ARRL Headquarters staff members open and sort ballots for machine counting.
Monitoring the entire ballot-counting process was Central Director Ed Metzger, W9PRN.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, we're issuing combined editions of both The ARRL Letter and ARRL Audio News. The next editions will be distributed December 3, 1999. Late-breaking news will be available via The ARRLWeb Extra or W1AW bulletins. ARRL Headquarters will be closed Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25, and Friday, November 26. We wish you and yours a safe and enjoyable holiday! --Rick Lindquist, N1RL
+Available on ARRL Audio News
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ARRL Headquarters staff members open and sort ballots for machine counting.
Monitoring the entire ballot-counting process was Central Director Ed Metzger, W9PRN. |
The ARRL Great Lakes Division will have a new Director and Vice Director in January, and there are new faces in division leadership positions in the Dakota, Midwest and Pacific divisions.
The ARRL Committee of Tellers for the election of Directors and Vice Directors for the 2000-2002 and 2000-2003 terms met at ARRL Headquarters today to open and tally ballots submitted by ARRL members in the affected divisions. Balloting for Director occurred in the Great Lakes and Midwest Divisions. Balloting for Vice Director took place in the Atlantic, Great Lakes, and Pacific Divisions.
In the Great Lakes Division George Race, WB8BGY, of Albion, Michigan, was the victor in a three-way race to again serve as Director. The tally showed Race--the current Great Lakes Vice Director--nosing out current Great Lakes Director Dave Coons, WT8W, by 101 votes--1700 to 1599. Challenger Murray Scott, KE8UM, garnered 1302 votes.
In 1995, Race--the Great Lakes Vice Director since 1990--assumed the Director's position when former Director Al Severson, AB8P, now a Silent Key, resigned. In 1997, Race was defeated for election to the Director's post by Joe Falcone, N8TI. Falcone resigned just three months into his term, elevating then-Vice Director Coons to Director. Race subsequently was named to again serve as Vice Director. Earlier this year he filed nomination papers seeking to regain the top job in the Division.
Gary Johnston, KI4LA, of Covington, Kentucky, will be the new Great Lakes Vice Director. He defeated Lawrence Solak, WD8MPV, 2498 to 2010. Race and Johnston will serve three-year terms.
In the Midwest Division Robert W. Walstrom, W0EJ, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, defeated John Seals, WR0R, 2050 to 766, for a three-year term as Director. Walstrom--an ARRL Life Member--will replace retiring Director Lew Gordon, K4VX.
In the Atlantic Division, incumbent Vice Director Bernie Fuller, N3EFN, of Saegertown, Pennsylvania, beat back a challenge from John Buchanan, KW3X. The vote was 3047 to 2038. Fuller will serve a three-year term.
In the Pacific Division race for Vice Director, Robert Vallio, W6RGG, of Castro Valley, California, won a three-way race over Jettie Hill, W6RFF, and John Ronan, III, K3ZJJ. Vallio polled 1278 votes to 1186 for Hill and 1155 for Ronan. An ARRL Life Member, Vallio--who's currently East Bay Section Manager--will serve a two-year term.
Several candidates were unopposed and were declared elected. They include incumbent Directors Kay Craigie, WT3P (Atlantic), Rick Roderick, K5UR (Delta), and Frank Butler, W4RH (Southeastern) and incumbent Vice Directors Bruce Frahm, K0BJ (Midwest) and Evelyn Gauzens, W4WYR (Southeastern).
Incumbent Directors Tod Olson, K0TO (Dakota) and Brad Wyatt, K6WR (Pacific), also decided not to seek re-election. Incumbent Vice Directors Jay Bellows, K0QB (Dakota), and James Maxwell, W6CF (Pacific), will move up to Director in their respective divisions. Newcomer Twila Greenheck, N0JPH, of Shoreview, Minnesota, was unopposed to become the Dakota Division's new Vice Director.
Terms of office for all successful candidates begin at noon January 1, 2000.
No candidate was nominated for the Delta Division Vice Director position, now held by Henry Leggette, WD4Q. The ARRL Articles of Association provide that "Should the office of Vice Director be vacant, the vacancy shall be filled by appointment by the President."
Even though registration has been available for approximately two years now, most Amateur Radio licensees have yet to register with the FCC's Universal Licensing System. The ULS Task Force reports that, as of mid-November, 682,212 amateurs still have not registered. This figure includes individuals whose licenses have lapsed but remain in the two-year grace period. The FCC recently said approximately 3% of US licensees had registered with the ULS.
The FCC deployed the ULS for the Amateur Service on August 16, 1999. Amateurs must be registered in the ULS in order to file applications with the FCC--including renewals, modifications, and vanity call sign requests.
Meanwhile, the latest "good news/bad news" scenario from the ULS could go something like this: "Dear Amateur: The good news is that we have granted your requested Group C vanity call sign which you sought 10 weeks ago when you were a General class licensee. The bad news is that when we granted your long-awaited vanity call, we also undid the Advanced and Extra class upgrades you accomplished while your vanity was pending. So, congratulations! You're a General once again."
The ULS Task Force says it recently discovered that the bug occurs when several applications are pending (eg, a vanity application and an upgrade application). The FCC is attempting to straighten out the unintended downgrades and says it will have the operator class of affected licensees corrected within a week.
FCC personnel are currently testing the processing for club, military recreation, and RACES applications and hopes to act on pending applications before the end of the month. Up until now, those applications have been filed on paper and still must be manually keystroked into the ULS prior to processing.
The ULS Task Force also wants amateur applicants to know that if they apply too early for license renewal, their applications will be dismissed. A license renewal must be filed no sooner than within 90 days of expiration, even if coupled with a license modification. This is only an issue for those filing paper applications; the electronic filing system will not let applicants file prematurely.
To register for the ULS, visit http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls and click on "TIN/Call Sign Registration". Paper registration also is possible. For more information, call toll-free 888-CALL FCC (225-5322).
FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth recently took advantage of an enforcement-related letter to issue some operating reminders for nets.
On November 3, Hollingsworth wrote Alan E. Strauss, WA4JTK, of Carol City, Florida, to follow up on earlier complaints about the "14.247 DX Group," for which Strauss serves as net control. The FCC had contacted Strauss earlier this year regarding complaints that the 14.247 DX Group monopolized that frequency and interfered with ongoing amateur communications. The November 3 letter included correspondence the FCC received on August 4 that Hollingsworth said conflicts with Strauss's explanation of interference alleged to have occurred to the net in July. Hollingsworth said the case will remain open, and the FCC will continue to monitor net operations.
Hollingsworth used the occasion of the Strauss letter to again point out that amateur frequencies are shared, and no net has a greater right than any other ham to a given frequency and cannot take over a frequency unless it is voluntarily relinquished.
If the frequency is not relinquished, Hollingsworth said, amateurs must exercise "good Amateur practice" in choosing another frequency that does not disrupt existing communications. "A net 'taking over' a frequency from existing legitimate communications or deliberately operating disruptively close to existing legitimate communications will be considered to be engaging in deliberate interference," he wrote.
Hollingsworth also told Strauss that the practice of "identifying only by the last two letters of an Amateur call sign is a violation of Part 97" of the FCC rules and that such practice "must not be condoned by your group." Some amateurs had construed the statement--widely reported elsewhere--as a tightening of FCC station identification enforcement policy. Hollingsworth says that's not the case.
"All we said was that if only the last two letters are given, it doesn't meet Part 97," he said. He pointed out that if a calling station using an abbreviated ID is never acknowledged and given a chance to give a complete call sign, a legal ID would be lacking for that communication. To be strictly legal, stations using a suffix-letter ID always must identify within the first 10 minutes of the communication (and each 10 minutes thereafter) with a complete call sign. Hollingsworth restated the requirements in a follow-up letter to Strauss on November 16.
Hollingsworth this week also reminded net control stations not to encourage rule violations by requiring check-ins to use two-letter IDs without allowing a legal ID at some point within the time limits of the rules.
 At the controls of the VU2KFR/VU2HFR Amateur Radio Control Room in Calcutta is Indranil Majumdar, VU2KFR. Left is Sanjeev, VU2TIL. [photo courtesy of Indranil Majumdar, VU2KFR]
The Amateur Radio control center in the Jajpur District of Orissa: (l-r) VU2NKI operates on 2 meters while VU3BIS works the HF link. [photo courtesy of Indranil Majumdar, VU2KFR] |
Hams in India were able to play a critical role in providing emergency communication from the eastern state of Orissa, struck by a destructive "super cyclone" in late October. The storm resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, left many more homeless, and created food and water shortages. Troops have been sent into the affection regions, and the US has pledged $2.1 million in emergency food and shelter aid.
Calcutta VHF Amateur Radio Society Secretary Indranil Majumdar, VU2KFR, an ARRL member, reports teams of amateurs from all over India responded to the disaster. The Calcutta club set up an Amateur Radio Control Room at the shack he shares with his brother, Horey, VU2HFR, running a Drake TR4 transceiver into a three-element beam on 20 and 40 meters. At one point, a dozen Calcutta hams were staffing the facility around the clock.
"This is the first time the whole of India has to come to know and appreciate ham radio," VU2KFR said. He said ham radio provided the initial communication link between the stricken state and the rest of the country.
On November 7, a group of five Calcutta hams took off for the Jajpur District in Orissa in a Land Rover-type vehicle equipped with HF mobile equipment. "The communication was done from the mobile with a dipole fitted like an inverted Vee on the car roof," Majumdar said. The transceiver in the car was a 15-W homebrew SSB rig that the club had put together.
"The entire communication in the state is being maintained by hams--except for some satellite phones that are operating now and then and facing battery problems," Majumdar said. The disaster communications team has since returned from Orissa as telephone and satellite phone service became available.
Majumdar said the teams handled message traffic relating to emergency food, clothing, and medical needs, road conditions, and health-and-welfare. Similar fixed facilities were set up in other Indian cities--including New Delhi and Hyderabad--and linked via HF.
Majumdar says a group of hams from the National Institute of Amateur Radio in Hyderabad also went to Orissa and set up emergency control rooms in Bhubhaneswar, Jajpur and Paradip. Other stations subsequently were set up in other affected cities with VHF and HF capabilities. VU2KFR says VHF links were being used to handle regional traffic within and between states. There are no repeaters. The hams are using what he called "human relay."
Majumdar estimated that 50 hams in all were participating in the disaster communication effort using their own or borrowed equipment.
One Jajpur official praised the Amateur Radio efforts. In a letter to Calcutta VHF ARS President Dipak Mitra, VU2DPM, District Magistrate R. Balakrishnan said the radio links were helpful in monitoring the spread of disease and in damage assessment efforts. "I am of the view that the concept of ham radio should be popularized and more and more such groups need to be encouraged," he wrote.
Want to buy a piece of Amateur Radio history? Unfortunately, the antennas and towers now are gone, but the home of the late Sen Barry Goldwater, K7UGA, now is on the market for $4.5 million. The 6300-square foot home in the exclusive enclave of Paradise Valley, Arizona, was visited by dozens of political luminaries and by every living president. Goldwater was Arizona's longtime US Senator and was the GOP's 1964 presidential candidate.
The home, on nearly four acres atop a hill, offers a panoramic view of the valley. The K7UGA ham shack--famous for conducting thousands of phone patches during the Vietnam War--has been disassembled and donated to the Arizona Historical Society for display as a museum exhibit.
Goldwater died May 29, 1998, and the massive antenna system was removed shortly thereafter as part of a prior arrangement with the Goldwaters' neighbors. Goldwater's widow, Susan, still lives in the house, which is said to be owned by a Goldwater family partnership.--thanks to George Chaet, W1RGH
A contractor used explosives November 13 to drop three 300-foot tall radio towers at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The towers on Chesapeake Bay's Greenbury Point dated back to 1918 and had become a familiar sight to mariners and tourists. The US Naval Radio Station, Annapolis, was decommissioned in 1996. Plans to take down the towers generated a community debate between those who favored their elimination and those who wanted them preserved as historical artifacts. For many boaters, the towers have provided a navigational landmark.
The Navy made a bit of a show of the demolition with a band sounding colors and the raising of a US flag. On hand for the occasion were Navy dignitaries, members of the media, and local residents, including a few former radio station employees--among them Frank Gentges, K0BRA, who'd served in the 1960s and 1970s with the Naval Electronic Systems Command.
The demolition was the first of three planned for 13 of the Navy's 16 towers at the site of the former Naval Radio Station. An 800-foot tower will come down the weekend of November 20. Two smaller towers will be dismantled manually. Six 600-foot towers and one 1200-foot tower are scheduled to be dropped December 5. Three small towers will remain standing, at least for now. Naval Academy officials have said they will preserve the point as a nature and hiking refuge. --press reports
Solar flux and sunspot numbers were up this week. Average solar flux was up almost 40 points from last week's average flux, and average sunspot numbers were up by almost 50 points. The most active geomagnetic day was Saturday, November 13, when the planetary A index was 31 and the K index rose as high as five.
This weekend for the ARRL November Sweepstakes (phone) expect a solar flux of 210, 200 and 200 on Friday through Sunday, and planetary A index of 20, 20 and 12 for the same three days. The absorption on Friday and Saturday could be a little rough for HF operators, but by Sunday it may die down.
After the weekend expect the solar flux to bottom out around 150 from November 26 until the end of the month, then rise above 200 around December 6. From November 29 to December 3 geomagnetic conditions should be stable, with another rough patch around December 4-6.
Sunspot numbers for November 11 through 17 were 340, 324, 251, 232, 213, 231 and 248 with a mean of 262.7. The 10.7 cm flux was 239.8, 231.9, 223.8, 218.8, 205.6, 233.4 and 221.3, with a mean of 224.9. The estimated planetary A indices were 23, 10, 31, 10, 6, 16 and 10, with a mean of 15.1.
The ARRL Letter is published Fridays, 50 times each year, by the American Radio Relay League--The National Association For Amateur Radio--225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259. Jim Haynie, W5JBP, President; David Sumner, K1ZZ, Executive Vice President.
The ARRL Letter offers a weekly summary of essential news of interest to active amateurs that's available in advance of publication in QST, our official journal. The ARRL Letter strives to be timely, accurate, concise, and readable. The ARRLWeb Extra at http://www.arrl.org/members-only/extra offers ARRL members access to late-breaking news and informative features, updated regularly.
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