Ham Radio

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Ham Radio / Ham Radio CD-ROM (Emerald Software) (1995).ISO / news / al890508 / al890508.txt

Wrap

Text File | 1989-05-29 | 13.3 KB | 251 lines

The ARRL Letter, Volume 8, No. 9, May 5, 1989 Published by: The American Radio Relay League, Inc. 225 Main St. Newington, CT 06111 Editor: Tom Hogerty, KC1J Material from The ARRL Letter may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, including photoreproduction and electronic databanks, provided that credit is given to The ARRL Letter and to the American Radio Relay League, Inc. CARIBBEAN EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS At the invitation of the United Nations Disaster Relief Organization's Pan Caribbean Disaster Preparedness and Prevention Project Director, and sponsorship of the Agency For International Development's Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, ARRL Field Services Manager Richard Palm, K1CE, traveled to Trinidad in March to attend a PCDPPP conference on emergency telecommunications. The PCDPPP organized the meeting of telecommunications officials in conjunction with CARICOM, the Caribbean Community and Common Market. The conference objectives were to review recent disaster experiences, improve operational procedures, review emergency telecommunications facilities and mechanisms, strengthen network services against disasters, and develop proposals for a regional response mechanism. In addition to national telecommunications ministers, there were several experts on hand to advise conferees on matters within their areas of expertise. OFDA Telecommunications specialist Art Feller, KB4ZJ, and Texas A & M authority Pierre Catala, WA1UAT, served in this advisory role. Other participants included recognized leaders of the region's amateur community, most notably Dr Eric Munroe, 6Y5EE, the principal Amateur Radio player in the Jamaican relief effort following Hurricane Gilbert. Conferees discussed a proposal for a CARICOM emergency response and relief mechanism. Goals would be to ensure a coordinated response to disasters in the community by member states, and maximize the impact of resources and institutional capacity available in the event of a disaster. Amateur Radio would be written into the plan to facilitate warnings, mobilization/planning in the pre-event period, and resource mobilization in the post-event period. A highlight of the conference was Dr Eric Monroe's review of the Amateur Radio role in the Hurricane Gilbert disaster relief effort in which amateur support operation was maintained for eight days with 1400 pieces of emergency and/or priority traffic handled by the thirty seven participating amateurs. Dr Monroe is the Jamaica Amateur Radio Association's Disaster Communications Coordinator. The conference afforded ARRL an excellent opportunity to make contacts with the region's telecommunications and Amateur Radio leaders, and develop an appreciation for their needs in disaster communications planning. The amount of attention the conferees devoted to discussions of the role of Amateur Radio in their plans was most impressive. DAYTON HAMVENTION \R/ AWARDS PRESENTED More than 30,000 amateurs from more than 20 countries attended the 38th annual "mega event" at the Hara Arena Exhibition Center in Dayton Ohio on April 28-30. Three awards were presented at the convention banquet. Dayton's Amateur of the Year award went to Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF. Bill has been published in QST, CQ Magazine, World-Radio News, 73 and others. Bill has worked as technical supervisor and field producer for three major ARRL video tape productions: "Amateur Radio's Newest Frontier, SAREX" and the award winning "The New World of Amateur Radio". Bill wrote, produced and recorded amateur radio public service "spot" announcements featuring famous entertainers and conceived and instituted Westlink Report's "Young Ham of the Year" Award. Phil Karn, KA9Q, was the recipient of the Special Achievement Award. Phil, licensed since 1971, has been an AMSAT volunteer since 1980. An early contributor to the PACSAT/MICROSAT design concept, Phil's major project has been the development of a computer networking package tailored for amateur packet radio. In November 1988, he was elected to the AMSAT Board of Directors. The Technical Excellence Award went to Byron Goodman, W1DX. First licensed in the early 1930s, Byron is one of the true technical giants in Amateur Radio. He was the first editor of the ARRL Antenna Handbook, now considered a world standard for antenna design. Byron's most important contribution to Amateur Radio was recognizing the value of single sideband. He encouraged amateurs to experiment with this new mode, primarily through his QST column "On The Air With Single Sideband". He also had a hand in establishing the famous DXCC program. Congratulations to all three award winners. (TNX DARA) NATIONAL REPEATER DATA BASE ALIVE AND WELL A special forum was held at the Dayton HamVention \r/ for the purpose of introducing the on-line availability of the National Repeater Coordination data base to potential participating coordinators. At this demonstration, Willem "Van" Van Aller, K3CZ, outlined the history of the data base project, stemming from a major push at the NE coordinators meeting in White Plains, NY, in 1985, and moving somewhat sporadically through several changes in scope and direction to the present newly available system. At the conclusion of the presentation, Van and Salavatore L D'Anna, WA3KOK, of TMARC demonstrated a successful on line access of the data base at ARRL HQ in Newington, and showed how it would be used to access news and message type mailboxes, as well as the upload and download of coordination information files. Many thanks to the HamVention \R/ staff for making the demonstration possible with a last minute installation of a telephone line in the meeting room. Applications are now being taken by Jay Mabey, NU0X, System Administrator, ARRL HQ for registration as a user of the data base. Currently, the data base contains the total technical information used by TMARC for their routine coordination purposes, as well as directory level information for many other areas of the country. The latter needs to be enhanced and expanded to the full format by the affected coordinators. Safeguards built into the data base program prevent coordinators from viewing other coordinators' information without permission. Additional information is available in recent and future Repeater Coordinator News Letters. TNX K3CZ. RETRANSMISSION OF ATLANTIS COMMUNICATIONS Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, president of the Goddard Space Flight Center Amateur Radio Club (GSFC), WA3NAN, has invited all radio amateurs to listen to the live voice communication transmissions between the astronauts on board the space shuttle Atlantis and Mission Control in Houston. The retransmissions are conducted on these HF frequencies: 3.860, 7.185, 14.295, 21.395, and 28.650 MHz. OSCAR Satellite enthusiasts are able to listen on the AO-13 downlink frequency of 145.955 MHz whenever mode B operation is in effect. Amateurs local to WA3NAN in the Greenbelt MD area are able to monitor 147.45 MHz simplex as well as watch what is going on by tuning into the Metro Vision ATV repeater on 439.25 MHz. The launch, first slated for Friday, April 28 from Cape Canaveral was held at the 31 second mark and was rescheduled for Thursday, May 4th. The primary mission of STS-30 is to deploy the interplanetary space probe Magellan launching it on its 15 month flight to the planet Venus. It is the first interplanetary probe launched by the US in 10 years. Continuous retransmissions will occur for the first 6 hours and 18 minutes of the mission up to the time the probe is deployed. After that retransmission of communications will occur only during the shuttle crew's waking hours. GSFC regularly retransmits Shuttle missions with the permission of NASA and the FCC. U4MIR/U5MIR QRT Cosmonauts Alexander Volkov U4MIR, Sergei Krikalev U5MIR, and Valery Polyakov packed their bags and returned to Earth at 0659 Moscow time on April 27th. Problems with the space station's electrical subsystem are being blamed as the cause for all three Cosmonauts evacuating MIR. This is only the second time the space station has been empty since it was launched in February, 1986. MIR was placed in a parking orbit at an altitude of 500 km. and will remain empty until a repair team returns in August to correct the problem. AMSAT CHOOSES MICROSAT LOGO Congratulations to Marc de Filippis, F6EZH, for submitting the winning design for the AMSAT-NA MICROSAT Logo Design Competition announced last November. Marc's idea was chosen because it best "typifies" the concept of Amateur radio satellites. His concept represents, through the use of five brilliant colors, the ARIANE rocket lifting the MICROSATs to outer space and the five continents they will serve each day. John Champa, K8OCL, AMSAT-NA Executive vice president has given the "go-ahead" to turn F6EZH's design into a 3" diameter patch. The design will also be enlarged and reproduced in the form of a large decal which will be affixed to the side of the ARIANE rocket that will launch the MICROSATs later this year. Patches will be available soon from AMSAT-NA Headquarters. "CQ FIELD DAY, CQ FIELD DAY" It's May, and while most folks are enjoying the flowers and thinking about their summer vacations, hams are thinking about Field Day June 24-25! Complete Field Day rules appear in the May issue of QST on page 103. If you haven't done so already, send for your Field Day package containing publicity kit, dupe sheet, summary sheet and check list by sending a 9 X 12-inch SASE containing 4 units of first class postage or 4 IRCs to ARRL HQ, Special Requests, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111. This year additional bonus points have been added for public relations. In addition to 100 points for media publicity, points have been added for operations in a public place and for conducting an information booth for the visiting public. WHAT'S HAPPENING WITH PRB-3? ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ told the ARRL Executive Committee at its April 1, Kansas City meeting that no FCC action had been taken on the possible privatization of amateur call sign assignments PRB-3, and that the likelihood of positive Commission action is waning with the passage of time. ARRL has reaffirmed its interest in, at minimum, finding a way to resume issuance of club and special event station call signs. C.L.E. SEMINAR ADVANCE REGISTRATION There is still time to preregister for the seminar titled "Land- Use Regulation of Federally-Regulated Communications Facilities and the Doctrine of Federal Preemption," nicknamed the PRB-1 seminar. It will be held at the ARRL National Convention in Dallas/Ft Worth on Saturday, June 3 from 8:30 AM-12:30 PM. Although you may register at the door, preregistration is being handled by the Regulatory Information Department at HQ. Written course material will be provided to advance registrants by mail or at the door. The charge is $50 to cover course materials but admission to the seminar is free to anyone not desiring them. See the February 11, 1989 issue of The ARRL Letter for additional details on the seminar. LT. GEN. FRANCIS H. (BUTCH) GRISWOLD, K0DWC, SK The April 15 issue of the Washington Post reported the passing of Air Force Lt. Gen. Francis H. (BUTCH) Griswold, K0DWC. General Griswold enlisted in the Army in 1928 and received his commission in the Army Air Corps in 1929. After his promotion to major general in 1946, his assignments included those of commander of the Third Air force in Britain. During the mid 50s, K0DWC and W6EZV, General Curtis LeMay, put Collins ham gear on an Air Force plane and flew around the world, staying in touch with Offutt AFB, Omaha, Nebraska the whole time. This proved the concept of HF SSB for Air Force use and allowed them to convert to this mode of communication without incurring extensive research and development costs. The amateur community will miss K0DWC. Thanks to Richard M. Seamon, W3IUS for passing along this information. HQ EDITORIAL CHANGES Effective with this edition, Tom Hogerty, KC1J, takes over as Editor of the ARRL Letter. Tom is Manager of the Regulatory Information Department at HQ. Outgoing Editor Jay Mabey, NU0X has assumed responsibility for editing the ARRL Repeater Directory. With Phil Sager's, WB4FDT departure from HQ, John Hennessee, KJ4KB is now Conductor of QST's League Lines and Happenings Columns. JOB OPENING AT ARRL HQ The Technical Department Laboratory has an opening for an engineer or technician with digital and/or RF lab experience. Starting salary range for an engineer with BSEE or equivalent is $26,000 to 28,600 depending on experience. Starting range for a technician with ASEE or equivalent is $22,022 to 24,224, depending on experience. For further information, contact Jon Bloom, KE3Z, or Chuck Hutchinson, K8CH, at HQ.