HAM Toolkit/HAM Toolkit.iso/text/arrl/letter10.26

Text File | 1994-06-05 | 19KB | 439 lines

The ARRL Letter
Vol. 12, No. 20
October 26, 1993

Nobel Prize:
Ham, former ham share 1993 award in physics

*By Stephen Karpf, WJ2P*

    The 1993 Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to
Joseph H. Taylor, K1JT, and Russell Hulse, formerly WB2LAV.
Their 20-year effort in radioastronomy began in 1974 at the
Arecibo National Observatory in Puerto Rico.

    Drs. Taylor and Hulse will share the Nobel Prize
award of $845,000. Their 1974 discovery of a binary pulsar
and resulting study over the next two decades confirmed
experimentally Albert Einstein's general theory of
relativity.

    Taylor told his local newspaper, the *Star Ledger*,
that he "attributes his love for science to an amateur radio
hobby he developed as a high school student at Moorestown
Friendship Academy in Moorestown. He is still dabbling (the
*Star Ledger* said) in gadgets, often designing instruments
for use on radio telescopes."

    In 1974 Taylor, then 33, taught at the University of
Massachusetts in Amherst; Hulse was a graduate student
working on a doctorate under Taylor. Since Massachusetts-
Puerto Rico telephone service was unreliable at the time, a
link using ham gear and a phone patch kept Joe and Russell
in touch.

    Joe Taylor, 52, has been a ham since 1954, when he
was 13. Joe (then K2ITP) and his older brother Hal, (then
K2ITQ, now K2PT), got thelr novice tickets at the same time.
Joe and Hal made quick progress as novices, building a
crystal controlled 2-meter AM transmitter with a 5763 in the
flnal. They soon moved on to Technician class and put
together a 500 watt 4-250 6-meter rig powered by a pole
transformer and mercury vapor rectifiers tied to a 6-over-6
element array.

    Joe and Hal earned money for ham gear by working on
their grandfather's farm overlooking the Delaware River in
New Jersey. The farm's main product was tomatoes for the
Campbell Soup Company. This farm has been in their family
since 1720.

    April 1958 *QST* featured Joe and Hal setting a
record in the ARRL January VHF Sweepstakes. Their parents
worried that the boys spent too much time with ham radio,
but those same parents drove the two to hamfests when Joe
and Hal were too young to drive themselves.

    Nobel co-winner Russell Hulse, 42, got his
Technician license in the late 1960s. He enjoyed building
the kits of the day from Eico, Heath and Knight. School and
other activities kept him from studying code enough to
progress to higher license classes, he said. He later let
his amateur ticket lapse but is once again interested, he
said.

    As a youth Hulse also built radio telescopes based
on material about electronics, Yagis, and corner reflectors
drawn from *The ARRL Handbook* and antenna texts. This
background was invaluable for working the Arecibo
radiotelescope, he said.

    Russell Hulse got his bachelor's degree at Cooper
Union, then became Joe Taylor's doctoral student at the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

        Joe Taylor attributes his bent for science
to his experience with ham radio during his high school
years. The Taylor brothers worked aurora and scatter on 6
and 2 meters during the peak sunspot years of 1957 and 1958,
taking part in the ARRL International Geophysical Year
Research Project. They received a prized Soviet QSL card for
tracking Sputnik in October 1957.

    *QST* for December, 1958, published an article by
Joe Taylor on ionospheric scatter on 6 meters. The author
was 17 years old.

    When Hal Taylor went off to Haverford College he and
Joe set up a 6-meter-to-220 MHz crossband duplex link to
stay in touch. Years later the Taylors linked up by ham
radio when Joe went on sabbatical to Australia.

    Joe holds a B.A. in physics from Haverford and then
a PhD from Harvard in astronomy. Hal went on to a PhD, too,
and now teaches physics at Richard Stockton College in New
Jersey.

    There is a learned tradition in the Taylor family.
Joe's and Hal's father was a school teacher and principal; a
relative also named Joe Taylor founded Bryn Mawr College.
Still another relative was the first president of Haverford
College.

    Joe Taylor and Russell Hulse discovered the binary
pulsar in 1974 as part of an extensive, specially designed
search for pulsars using the 300-meter dish at Arecibo. The
two realized that this binary pulsar could provide an
excellent opportunity to test Einstein's theory (a process
that continues to the present, as new technologies continue
to provide opportunities to verify the theory).

    Taylor and Hulse published their Arecibo work in
1975 in the *Astrophysical Journal Letter*. Hulse actually
discovered the binary pulsar system, but gives most of the
credit to his mentor Taylor, who for the past 19 years has
made the measurements and calculations resulting from the
system necessary for proving the theory.

    In short, the rate at which the Taylor-Hulse pulsars
are spiraling toward each other agrees with the rate
predicted by Einstein's theory to within half a percent.

    Joe Taylor today is Princeton University's James S.
McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Physlcs with
an endowed chair, the highest teaching title bestowed by the
university.

    Russell Hulse's rank of principal research physicist
at the Princeton Plasma Physics laboratory is the highest
research title by the Laboratory.

    Joe Taylor won the Wolf Prize, one of the most
prestigious honors in physics, in January 1992. The Wolf
Prize carries a $100,000 award, which he gave to the
Princeton Physics Department for graduate fellowships.

    Taylor also received a MacArthur "genius"
award in 1981 and the Dannie Heineman Prize of the American
Astronomical Society and American Insititute of Physics in
1980.

    *Steve Karpf is a writer of television and movie
scripts and documentaries and lives in Montclair, New Jersey
with his wife Patricia Karpf and 4-year-old daughter Katie.
He's on all bands 3.5-440 MHz and especially likes HF DX.*

FCC PLAN WOULD ALLOW
INSTANT ON-THE-AIR

    The FCC has proposed temporary operating authority
to unlicensed persons who pass the examination for a new
amateur operator license.

    The temporary operating authority would begin when
the exam is passed and an application for a license is
filed, and last until a full-term license is received from
the FCC (not more than 120 days).

    The temporary operating authority would not be
available to anyone whose license has been revoked or
suspended or who has been involved in other enforcement
proceedings before the FCC. Under the proposal, the
Commission also would reserve the right to cancel such
temporary operating authority without a hearing if a need to
do so arose.

    Those operating under the proposed new rules would
use call signs determined by the initials of their name and
by their mailing address. The prefix for each such call sign
would be WZ followed by a number indicating the appropriate
Volunteer Examiner Coordinator region.

    The Commission said it believes this system "would
be useful to the amateur community, yet practical to
implement." The FCC also said it was making the proposal "to
better serve new amateurs and to increase productivity in
the processing of license applications."

    The proposal, assigned PR Docket 93-267, was based
on a petition for rule-making made in July by the Western
Carolina Amateur Radio Society (WCARS) VEC of Knoxville,
Tennessee (RM-8288).

    The WCARS-VEC aired their proposal at the National
Conference of VECs in June.

    At presstime only the FCC news release, not the
actual text of the NPRM, was available.

    The ARRL board of directors said in July that the
Commission's on-going program to implement electronic filing
of amateur license applications was the preferred method to
eliminate any perceived need for a temporary operating
authority.

    ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ,
said that the League has always supported getting new
amateurs on the air quickly, and has offered as much
encouragement as it can to the FCC in the implementation of
electronic filing, which would allow FCC staff to make the
most of the limited time available for Amateur Radio license
administration.

    The League believes very strongly, Sumner said, that
"any operating authority must stem directly from the FCC,
not from some 'middle man' private entity, even though the
ARRL/VEC is the largest such 'middle man.'

    "Many of the protections we enjoy against arbitrary
local and state regulations," Sumner said, "are the result
of our being federally licensed. It would be a serious
mistake to allow this federal status to be diluted in the
interest of some short-term expedient."

    Sumner said that the League would respond to the FCC
proposal when the full text of the NPRM is available and
when League members have had a chance to express their views
on the subject to their ARRL directors.

ARRL WASHINGTON COORDINATOR
ANNOUNCES APRIL RETIREMENT

    ARRL Washington Area Coordinator Perry Williams,
W1UED, has announced that he will retire in April 1994 after
40 years of service for the League. He is currently the
staff member with the longest tenure at Headquarters.

    Perry, just turned 65, began his ARRL career in 1954
in the former Secretarial Department, subsequently the
Membership Services Department, when the ARRL Headquarters
building was located in West Hartford, Connecticut. He
became Washington Area Coordinator in 1980.

SHUTTLE HAMS GARNER
NATIONAL PRESS COVERAGE

    The hams aboard the Space Shuttle got a nice mention
in an Associated Press story that went out Friday evening
October 22. In a story led with the astronauts' practice
landings using the shuttle's on-board computer, the AP noted
that some of their very limited free time was being used to
talk to schools via ham radio.

    "Because of the length of the mission (the AP said)
and the number and intensity of medical tests, NASA
scheduled two half-days off for the seven astronauts: Friday
and next Thursday.

    "The astronauts squeezed in several ham radio
contacts with U.S. schools as they orbited 178 miles high.

    "'It's fantastic, and especially talking to young
people,' flight engineer Bill McArthur, KC5ACR, told the AP.
"When we do that, it makes us just really proud to be up
here representing all the people of the United States. To be
quite honest with you, it brings tears to my eyes."

    As of Saturday, October 23, four days into the 13-
day mission, the hams aboard STS-58 had made nearly 300
general QSO packet connects and several random voice
contacts in the U.S. and abroad, according to Frank H.
Bauer, KA3HDO, of the SAREX Working Group

    Bauer said that in most cases, full-quieting radio
links were established early in the pass and the school
question and answer sessions continued until the scheduled
loss of signal.  On October 21, the Lycee Gaston Febus
school in Pau, France had a telebridge contact with the
astronauts, with Jean-Marc Dumont, the France school
coordinator, saying that over 10,000 students throughout
France listened to the contact through a national repeater
link, according to Bauer.

    Because this shuttle has been particularly
successful in hooking up with schools on schedule, times
allotted for backup schedules have become available for
general contact with amateurs.

Here's the list of schools having made a contact as of Oct.
23:

    Russellville HS, Russellville, Arkansas;
    Red Springs HS, Red Springs North Carolina;
    Alamo Heights JHS, San Antonio, Texas;
    Bloomfield School, Bloomfield, Missouri;
    Lloyd Ferguson Elementary, League City, Texas;
    Sycamore Middle School, Pleasant View, Tennessee;
    Gardens Elementary, Pasadena, Texas;
    Carl Hayden HS, Phoenix, Arizona;
    Meyzeek Middle School, Louisville, Kentucky;
    Webber JHS, Ft. Collins, Colorado.


10 years ago in *The ARRL Letter*

    The tiny Caribbean island of Grenada topped *The
ARRL Letter* on October 28, 1983. Mark Barettella, KA2ORK,
then 23 years old and a student on Grenada, made news for a
time as the only source of information out of Grenada just
before and immediately following an invasion by U.S. troops
in response to a military coup. The FCC initially declared a
temporary amateur third party traffic authorization between
the U.S. and Grenada (essentially, Barettella), suspending
it the day after the U.S. invaded.

    KA2ORK/J3 was quoted around the world by wire
services desperate for word from the island due to a virtual
news blackout imposed by the Reagan administration.
Barettella was later the subject of a *QST* article on his
role in the drama. Barettella now lives in Kalamazoo,
Michigan.

    The *Letter* noted that media attention to Amateur
Radio in connection with the Grenada crisis was
"incredible."

    But the *Letter* also reported that the FCC had
denied the use of Amateur Radio, even in this extraordinary
case, for media interviews from the island, saying such
amounted to business communications. The Commission denied,
among several such requests, one from Walter Cronkite, then
of CBS news (Cronkite is now KB2GSD).

    This Commission opinion continues to the present,
most recently articulated in its new, generally more
liberal, rules concerning business communications which went
into effect in early September (Part 97.113), which
prohibit:

    "any activity related to program production or news
gathering for broadcasting purposes, except that
communications directly related to the immediate safety of
human life or the protection of property may be provided by
amateur stations to broadcasters for dissemination to the
public where no other means of communication is reasonably
available before or at the time of the event."

BRIEFS

    * An advertisement for ICOM America in November
*QST* concerning a Christmas promotion by ICOM could be
interpreted to mean that ARRL memberships are being
discounted through an ICOM coupon program. An ICOM press
release on the promotion also mentions ARRL membership as a
"discounted product."

    Actually, that's not the case. What the coupon
promotes is the standard new membership "extra" already
offered by the League: a free ARRL book to new members.

    * The Amateur Radio News Service is once again
soliciting club newsletters for its annual competition. The
contest, open to all Amateur Radio organizations (except
general circulation magazines and professional journals),
aims to recognize "superior performance in Amateur Radio
journalism." Editors who submit one copy of any issue of
their newsletter dated July 1992 through December 1993 will
not only be entered in the competition but will receive a
rating from the ARNS judges.

    Early submissions are encouraged; for more
information on the ARNS and to enter the contest, contact
ARNS President Lee Knirko, W9MOL, 11 S. LaSalle St., Suite
2100, Chicago IL 60603.

    * Upcoming ARRL meetings: Long Range Planning,
November 6; Administration and Finance, November 13;
Volunteer Resources and Membership Services, November 13;
and ballot counting for Board of Directors elections,
November 19.

    * The Radio Amateurs of Canada report "spectacular
growth" in the amateur population north of the border. On
October 1 there were 41,014 VE hams, 15,787 of them new
since the introduction of a restructured Canadian amateur
service in April 1990. The RAC also reports that nearly 72
percent of those 41,000 amateurs have obtained "the highest
level of qualification."

    Even more encouraging to the RAC was the drop in the
average age of amateur licensees: in 1987 60 percent were
over 50, while in 1993 that percentage had fallen to 54.

    * The FCC has issued a Notice of Forfeiture for
$10,000 to David Plourde, N1IZR, of Lewiston, Maine.

    In April 1992 Plourde was given a Notice of Apparent
Liability for $10,000 for allegedly operating on the
Citizen's Band using a non-type accepted transmitter and a
linear amplifier. Given the usual 30 days to respond to the
NAL, Plourde had not done so as of October 12, 1993, the
date of the Notice of Forfeiture.

    * Former W1AW Chief Operator Chuck Bender, W1WPR,
who retired in 1989, is recovering from heart by-pass
surgery and doing just fine, according to his successor,
Jeff Bauer, WA1MBK. Countless former Novices from the 1950s
through the 1980s have valued QSLs from W1AW signed "CR";
Chuck for years would stay after the night shift and give
newcomers the thrill of a W1AW contact.

    Incidentally, Chuck's former boss George Hart, W1NJM
(who also began his ARRL career as a W1AW graveyard shift
operator in the late 1930s) had by-pass work a couple of
years ago and looks great. He's been in to the HQ building
several times recently to use the reference library for a
historical article he's writing.


FCC honors KN4ZT

        The FCC has presented a bronze plaque of appreciation to
Melvin I. Woods, KN4ZT, of Annandale, Virginia. Woods was
cited by the Commission for what it called outstanding
assistance in solving a false distress signal case in 1992.

    The case involved an SOS on 14.313 MHz in August
1992.  The FCC said Woods not only provided important
information at the time but also cooperated with the FCC in
its subsequent investigation.

    Woods, 58, served in the U.S. Navy from 1952 to 1976
and is a former Senior Chief Radioman and Chief Electronics
Technician.  He was first licensed as a Novice in 1953 and
currently holds the Amateur Extra Class license.

    At the October 13 award ceremony Woods also received
the U.S. Coast Guard Public Service Award from Rear Admiral
William J. Ecker.

    The case resulted in 50-year-old Jorge Mestre, ex-
NS3K, permanently surrendering his license, receiving a one-
year suspended sentence, and paying a $50,000 fine to the
U.S. Coast Guard after pleading guilty in May, 1993 to
knowingly and willfully communicating false distress
signals. More information on the case is in April 1993
*QST*, page 79.