Co-Sponsors
Sought for House Bill on CC&Rs
The ARRL is
urging hams to contact their local representatives in Congress to request their
support for - and ideally, co-sponsorship of - HR 4969, a bill that would require
the FCC to extend so-called "PRB-1" protections to private land use
regulations. For nearly 30 years, the FCC has required that local governments
"reasonably accommodate" amateur radio operations. But it has
consistently refused to apply that requirement to homeowner association rules
and/or restrictive covenants, also known as CC&Rs, without a specific
mandate from Congress. This bill, if passed, would provide that mandate, giving
the FCC four months to change Part 97 rules to include private land use
regulations.
According to
the ARRL Letter, the bill was introduced jointly by Reps. Adam Kinzinger
(R-IL) and Joe Courtney (D-CT). It was referred to the House Energy and
Commerce Committee, where it would first be considered by the Communications
and Technology Subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR), who
is also W7EQI.
Changes to
Licensing Rules Effective July 21
 |
| Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons |
New rules
regarding former hams wishing to be relicensed, and remote administration of
license exams, took effect on July 21, a month after publication of the FCC's
rulemaking decision in the Federal Register. Under the new rules, former
hams who held General, Advanced or Extra Class licenses and who want to return
to the hobby will need only to pass the Element 2 Technician exam. Once they
have done that, their expired license will provide them with credit for
whichever additional test elements they had previously passed. The rule changes
also authorize remote administration of amateur license exams, with details to
be left to Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs), and give final approval to
the use by hams of certain type of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) digital
modes. These had already been permitted under a blanket waiver issued while the
rule change was pending.
FCC Seeks 35 Percent Increase in Vanity Fee
The FCC is
proposing an increase of nearly 35 percent in the fee for issuing or renewing a vanity
callsign during the upcoming fiscal year. According to the ARRL Letter,
the current fee is $16.10 for a 10-year license term; under the proposal for
Fiscal Year 2015, it would increase to $21.60. The $5.50 hike is one of the
largest in many years. The FCC was expected to make a final decision on its
FY'15 fees in early August, with the new fees taking effect about a month
later.
No Young Ham of the Year in 2014
For the first time in its 28-year history, Newsline's Young Ham of the Year judging committee declined to name a winner this year, citing the small number of nominations received. (The committee, on which CQ Editor W2VU serves, also felt that the nominations received did not have sufficient supporting documentation to permit well-informed decision-making.) CQ is a corporate co-sponsor of the Young Ham of the Year Award, along with Yaesu and Heil Sound.
Dayton Records
Slight Uptick in Attendance, Number of Vendors
The Dayton
Amateur Radio Association says 24,873 people attended the Dayton Hamvention®
this past May. That's up just over 300 people from 2013's 24,542. In addition,
according to pcboard.ca, which tracks vendors at the show, the number of unique
indoor vendors at the 2014 show was 260, up 15 from 2013.
FCC Closes the
Book on K1MAN
 |
Internet screen grab
< http://www.QRZ.com/db/K1MAN > |
The long and
winding road surrounding the renewal of Glenn Baxter's amateur license has come
to an end after nearly a decade. Baxter, who held K1MAN, was a frequent thorn
in the side of the FCC, which had cited him multiple times for a variety of
alleged rule violations, including transmissions in which he had a financial
interest, causing interference to other stations and failing to exercise
control of his station.
His license
expired in October, 2005, according to the ARRL Letter, but the FCC
deferred action on his renewal application, eventually designating it for a
hearing (in 2011), and fining him $10,000 for rules violations. Baxter did not
pay that fine, and that became the basis for the FCC's June 23 decision to deny
his license renewal, exercising its "Red Light Rule," which states
that it may dismiss a license application if the applicant has an unpaid debt
to the Commission.
Special
Prefixes in Spain to Honor New King
 |
| Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons |
The government
of Spain has authorized its hams to use one of three special prefixes to mark
the decision in June by King Juan Carlos, EAØJC, to abdicate in favor of his
son, now King Felipe VI. According to the ARRL Letter, between June 18
and September 18, hams with EA prefixes in their calls may use the AMØ# prefix
(e.g., EA9CD would be AMØ9CD); calls beginning with EB may be identified as
ANØ# (e.g., EB7DX would be ANØ7DX) and those with EC calls may substitute AOØ#
(you get the idea). (It's a boon for WPX enthusiasts, but may just be
confusing for the rest of us!)
Satellites Map
Changes in Earth's Magnetic Field
 |
| Internet screen grab < http://bit.ly/1mH5v2r > |
A new fleet of
satellites launched late last year by the European Space Agency has begun
mapping changes in our planet's magnetic field, which protects Earth from some
of the sun's most dangerous radiation. Newsline reports that the first
set of high-resolution results from the "Swarm" satellites, covering
a six-month period, shows a general weakening of the magnetic field,
particularly over the western hemisphere (although it has strengthened over the
Indian Ocean), and that it is generally moving northward.
Of course, six
months worth of data is not sufficient to draw any conclusions about whether we
are seeing a long-term decline in the strength of the Earth's magnetic field or
whether we are just beginning to be able to measure normal fluctuations in
field strength and density.
ARRL Centennial
Station QSLs to be Routed Through Bureaus
The ARRL is asking
the individuals and groups that operate its incoming QSL bureaus to deliver
confirmations later this year from commemorative stations active for the
League's centennial celebrations. This includes W1AW/x operations around the
country, W100AW and ARRL headquarters staff station W1HQ. According to an
e-mail sent to the bureaus by Membership Services Manager Dave Patton, NN1N,
hams who want to receive their "AW" cards "via the bureau"
would need to sign up on a special web page on the ARRL website.
Halfway to the
Brendan Trophy
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| Internet screen grab < http://bit.ly/1qRk99f > |
A group of
Canadian hams has succeeded in bridging the Atlantic on 2 meters, the first
step in its quest to win the Brendan Trophy, offered by the Irish Radio
Transmitters Society for the first two-way transatlantic contact on 144 MHz. On
July 6, an FSK441 transmission by the "Brendan Quest" team operating
VC1T from Pouch Cove, Newfoundland was successfully decoded in England by
G4SWX. Attempts to complete a two-way QSO were not successful, but the group
believes the one-way reception should qualify it for the "Brendan
Plate," one of three related awards offered by IRTS.
VC1T was
transmitting 750 watts to a 43-element rope Yagi with a boom length of 30
meters (98-1/2 feet) with nearly 24 dB of forward gain. G4SWX's station is 3828
kilometers (2380 miles) from the VC1T transmitter site. (And you thought 2
meters was only good for local contacts!)
At the other
end of the spectrum, VLF experimenter Dex McIntyre, W4DEX, successfully spanned
the Atlantic in early June with signals transmitted on 8.971 kHz. According to
the ARRL Letter, McIntyre's transmission was detected in England by
shortwave listener Paul Nicholson, who was also the first to hear a
transatlantic transmission on 137 kHz, as well as a transmission from New
Zealand on the same frequency. (In case you're wondering, no FCC license is
required for transmitting below 9 kHz.)
<http://bit.ly/1qRk99f>
FCC Cites
Oregon Ham for QRM, Music, on 75 Meters
A ham in Sweet
Home, Oregon, has received a not-so-sweet Notice of Violation from the FCC. The
Commission alleges that Thomas Ryan, W7WL, maliciously interfered with other
stations on 3908 kHz, transmitted music on the same frequency and failed to
properly identify. He was given 20 days from the June 5 notice to respond. The
FCC reserved the right to take further action, depending on the response
received.
SKYWARN Pioneer
N5ZCB SK
 |
Alan Moller, N5ZCB (SK)
Internet screen grab < http://bit.ly/U6NQ9v > |
One of the
fathers of the National Weather Service's SKYWARN program became a Silent Key
on June 19. Alan Moller, N5ZCB, was 64. According to the ARRL Letter, Moller
and Chuck Doswell were the leading proponents of setting up a weather spotter
network that became the prototype for SKYWARN. Moller was a Senior Forecaster
at the Fort Worth, Texas forecast office of the National Weather Service. He
was also a storm chaser and filmmaker. A local field weather observation
program started by Moller and Doswell in 1972 laid the groundwork for today's
SKYWARN program, which uses the services of nearly 300,000 trained volunteers
across the nation - many of whom are hams - to supplement the weather service's
radar and other forecasting tools.
Satellite
Roundup
The skies are
filling up with ham radio satellites again. Here's a quick rundown of recent
launches and other activity, courtesy of the ARRL and the AMSAT News Service:
* UKube-1 - the
UK Space Agency's first cubesat - was successfully launched from Kazakhstan on
July 8 and its first signals were received soon after its deployment. UKcube-1
is "hosting" AMSAT-UK's "FUNcube-2," which includes an
SSB/CW transponder and a CW beacon.
* A record-setting
37 satellites - including about a dozen which will operate on the ham bands -
were launched from Russia on June 19 aboard a single rocket. Among the new
"birds" is QB50p1 - now EO-79 - which carries FUNcube-3 (with a
CW/SSB transponder aboard), QB50p2 - now EO-80 - which has an FM voice
transponder, and the Russian-built TabletSat-Aurora, which includes an
experimental D-STAR "parrot" repeater (which records and then
retransmits uplinked signals).
* There were
conflicting reports at press time about the status of efforts by a group of
citizen scientists, including several hams, to regain control of and repurpose
NASA's ISEE-3 satellite, which was later re-dubbed ICE, or International
Cometary Explorer, which was launched in 1978. Attempts in early July to fire
the satellite's thrusters and put it in line for a stable Earth orbit were not
successful, and several news sites reported that the group was giving up its
efforts. However, other sources, including the ISEE3 Reboot Project's Facebook
page, said the group was not giving up and would try again to regain control of
the satellite in early August.
* LO-78,
Lithuania's first amateur satellite, will probably have re-entered Earth's
atmosphere and burned up by the time you read this. In early July, the
satellite's FM transponder was turned on for what was expected to be the final
time. LO-78 was expected to re-enter the atmosphere around August 5.
