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| · | To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your e-mail delivery address: see How to Get The ARRL Letter, below |
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+ Available on ARRL Audio News
While it continues its investigation into alleged "irregularities" in the administration of two exam sessions in Pennsylvania, the FCC has dismissed the pending Amateur Extra-class applications of four individuals. Letters went out in late January to Elmer Smith, N3UNR, of Effort, Pennsylvania; Kenneth Sharp, AA3RU, of Boyertown, Pennsylvania; Philip DiGenova, N3UNS, of Bartonsville, Pennsylvania; and Wayne Bowden, formerly AA3RT, of Millsboro, Delaware. The FCC last fall had set aside the four Extra-class grants while it looked further into the matter.
"The Commission discovered irregularities in the administration of the examination by the Volunteer Examiners," advised FCC Legal Advisor for Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, in letters sent January 27. "Serious questions about the examination process remain, and therefore your application for an Extra Class license has been dismissed." The FCC plans to continue its probe into alleged testing irregularities at the two W5YI-VEC sessions, including allegations that examinees might have been coached or given test answers.
Hollingsworth advised the four applicants that if they still wished to upgrade, they would have to take a new exam under another VEC and VE team. But he cautioned three who took their exams at an October 6 session in Warminster, Pennsylvania, that "additional issues" about the initial exam session "may be raised at that time."
In addition, Hollingsworth told Bowden that the FCC had information that he had been operating as AA3RT after the four applications had been set aside by the FCC last November 10 pending a final determination. Prior to the October 4, 1998, examination session in Spring City, Pennsylvania, Bowden did not hold an amateur license. "You are cautioned that such operation is unlicensed, and will result in monetary forfeiture," Hollingsworth wrote. "It would also seriously jeopardize any future applications to become an Amateur Radio Operator."
In the November 10 letters from the FCC, all four applicants were asked to return their Extra class license documents and Certificates of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCEs). Bowden allegedly still had not done so as of January 27, and Hollingsworth said the FCC would not process any future applications until he did. As a result of the latest FCC action, Smith and DiGenova were formally bumped back to Technician class, while Sharp was returned to Advanced and his former N3TPN call sign. The AA3RT call sign no longer appears in the FCC database.
When the ARRL Board of Directors met last month in Houston, Texas, it adopted a slate of ARRL legislative positions for the 106th Congress. Among several others, the Board approved a resolution to support legislation that would preserve and protect amateur access--on a primary basis--to existing Amateur Radio and Amateur Satellite Service frequencies "as a natural resource for the enjoyment of all properly licensed individuals." The Board also expressed its support for federal preemption of telecommunications regulation, "including strengthening and improving the ability of the FCC to promulgate and enforce reasonable regulation of transmitter and antenna issues."
The Board also said that spectrum auctions should not be used as a means to offset specific budget items, and that the ham bands should be exempt from auction or reallocation to commercial services.
The Board also resolved to:
Space officials from the US, Russia and several other countries gathered in Houston January 21-27 to continue plans to put Amateur Radio aboard the International Space Station. The effort ultimately will provide Amateur Radio with a permanent berth in space aboard the ISS. The so-called "Amateur Radio ISS accommodations meetings" at NASA's Johnson Space Center included a representative from Energia, the Russian space company that is building portions of the ISS. The Houston sessions focused on finalizing the design of the "initial station" ISS ham radio hardware. But perhaps even more important, the Houston meetings helped to clarify and firm up the role of the multinational Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program within NASA and Energia and highlighted the spirit of cooperation among the ARISS partners.
Initial station amateur hardware--primarily hand-held, dualband transceivers--will get to the ISS aboard a NASA shuttle. NASA has subsidized the NASA/Energia-required flight qualification testing for the initial station gear. Additionally, the agency developed the safety analysis package for the ham equipment and oversaw the actual testing and flight-preparation activities for the ham hardware. Both NASA and Energia have agreed to support astronaut space walks required for antenna installation work aboard the ISS.
Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, represented NASA, ARISS and AMSAT-NA as one of the ARISS international partners. Sergej Sambourov, RV3DR, represented Energia, AMSAT-Russia and ARISS-Russia. Bauer called the meetings "extremely successful" and said he was impressed with ARISS's "teamwork, camaraderie and cooperation" during the NASA-Energia meetings. "Together we share a common vision to develop and operate a multifaceted Amateur Radio station on ISS," he said. Bauer said the ISS ham station "will be a great recreational outlet for the on-orbit crews, an exciting DXpedition station for hams on the ground, and an outstanding educational outreach tool for students."
Sambourov, who's chief of Energia's Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department, confirmed the availability of four dual-use antenna feedthroughs on the Russian service module to support Amateur Radio and ISS video during space walks. According to Bauer, Sambourov expressed a strong desire "to work with the ARISS international partners to develop a single coordinated Amateur Radio station on ISS."
Bauer said that NASA officials at the meetings were pleased at the high level of flight hardware expertise and on-orbit operations knowledge ARISS was providing to NASA and Energia.
The initial station includes 2-meter and 70-cm hand-held radios, a packet radio system and power supplies, provided by the US team; a digitalker, designed and built by the German team; antenna feedthroughs, power and space accommodations provided by the Russian team; and an antenna system developed by the Italian team. The design was solidified during an ARISS meeting in Surrey, England, last July.
The multinational ARISS developed more than two years ago, in part out of the need for a single, international focal point to coordinate Amateur Radio development and operations for the ISS. ARISS is composed of IARU and AMSAT representatives in Russia, Italy, Germany, England, France, Canada, Japan and the US.
In addition to Bauer and Sambourov, the initial station ARISS team attending from various IARU and AMSAT groups at the meetings were Ron Parise, WA4SIR, and Lou McFadin, W5DID (ARISS-US hardware team); Matt Bordelon, KC5BTL (NASA and ARISS-US); Thomas Kieselbach, DL2MDE (ARISS-German hardware team); Alberto Zagni, I2KBD, Fabrizio Bernardini, I0QIT, and Luca Bertagnolio, IK2OVV (ARISS-Italian hardware team).
In the wake of the Houston sessions, ARISS repeated its request for proposals from the ham community for follow-on Amateur Radio hardware. The ultimate ISS ham radio complement--Phase 3--will include equipment to operate from HF through the microwave bands with SSB, CW, FM, packet, ATV, compressed ATV, and SSTV capabilities. The German team also will supply a full-duplex repeater.
The FCC's point man for Amateur Radio enforcement, Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, put in a guest appearance January 29 during a session of the South Carolina Single Sideband Net on 75 meters. "They contacted me and asked me if I'd take a few minutes to talk with them," said Hollingsworth, who's a South Carolina native.
Hollingsworth said he told those gathered for the net "where we've been, where we're going, and what we're trying to accomplish" in terms of ham radio enforcement. He said he expects to return to the airwaves from time to time and welcomes invitations from other organized nets. (His e-mail address is rholling@fcc.gov.) Hollingsworth's unannounced and unexpected appearance on 3894.5 MHz January 13 to discuss compliance and enforcement created a stir within the Amateur Radio community.
The only Space Amateur Radio EXperiment (SAREX) flight scheduled for 1999 has been delayed yet again. NASA sources say the STS-93 shuttle Discovery mission--originally set for January and subsequently delayed until March, then April, then May--now has been bumped until July 9.
An official announcement was pending. Schools on the schedule to have their students talk to the astronauts via Amateur Radio will be contacted. The postponement will allow TRW Space and Electronics Group to evaluate and correct a potential problem with several printed circuit boards in the Chandra X-ray observatory, a Discovery payload. The problem has been traced to poor conductivity between different layers of the boards (ie, through-plating), according to NASA, which has directed TRW to remove and replace the boards in the main unit.
The boards are made by B.F. Goodrich Aerospace. Reportedly, some 100 boards are involved. -- NASA and other sources
The man who first bounced a radar signal off the moon--John DeWitt Jr, N4CBC (ex-W4ERI)--died at his Nashville home January 25, some 53 years after making radio history. A few days earlier, on January 21, the man who engineered the first Amateur Radio Earth-Moon-Earth contact in 1960 with hams on the East Coast--Orrin "Hank" Brown, W6HB--died in California. Both DeWitt and Brown were 92.
While awaiting US Army discharge following World War II, DeWitt and his Project Diana team--named for the Roman moon goddess--got the OK from the War Department to investigate the possibilities of bouncing a radio signal off the moon. At the time, DeWitt was a lieutenant colonel assigned to the Signal Corps Laboratories in Ft Monmouth, New Jersey. Project Diana achieved success January 10, 1946, when the team detected the radar signals reflected off the moon's surface. The event was trumpeted in the news media of the day as a major achievement, proving that radio waves could penetrate Earth's atmosphere.
DeWitt later returned to Nashville and broadcasting, eventually becoming president of WSM radio. Coincidentally, Brown also did stints in radio at KPO and KSBR. Brown later worked at Eitel-McCullough and served as Eimac's marketing director for 20 years.
Brown had been licensed continuously since 1923, and was a League member for nearly 50 years. He also was a charter member of the Santa Clara County Amateur Radio Association. In 1961, he received an ARRL Merit Award. He was a founding member of OSCAR and a project leader for OSCAR-3, the first real-time repeater satellite of any type.--thanks to Julia Brown Sneden and Bob McKinley Jr, W2OMR; some information from press reports
ARRL HQ staff will support this year's School Club Roundup, operating on HF from Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Station W1AW. The SCR takes place February 8-13 (see related story, "Mir/APRS School Club Roundup" in the "In Brief" section, below).
"Special emphasis will be put on contacting youth groups, especially school clubs," said ARRL Field and Educational Services Correspondent Dan Miller, K3UFG. Depending on propagation and the availability of volunteers, watch for W1AW between 1600 and 1700 UTC on the suggested SCR frequencies (see http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/99/scr.html). Details for suggested exchanges can be found at the Web site or in January 1999 QST, page 92.
Each day of the event, HQ staff volunteers will spend their lunch hours at W1AW making contact with as many youngsters as possible.
Miller said that reports from the recent Kid's Day activity and other ham activities involving youngsters indicate a strong desire by young people to learn more about Amateur Radio (see "Kid's Day!" QST, Jan 1999, pp 46-47 or http://www.arrl.org/contests/months/jan.html).
"This is our way of saying thank you to all those folks who've gone the extra mile to put together a youth group Amateur Radio Station," Miller said. "Many of these groups have also registered at our new Youth Skeds Web site, http://www.arrl.org/ead/youthskeds/, to set up schedules to contact other youth groups via Amateur Radio."
For more information, contact Dan Miller, e-mail dmiller@arrl.org; tel 860-0594-0340.
Sun watcher Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: The geomagnetic field has been very stable over the past week, with many periods when all of the planetary, Boulder and even high-latitude K indices were zero. Average planetary A indices, which are based on the 3-hour K index over 24 hours, were down five points to 4.4. At the beginning of this month, the Boulder K index was zero for 24 hours, resulting in an A index of zero for February 1.
Unfortunately, we not only saw low geomagnetic activity, but declining solar activity as well. The daily sunspot number on January 30 was only 29, and it has not been that low since October 4 when it was 21. Low activity like this means poorer conditions on higher frequencies.
The average daily solar flux for January was 142.4, a drop of almost eight points from December, which was 150.1. It is still a higher average solar flux than any month other than December, 1998, in the current solar cycle.
For the near term, look for better conditions and a rising solar flux. Predicted flux values for February 5-7 are 110, 115 and 115, and the predicted planetary A index for those days is 10, 8 and 8. Expect flux values to rise to around 120 by February 9, 130 by February 11, 140 on the 12th, 150 on the 13th, and remain around 160 February 14-16. Look for unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions around February 9-11.
Sunspot numbers for January 28 through February 3 were 37, 33, 29, 59, 36, 47, and 42, with a mean of 40.4. The 10.7-cm flux was 118.8, 177.7, 118, 114.8, 118, 110.,9 and 108.8, with a mean of 123.9. The estimated planetary A indices were 7, 7, 5, 3, 2, 2, and 5, with a mean of 4.4.
TV and electronics pioneer Robert Page Burr, K1MI (ex-W2KQP), of Matinicus Island, Maine, died December 31, 1998, of complications following heart surgery. He was 76. Page Burr once wrote that getting his ticket in 1937 set him on the path of a lifelong interest in Amateur Radio and electronics. After a stint in the Navy during World War II, Burr spent 10 years with Hazeltine Corp and was a key member of the team that developed the US color television standard. He chaired the National Television Standards Committee that eventually persuaded the FCC and the television industry to adopt the NTSC standard. Burr also is credited with many other inventions and developments and held more than 200 patents. He retired in 1987 as senior scientific officer of Kollmorgen Corp. He was a member of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the ARRL. He received the Charles J. Hirsch Memorial Award from the IEEE in 1977 for his contributions to engineering. Burr won the July 1972 QST Cover Plaque Award for his article, "The Flashlight Sidebander."
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. Joel Harrison, W5ZN, 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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