October 1995
SPOTLIGHT
DUES, DUES, DUES.....
Check your address label on this newsletter. If it has the year 94' next to your call sign you are way past due on your renewal. Unless FULL membership dues are received for 95', this is your last newsletter. Should you decide to prorate your membership, then you will be considered a New Member and you must include the additional $5 "New Member Fee." Otherwise, renew at the full March to March rate. We can not operate as a club without your contributions, so Thank You for your support.
MEMBERSHIP
We are currently below 100 members. The club must have at least 105 full paying members if it is to provide a Monthly Newsletter and cover the cost of running the Repeater on the hill. By "Full paying" we mean $24 year ($30 w/ patch) members. As you can expect, we have a variety of "Family" and "Senior" members which qualify for the reduced membership rate. Thus, our need to increase membership numbers is even greater!
It would be nice to see our club offer sponsored events for our members, but for this to happen, we must get well above the 105 member mark. New Repeater equipment and events can only come from us, so lets get out there and bring in those new members.
Remember, for every new member you bring in you will receive a $5 credit towards your next years membership. You may also apply this credit towards sponsoring a new member. In other words... Bring in six (6) new members and you may sponsor the seventh new members fees by turning in your credit!!!
POT LUCK
December's meeting will be held at the same time and at the same place.
However.....
Bring your family and your favorite foods to share with all.....
Never fear, if all you can bring is yourself, then please do. We want to see you all there for the Holiday Festivities.
Should you have young children in the family, then PLEASE drop us a message on the clubs phone and let us know who and how old. Enough young ones and maybe we can organize some activities and/or small gifts from Santa Clause. After all, I believe he has a DX HF station up there (Hi Hi).
More to come, so stay tuned.....
73's Rich, KE6CTE
PRESIDENT'S CORNER
Here it is, another year as the president. As you will notice if you see the list of club officers, Larry Fletcher is no longer the Treasurer, He was replaced by John Boles, KA6LWC, I'm still around and Rich Burguillos is still the V.P., Larry Doutherd, KD6SWL, Bill Walters, WA2IBM, Gary Mason, WB6AHC, Owen Delong, KB6MER are still board members , and we have some additional board members, Jon Ranoa, KD6FJL, Others have expressed interest and joining the board, but I have not talked directly to them yet so I'll wait to list them.
As you can see we are missing a secretary. Sam, KD6HWY, didn't express and interest in running for secretary this year and nobody, apparently, wanted to fill his shoes. So, anyone interested in devoting a few hours a month to help the club out as the secretary, don't hesitate to let us know, we could use your help.
I have been getting and copying, for the clubs use, video tapes from the ARRL. After I have accumulated a few ( I get one a month to copy ) I will list this in the news letter. I will try to show one, or part of one before each meeting. Something to occupy use, until the meeting starts.
As summer is coming to and end and vacations are mostly over, I expect that our meetings will start having more people at them. (8 to 12 people is not very exciting to see once a month). It's nice to see everyone, but a little discouraging when less than 10 percent of the membership show up for a meeting.
If you have ideas on speakers or how to improve the meetings, please let us know. For now, I trust everyone had a pleasant and safe summer.
73s Ben, KD6EWZ.
ARRL PACIFIC DIVISION UPDATE OCTOBER, 1995
by Brad Wyatt, K6WR, Director, Pacific Division, ARRL
18400 Overlook Rd. #5, Los Gatos CA 95030-5850
(408) 395-2501,
Packet: K6WR@N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA ,
Internet: bwyatt@arrl.org
Telecommunications Reform and a Proposal to Eliminate the FCC:
Telecommunications reform is one of the key topics in Washington DC currently as Congress returns from its August Recess. Both the House and Senate have passed differing Telecommunication Reform Acts. Apparently these bills focus on broadcast TV, cable TV, telephone service and related matters. It appears that these bills do not affect the Amateur Radio Service directly, but there may yet be surprises. In September, a conference committee from both houses will try to reconcile the differences between S. 652 and H. R. 1555. There are also various other proposals floating around Washington DC including proposals to eliminate the Department of Commerce and the FCC, as examples. This latter idea comes from the "Progress and Freedom Foundation," a "Think Tank" group consisting of folks with various political views. The proposal, essentially, is to eliminate the FCC and allocate the entire RF spectrum on a "property rights" basis.
The mood in Congress seems to be to enact some sort of telecommunications reform, but just what is unclear so far.
The ARRL Washington Team continues to monitor these developments and be active on our behalf. See September QST page 50 and October QST page 53 for more details.
Wireless Technologies and the National Information Infrastructure:
The Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress has just published a 300 page document describing several concepts of a "fundamental restructuring of the U.S. communications and information technology infrastructure." Although targeted on the telephone, computer, cable television, cellular telephone, satellite and broadcasting aspects and how they might relate to the National Information Infrastructure (NII) concept, it appears to have ready application in the Amateur Radio Service. With the ongoing U.S. Congress efforts on Telecommunications Reform, this document would appear to be very important to the future of all telecommunications as it discusses various options and potential plans. There is some reference to Amateur Radio in side comments, but "between the lines" reading may suggest other more profound possibilities.
This document, "Wireless Technologies and the National Information Infrastructure," OTA-ITC-922, dated July 1995, can be obtained from the U.S. Government Printing office for $19.
Also note October QST page 9 for additional thoughts.
Vanity "Preferred" Call Signs - No significant new News:
It appears as though the program for the actual application for call signs, other than the club call sign part of the program, will continue to be delayed. There are various stories targeting "late 1995."
The fee for a vanity call sign has been reduced by the FCC to $30 from $70 effective September 18, 1995.
Additional details regarding availability of the necessary forms can be found in previous editions of this Pacific Division Update and in QST.
FCC News:
On Aug. 17, FCC Chairman Reed Hundt proposed actions to save money, including personnel reductions and facility closings. In the Pacific Division, the Honolulu HI field office and the Livermore CA monitoring station would be closed by the summer of 1996. The Honolulu field office is now part of the FCC's San Francisco Region as the Seattle Regional office is now closed with the retirement of the Regional Director.
One facility, in Laurel MD, would be the central site for "electronic monitoring." The FCC will add a new centralized FCC Call Center, where for the first time members of the public anywhere in the United States will be able to call one toll-free number to reach the FCC for information or assistance. See October QST page 15 for more details.
In another announcement, the FCC is considering privatizing the resolution of radio frequency interference to consumer electronics devices. Under the plan, private repair shops would be used to fix problems in the field. FCC spelled out the Commission's concept at a meeting in Tampa, saying "Since it is not feasible for the Commission to attempt to resolve these complaints" (the most of which come from Citizens Band operation), "it is our policy not to investigate interference to home electronic equipment. Likewise, we do not offer any protection from interference." Over the past several years, the FCC has been unofficially out of the "retail" RFI business, and parties who contact the FCC about an interference problem are asked to work together toward a solution. Depending on what the local repair shop found, either the shop would fix the equipment or, in the case of a violation of FCC rules, the service shop would refer the case back to the FCC for possible FCC action. The question of who would pay was not addressed. See October QST page 80 for additional details.
The FCC Compliance and Information Bureau has just released a new 24 page color publication titled, "Interference to Home Electronic Entertainment Equipment Handbook." This document states, "cost-cutting manufacturing techniques, such as insufficient shielding or inadequate filtering, may also cause your equipment to react to a nearby radio transmitter. This is not the fault of the transmitter and little can be done to the transmitter to correct the problem." The publication contains diagnostic checklists and suggested remedies in language targeted to consumers who experience various types of interference. It is also a good compilation of data for hams. The publication called Bulletin CIB-2, May 1995, apparently may be obtained directly from the FCC CIB Field offices, although reports of actual availability vary.
One known source is the U.S. Government Printing Office, PO Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250, phone (202) 512-1800. The price is $2.50 postpaid. See October QST page 15 for additional details.
Spectrum Protection Battles Continue:
Just as we are coming out of the 13 cm band battle, the 5.6 to 5.9 gHz. band is now threatened by a petition from Apple Computer Corp. Basically, Apple asks to share 150 MHz. of our already shared 275 MHz. wide band to develop an "National Information Infrastructure" band. One characterization of the NII band might be a "wireless Internet available to all persons without license." One key request in the petition is that "Part 16" standing for the NII band be granted, which translated means that no interference can be caused to the unlicensed service by other services. Although "Part 16" does not now exist, it apparently is a proposed upgrading of Part 15 unlicensed service which does exist. Although denied in the Comments on the Petition by Apple, one impact of this proposal might be the elimination of the operation of a San Francisco Bay Area group which has been active in this band for some 20 years. The petition also asks for 150 MHz. just above 5.1 gHz., outside our band.
The petition provides very little technical information on such items as why 300 MHz is needed, how the sharing technically will be done, the power and antenna aspects and many other issues. The Apple request appears to be to have the FCC authorize this conceptual idea and then to work out the details in a Notice of Proposed Rule Making. See Sept. QST pages 61-62.
After a extremely rapid but effective effort, the ARRL filed Comments and Reply Comments on time opposing the petition. Several individuals and groups in the Pacific Division also worked extremely rapidly to file Comments and Reply Comments opposing the petition.
See page 50 in Sept. QST for details of another attack on these frequencies in the U.S. Senate in S. 652. The Washington and the Pacific Division teams are working tirelessly to defend this spectrum.
New Pacific Division Appointment:
It is my pleasure to announce that Phil Kane, N6SP, has been appointed as a Volunteer Counsel and Volunteer Consulting Engineer in San Francisco and Redwood City CA.
Welcome, Phil, to the Pacific Division team!
Congratulations:
Dewayne Hendricks, WA8DZP, from Fremont, CA, with a team of 3 others, has just been awarded a $400,000 National Science Foundation grant to study the use of wireless communication in urban and rural schools in the state of Colorado. The study will seek to determine the usability limits imposed by issues of allowable range and radiated power, urban and rural electromagnetic, geographical, and building environments (interference, scatter, line loss), availability of field power sources (where retransmission is required), data types, and interoperability of wireless with wired networks using the ubiquitous general network protocols such as TCP/IP, local LAN, serial and ethernet connectivity. The data collected over the one year period of the Project will be analyzed and placed in a publicly accessible network, as rapidly as significant findings are reached.
The significance of this research project is that the it will produce widely needed objective analysis of wireless as a general connectivity solution for public education beyond highly controlled, costly, commercial-service or limited environments. There currently is no such collected data. The accessible reports issuing from this project will serve the needs of those considering wireless -- educators, public spectrum policy makers, developers, designers, researchers, and scientists.
Dewayne is a member of the Future Systems Committee of the ARRL. One of the other members of the team is Bob Buass, K6KGS, from Southern California, the holder of the U.S. national Amateur Radio Spread Spectrum STA from the FCC.
Scholarships and Awards:
There are many awards and scholarships covering a wide range of situations available to licensed Amateurs. For example, the ARRL Awards include the International Humanitarian (nomination due Dec. 31); the Herb S. Brier Instructor of the Year; Professional Educator of the Year; Professional Instructor of the Year; Excellence in Recruiting; Phil McGan Memorial Silver Antenna (nominations all due Feb. 15); Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial; Field Organization Volunteer of the Year (nominations all due March 31). See the September 1995 edition of the ARRL Section Leader or contact the Field Services Dept. at ARRL HQ for details.
To apply for ARRL Foundation scholarships, write to The ARRL Foundation Inc., 225 Main St., Newington CT 06111. Deadline for applications and transcripts is Feb. 1. See Sept. QST pages 118-119.
Other organizations will be announcing their dates for applications for their 1996 scholarships. Watch QST and other amateur radio publications for details.
Last Modified 01/01/2000 scvrs_www@scvrs.org