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N9PMO > LETTER 24.07.15 01:22l 508 Lines 22300 Bytes #999 (0) @ ARRL
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Subj: ARRL3331 ARRL Letter
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Sent: 150724/0005Z 18546@N9PMO.#SEWI.WI.USA.NOAM BPQ1.4.63
ARRL Board Approves HF Band Plan, National Parks Centennial Event,
Award Winners
ARRL Complains to FCC About The Home Depot's Marketing of RF Lighting
Devices
FCC Announces Enforcement Bureau Field Office Reorganization Plans
Amateur Radio Satellite Pioneer's Estate Will Boost ARRL Endowment
Fund
ARISS Offering Certificate for Receiving Apollo-Soyuz Mission SSTV
Images
Amateur Radio Volunteers Support Michigan's Premier Bicycle Tour
Party Balloon Carrying Ham Radio Payload Circles Southern Hemisphere a
Second Time
In Brief...
Getting It Right!
The K7RA Solar Update
Just Ahead in Radiosport
Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions and Events
ARRL Board Approves HF Band Plan, National Parks Centennial Event,
Award Winners
Meeting July 17-18 in Windsor, Connecticut, the ARRL Board of
Directors adopted amendments to the ARRL HF Band Plan -- with some
tweaks; approved a National Parks On The Air (NPOTA) operating event
in 2016 to celebrate the National Park Service centennial; authorized
the filing of a rule making petition with the FCC seeking changes on
80 and 75 meters; initiated the search for a successor to ARRL CEO
David Sumner, K1ZZ, who will retire next May, and named several ARRL
award recipients.
ARRL HF Band Plan
The Board adopted amendments to the ARRL HF Band Plan that were
recommended by the HF Band Planning Committee, with one major change
from the proposals as outlined in the April 2015 issue of QST and
summarized on the ARRL website. That change was to set the upper
RTTY/data limit for 20 meters at 14.125 MHz, consistent with the IARU
Region 1 band plan.
Rule Making Petition to FCC
The Board authorized the preparation of a rule making petition to the
FCC, seeking changes in the 80 and 75 meter bands that are consistent
with majority opinion among more than 1000 responses to an online
membership survey. The petition would seek to shift the boundary
between the 80 meter RTTY/data subband and the 75 meter phone/image
subband from 3600 to 3650 kHz. It also would restore privileges in the
3600-3650 kHz segment to Advanced, General, Technician, and Novice
licensees.
In addition, the League will ask the FCC to shift the automatically
controlled digital station (ACDS) band segment from 3585-3600 kHz to
3600-3615 kHz, consistent with the IARU Region 1 and Region 2 band
plans, and authorize Technician and Novice licensees to use RTTY/data
emissions in their 15 and 80 meter band segments, the latter change
contingent on expansion of the 80 meter band.
CEO Successor Search
Additional details are forthcoming, but the Board set into motion its
search for a successor to ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, who has set a
target retirement date of May 1, 2016. By then, Sumner will be 67 and
will have been on the Headquarters full-time staff for 44 years. He
was named Secretary and General Manager in 1982, with a change in
title to Executive Vice President in 1985, and the additional title of
Chief Executive Officer in 2001 (the title of Executive Vice President
was phased out in 2011).
ARRL Award Recipients
The Board named several recipients of ARRL awards:
Anna Veal, W0ANT, is the recipient of the prestigious 2014 Hiram Percy
Maxim Memorial Award for youth, in recognition of her involvement,
service, and leadership throughout the Amateur Radio community.
David L. Hershberger, W9GR, was named to receive the 2014 Doug DeMaw,
W1FB, Technical Excellence Award for his work in reducing audio
distortion in SSB transmission, as described in his article
"Controlled Envelope Single Sideband" in the November/December 2014
issue of QEX.
The Board recognized the principals and developers of
Broadband-Hamnetâä˘ for their contributions to microwave mesh
networking with the 2014 ARRL Microwave Development Award.
Randy Thompson, K5ZD, was named the winner of the 2014 Philip J. McGan
Silver Antenna Award for outstanding volunteer public relations
success over many years -- and especially for achieving national media
coverage of the 2014 World Radiosport Team Championship.
Dues to Rise in 2016
ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, and CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ. [Steve
Ford, WB8IMY, photo]
The Board approved a $10 increase in the League's annual dues rate,
effective January 1, 2016. In so doing, the Board adopted a
recommendation of the Administration & Finance Committee. ARRL basic
dues have been held at $39 a year since 2001. ARRL CEO David Sumner,
K1ZZ, said the League has done as much as it can to hold off a dues
increase for more than a decade, but now it's a necessity, not an
option.
"One of the most difficult decisions a membership organization faces
is a dues increase," he said. "Over the past 14 years we have managed
to hold the increase in expenses to just 19 percent, against a US
inflation rate of 32 percent over the same period," he continued. "We
have implemented operating efficiencies that allowed reducing the
staff by 15 percent while expanding the range of services to members
and to Amateur Radio as a whole. We created a development program,
offering to those members who have greater financial capacity an
opportunity to support their national association at a higher level."
Enhanced membership services since 2001 include inauguration of
Logbook of The World® (LoTW); a digital edition of QST at no
additional cost; expanded QST and video product reviews; upgraded
public service support including the Ham Aid program, Emergency
Communications Training, and the ARES® E-Letter; the Education &
Technology program and Teachers Institutes on Wireless Technology, and
the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program.
Sumner aid that advocacy on behalf of Amateur Radio has included
relentless defense of Amateur Radio spectrum, the Amateur Radio Parity
Act, and an increased awareness of the value of Amateur Radio on
Capitol Hill.
Details of ARRL's revenues and expenditures are available in its
Annual Report archive for the years 2002 to 2014. The cost of a basic
ARRL membership will rise to $49 on January 1, 2016. An ARRL Life
Membership, now $975, will increase to $1225.
ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD (right), addresses the Board as
ARRL COO Harold Kramer, WJ1B (right), and CFO Barry Shelley, N1VXY,
look on. [Steve Ford, WB8IMY, photo]
Amateur Radio Enforcement Plan
The Board also directed the CEO, staff, and General Counsel to develop
and, under the supervision of the Executive Committee, execute a plan
to improve timely and visible enforcement in the Amateur Radio
Service, most notably in the areas of RF interference from power lines
and Part 15 and 18 lighting devices and malicious interference to HF
net operations and VHF/UHF repeaters.
ARRL 2016 National Convention
The Board authorized the holding of an ARRL National Convention in
Orlando, Florida, February 12-14, 2016, in conjunction with the 70th
anniversary of Orlando HamCation.
Strategic Plan
The Board approved preliminary recommendations of the ARRL Strategic
Planning Working Group and authorized the continuation of the group's
activities with final recommendations due at the Board's 2016 Annual
Meeting.
ARRL Complains to FCC About The Home Depot's Marketing of RF Lighting
Devices
The ARRL has filed a formal complaint with the FCC, alleging that The
Home Depot retail chain has been marketing certain RF-ballast lighting
devices in violation of FCC Part 18 rules. Accompanying the League's
July 14 letter to FCC Enforcement Bureau Spectrum Enforcement Division
Chief Bruce Jacobs and Office of Engineering and Technology Laboratory
Division Chief Rashmi Doshi was a 20-page report prepared by the ARRL
Laboratory's Mike Gruber, W1MG. His report outlines four instances in
which ARRL investigated The Home Depot's marketing and sale to
consumers of non-consumer-rated RF lighting devices.
A commercial ballast on sale in The Home Depot marketed to consumers.
There is no FCC warning to indicate that this product may not be used
for residential applications.
In three cases, The Home Depot sold non-consumer devices having far
greater emission limits and intended for commercial use to consumers
who specifically expressed plans to use the devices in residential
settings. Although notices accompanying the store's display and
included with some devices purchased indicated that they were for
commercial use, the information did not specify that the devices could
not be used for residential purposes. In the case of products that did
include such a notice, the information was not visible without opening
the packaging.
"Clearly Home Depot's marketing and sale of non-consumer ballasts is
not adequate to ensure compliance with FCC Part 18 requirements,"
Gruber's report concluded. The ARRL asked the FCC to "investigate and
commence an enforcement proceeding" regarding The Home Depot's retail
marketing and sale of RF lighting devices in the US.
In its letter, the League noted that it has received numerous
complaints from the Amateur Radio community of "significant noise" in
the bands between 1.8 and 30 MHz from so-called "grow light" ballasts
and other RF lighting devices regulated under FCC Part 18 rules.
Gruber said emissions from grow light ballasts have been measured in
the ARRL Lab to be way above both non-consumer and consumer Part 18
emissions limits.
Although otherwise-legal non-consumer rated ballasts -- the subject of
ARRL's complaint -- are not nearly as problematic as grow lights, they
can still cause interference beyond what would typically be expected
or easily addressed in a residential environment. The devices at issue
in the League's complaint are only legal in commercial and industrial
environments, and they should not be used for residential purposes due
to the higher Part 18 emission limits permitted for industrial and
commercial devices.
A display at The Home Depot containing both residential and commercial
fluorescent light fixtures mixed together in no certain order.
The League said its investigations in several states revealed an
alarming number of instances in which non-consumer-rated ballasts were
mixed in with consumer ballasts and other consumer products.
"In most of the stores surveyed, unsuspecting consumers have no way of
knowing the significance of consumer vs. non-consumer ballasts," the
League said. "In some cases, 'commercial' grade ballasts, with their
associated non-consumer emission limits, appeared to be a heavier duty
or superior product. The display signage typically used implies,
therefore, that commercial ballasts are also a product upgrade for
home use." The ARRL said that store display signage typically did not
mention or adequately address applicable FCC Part 18 requirements, as
they pertain to interference in a residential environment.
The League said consumers in three of the four instances it
investigated made actual purchases of RF lighting devices at The Home
Depot retail outlets and "specifically asked about resicisco,
and Columbia (Maryland) will relocate to FCC-owned sites nearby or in
the same metropolitan areas. Columbia is where the FCC's HF Direction
Finding (HFDF) facility is located.
The FCC said relocated offices as well as those remaining open in or
near New York City, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, Boston, Denver, Honolulu,
New Orleans, Portland (Oregon), and Los Angeles "will be staffed and
equipped to maintain the Commission's Field program." Rapid deployment
teams will be stationed in Columbia and Denver to supplement
enforcement efforts of other field offices as necessary and to
"support high-priority enforcement actions nationwide," the FCC said
in a news release.
The FCC did not indicate how many employees were likely to be
furloughed. Read more.
Ad
Amateur Radio Satellite Pioneer's Estate Will Boost ARRL Endowment
Fund
The ARRL will benefit from the largesse of the late Amateur Radio
satellite pioneer Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR (ex-W6HDO), and his late
wife Mable Vierthaler. The League this month received the first major
installment of its portion of the couple's estate. Buttschardt also
designated AMSAT to receive a similar share. Buttschardt died in 2006,
and his wife in 2013. The funds will go into the ARRL Endowment Fund.
ARRL Development Manager Lauren Clarke, KB1YDD, has estimated that the
ultimate gift will be in the vicinity of $280,000.
Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR.
Buttschardt, a long-time Project OSCAR leader, AMSAT member, and ARRL
Life Member lived in Morro Bay, California. He was 75 when he died on
July 30, 2006. Just days before, the Project OSCAR Board of Directors
awarded him with its Lifetime Achievement Award -- its highest honor
-- for his contributions to Amateur Satellite Radio.
A native of the New York City area, Buttschardt graduated from San
Jose State in California with a degree in electrical engineering. He
served as a radioman in the US Navy and later worked at Raytheon and
SRI. While at SRI, he joined the original project OSCAR and supported
the construction of OSCAR 1, the first Amateur Radio satellite.
In 2001, while he was teaching at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo,
California, Buttschardt -- with Ed English, W6WYQ -- began work on the
CubeSat project. After Buttschardt moved to Cal Poly, he and English
continued to mentor students who were involved in developing the
initial CubeSat designs.
"Cliff was a skilled and passionate radio amateur, as devoted to
maintaining the traditions he valued as to exploring the frontiers of
space communications," said ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ. -- Thanks to
AMSAT for some information in this report
ARISS Offering Certificate for Receiving Apollo-Soyuz Mission SSTV
Images
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is offering a
certificate to anyone who received slow-scan TV images during the
Apollo-Soyuz mission 40th anniversary event, July 18-19. The ARISS
team transmitted a series of 12 SSTV images related to the historical
An SSTV image depic balloon was Vince, ZS6BTY, in Pretoria,
South Africa. The balloon had been at an altitude of about 9000 meters
(29,530 feet), but quickly descended into the ocean.
PS-46 had circumnavigated the Southern Hemisphere the first time in 12
days, and it was starting its third trip around when it went down.
Read more. -- Thanks to Jim Linton, VK3PC
In Brief...
QRZ.com Major Website Upgrade Continues: The popular QRZ.com website
has been undergoing a major upgrade since July 17, and things are
going a bit more slowly than initially anticipated. QRZ.com Founder
and President Fred Lloyd, AA7BQ, said the site's engineers encountered
some unforeseen problems. "What started out as a simple update that
went bad is now almost over," Lloyd announced on the site's Facebook
page early on July 22. "We've replaced our forums software and are
reconfiguring it for use with QRZ. While we realize that many folks
have been concerned, we want to express our sincere thanks to those
who have been patient and understanding with us as we work overtime to
put the system back online." The outage does not affect call sign
lookups, logbook, and other site features. Lloyd said QRZ.com is
"looking forward to a shiny new user interface and a bunch of new
features for our wildly popular Ham Radio Forums."
Radio Amateurs Join ISS Crew: Two radio amateurs were among the three
new International Space Station (ISS) crew members, who arrived on
station on July 23 (UTC). Kjell Lindgren, KO5MOS; Oleg Kononenko,
RN3DX, and Kimiya Yui traveled into space aboard a Russian Soyuz
spacecraft that has docked with the ISS. Expedition 44 Commander
Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, and Flight Engineers Scott Kelly and Mikhail
Kornienko, RN3BF, were on hand to greet the trio. Lindgren, Kononenko,
and Yui will stay on the ISS until late December. Kelly and Kornienko
are a few months into a 1-year mission that ends next March. Padalka,
who also has been aboard since March, returns to Earth in September.
RSGB Youth Committee Operating MC0RYC DXpedition Activity in Wales:
The Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) Youth Committee has mounted
a DXpedition at the Brecon Beacons in Wales, July 23-30. The activity
is sponsored by Kenwood. MC0RYC will be on all HF and VHF bands,
including satellite. This is the first youth-oriented DXpedition the
RSGB has organized. Activities will include operation from the
mountain peaks Pen y Fan and Waun Fach. A goal is to train young
operators to become "competent and confident radio amateurs." There
will be direction finding, antenna building workshops, and operating
practice. MC0RYC will be active in the IOTA Contest over the July
25-26 weekend. Follow the RSGB Youth Committee on Twitter. -- Thanks
to The Daily DX
IRTS Offers New 70 MHz Band Awards: To celebrate the likely adoption
of the band 69.9-70.5 MHz (4 meters) as a secondary Amateur Radio
allocation in the European Common Allocation Frequency Table and
Ireland's significant involvement in the process, the Irish Radio
Transmitters Society (IRTS) has launched two new 4 meter awards. These
awards will recognize and promote DX achievements by Amateur Radio
operators interested in this segment of the radio spectrum: The 70 MHz
Maidenhead Locator Award (MLA) program and the 70 MHz Continents,
Countries and Islands (CCI) Award. Details are on the IRTS website.
Getting It Right!
Some errors crept into the article "New Horizons Phones Home," which
appeared in the July 16 edition of The ARRL Letter. The correct
downlink frequency is 8.44 GHz; 7.2 GHz is the uplink frequency. Dave
Hershberger, W9GR, senior scientist with Continental Electronics, told
ARRL that his firm is constructing 80 kW uplink transmitters for JPL
to reach the probe, which has a 12 W transmitter to cover the same
distance back (JPL has had 20 kW uplink transmitters but wanted more
power, Hershberger said). Also, the correct downlink bit rate is in
the 1000 to 2000 bits/second range. A typical compressed image
produced by LORRI, the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager, is about 2.5
Megabits. -- Thanks to Dave Hershberger, W9GR, and Bill Byrom, N5BB
Ad
The K7RA Solar Update
Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: All daily sunspot numbers dipped
into the double digits last week, with the average declining from 73.7
to 43.4. This compares the latest July 16-22 period with the previous
7 days. Over the same periods, average daily solar flux slid from
114.8 to 95.1.
Geomagnetic indices were mostly quiet, with the average daily
planetary A index going from 13.7 to 6.1, and the average mid-latitude
A index declining from 12.3 to 8.1.
Predicted solar flux is 90 on July 23; 95 on July 24-25; 100 on July
26-27; 105 on July 28-29; 110 on July 30-31; 115 on August 1-4; 110
and 105 on August 5-6; 100 on August 7-9; then 95 on August 10-13,
dipping to 85 by August 15 and then peaking weakly at 115 on August
28-31.
Predicted planetary A index is 15 on July 23; 10 on July 24; 8 on July
25; 5 on July 26-30; 19 on July 31; 25 on August 1; 12 on August 2; 5
on August 3-5; then 20, 25, 15, 10, and 8 on August 6-10; 5 on August
11-15; 10 on August 16; 5 on August 17-18; then 15 and 10 on August
19-20, and 5 on August 21-26.
Here is an interesting Space.com article about how far side views of
the Sun from the STEREO mission are disrupted, because the satellite's
transmissions back to Earth are blocked by the Sun. But the Curiosity
rover on Mars fills in.
In Friday's bulletin look for reports from readers and updated
forecasts. Send me your reports and observations.
Just Ahead in Radiosport
July 24 -- NCCC RTTY Sprint
July 24 -- NCCC Sprint
July 25-26 -- RSGB IOTA Contest (CW, SSB)
July 25-26 -- County Hunters CW Contest
July 26 -- ARS Flight of the Bumblebees (CW)
July 29-30 -- CWops Mini-CWT Test
July 31 -- NCCC RTTY Sprint
July 31 -- NCCC Sprint Ladder (CW)
See the ARRL Contest Calendar for more information.
Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions and Events
July 23-26 -- Central States VHF Society Conference, Westminster,
Colorado
July 24-25 -- Oklahoma Section Convention, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
July 31-August 2 -- Rocky Mountain Division Convention, Bryce Canyon,
Utah
August 1 -- Great Lakes Division Convention, Columbus, Ohio
August 7-8 -- South Texas Section Convention, Austin, Texas
August 7-9 -- New Mexico State Convention, Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 7-9 -- Pacific Northwest DX Convention, Everett, Washington
August 15-16 -- Alabama State Convention, Huntsville, Alabama
August 16 -- Kansas State Convention, Salina, Kansas
August 21-23 -- New England Division Convention, Boxborough,
Massachusetts
August 22 -- West Virginia State Convention, Weston, West Virginia
August 30 -- Western Pennsylvania Section Convention, New Kensington,
Pennsylvania
September 5-6 -- Roanoke Division Convention, Shelby, North Carolina
September 11-12 -- W9DXCC Convention, Schaumburg, Illinois
September 11-13 -- Southwestern Division Convention, Torrance,
California
September 12 -- Virginia Section Convention, Virginia Beach, Virginia
September 26 -- Washington State Convention, Spokane Valley,
Washington
October 2-4 -- Mid-Atlantic States VHF Conference, Bensalem,
Pennsylvania
October 3 -- Delaware State Convention, Georgetown, Delaware
October 9-10 -- Florida State Convention, Melbourne, Florida
October 10-11 -- Pacific Northwest VHF Conference, Issaquah,
Washington
Find conventions and hamfests in your area.
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