The ARRL Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
November 3, 2011
Editor: S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
ARRL Home Page ARRL Letter Archive
Audio News
IN THIS ISSUE
- Public Service: Amateurs Assist with Communications in Aftermath of
Rare October Nor'easter
- FCC News: President Obama Names Two Nominees for FCC Commissioner
- FCC News: FCC Terminates Proceedings Affecting the Amateur Radio
Service
- Mark Your Calendars: It's Time for the November FMT
- ARRL in Action: What Have We Been Up to Lately?
- Enforcement News: FCC Issues Notice of Apparent Liability for
Forfeiture and Order to Florida Man for Using Unauthorized Equipment
- Solar Update
- On the Air: Logbook of The World Experiencing Delays
- ARRL Congratulates: Joe Ostrowski, KI5FJ , Wins October QST Cover
Plaque Award
- This Week on the Radio
- Upcoming ARRL Section, State and Division Conventions and Events
There will be no ARRL Audio News
this week. The ARRL Audio News will return on Thursday, November 10,
2011.
Don't forget! The ARRL November CW Sweepstakes is this weekend. Click
here
for more information.
> PUBLIC SERVICE: AMATEURS ASSIST WITH COMMUNICATIONS IN AFTERMATH OF
RARE OCTOBER NOR'EASTER
A rare nor'easter brought historic snowfall and widespread damage and
power outages from the Mid-Atlantic into the Northeast United States on
the last weekend of October. Up and down the Atlantic seaboard, radio
amateurs provided various critical services to the National Weather
Service through the SKYWARN weather spotter program, and provided
communications support to local, state and federal emergency management
and non-governmental organizations.
"Amateur Radio operations at the National Weather Service office in
Taunton, Massachusetts were active on WX1BOX, the office's Amateur
Radio station," Rob Macedo, KD1CY, told the ARRL. Macedo serves as the
Eastern Massachusetts ARESŪ Section Emergency Coordinator and SKYWARN
Coordinator for the NWS Taunton office. "Hams in Taunton were active
for 21 hours supporting meteorological and damage data that was shared
not only with the NWS, but also with the media and local, state and
federal emergency management. This brought critical situational
awareness and disaster intelligence information in near-real time with
many agencies."
In the ARRL Connecticut Section, Section leaders were conducting their
Simulated Emergency Test (SET) when the storm hit. "Because of the
storm, we truncated the SET operational period and braced for the
unseasonable October snow," explained ARRL Connecticut Section
Emergency Coordinator Wayne Gronland, N1CLV. "The planned
hurricane/earthquake SET scenario was quickly displaced by a real
nor'easter! SKYWARN operators across the Section were activated on
Saturday afternoon, and nets went late into the evening gathering snow,
rain and wind data for the National Weather Service." Read more here
.
> FCC NEWS: PRESIDENT OBAMA NAMES TWO NOMINEES FOR FCC COMMISSIONER
President Barack Obama has nominated two new FCC Commissioners:
Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Varadaraj Pai. Rosenworcel has been
nominated to replace retiring Commissioner Michael Copps. President
Obama selected Pai to fill the seat vacated by Meredith Attwell Baker,
who left the FCC in June 2010. If Rosenworcel and Pai are confirmed by
the Senate, the FCC would be at its full complement of five
Commissioners.
The FCC has been down one commissioner since Baker's departure, and
Copps' departure at the end of the year would leave the agency with
only three commissioners: two Democrats and one Republican. Only three
sitting Commissioners may be members of the same political party. At
present, Chairman Julius Genachowski, Copps and Mignon Clyburn are
Democrats. If confirmed, Pai will join Commissioner Robert McDowell as
one of the two Republicans on the Commission. Read more here
.
> FCC NEWS: FCC TERMINATES PROCEEDINGS AFFECTING THE AMATEUR RADIO
SERVICE
The FCC issued an Order on November 1 that terminated hundreds of
proceedings, including six proceedings that members of the public,
including the ARRL, had asked not to be terminated. Two of these six
proceedings involved the Amateur Radio Service. This follows a June
2011 Public Notice that sought comments on whether or not it should
terminate approximately 800 docketed proceedings.
On July 20, 2011, the ARRL filed comments with the FCC on this matter,
explaining that it had no objection to the termination of the
proceedings in the Public Notice, save for one item: The ARRL's
Petition for Rulemaking (RM-10165) Amendment of Parts 2 and 97 of the
Commission's Rules Regarding the 2300-2305 MHz Band. In this Petition,
the ARRL requested that the FCC change the Amateur Radio Service's
allocation in that band from Secondary to Primary. This Petition was
one of the six items to be terminated. Read more here
.
> MARK YOUR CALENDARS: IT'S TIME FOR THE NOVEMBER FMT
The Frequency Measuring Test (FMT) returns to the airwaves on
Wednesday, November 9. As in April, the format will simulate a
roundtable QSO in which all of the stations are close to the same
frequency, but not exactly on the same frequency. This time, there will
be more time -- about five minutes -- between the transmissions from
each station. There will be three test signal stations: Connie
Marshall, K5CM, in Oklahoma, Charles Collins, W6OQI, in California, and
members of the Midwest VHF/UHF Society, W8KSE, in Ohio. If you have not
participated in an FMT before, it doesn't take a room full of test
equipment to have fun and make surprisingly accurate measurements. You
can read all of the QST articles about the exercises on the ARRL FMT
web page. Read more here
.
> ARRL IN ACTION: WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO LATELY?
This feature is a concise monthly update of some of the things that
the ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment -- which
covers the month of October -- takes a look the ARRL's reaction to the
FCC's new BPL regulations, how the ARRL is preparing for WRC-12, ARISS
activities, new publications, the upswing in the number of licensed
amateurs in the US, reports from the Official Observer Desk and more.
Read more here
.
> ENFORCEMENT NEWS: FCC ISSUES NOTICE OF APPARENT LIABILITY FOR
FORFEITURE AND ORDER TO FLORIDA MAN FOR USING UNAUTHORIZED EQUIPMENT
Michael Perry, of Cross City, Florida, was issued a Notice of
Apparent Liability for Forfeiture on November 1 in the amount of
$10,000 for operating a radio transmitter without the requisite FCC
authorization. The FCC found that Perry "willfully violated section 301
of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended and Sections 95.409 and
95.411 of the Commission's rules."
In response to a complaint of interference, agents from the Enforcement
Bureau's Tampa Office used direction-finding techniques on March 31,
2011 to locate the source of the interference to a signal on Citizens
Band channel 28 (27.2850 MHz) that was coming from Perry's residence.
The same day, agents from the Tampa Office inspected Perry's CB
station, which he admitted to using earlier that day. The agents
observed a non-certificated CB transmitter and three linear amplifiers
as part of Perry's CB station. Perry admitted to the agents that two of
the three linear amplifiers were capable of generating a power output
of 200 W and 1500 W respectively, and that he had never tested the
third. The agents observed that the transmitter and two of the
amplifiers were warm to the touch, indicating that the devices had been
recently operated. Read more here
.
> SOLAR UPDATE
Tad "Good day sunshine "
Cook, K7RA, reports: We have more good solar cycle news in this week's
bulletin, with NASA revising the estimated smoothed sunspot number for
the peak of Solar Cycle 24 for the third consecutive month. The
estimated value has risen nearly 30 percent since September. In
addition, the monthly average of daily sunspot numbers has risen 87
percent in the past two months. The latest prediction for the near term
has solar flux at 160 on November 3, 165 on November 4-9, 155 on
November 10, 150 on November 11-15, and peaking again at 165 on
November 17-18. For November 3-7, the predicted planetary A index is 8,
10, 12, 10 and 8, then 5 on November 8-10, 8 on November 11-13, and 5
again on November 14-23. Look for more information on the ARRL website
on Friday, November 4. For more information concerning radio
propagation, visit the ARRL Technical Information Service Propagation
page . This week's "Tad
Cookism" is brought to you by The Beatles' Good Day Sunshine
.
> ON THE AIR: LOGBOOK OF THE WORLD EXPERIENCING DELAYS
Due to a large number of radio amateurs uploading their logs to
Logbook of The World (LoTW )
after last weekend's CQ Worldwide SSB Contest, the ARRL's online QSL
verification service is experiencing delays. According to ARRL IT
Manager Michael Keane, K1MK, there is about a 60 hour wait for the more
than 10,000 logs in the queue to be processed. "Logs are processed in
the order in which they were received," he explained. "If you have
uploaded your log to LoTW, your log is currently queued for processing.
It has not been lost in the system. Uploading your log multiple times
will only further delay your log and those of others to be processed."
> ARRL CONGRATULATES: JOE OSTROWSKI, KI5FJ , WINS OCTOBER QST COVER
PLAQUE AWARD
The winner of the QST Cover Plaque Award for October is Joe
Ostrowski, KI5FJ , for his article "A Simple Remote Impedance Matching
Network. " Congratulations Joe! The QST Cover Plaque award -- given to
the author or authors of the best article in each issue -- is
determined by a vote of ARRL members on the QST Cover Plaque Poll Web
page . Cast a ballot for your
favorite article in the November issue today.
> THIS WEEK ON THE RADIO
This week:
- November 5-6 -- Ukrainian DX Contest
- November 5-7 -- ARRL Sweepstakes Contest (CW)
- November 6 -- High Speed Club CW Contest; DARC 10 Meter Digital
Contest
- November 9-10 -- CWops Mini-CWT Test
Next week:
- November 12-13 -- Kentucky QSO Party; WAE DX Contest (RTTY); 10-10
International Fall Contest (Digital); JIDX Phone Contest; OK/OM DX
Contest (CW); CWops Mini-CWT Test
- November 12-14 -- CQ-WE Contest
- November 13 -- SKCC Weekend Sprint
- November 14 -- NAQCC-EU Monthly Sprint
- November 17 -- NAQCC Straight Key/Bug 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
- November 6, 2011 -- ARRL Iowa Section Convention
, Davenport, Iowa
- November 19-20, 2011 -- ARRL Indiana State Convention
,
Fort Wayne, Indiana
- December 3-4, 2011 -- ARRL West Central Florida Section Convention
,
Palmetto, Florida
- January 8, 2012 -- ARRL New York/Long Island Section Convention
,
Bethpage, New York
- January 27-28, 2012 -- ARRL Mississippi State Convention
,
Jackson, Mississippi
- February 4, 2012 -- ARRL Virginia State Convention
,
Richmond, Virginia; ARRL South Carolina State Convention
,
Ladson, South Carolina
- February 10-12, 2012 -- ARRL Northern Florida Section Convention
,
Orlando, Florida
- February 17-18, 2012 -- ARRL Southwestern Division Convention
,
Yuma, Arizona
- February 18, 2012 -- ARRL Arkansas Section Convention
, Hoxie,
Arkansas
- February 25, 2012 -- ARRL Vermont State Convention
,
South Burlington, Vermont
To find a convention or hamfest near you, click here
.
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