Volume 17, Number 13 (March 27, 1998)

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IN THIS EDITION:

+Available on ARRL Audio News

FCC PROPOSES RULES CHANGES AFFECTING HAMS

In a sweeping Notice of Proposed Rulemaking the FCC has suggested several rules changes that could affect Amateur Radio, including replacement of the venerable FCC Form 610. NPRM Docket WT 98-20, "To Facilitate the Development and Use of the Universal Licensing System in the Wireless Telecommunications Services," seeks comments on proposals to replace Form 610 with FCC Form 605; to permit automatic reciprocal licensing of foreign hams wishing to operate in the US; to privatize the issuance of club station licenses; and to require applicants and licensees to supply a taxpayer identification number (TIN) and to file electronically. The FCC also plans to consolidate the application procedures for all Wireless Telecommunications Services into a single set of rules. All of these proposals are part of the FCC's efforts to implement the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau's Universal Licensing System (ULS).

The new Form 605 would apply for Amateur Radio and other services "not presently required to submit extensive technical data to receive a license." The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is trying to drastically cut down the number of forms for the various services it administers, and to include all of its services under the ULS. The FCC last November began initial collection of licensee data to populate the ULS. Using the ULS, applicants and licensees will be able to file, modify, and renew electronically. Ultimately, the FCC intends to require all applicants, as appropriate, to file all applications and notifications electronically.

The FCC says it's tentatively concluded that there is "little or no need to continue issuing the reciprocal permit" (FCC Form 610-AL) for alien amateur licensees because the license from any foreign country with which the US has a reciprocal agreement would "stand as the proof that the foreign operator is qualified for the reciprocal operating authority." Reciprocal operation under the new regime would be "by rule," which means no special action is necessary on the applicant's part, and the elimination of Form 610-A.

For club station licenses, the FCC proposes to accept the services of VEC-like organizations as volunteer club station call sign administrators. Prospective organizations would have to complete a pilot autogrant batch filing project before being authorized as call sign administrators.

Under the ULS, applicants or licensees would have to supply a TIN, usually a Social Security number, or "its functional equivalent." The FCC says this is "consistent with the requirements of the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996." To allay fears of misuse of TINs, the FCC says the ULS would be designed so that TINs will not be available to the public and "only a small number of Commission employees would have access to TIN information in conjunction with their work." The FCC says a Privacy Act submission would be published in the Federal Register "to obtain the requisite public and Congressional comment and Office of Management and Budget approval prior to implementation of the ULS."

A text version of the entire rulemaking proposal is at http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Wireless/Notices/1998/fcc98025.txt (or see the link from the FCC home page). The ARRL plans to file comments on the proposal, released March 20. Comments are due to the FCC 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. Reference WT Docket 98-20. The FCC will not accept e-mail comments on Docket WT 98-20.

GREAT LAKES DIRECTOR RESIGNS

ARRL Great Lakes Division Director Joe Falcone, N8TI, has resigned, effective March 23. He offered no reason for his unexpected decision to step down.

An attorney from Livonia, Michigan, Falcone became a director January 1, 1998, after defeating incumbent Director George Race, WB8BGY, in balloting last November. Falcone was a member of the ARRL's Enforcement Task Force.

Great Lakes Vice Director Dave Coons, WT8W, automatically has succeeded to the office of Director, creating a vacancy in the Vice Director's position.

GEORGIA HAMS RALLY TO HELP TORNADO VICTIMS

Hams in the Gainesville, Georgia, area responded quickly March 20 after a tornado ripped a ten-mile swath through northeastern Georgia. The storm left a dozen dead and more than 100 injured. Members of LARC--the Lanierland Amateur Radio Club--and Hall County's ARES organization promptly set up a net on LARC's VHF repeater and set to work handling what Hall County Assistant EC and LARC President Terry Jones, K4FB, called "a massive amount of radio traffic." An Amateur Radio communications trailer--owned and sponsored by the Chattahoochee Baptist Association of Gainesville--also was deployed and set up operations next to the Hall County Emergency Management Agency command post. "The unit was set up and operating on emergency power in a matter of minutes," Jones said. Jones also is unit director of the Baptist group's communications unit.

Jones said the tornado knocked out power, and cellular telephone systems soon became overloaded and unusable. No telephone service was available in the affected area, so the LARC UHF repeater's autopatch was pressed into service to make emergency phone calls until normal telephone service was restored. ARES members from Lumpkin, Gwinnett, White, Jackson, and Clark counties also pitched in to help, Jones said. He estimated that approximately 100 hams volunteered.

Ham radio operators continue to provide logistical support for the American Red Cross in the affected area. The Red Cross dispatched Communications Officer Chet Hallberg, K0TCB, to Georgia (see "Kansas Ham Cited for Helping Blind Become Hams," The ARRL Letter, Vol 17, No 4). Jones said hams will remain on the scene to assist with what he termed a "massive volunteer effort" this weekend to help with cleanup activities.

Overall, Jones observed, ham radio's main contribution was to help make sense of the confusion by pulling together the activities of the various responding agencies--in effect, keeping everyone on the same wavelength.

"My hat is off to all hams who responded to this disaster," Jones said. "Ham operators are indeed the Amateur Radio Service."

NORTH CAROLINA HAMS MAKE SKYWARN COUNT

Hams in North Carolina activated a SKYWARN net March 20 to track severe storms that crossed the state and provide up-to-the-second reports to the National Weather Service. ARRL PIO Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, says that early on the evening of March 20, hams reported several funnel clouds and tornado touchdowns across southern and eastern Wake County. Another tornado was spotted later near Raleigh-Durham Airport, and a funnel cloud was seen in Granville County.

Tornadoes caused considerable damage in Rockingham County and knocked out communication there. North Carolina Emergency Management called on hams to bridge the gap by linking the county with the state Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh.

Pearce says that the Amateur Radio station at the National Weather Service office in Raleigh sits right next to the Doppler radar operator. The SKYWARN reports verify radar information and provide details on the ground that radar can't see. "For example, Doppler radar can see hail in clouds, but can't measure the size or detect if the hail is reaching the ground," he said. "Large hail is a good indication that a thunderstorm has the potential to form a tornado," he explained.

In Georgia--where the same line of storms caused several deaths and severe damage in the Gainesville area--ARRL Section Manager Sandy Donahue, W4RU, urged expansion of storm-spotting networks. Donahue blamed NWS budget cutbacks for the fact that residents were caught totally off guard by the storms. He says the NEXRAD and conventional radar at the NWS Headquarters in Peachtree City--some 100 miles northwest of the stricken area--simply cannot see a tornado until it's too late because the radar beam is too high above ground.

"Budget cuts caused NWS to close a radar site at Athens, 30 miles away, which would have had a lower beam and would have seen the storm and provided some warning," Donahue asserts.

He says the tragic experience points up the necessity for Georgia hams to expand the successful storm-spotter program, "so that more trained eyes can be out there, watching and reporting when heavy weather hits." Donahue says Amateur Radio's storm-spotter relationship with the Weather Service has been "very close and productive," and Georgia will expand its storm-spotter training in the near future. "I hope the rest of the country will also," he added. "The experience of the residents of Hall, White, Dawson, Habersham and Rabun County Georgia should be lesson enough of the consequences of excessive budget cutting of vital services like the NWS."

The tornadoes in Georgia were the second disaster in the Peach State this month. ARES members in southern Georgia were active in recovery efforts from flooding in the area around Albany. "Tragedy struck twice this month in Georgia," Donahue said.--thanks to Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, and Sandy Donahue, W4RU

ANDY FELDMAN, WB2FXN, IS DAYTON'S HAM OF THE YEAR

"Excited, still numb, shocked," were the words Andrew J. "Andy" Feldman, WB2FXN, used to describe his reaction to being named the Dayton Hamvention's 1998 Amateur of the Year. Feldman, of Coram, New York, is being recognized for his lifelong dedication to public service through his activities in ARES and RACES. Feldman has been active in public service since he was first licensed in 1962. He's served as Suffolk County (NY) ARES District Emergency Coordinator and as Suffolk County's American Red Cross chapter disaster communications chairman. Recently, he became Director of Communications for the New York Wing, Civil Air Patrol. He's also an active SKYWARN member. Feldman was in the forefront of ham radio support activity following the TWA Flight 800 disaster in July 1996, and during an outbreak of fires on Long Island in the summer of 1995. He works at Brookhaven National Lab as a technical contract specialist. In his spare time, Feldman says he enjoys OSCAR and packet.

The Dayton Hamvention Technical Excellence Award winner is Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, the "father of APRS." In making the announcement, the Hamvention called APRS "an internationally recognized achievement." Bruninga, who lives in Glen Burnie, Maryland, is being honored for creating and developing the Automatic Packet Reporting System, which became available in 1993. "I should thank the other authors--the Sproul brothers, WU2Z and KB2ICI; Steve Dimse, K4HG; and Brent Hildebrand, KH2Z--for making it possible on all computers," he said. Bruninga says he was surprised to learn he'd been named to receive the award, which he views as a tribute to the thousands of APRS users. "APRS wouldn't be anything without them," he said. Bruninga points out that "330 APRS digipeaters have sprung up all over the country."

Bruninga is a contract engineer at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis where he's engineer in charge of the Satellite Lab, operates the satellite system, and is active in integrating space communication into the curriculum. He's also the ARRL Technical Coordinator for Maryland-DC. For Bruninga, APRS is "a 24-hour-a-day job." He says he gets around 200 e-mail messages a day relating to APRS, often with questions from users. "APRS has consumed me," he concedes.

This year's Dayton Hamvention Special Achievement Award goes to ARRL Dakota Division Vice Director John B. "Jay" Bellows Jr, K0QB, who said the award was completely unexpected. Bellows, of St Paul, Minnesota, is being honored for his work promoting the limited federal preemption, PRB-1, which requires municipalities to reasonably accommodate Amateur Radio antenna requirements. In particular, Bellows gained exposure through his pro bono legal work in the Pentel v Mendota Heights, Minnesota, case (see QST Mar 1994, p 91), which reaffirmed the original intent of PRB-1 and imposed an affirmative obligation on the city to accommodate ham radio with the "minimum necessary regulation to accomplish its legitimate purposes."

All three awards are made annually by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, which sponsors the Hamvention. They will be presented May 16 at the Dayton Hamvention banquet.

ANDY THOMAS THRILLS FLORIDA KIDS

Earlier disappointment turned into delight this week as youngsters at Westchester Elementary School in Coral Springs, Florida, finally got to speak with US astronaut Andy Thomas, KD5CHF, aboard Mir. The contact was the latest in a series of successful Mir-school QSOs that resumed in February after a lengthy hiatus. The first attempt, on March 12, to link Westchester Elementary with Mir via ham radio failed when the W5RRR ground station at Johnson Space Center was unable to make contact with Thomas, apparently a result of a radio problem.

There were no problems early on March 23, however, as W5RRR op Matt Bordelon quickly made contact with Thomas as Mir came into range and patched in the school via a telebridge link. Kai Siwiak, KE4PT, whose wife teaches at Westchester Elementary, says audio was loud and clear and 11 questions were asked and answered during the contact.

On hand for the occasion were other students, parents, news media, members of the Motorola Amateur Radio Club, and a Coral Springs City Commissioner. The contact was transmitted live over the Motorola ARC's 146.79 MHz repeater.

Siwiak's two junior ops, Westchester alumni Diana, KE4QXL, and Joseph, KF4JAS, served as the on-site ham op and backup respectively.

Other contacts with Thomas aboard the Russian space station are set to occur in the coming weeks with schools in New Mexico, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. To date, all Mir-school contacts this year have been carried out on 70 cm. Thomas will remain aboard Mir until June.

FINAL PHASE 3D INTEGRATION UNDER WAY

Final integration work continues at AMSAT's Phase 3D Integration Lab in Orlando, Florida, as AMSAT remains optimistic for a launch opportunity sometime this year. Serious negotiations with the European Space Agency for a ride to place the next-generation Amateur Radio satellite into orbit continue.

AMSAT teams from several countries recently converged on the Phase 3D Integration Lab earlier this month to install remaining electronic and communications modules into Phase 3D and get it flight ready.

In a joint statement March 18, AMSAT-DL President and Phase 3D Project Leader Karl Meinzer, DJ4ZC, and AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO, outlined recent progress made on the satellite. "After successfully recovering from the setbacks caused by the major structural reworks of last summer and fall, the spacecraft is now once again rapidly nearing flight readiness," Meinzer said. He expressed his gratitude to AMSAT-NA Vice President of Engineering Stan Wood, WA4NFY, Integration Laboratory Manager Lou McFadin, W5DID, and to other members of the Orlando Lab team, including Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, Rick Leon, KA1RHL, and Bob Davis, KF4KSS, for their hard work in preparing the satellite for the final integration phase.

At the Integration Lab, AMSAT-DL's Digital Integration Manager Peter Guelzow, DB2OS, performed checks and measurements on the spacecraft's Internal Housekeeping Unit (IHU)--Phase 3D's main computer. He also sent and received commands from the spacecraft via radio uplink. Phase 3D North American Command Station Stacey Mills, W4SM, also was in Orlando to put finishing touches on software needed to format and decode the satellite's telemetry stream. "Needless to say, there were big smiles all around when, once again, P3D team members heard the familiar growl' of 400 baud PSK telemetry coming from the new bird," said AMSAT Executive Vice President Keith Baker, KB1SF.

Aside from being AMSAT-DL's Vice President, Werner Haas, DJ5KQ, is responsible for coordinating the entire communications suite for Phase 3D. In Orlando, Haas performed yet another bench test on each of the flight electronic modules just prior to their re-installation into the satellite. Then, he directed other members of the communications team in successfully powering up each of the onboard flight electronic modules. Michael Fletcher, OH2AUE, and Harri Leskinen, OH2JMS, also were on hand to reinstall the 10 GHz transmitter. In addition, Stefaan Burger, ON4FG, connected and powered up the 24 GHz transmitter, which performed "as advertised," delivering its designed 1 W output into its 26db gain feed-horn antenna.

The RUDAK team thoroughly checked out the RUDAK digital experiment module and declared it electrically flight-ready. Gerd Schrick, WB8IFM, helped the team to put the final touches on the satellite's all-important Earth and Sun sensors. These instruments will help ground controllers determine Phase 3-D's physical orientation in orbit for tracking and motor burn considerations.

Meanwhile, Konrad Mueller, DG7FDQ, AMSAT-DL's Structural Specialist, and his team prepared the second Specific Bearing Structure (SBS) for flight. The SBS is the large cylindrical structure that will ultimately carry the Phase 3D spacecraft to orbit. In addition, Phase 3D Documentation Manager, AMSAT-DL's Wilfred Gladisch, was on hand to insure that all the spacecraft's documentation--including each drawing and photograph--match the "as built" spacecraft.--AMSAT News Service

SOLAR UPDATE

Solar savant Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Solar activity remained high last week. Average solar flux for the previous 90 days rose two points from 97 to 99. Solar flux was well above these values on each day, indicating a good trend upward.

Looking at a graph of both solar flux and sunspot numbers over the past two months, a general upward trend becomes apparent. HF radio users can hope that the March 15 solar flux of 133 establishes a new level of activity for the current cycle that will be sustained. A glance at the chart at http://www.dxlc.com/solar gives a graphic illustration of this.

March 21 saw a geomagnetic storm, with planetary A indices jumping to 33. This was caused by a solar flare, and within a couple of days conditions had quieted back down.

Conditions over the next few days should be fair for the CQ Worldwide WPX Phone Contest. The solar flux on Friday through Sunday is forecast to be 111, 111 and 110. Flux levels are expected to drop below 100 after April 1, then above 100 after April 5 and above 110 by April 7, peaking near 120 around April 10 and 11. Active to minor storm geomagnetic conditions are expected over April 6 and 7.

Over the next few weeks good propagation between northern and southern hemispheres associated with spring conditions should continue. During daylight look for the best worldwide conditions on 15, 17 and 20 meters, and 30 and 40 meters after dark.

Sunspot numbers for March 19 through 25 were 80, 100, 95, 114, 72, 83, and 79 with a mean of 89. The 10.7-cm flux was 124.8, 126.5, 125.8, 127.6, 122, 120.6, and 115, with a mean of 123.2. Estimated planetary A indices were 4, 7, 33, 11, 5, 7, and 16, with a mean of 11.9.

In Brief:

This weekend on the radio: The CQ WW WPX Contest (SSB) is on tap for this weekend. See March QST, page 101, for details.

February QST Cover Plaque Award: Charles Kitchin, N1TEV, has been voted winner of the February QST Cover Plaque Award for his article "A Simple Transmitter for 80 and 40 Meters." Congratulations, Charles!

DXCC List price change: The DXCC List has increased in price effective April 1, 1998 from $2 to $3. The new DXCC List incorporates the recent changes in DXCC rules and criteria developed by the DXCC 2000 Committee and approved by the ARRL Board of Directors. The price increase also reflects higher paper and production cost, and is necessary to maintain the production of the hard copy version of the DXCC List. For those with Internet capabilities, the DXCC List and DXCC forms are available at http://www.arrl.org.

Vanity update: As of March 23, the FCC in Gettysburg had run all vanity applications through February 23. In the last run, 61 new grants were issued. No applications remained in the work in process (WIPs) stack.

Attorney named to head Public Safety and Private Wireless Division: D'wana R. Terry has been named Chief of the Public Safety and Private Wireless Division of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB), which oversees the Amateur Service. She has been acting chief since January. Terry earlier served as chief counsel to the WTB chief after serving as a legal advisor. Prior to joining the FCC, Terry was an associate in a communications law practice specializing in mass media regulation.--FCC

Ham gets Carnegie Medal: Elton Twork, KC8BZD, of Wyoming, Michigan, has been honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission. Nearly 18 months ago, Twork pulled two men from a car just moments before it was demolished by an oncoming train. Twork, 24 and a security guard, was one of 17 people across the country similarly honored. He was on duty when he witnessed the car--piloted by an intoxicated driver--as it crashed a barrier and landed on the tracks with a train bearing down on it. John Wittman, WK8X, of Grand Rapids, says the local sheriff hauled what was left of the smashed car to Twork's award ceremony. Twork received a medal and a $3000 check, which he plans to put toward his pursuit of an MA in public administration.--thanks to John Wittmann, WK8X

Herzliche Gluckwünsche! The Deutscher Amateur Radio Club magazine CQ DL this month celebrates 50 years of publication. The magazine was begun in 1948 in the wake of World War II--a time when ham radio operation had not yet been reauthorized for hams in Germany (although illegal transmitting was rather widespread). CQ DL boasts 60,000 readers. The current issue of CQ DL includes a reprint of the March 1948 issue.