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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*.

*eofb