QRZ! Ham Radio 4/QRZ Ham Radio Callsign Database - Volume 4.iso/files/arrl/hiram/ltr13n5.txt

Text File | 1994-11-27 | 21KB | 412 lines

The ARRL Letter
Vol. 13, No. 5
March 10, 1994

Ham-boater credits Amateur Radio
in Gulf of Mexico sea rescue

     Two men rescued from a sinking boat in the Gulf of
Mexico credit Amateur Radio for saving their lives.

     On March 2, Larry Hooker, KB5ZNY, of Thaxton, Mississippi, and his
sailing partner, Rhett White, were returning from Honduras on Hooker's
45-ft sailing vessel Off The Hook, when they ran into an unexpected
storm and high seas.

     Hooker had been in contact with his friend Randall O'Brian, KD5ZH,
of West Point, Mississippi, since hoisting anchor on February 6, on
80, 40, and 20 Meters. Hooker had visited his daughter, Tina Hooker,
KB5YNN, a missionary with Global Outreach on the northeastern coast
of Honduras, in an area accessible only by air or sea.

     "Tina's US Novice license allowed her to operate from Honduras,"
Larry Hooker said. "I was taking her a rig, along with other supplies.
Larry, who upgraded to General class about six months ago, was looking
forward to regular skeds with his daughter by radio.

     Larry's friend Randall O'Brian was his link back to the States.
"Larry and I made two radio contacts a day," O'Brian said, "starting
out on 75 Meters, then on 40 and 20 Meters as he got farther out."
Hooker arrived at his destination on February 17, and after spending
some time with his daughter, began the return trip on February 26.

     All went well until March 1. "Larry reported being in bad weather,"
"O'Brian said, "and he was using his radar to pick his way around the
most severe thunderstorms. He had lowered his sails and was under power.
The weather forecast had been wrong."

     Things began to to deteriorate on March 2, when Hooker
reported to O'Brian that he was in gale force winds and high
seas (20 to 25 ft). "Larry was concerned about having enough
fuel to make it back to Mobile, Alabama. We started making a
contact every two hours the remainder of the day," O'Brian
said.
     At 4 PM Hooker reported taking on water, the seas still
running 20 to 25 ft. O'Brian called the Coast Guard and advised
them of Larry's situation, and the Coast Guard started an
every-other-hour check on Larry -- coming up on Hooker's and
O'Brian's regular 75-meter frequency, 3862 kHz.
     "At about 5 PM Larry reported the situation as very
bad, with no improvement in sight," O'Brian said. "This was
the last contact that anyone had with him the rest of the
night."
     O'Brian and others amateurs listening tried all that
night to contact Off The Hook, as did the Coast Guard. About
5 AM on March 3 the Coast Guard in New Orleans called
O'Brian to say that their station at Corpus Christi, Texas,
had picked up a call from Larry, but couldn't establish
contact with him. They asked O'Brian to try.
     "I had a dream that night," O'Brian said, "that I would
be able to contact Larry again. And at about 5:30 AM I did.
He was in an emergency situation, on the verge of sinking. I
contacted the Coast Guard and they again came on 3862 kHz
and were able to contact Larry."
     The Coast Guard dispatched a jet aircraft from New
Orleans to drop pumps to Off The Hook, which was now about 250 miles
southeast of Mobile. The two sailors, although by now exhausted,
tried to pump the water out of their boat.
     A merchant vessel, the Turn Arrow, was only 16 miles
away and quickly came to help in the rescue. "We amateurs
had radio contact with the Coast Guard in New Orleans all
day," O'Brian said, "and were able to get reports from
Larry. I was notified by the Coast Guard that their cutter,
the Cushing, was being dispatched from Mobile, and would
reach Larry at 4:30 PM."
     At 5:15 PM the Coast Guard reported that Off the
Hook was under tow and that Hooker and White were bruised
and exhausted but otherwise OK.
     Off The Hook was towed all night, but sank about 10 AM
on March 4. They were unable to keep the water pumped out.
     During the operation Hooker's wife, Teresa, who is not
a ham, listened to the communications. After the two men
were picked up she told the Tupelo Daily Journal "Now that I
know he's on his way home, I may get a little sleep tonight,
but I'm going to leave the ham radio on."
     "Larry and his wife came to visit on March 6," Randall
O'Brian said. "Larry told me 'I wouldn't be alive today if
it were not for the efforts of Amateur Radio operators.'"
     "The Lord used Amateur Radio operators to save our
lives," Hooker said.

ARRL, FCC AGREE TO NEW
COOPERATIVE AGREEMENT

     The ARRL and the Field Operations Bureau (FOB) of the
Federal Communications Commission have signed a new
agreement concerning the use of amateur volunteers.
     The agreement is a revised and expanded version of one
entered into in 1984, and spells out the roles of amateurs,
as trained and registered Official Observers, as well as the
role of the FOB. The volunteers continue to be known as the
ARRL Amateur Auxiliary ("AA") to the Field Operations
Bureau.
     While the new agreement continues to place initial
information gathering at the local level, ie, in conjunction
with regional FOB offices, it specifies a more centralized
system for presenting information to the FOB in cases where
enforcement is requested. This will be done between the
office of the Chief, FOB, and the League's Washington
office.
     The new agreement also adds an FOB agreement to protect
the identities of Amateur Auxiliary members, to the extent
allowed by law, when the FCC institutes an enforcement
proceeding involving information provided by the AA.
     The FOB also agrees to assist the ARRL in the training
of volunteers and in publicizing the objectives and
accomplishments of the program.
     The new agreement became effective February 26, 1994.
The full text of the agreement will appear in May QST.

FCC EXTENDS COMMENT PERIOD
IN 'VANITY' CALL SIGN PLAN

     The FCC has granted an ARRL request to extend the
comment deadline in its "vanity" call sign proposal, in PR
Docket 93-305.
     The comment deadline was extended to April 21, 1994;
the reply comment deadline was extended to May 23, 1994.
     The Commission's Notice of Proposed Rule Making was
released December 29, 1993, with an original comment
deadline of March 7, 1994. The League said more time was
needed for response because of the importance of the
proposal to amateurs and therefore the need to ensure
fairness in whatever system was adopted.
     In granting the League's request the FCC said "it is
desirable that the record be as complete as possible and
that it reflect the views of the amateur community."
     An ARRL ad-hoc committee on this proposal includes
Directors Steve Mendelsohn, WA2DHF; Frank Butler, W4RH; Tom
Comstock, N5TC; John Kanode, N4MM; and Brad Wyatt, K6WR.
Members should address their comments to "Docket 93-305
Committee," and send them to ARRL HQ.
     More information on the proposal is in February 1994
QST on pages 9 and 84 to 86.

FCC ALLOWS MORE TIME
FOR RF EXPOSURE PLAN

     The FCC has extended the reply comment deadline in its
proposal to adopt new standards for exposure to RF
radiation.
     The Notice of Proposed Rule Making, in ET Docket 93-62,
would adopt standards already observed by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) in 1992, and is
opposed by the ARRL.
     The League already has told the FCC that the proceeding
should be terminated, and cited a number of reasons, among
them that it isn't really an NPRM since it doesn't actually
propose to change anything, and that it shouldn't even apply
to the average amateur installation.
     The League said that those amateurs remotely likely to
be affected by new standards are those forced to use indoor
antennas because of restrictions against outside
installations.
     The FCC said it was extending the deadline in response
to an industry group, the "Telecommunications Industry
Association," who said that more than 1200 pages of comments
had been filed with the Commission and that not enough time
had been allowed for evaluation of that much material. The
FCC said it recognized "the complexity of the issues raised"
by its proposal.
     The reply comment deadline was extended from February
24, 1994, to April 25, 1994. A full story on the League's
comments to the FCC in this matter will appear in April QST.

BRIEFS

     * If you have photos and/or stories about amateurs in
action following the Los Angeles earthquake, please send
them to Rick Palm, K1CE, at HQ.
  * The memorial fund raising by the Northern California
DX Foundation for Jim Rafferty, N6RJ, who died in June 1993,
raised nearly $8,000 from 125 individuals and organizations.
The donors' call signs or organizational names were
inscribed on a plaque presented to Jim's widow, Shirley
Rafferty, and subsequently will be displayed at the Anaheim,
California, Ham Radio Outlet, where Jim worked.
     * Wayne Green, W2NSD, editor and publisher of 73
Magazine, has announced that his company will begin
publication of a magazine entitled Cold Fusion, in April.
The editor will be Eugene F. Mallove, ScD., a former chief
science writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
according to a press release.
     * Astronaut Ken Cameron, KB5AWP, has been named
Director of Operations-Russia and manager of NASA
operational activities at Star City and at the Russian
control center at Kaliningrad.
     He will work with Russian Space Agency engineers and
flight controllers on the US-Russia cooperative space
program, including supervising NASA astronaut training at
Star City and developing plans and procedures to support
joint space shuttle/Russian Mir space station flights and
space station development. He is expected to command one of
the early shuttle docking missions with Mir.
     Cameron has flown on two SAREX shuttle flights, STS-37
in 1991 and STS-56 in 1993, both of them "all-ham" shuttles.
     * The Austrian Communication Authority has opened a
block of special call signs for special operations there.
The 26 available calls will be OE--A to OE--Z, with the
number assigned depending on the station's geographic
location. 14 calls will be reserved for club stations of the
Austrian national association, OVSV, with the remaining 12
available for others.
     * More than 120 people died in an earthquake in
Indonesia in February, and local press said that ham radio
was the only communication initially available from the
affected area. The town of Liwa in the province of Lampung
suffered the greatest damage and loss of life, and a
government official told The Jakarta Post that "we have to
use ham radio to communicate with Liwa." (Thanks WA8QNR)
     * Citing "news hungry hams," the Radio Society of Great
Britain has added a telephone hotline to augment its on-the-
air Amateur Radio news bulletins. The RSGB on-the-air
service is similar to ARRL's in that it is available on
voice and packet; but theirs is a script prepared weekly,
while ARRL issues bulletins on a daily basis.
     * Russia's Radio magazine continues to suffer from
rampant inflation there. The general-interest electronics
magazine has seen its print run drop from more than a
million in early 1991 to less than 400,000 in late 1993. The
cover price of the January 1991 issue was 1.2 rubles; in
January 1994 it had risen to 950 rubles.
     Because of the currency inflation, the magazine sells
subscriptions only for six-month periods.
     * Editors of the newsletters of ARRL affiliated clubs
recently received an offer of a free one-year "subscription"
to The ARRL Letter. We expect this to add a considerable
number of new readers to our rolls. Since news is a two-way
street, we look forward to hearing from these new readers;
let us know when you have news that might be of regional or
national interest.
     * In January, former Headquarters staffer Vern
Chambers, W1JEQ, died. He was 78 years old and, although
he'd left the staff for greener pastures in 1958, he worked
for the League for more than 25 years.
     According to former ARRL General Manager John Huntoon,
W1RW, Chambers went to work in the HQ mail room as a
youngster and not a licensed amateur. He got the bug, helped
out in the lab, and eventually became a QST technical author
and manager of the lab's Technical Information Service.
"Vern always showed a special understanding for problems
faced by the average beginner," Huntoon said.
     * April QST "League Lines" warns amateurs that "A
commercial company is sending notices in the mail to hams
whose Amateur Radio licenses are about to expire, offering
to renew the hams' licenses for a fee" ($5). This is something
you can do yourself, for the cost of a stamp.
     The League is about to undertake the same project, but
with no fee involved. League members will receive a notice
about 90 days before their license expiration date, along
with an FCC Form 610 and an envelope addressed to the FCC in
Gettysburg. Simple!
     The first notices will be going out in a couple of
weeks; the job involves a lot of merging, purging, and
cross-checking of the FCC data base to ensure that the right
people, and only the right people, get the notices.
     * The robot packet station counter aboard SAREX flight
STS-60 in February clicked over more than 4000 connects with
amateurs, while Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, U5MIR,
brought his experience aboard the Mir space station to the
flight. He planned a visit back home to Russia, where he
will work with fellow cosmonauts, before returning to the US
to prepare for STS-63 in January 1995. Vladimir Titov,
U1MIR, also is scheduled to fly on that shuttle.
     * The FCC announced in late February that some of its
information is now available on the Internet, including the
FCC Daily Digest, news releases, some public notices, and
the text of speeches by Commission officials. File names are
listed in the Daily Digest. The FCC's Internet address is
ftp.fcc.gov
     And the March 9 New York Times notes in a story that
Russians are taking to e-mail in a big way, some of them
even being able to access the Internet. "We can use the
Library of Congress in five minutes, while it takes a
magazine from the US three months to reach Russia," a
Russian scientist said.
     * The Central States VHF Society's annual conference
will be held July 28 to 30, 1994, in Memphis, Tennessee, and
a call for papers has been issued. For information on the
technical program or submission of papers, contact Joel
Harrison, WB5IGF, 528 Miller Rd, Judsonia AR 72081.
     * The commander for space shuttle and SAREX flight STS-
67 in early 1995 will be Steve Oswald, KB5TSR. He will join
SAREX veteran Payload Specialist Ron Parise, WA4SIR.
     * Joe Hertzberg, N3EA, died February 14, 1994, in
Silver Spring, Maryland. He was 86. He previously was K3JH.
He was first licensed in 1926. During World War II he was
involved in the development of electronic navigation systems
and was decorated by both the United States and England.
After the war he went to work for RCA and in 1956 was named
RCA Man of the Year. He ended his career as a corporate vice
president of RCA.
     In the late 1960s he became active in Amateur Radio
once again and his station included a full-size 80 meter
cubical quad on a 115-ft Telrex "Big Bertha" rotating pole
that was featured in a 1970 QST. He put his station to
good use following several natural disasters, including a
1972 earthquake in Nicaragua.

10 years ago in The ARRL Letter

     The Volunteer Examiner program moved closer to reality
as the FCC appointed the first five VE Coordinators and
issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making to permit VEs and
VECs to recover expenses. The ARRL had not yet applied for
VEC status, waiting until the rules regarding the recovery
of expenses were enacted.
     The FCC also listed 16 functions that VECs would be
expected to perform.
     The League had asked the FCC to write the reimbursement
rules without going through the NPRM procedure but the
Commission declined, saying it wanted to have a public
comment period. In its NPRM, the FCC set a $4 maximum per
exam.
     In Connecticut, the Department of Environmental
Protection was behind a bill in the legislature that would
regulate some sources of RF radiation, the general concern
at that time being microwave dish antennas. Testimony before
the Committee on the Environment said that amateurs should
be exempted from any such bill, and one committee member
said that it was never the committee's intention to regulate
amateurs.
     Following the successful space shuttle operation of
Owen Garriott, W5LFL, the previous November, the League and
NASA were talking informally about future operations;
Astronaut Tony England, W0ORE, was scheduled to be aboard
the shuttle in early 1985.
     Hams in southern California got word from the US
Olympic Committee that Amateur Radio would be permitted at
the '84 Games in Los Angeles, to handle traffic from the
Olympic Village.


Running for charity

Fred Doob, AA8FQ, raised more than $2000 for the Childrens
Cancer Research Fund while running the Los Angeles Marathon
on March 6. Fred made more than 400 contacts on 144 and 440
MHz using a hand held transceiver provided by ICOM America;
ICOM donated $5 to the CCRF for each contact Fred made.
     Fred, 47, topped his run last November in the New York
City Marathon by 100 contacts and his time was better, too,
by 15 minutes. "I average about 3.5 hours in a marathon
without radio, and about 5 hours when I operate. Listening
to the radio takes your mind away from the mental
concentration necessary to run 26 miles."
     Fred's operation was coordinated by the Baldwin Hills
Amateur Radio Club, organized by President Ed Walker,
WA6MDJ. Fred's principal net control, Keith Glispie, WA6TFD,
"did a great job. But more people should use phonetics; it's
hard to hear when you're running," Doob said.
     KCOP-TV, Channel 11, ran a story about AA8FQ's run for
charity the evening of the marathon, with film both of him,
at the finish line, and inside the Amateur Radio
communications tent. Amateurs provide a medical net as well
as a "start" and a "finish" net. Greg Powell, KD6AIS, helped
arrange the television coverage.
     Fred Doob will be at the Dayton Hamvention; look for
him at the Solder-It booth.


Profile: Midwest Division Vice Director Bruce Frahm, K0BJ

     And it's yet another ham who won't be turning in his
call sign for a "vanity" call: K0 B ruce J. Frahm, the ARRL
Midwest Division's new vice director, elected last November.
     Bruce and his wife, Janice, grow wheat and corn on a
2800-acre family farm in the northwest corner of Kansas,
near Colby. Fifty miles north and they'd be in Nebraska; 50
miles west is the Colorado state line.
     Bruce, 42, graduated from Kansas State University, a
well-known hotbed of Amateur Radio and home of W0 Quack
Quack Quack. Bruce got his degree in computer science and
uses it today to track farm work, finances, and especially
water usage. Like thousands of others, his farm draws on the
Ogallala Aquifer, which is dropping dangerously.
     "In my college days," Bruce says, "computer studies
were in the College of Arts and Sciences, and almost
entirely software-oriented. Like other universities, we
worked from terminals and shared a central computer, in this
case an IBM 360."
     Bruce, who's active in his local group, the Trojan
Amateur Radio Club, and edits its newsletter, got started
the usual way, in the late 1960s, as a Novice. He moved on
to CW traffic nets and then the DX bug bit. He has a DXCC
Mixed Honor Roll plaque on the wall now (time to send in
some more cards, Bruce).
     In 1979 he and the family sailed the Yankee Trader on a
10-month voyage to 55 ports of call and a number of brief DX
operations. Bruce's favorites were Pitcairn Island (VR6BJ)
and Desecheo (KP5/K0BJ).
     From home, Bruce is a very active ham, working the
Russian "RS" satellites, swapping packets with SAREX shuttle
missions, operating the "new" HF bands (which are getting
less new by the day!) and, of course, chasing DX everywhere.
12-year-old son Jon just passed his Technician class exam. -
- K1TN.