCC said such an arrangement would not be permissible under the
Communications Act.
     As for possible amateur interference to AMTS stations, the
FCC proposes a notification plan similar to one originally
proposed by Watercom for its service. Amateurs would be required
to notify the appropriate AMTS licensee of any amateur station
that would be within 240 km (150 miles) of an AMTS station. The
FCC also proposes to require amateurs to obtain written approval
from the appropriate AMTS licensee before operating within 80 km
(50 miles) of an AMTS station.
     Finally, amateur operation in the 219-220 MHz band would be
limited to 56 kilobauds and a maximum bandwidth of 100 kHz.
     The Comment deadline for this NPRM is June 15, 1993. The
Reply Comment deadline is July 15, 1993.
     More information on this NPRM will appear in May *QST*.

BRIEFS

     * The FCC has dropped the station location address from
amateur licenses, effective with new license Form 660, introduced
in February. The mailing address now becomes the only means for
the FCC to communicate with amateur licensees. For now Volunteer
Examiner Coordinators are being told to ignore the station
location information asked for on current FCC Form 610s (Section
I, Line 8).
     "We expect this will improve the processing time at FCC for
applications," ARRL VEC Manager Bart Jahnke, KB9NM said. Jahnke
also said he expects that FCC will drop the station location box
from future printings of the Form 610.

     * A southern California amateur has won his antenna lawsuit
after a three year battle. Jeff Wolf, WA6DAL, of Palos Verdes
Estates was found by a judge in a non-binding arbitration hearing
to have been in full compliance with 1989 plans for his antenna
system approved by both the PV Homes Association and the city of
Palos Verdes Estates.
     When several neighbors complained after Wolf's tower went
up, the homes association began challenging the installation.
     Wolf was represented by his brother Andrew, a lawyer at the
hearing.
     "Before I could even call my brother to the stand,"
Andrew told the Palos Verdes *Peninsula News*, "the judge turned
and said 'What are we doing here?'"

     * In our last issue we noted three new members of the ARRL
Headquarters 10-Year-Club but inadvertently left out a fourth --
Nao Akiyama, NX1L. Nao is International Programs Manager and, in
his spare time, one of the building's most active DXers.

     * September, 1992 *QST* reported on FCC action against James
Winstead, KK6SM, who admitted causing intentional interference to
both amateur and commercial channels in the San Francisco Bay
area from October, 1990 through July, 1991. The story reported
that Winstead was hit with a Notice of Apparent Liability for
$15,000, which was issued May 18, 1992.
     According to the FCC's David Hartshorn, Winstead appealed
the fine, and it was reduced to $2,000 in July, 1992. In
addition, Winstead's amateur and commercial licenses were
suspended for one year, beginning September 24, 1991.

     * Amateurs in Vermont will get a break on their call sign
auto plates if a bill before the state's house of representatives
passes. The bill, H.377, would repeal a current law that requires
those holding special plates for "safety organizations" to pay
$20 *every year* at renewal time.
     Democratic State Rep. John Freidin introduced the bill,
saying "amateur radio operators make a valuable contributin to
Vermont and charge nothing for their services, while the state's
cost for re-issuing special plates is no greater than its cost
for re-issuing regular plates."
     Vermont amateurs are being asked to contact their
representatives to urge them to co-sponsor H.377.

     * Former FCC Chairman Alfred E. Sikes has joined the Hearst
Corporation to, according to the *New York Times*, "head [its]
efforts to marry its journalistic resources with satellite,
computer and other emerging technologies," as head of Hearst's
new Media and Technology Group.
     Sikes, 53, said that his new job was not to be a lobbyist.
"This job is a business job," Sikes told the *Times*.

     * The ARRL Awards Committee has unanimously voted, on
recommendation of the DX Advisory Committee, to delete the Abu
Ail Islands from the ARRL DXCC Countries List, effective March
31, 1991 -- the date when the islands became "unadministered."

     * 2-meter DXCC Number 3 has been issued, to Kjell Rasmusson,
SM7BAE, of Staffanstorp, Sweden. He submitted 102 QSLs, following
in the footsteps of winners Number 1, W5UN,
and Number 2, KB8RQ.

     * The rules for "rover" entries in ARRL VHF contests have
been changed, effective with the June VHF QSO Party, for which
full rules will appear in May *QST*.

*eof