HAM Toolkit/HAM Toolkit.iso/text/arrl/letter8.11

Text File | 1993-11-17 | 22KB | 844 lines

The ARRL Letter

Vol. 12, No. 15

August 11, 1993


League efforts protect amateurs in budget bill


    Several items of interest to radio amateurs are

related to the just-passed U.S. Omnibus Budget

Reconciliation Act (H.R. 2264), items shepherded through

Washington by the ARRL's capitol team.

    One draft version of the bill would have imposed an

annual regulatory fee on every licensed ham in the U.S.

Through efforts by the League's Washington representatives,

the Act, *minus* the fee for Amateurs, was reported out of

the Budget Reconciliation Conference Committee and passed by

the House and Senate late last week.

    In addition, the League also convinced the committee

to accept provisions in the Emerging Telecommunications

Technology Act requiring the "input" of Amateurs in future

reallocation of radio spectrum that might affect Amateurs.

    "This brings us a long way toward achieving all of

our legislative goals," ARRL President George Wilson III,

W4OYI said. "The regulatory fee issue alone is a big

victory, since it would have been an administrative

nightmare and would have cost radio amateurs millions of

dollars a year. But most important, at a time when ham radio

is enjoying a resurgence among young people, a fee might

have been a roadblock to that first license."

    Wilson said that, unlike hams, broadcasters and

others in the communications industry will be subject to

these new regulatory fees.

    Amateurs also moved a step closer to being able to

obtain specific call signs. The budget bill includes an

ARRL-endorsed provision allowing the FCC to charge a special

processing fee for "Amateur vanity call signs."

    The conference also accepted, as proposed, language

in the Senate's Emerging Telecommunications Technology Act

requiring the Secretary of Commerce to seek to avoid

excessive disruption of existing use of shared

Federal/Amateur Radio frequencies.

     "We've been fighting for this for more than a year,"

Wilson says, "because it gives us more leverage as the

government moves toward the auction of frequencies for

commercial development. Now we have a stronger say in how

those frequencies will be selected."

    Wilson credits these successes to hams in key

legislative districts who wrote and called their

Congressional delegations. Wilson also applauded the efforts

of Senators Ernest Hollings (D-SC), Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and

Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Representatives John Dingell (D-MI)

and Mike Kreidler (D-WA) for helping ensure that the

concerns of amateurs were heard.

    "In addition," Wilson says, "we're grateful for the

hard work of our Washington team of Perry Williams, John

Chwat and Chris Imlay. They orchestrated a program that

illustrates just how important it is that we continue to

have a strong League presence in Washington."


ARRL directors expand HF data proposal


    The ARRL has asked the FCC to expand on a proposed

rules change regarding data communications on the HF bands.

    In comments to the FCC filed July 30 responding to a

petition filed by the American Digital Radio Society (RM-

8280), the ARRL asked that amateur stations under automatic

control be allowed to operate outside the specific subbands

proposed in an earlier ARRL proposal, RM-8218.

    Under the new ARRL proposal, stations operating

outside the subbands would be subject to three limitations:

they must not be able to initiate transmissions; they must

be able to respond only to interrogation by stations

operated under local or remote control; and they must be

limited to a bandwidth of 500 Hz.

    In RM-8218 the League had opposed automatic control

on HF bands except in specific subbands until a plan could

be developed to minimize interference to users of other

modes.

    But the ARRL board of directors, at its July, 1993

meeting, considered a report by its Committee on Amateur

Radio Digital Communications, which suggested a way that

semi-automatically controlled data communications could be

accommodated outside of the restricted subbands.  The board

agreed with the committee's recommendation.

    The League's original proposal was filed in

February, 1993. Comments from many amateurs and groups,

which the League said "aptly illustrate the difficulty in

making provision for automatic control of HF communications

in the heavily occupied high frequency bands," fell into

several groups:

    * Opposition to the creation of band segments for

automatically controlled data stations where Baudot

communications currently take place;

    * Opposition to subbands which would intermix

automatically controlled, incompatible digital

communications modes, leading to interference;

    * Proponents of prohibiting modes which do not

include error correction or detection (such as Baudot);

    * Claims that the proposed subbands would not

sufficiently encourage development of digital message

networks.

    In its reply comments to the FCC on RM-8218 the

League said that these comments all had some merit, but

still suggested that its subband proposal would be a good

start, in part because nothing would be taken away from

present privileges and operators. At that time the League

said that "It does not appear that sufficient safeguards

against interference currently exist to permit automatically

controlled data stations to operate outside limited

subbands."

    All interested parties will have an opportunity to

comment if or when the FCC issues a Notice of Proposed Rule

Making.

    More information on RM-8218 is in August *QST*, page

73, and more information on the board's deliberations will

appear in September *QST*.


League voices concern over call sign plan


    The ARRL in a news release this week said that "a

three-year effort to resume the issuance of amateur radio

club and military recreation station call signs may be in

jeopardy."

    "This situation has tended to demoralize newer

clubs," said ARRL President George S. Wilson, W4OYI.

"They've have had no opportunity to establish a permanent,

on-the-air identity."

    No new club or military recreation station call

signs have been issued since 1977.

    The ARRL began its latest effort to persuade the FCC

to resume club licensing in 1990, when it offered to assume

the administrative burden of processing club applications at

no cost to either the applicants or the government. When it

appeared that the FCC needed special legislative authority

to approve such a plan, the League sought and obtained the

necessary legislation.

    On July 26, 1993, when the FCC invited applications

from qualified organizations to serve as call sign

administrators, the ARRL submitted an application

demonstrating its qualifications as well as its ability and

desire to implement the new program immediately.

    `"Unfortunately," said David Sumner, ARRL Executive

Vice President, "applications from four other less qualified

entities have already delayed, and could even jeopardize,

the program."

    To serve as call sign administrator, an organization

must demonstrate, among other things, that it is tax exempt

under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986

and exists for the purpose of furthering the amateur

service; that its membership includes at least one percent

of the amateur operators licensed by the FCC (presently more

than 614,000); that it will accept and process applications

without regard to race, sex, religion, national origin or

membership (or lack thereof) in any amateur service

organization; and that it will provide the FCC with

a plan for processing applications for modified or renewed

club licenses in the event the organization ceases to

function as an administrator.

    "The ARRL has demonstrated that it meets all of

these criteria," Sumner said. "Four other entities have

filed applications that appear to be defective in one or

more respects."

    On August 5 the ARRL filed its opposition to the

requests of the other four entities to serve as call sign

administrators, citing the shortcomings in their submissions

and reminding the Commission that there is no requirement

that more than one administrator be named -- nor any

advantage to be gained from doing so.

    "This has nothing to do with the merits of the other

organizations, particularly those who do good work in other

fields of amateur radio," Wilson said.  "It's simply that

there is no need for more than one club and military

recreation call sign administrator, and nothing but

confusion to be gained from having more than one.  It's not

at all clear why these other groups jumped on board at the

last minute of a three-year effort.

    "The ARRL originated and developed the idea.  We

guided it through Congress. We're ready to make it work, and

are uniquely qualified to do so.

    "All we need is the go-ahead from the FCC.  The

sooner we can get it, the sooner clubs will be able to put

new call signs to good use."

    The other groups who have applied to be call sign

administrators are the W5YI-VEC Inc. Group, the National

Amateur Radio Association, the Quarter Century Wireless

Association, and the Southeastern Repeater Association.


SAREX FLIGHT STS-58

SLATED FOR SEPT. LAUNCH


    The third SAREX flight of 1993 is scheduled for

lift-off September 10 aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia for

a 13 day mission. Crew members include Pilot Richard A.

Searfoss, whose amateur license is pending; Mission

Specialist William S. McArthur Jr., KC5ACR; and Payload

Specialist Martin J. Fettman, KC5AXA.

    Amateur Radio frequencies for the mission are: voice

downlink (Worldwide) 145.55 MHz; voice uplink 144.91,

144.93, 144.95, 144.97, 144.99 MHz; voice uplink (Europe

only) +144.70, 144.75, 144.80 MHz; and packet uplink: 144.49

MHz.

    15 schools are scheduled to participate, in

Arkansas, Texas, Ohio, Missouri, Arizona, Tennessee, New

Hampshire, Kentucky, Colorado, North Carolina, Indiana, and

France.

    Further information is available from the ARRL

Educational Activities Department, and updates will be

available on W1AW as the launch date nears.


LEAGUE CONTINUES CALL

FOR CLEARER DEFINITION

OF HAMS' RESPONSIBILITY


    The ARRL has filed reply comments continuing in

general to support an FCC Notice of Proposed Rule Making to

define the responsibility for the content of amateur

messages relayed by high speed networks, in PR Docket 93-85,

but continuing to press for better definition of critical

terms.

    The League said that those parties who initially

commented on the NPRM generally agreed that

    (1) the originator and first store-and-forward

station in a data message network are properly accountable;

    (2) the originator of a message should in all cases

be held responsible for the content of a message, with the

first store-and-forward operator held responsible for either

authentication of the source of the message or the screening

of its content; and

    (3)  that the definition of "repeater" in the NPRM

is overly confining.

    The League once again asked for the rules to include

a better definition of "first forwarder," and of "repeater."

    The League had on July 1 filed comments on the FCC's

proposal, which was in response to a number of petitions for

rule making to establish "a compliance policy for amateur

stations participating in automatic message forwarding

systems, to hold the licensee of the station originating a

message and the licensee of the first forwarding station

primarily accountable for violative communications."



FCC EXTENDS COMMENT DATE

IN RF EFFECTS PROPOSAL


    The FCC has extended until November 13 the comment

date on a proposal, in ET Docket 93-62, that would have the

Commission adopt new guidelines for evaluating the

environmental effects of radio frequency radiation.  The new

guidelines would be those already adopted by the American

National Standards Institute and the Institute of Electrical

and Electronic Engineers.

    The FCC said that a request for an extension of the

deadline made by the National Association of Broadcasters

had been supported by a number of other interested parties.

The NAB said it asked for the extension in order to be able

to complete a study to develop non-measurement-based

techniques for complying with the FCC's proposed new RF

exposure guidelines.

    The NAB said that its study would benefit both the

FCC and those whom the new guidelines would affect, by

making it easier to evaluate compliance with the new

guidelines, which the NAB said are significantly different

from the old.

    The original comment deadline was August 13.


Red Cross enlists hams in Illinois flood relief


*By Dick Frey, K4XU*


    The 1993 ARRL Field Day operation was more than just

our most successful ever. For members of the Western

Illinois Amateur Radio Club, it was a warm-up for providing

communications during the Great Flood of 1993.

    Operating ARRL Field Day from the the Quincy Mall,

all of our public relations leads worked out and we had good

interest from the local media, even though this was our

third year at the same location.

    But little did we suspect what was to begin the

following weekend. The Mississippi River passed critical

flood stage on July 3 and we were asked by the local Red

Cross to provide communications for flood-related mass care

three days later. On the 13th, the river crested at 32.12

feet, 15 feet above normal flood stage, and three feet

higher than the previous record.

    It was not until July 19 that we secured our

disaster net control on the 147.03 repeater and cleaned out

our communications center in the cafeteria of Quincy

University, after two weeks of operation at 10 to 20 hours

per day.

    The WIARC, based in Quincy, Illinois, was in the

center of the flood area on the east side of the

Mississippi. The last major Mississippi River flood in this

area was in 1973, and 20 years is too long in technology,

personnel and memory to make many comparisons, so we learned

as we went along.

    But training does help: the club has several

activities during the year where members can practice

communications skills. We provide communications for two go-

kart races, a 100 mile bicycle run, a footrace, and of

course we do ARRL Field Day.

    Thus, when the call came from the Red Cross to set

up communications for their support of the levee workers, we

felt we were ready, but it was still a learning experience

for all concerned. The Red Cross has rules, the FCC has

rules; Mother Nature does not.

    Our communications network was set up as the

affected area and number of people to be served grew.

Providing food and water to as many as 4,500 workers out on

the levees was a big job. Unlike most Amateur Radio

operations, where the primary emphasis is on health and

welfare traffic, we were needed to provide primarily

tactical communications.

    The Red Cross people were learning as they went

along, too; just like the hams, theirs is a volunteer

organization. Flexibility and a need for good people skills

were the two biggest requirements for both groups.

    A person can stay up two days, maybe even three, but

after that if nobody else has been shown how to perform that

person's function, it is lost until someone *can* be

trained. For example, we had a food supply route handled by

just one ham. When he failed to show up one morning after a

week on the job, nobody else knew how to get to the places

which he had served.

    We found silence is the best indication of a

properly functioning communications network. Less air time

per message not only gets the messages through faster but

also saves batteries. And pare down call sign use to the

minimum required by law.

    When message handling, discourage direct third party

traffic as much as possible. Initially, some of the Red

Cross volunteers wanted to talk directly to their

headquarters. This led to some problems. After a

demonstration, they were amazed at how a good operator could

condense five minutes of conversation describing the

required message into two or three short sentences of radio

traffic (just like a good editor -- ed).

    Maintain the chain of command. Know who is the boss,

and make no decisions beyond your own activity. We worked

for the Red Cross, and we made it clear to the operators in

each location who the local Red Cross boss was, and that he

was to make all the decisions regarding disposition of their

resources. This was especially true in the beginning, before

we got used to the activity and understood the mission and

the Red Cross rules.

    Once we had been running for a few days and had

gained respect for each other's abilities, things ran very

smoothly.

    There were several communications systems operating

in our area. Each levee district had VHF communications with

or without a repeater, and CB radios. The two county road

crews had their VHF repeaters, and the City of Quincy had a

VHF repeater. The National Guard had an array of HF and VHF

gear, but no repeaters. They had a Huey helicopter which

spent a lot of its time in the air keeping communications up

to their units spread over 100 miles of river. There was

also the cellular phone network.

    Beware of duplicated communications! If you have

been given the responsibility to provide the feedback to the

food center to determine how many people need to be fed or

what supplies they need, make sure the messages are not

being duplicated through another route. It will destroy your

credibility.

    More than 35 operators participated in our

operation. Getting operators during the week was a problem.

School teachers and kids on summer vacation and retirees

were the mainstay of the operator corps during the week. If

this had happened in April, we would have been in serious

trouble. The club-sponsored Novice classes paid big

dividends.

    Equipment really was the least of our troubles. The

club's repeater on 147.03 performed flawlessly. Due to

terrain, not everyone was able to hit the repeater all the

time, and we could have used a few more 5/8 wave magnetic

mounts. Some batteries failed and we often didn't have

enough, but in general the gear held up well. Those who

could not help directly made generous loans of their

equipment: base rigs, power supplies, and antennas.

    Personal vehicle use was kept to a minimum, partly

because of the use of Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles

(ERVs) and partly because the Red Cross wanted to keep the

number of vehicles on the limited roads in the area to a

minimum. 5-watt handhelds and mag mounts were used in them.

    When do you quit? We arbitrarily decided that when

the remaining locations we were serving had telephone

connections to the Red Cross center, it was time to go home.

When we told the Red Cross of our decision, their reaction

was "we knew that, but we wanted to let you tell us." That

will go into the plan for next time.

    *(Dick Frey, K4XU, is a principal engineer for the

Harris Corporation Broadcast Equipment Division in Quincy,

Illinois. He formerly was chief engineer for both Ten-Tec,

Inc. and for Ehrhorn Technological Operations.)*


BRIEFS


    * The Northern California DX Foundation has

established a fund in memory of Jim Rafferty, N6RJ, who died

in June at age 43.

    From now until December 1, 1993, the Foundation will

accept separate contributions in memory of Jim Rafferty.

These contributions will be pooled with the rest of the

Foundation's resources, but those donating to the Rafferty

fund will have their call signs inscribed on a plaque, to be

presented to Jim's widow, Shirley Rafferty, and subsequently

hung at the Anaheim, California Ham Radio Outlet, where Jim

was vice president.

    Contributions should be sent to the NCDXF, PO Box

2368, Stanford, CA 94305, or to Bruce Butler, W6OSP,

Treasurer, 4220 Chardonnay Ct., Napa CA 94558.


    * A correction to a brief in Issue 14 of *The ARRL

Letter*. The call sign of Joseph F. Richard, one of four New

Orleans-area amateurs who received notices of violation from

the FCC for malicious interference on a 2-meter repeater, is

N5JNX.

    * ARRL Arkansas Section Manager Bob Ideker, WB5VUH

has successfully lobbied the state's office of motor

vehicles for a new call sign license plate policy.

Previously the special plates were issued only once a year.

batch-style; now new ham plates will be issued monthly.


    * In June the FCC issued 5,978 new amateur licenses,

the largest monthly total in more than two years. Meanwhile,

the Gettysburg backlog remained virtually unchanged, as some

5,000 new amateur applications poured in (not to mention

another 5,000 renewals and upgrades!).

    The ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator administered

569 exam sessions in March, an all-time record; April's 501

sessions was the second-highest. The usual summer slump

pulled that down to "only" 446 sessions in May.