The ARRL Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
May 26, 2011
Editor: S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL Home Page ARRL Letter Archive
Audio News
IN THIS ISSUE
- + Public Service: Radio Amateurs Assist American Red Cross, Served
Agencies After Joplin Storm
- + Legislative News: Senate "Companion" Bill to HR 607 Avoids
Impacting Amateur Spectrum
- + Legislative News: ARRL Testifies Before Congress on Interoperable
Public Safety Network
- FEMA Administrator Calls Amateur Radio "The Last Line of Defense"
- Amateur Radio in the Classroom: NASA and ARISS Reach Out to Educators
- + ARRL Section News: Nevada Members Re-Elect ARRL Section Manager
- + On the Air: National Hurricane Center's WX4NHC Schedules On-The-Air
Station Test
- On the Air: Russia Now Permits Reciprocal Licensing Through CEPT
- CQ Announces 2011 Hall of Fame Inductees
- + Forecasters Calling for "Above-Average" Hurricane Season
- Solar Update
- Atlantic Division to Host Two Webinars
- + ARRL HQ News: ARRL HQ to Close in Observance of Memorial Day
- This Week on the Radio
- Upcoming ARRL Section, State and Division Conventions and Events
+ Available on ARRL Audio News
> + PUBLIC SERVICE: RADIO AMATEURS ASSIST AMERICAN RED CROSS, SERVED
AGENCIES AFTER JOPLIN STORM
On Sunday, May 22 at 5:41 PM, the single deadliest twister in almost
60 years -- and the second major tornado disaster in less than a month
-- swept through the southwestern Missouri city of Joplin, slamming
straight into St John's Regional Medical Center. The tornado killed at
least 117 people. As soon as the storm cleared, area Amateur Radio
operators responded to requests from the American Red Cross and local
hospitals to provide communications support.
"On Sunday, right after the tornado hit, I received a call from the
American Red Cross office in Springfield, asking for radio support,"
said ARRL Missouri Section Emergency Coordinator Ken Baremore, W0KRB.
"I contacted Greene County Emergency Coordinator William Gilmore,
KC0TCF, and asked him to join me in Springfield. We got there at 9 PM
and used a newly installed 2 meter beam to talk to the Joplin repeater,
establishing communications between the two American Red Cross offices.
Cell phone coverage was spotty at best, but mostly non-existent, and
the circuit was overloaded most of the time. We left about 12:30 AM."
Read more here
.
> + LEGISLATIVE NEWS: SENATE "COMPANION" BILL TO HR 607 AVOIDS
IMPACTING AMATEUR SPECTRUM
On Thursday, May 19, Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and John McCain
(R-AZ) introduced S 1040 -- The Broadband for First Responders Act of
2011 -- in the Senate. While it has a similar objective to HR 607 --
introduced in February by Representative Peter King (R-NY-3) -- this
Senate bill, unlike HR 607, does not call for auctioning any portions
of Amateur Radio spectrum. Both bills call for the allocation of the
so-called "D block" of spectrum, 758-763 and 788-793 MHz, to facilitate
the development of a public safety broadband network. Read more here
.
> + LEGISLATIVE NEWS: ARRL TESTIFIES BEFORE CONGRESS ON INTEROPERABLE
PUBLIC SAFETY NETWORK
The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology of the US House of
Representatives invited the ARRL to testify at a hearing on "Creating
an Interoperable Public Safety Network." ARRL General Counsel Chris
Imlay, W3KD, appeared before the Subcommittee on Wednesday, May 25.
"While this is not a hearing specifically on HR 607, it provides a
welcome opportunity to document our concerns about Section 207(d) of
that bill," noted ARRL Regulatory Information Manager Dan Henderson,
N1ND. Read more here
.
> FEMA ADMINISTRATOR CALLS AMATEUR RADIO "THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE"
In an FCC forum on
earthquake communications preparedness, Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA ) Administrator Craig Fugate
described the Amateur Radio operator as "the ultimate backup, the
originators of what we call social media." The forum-- held May 3 at
FCC Headquarters in Washington, DC -- brought together officials from
the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS
), the United States Geological Survey
(USGS ), FEMA, the FCC and the private sector.
Fugate and FCC Bureau of Public Safety and Homeland Security Chief
Jamie Barnett gave the opening remarks.
Later in the forum, Fugate spoke more on Amateur Radio. "During the
initial communications out of Haiti, volunteers using assigned
frequencies that they are allocated, their own equipment, their own
money, nobody pays them, were the first ones oftentimes getting word
out in the critical first hours and first days as the rest of the
systems came back up," he told the forum. "I think that there is a
tendency because we have done so much to build infrastructure and
resiliency in all our other systems, we have tended to dismiss that
role 'When Everything Else Fails.' Amateur Radio oftentimes is our last
line of defense."
Fugate said that he thinks "we get so sophisticated and we have gotten
so used to the reliability and resilience in our wireless and wired and
our broadcast industry and all of our public safety communications,
that we can never fathom that they'll fail. They do. They have. They
will. I think a strong Amateur Radio community [needs to be] plugged
into these plans. Yes, most of the time they're going be bored, because
a lot of the time, there's not a lot they're going to be doing that
other people aren't doing with Twitter and Facebook and everything
else. But when you need Amateur Radio, you really need them."
You can watch a video of the forum
on YouTube. Fugate's
remarks begin at 18:55.
> AMATEUR RADIO IN THE CLASSROOM: NASA AND ARISS REACH OUT TO
EDUCATORS
On May 19, the Education Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center's
notified almost 20,000 US educators about the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) Project. According to ARRL ARISS
Program Manager Rosalie White, K1STO, this kicks off the first of a
number of new processes that the ARISS US team will put into motion to
get educators more involved in the program, which coordinates Amateur
Radio contacts between the ISS and educational institutions around the
world. Read more here
.
> + ARRL SECTION NEWS: NEVADA MEMBERS RE-ELECT ARRL SECTION MANAGER
In the only Section Manager election this spring to be decided by
member balloting, ARRL members in Nevada re-elected Section Manager Joe
Giraudo, N7JEH, of Spring Creek, to a new two-year term of office.
Giraudo received 347 votes; his opponent J.D. Weiss, NK7W, of Reno,
received 124 votes. Giraudo has been Section Manager since August 2008.
His new term of office starts on July 1. Ballots were counted at ARRL
Headquarters on May 24.
The following incumbent ARRL Section Managers did not face opposition
and were declared elected for their next two-year terms of office,
beginning July 1: Jim Cross, WI3N, Maryland/DC; Al Shuman, K1AKS, New
Hampshire; Rich Krohn, N2SMV, Northern New Jersey; Bob Beaudet, W1YRC,
Rhode Island; Dan Pruitt, AE6SX, San Joaquin Valley, and Mel Parkes,
NM7P, Utah.
In West Texas, no nominating petitions were received for Section
Manager by the March 4 receipt deadline. West Texas Section Manager
John Dyer, AE5B, of Cisco, decided not to run for another term of
office, and his present term ends on June 30; he has been Section
Manager since July 2007, and had previously served as Section Manager
2002-2005.
According to the ARRL Rules and Regulations for the Field Organization,
the West Texas Section Manager's position will be re-solicited in the
July 2011 issue of QST. A Section Manager elected through the
re-solicitation will serve a term of 18 months.
> + ON THE AIR: NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER'S WX4NHC SCHEDULES
ON-THE-AIR STATION TEST
The annual WX4NHC On-the-Air Station Test from the National
Hurricane Center in Miami will take place Saturday, June 4, 1300-2100
UTC (9 AM - 5 PM EDT). "The purpose of this annual station test is to
test all of our radio equipment, computers and antennas using as many
modes and frequencies as possible in preparation for this year's
hurricane season," said WX4NHC Assistant Amateur Radio Volunteer
Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R. "This is not a contest or simulated
hurricane exercise." Read more here
.
> ON THE AIR: RUSSIA NOW PERMITS RECIPROCAL LICENSING THROUGH CEPT
On May 18, the European Communications Office (ECO) in Copenhagen
added the Russian Federation to the list of countries that accept the
CEPT reciprocal operating arrangements. This means that US hams who
hold an FCC-issued General, Advanced or Amateur Extra class Amateur
Radio license may operate in Russia, as well as the other countries
covered by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications
Administrations (CEPT), subject to the regulations in force in the
country visited. Read more here
.
> CQ ANNOUNCES 2011 HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES
CQ magazine announced its 2011 Hall of Fame inductees on May 20,
welcoming 12 new members into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame, one
new member of the CQ DX Hall of Fame and one new member of the CQ
Contest Hall of Fame. The CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame honors those
individuals, whether licensed hams or not, who have made significant
contributions to Amateur Radio, as well as those amateurs who have made
significant contributions either to Amateur Radio, to their
professional careers or to some other aspect of life on our planet. The
CQ Contest and DX Halls of Fame honor those amateurs who not only excel
in personal performance in these major areas of Amateur Radio but who
also "give back" to Amateur Radio in outstanding ways. Read more here
.
> + FORECASTERS CALLING FOR "ABOVE-AVERAGE" HURRICANE SEASON
Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center are calling for an
"above-average" Atlantic hurricane season for 2011. In its initial
outlook for the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season -- which runs from June
1-November 30 -- the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction
Center (CPC) is calling for a 65 percent probability of an above-normal
season, a 25 percent probability of a near-normal season and a 10
percent probability of a below-normal season.
CPC Forecasters say that there is a 70 percent chance of having 12-18
named storms, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes, including
three to six major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5). Tropical systems
acquire a name -- the first for 2011 will be Arlene -- upon reaching
tropical storm strength with sustained winds of at least 39 miles per
hour. Tropical storms become hurricanes when winds reach 74 miles per
hour and become major hurricanes when winds increase to 111 miles per
hour. An average season has 11 named storms, including six hurricanes
with two becoming major hurricanes. Read more here
.
> SOLAR UPDATE
Tad "All alone with the memory of my days in the Sun
" Cook, K7RA, reports: The
Sun was quieter again this week. The average daily sunspot numbers were
down nearly 17 points to 51.6, while the average daily solar flux
declined nearly 9 points to 83.2. The latest prediction is for the
solar flux to remain low at about 80 on May 26-June 2, then rise to 90
on June 3-4, then 85 on June 5-7 and back to 90 on June 8-11, finally
peaking at 95 on June 12. We seem to be a long way from recent weeks
when sunspot numbers were over 100. The same prediction has some
geomagnetic activity this weekend, with the planetary A index on May
26-30 at 8, 12, 15, 12 and 10, then declining to 5 on May 31 and into
the first week of June. Currently two new sunspots are emerging in the
Sun's southeastern quadrant. Look for more information on the ARRL
website on Friday, May 27. For more information concerning radio
propagation, visit the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation
page . This week's "Tad
Cookism" is brought to you by Andrew Lloyd Webber's Memory
from the musical Cats
.
> ATLANTIC DIVISION TO HOST TWO WEBINARS
Periodically, the ARRL's Atlantic Division hosts a "webinar" -- an
interactive Web-based seminar, designed to facilitate communication
between a small number of presenters and a large remote audience using
the Internet.
On Wednesday, June 1 at 9 PM (EDT), ARRL West Gulf Division Director
David Woolweaver, K5RAV -- along with ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay,
W3KD, and noted antenna zoning lawyer Fred Hopengarten, K1VR -- will
present Antennas, CC&Rs and You
. The webinar is
hosted by ARRL Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR. The scope
of the webinar will be an overview of the impact that private contracts
and land use provisions -- such as homeowners association covenants and
deed restrictions -- impact amateurs. The webinar will highlight how
CC&Rs differ from public laws, such as zoning ordinances and
governmental restrictions (which are covered under PRB-1). The
presenters will also discuss some common approaches on how amateurs
might try to address these restrictive covenants. Following the
presentations by Imlay and Hopengarten, participants will have the
opportunity to ask general questions related to the topic. Click here
to sign up for the
CC&R webinar.
On Wednesday, June 8 at 9 PM (EDT), Edgar and the National Capital
Region D-STAR Association will present the second of a two-part webinar
discussion on D-STAR technology and its application to emergency
communications . This
90 minute webinar will provide a discussion on how D-STAR technology
can benefit Amateur Radio EmComm scenarios. Examples of D-STAR
applications to EmComm will also be presented, as well as future growth
ideas. Click here to
sign up for the D-STAR webinar.
> + ARRL HQ NEWS: ARRL HQ TO CLOSE IN OBSERVANCE OF MEMORIAL DAY
ARRL Headquarters will be closed Monday, May 30 in observance of the
Memorial Day holiday. There will be no W1AW code practice or bulletin
transmissions that day.
ARRL Headquarters will reopen Tuesday, May 31 at 8 AM (EDT). We wish
everyone a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.
> THIS WEEK ON THE RADIO
This week:
- May 27 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
- May 28-29 -- CQ WW WPX Contest (CW)
- May 29 -- ARCI Hootowl Sprint (local time)
- May 29-30 -- Michigan QRP Memorial Day CW Sprint
- June 2 -- QRP Minimal Art Session
Next week:
- June 3 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder
- June 4 -- Wake-Up! QRP Sprint
- June 5 -- 10-10 International Open Season PSK Contest
- June 4-5 -- Maritimes QSO Party; Alabama QSO Party; SEANET Contest
- June 7 -- ARS Spartan Sprint
All dates, unless otherwise stated, are UTC. See the ARRL Contest
Branch page , the ARRL Contest Update
and the WA7BNM Contest
Calendar for more
information. Looking for a Special Event station? Be sure to check out
the ARRL Special Event Stations Web page
.
> UPCOMING ARRL SECTION, STATE AND DIVISION CONVENTIONS AND EVENTS
- June 3-5 -- ARRL Northwestern Division Convention (SeaPac)
,
Seaside, Oregon; ARRL Wyoming State Convention
, Cheyenne,
Wyoming
- June 4 -- ARRL Atlantic Division Convention
,
Rochester, New York; ARRL East Bay Section Convention
, Berkeley,
California; ARRL Georgia State Convention
,
Marietta, Georgia
- June 10-11 -- ARRL National Convention
,
Plano, Texas
- June 11 -- ARRL Tennessee State Convention
, Knoxville,
Tennessee
- July 2 -- ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania Section Convention
,
Marysville, Pennsylvania
- July 15-17 -- ARRL Montana State Convention
,
Essex, Montana
- July 29-30 -- ARRL Oklahoma State Convention
,
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
To find a convention or hamfest near you, click here
.
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