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N9PMO > LETTER 31.07.15 00:23l 462 Lines 22733 Bytes #999 (0) @ ARRL
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The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 Gains Momentum, Cosponsor List
Tops 90
ARRL Files More "Grow Light" Ballast Complaints with FCC
AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-DL, and Virginia Tech Announce Potential Phase 3E
Opportunity
FCC Sustains $22,000 Fine for Egregious On-Air Behavior
FCC Proposes Fining Georgia Ham $1000 for Failing to Identify
Amateur Radio Vanity Call Sign Fee to Disappear in September
HAARP Facility Will Be Transferred to the University of
Alaska-Fairbanks on August 11
World Scout Jamboree Participants Set to Speak with ISS via Amateur
Radio
Past IARU Region 3 Director, WARC-79 Delegate Fred Johnson, ZL2AMJ, SK
In Brief...
The K7RA Solar Update
Getting It Right!
Just Ahead in Radiosport
Upcoming ARRL Section, State, and Division Conventions and Events
ARRL E-Mail, LoTW, Online Store Will Be Down Overnight, July 31-August
1! Logbook of The World (LoTW), e-mail to and from ARRL Headquarters,
and the ARRL Online Store will be down from Friday, July 31, at 8 PM
EDT (0000 UTC on August 1) until 8 AM EDT (1200 UTC on August 1) in
order to complete necessary maintenance. All incoming e-mail will be
queued for later delivery. The ARRL website will be operating
normally. We apologize for any inconvenience.
The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 Gains Momentum, Cosponsor List
Tops 90
Keep those letters coming! According to the ARRL Regulatory Affairs
Office, more than 4300 letters have been received from League members
since the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 grassroots campaign began
in March. All urge their members in both branches of Congress to
become cosponsors of the bill. More letters are in the queue, and the
correspondence seems to be having the desired effect. As of July 29,
H.R. 1301 had attracted 94 cosponsors, with 8 signing on since
mid-July. The League has a combined web page to provide a
clearinghouse for all information on the identical pieces of
legislation now in play in the US House and Senate. The Amateur Radio
Parity Act of 2015 would direct the FCC to extend its rules relating
to reasonable accommodation of Amateur Service communications to
private land-use restrictions. The FCC has been reluctant to extend
those legal protections without direction from Congress.
ARRL Headquarters has forwarded 3433 letters to 402 individual US
House members, seeking their cosponsorship of H.R. 1301. The nascent
campaign on behalf of the identical US Senate bill, S. 1685, has so
far garnered more than 900 letters destined to 77 individual US Senate
members. To help maintain the momentum, many ARRL Division Directors
have been taking a letter-generating tool to conventions and hamfests.
Sending letters urging members of Congress to sign on as cosponsors of
The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 via ARRL allows Headquarters
staff to keep track of how many pieces of correspondence are going to
which US representatives and senators. These are sorted and then
hand-delivered to Capitol Hill. As ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN,
has pointed out, delivering these letters to Capitol Hill in person
offers an opportunity to speak with Congressional staffers.
"The stack of letters is proof that voters care about the bill," she
said in June. "We have to convince the staff people, so they'll advise
the [Member of Congress] to cosponsor. That's how it works on Capitol
Hill."
Congress's August recess provides an ideal opportunity to meet with
lawmakers while they are in their home states and districts. Clubs
also may want to invite a Member of Congress to visit a meeting. Those
interested in following the trajectory of H.R. 1301 can sign up to
receive the ARRL's free Legislative Update Newsletter.
All correspondence to representatives and senators must be signed and
include the constituent's name and address. Send letters to ARRL
Headquarters for hand delivery to the appropriate House or Senate
member to ARRL, ATTN Amateur Radio Parity Act Grassroots Campaign, 225
Main St, Newington CT 06111.
In the July 29 Ham Radio Now news videocast, "Parity in the Senate,"
host Gary Pearce, KN4AQ, interviews ARRL Hudson Division Director Mike
Lisenco, N2YBB, and ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD. Pearce
said Lisenco and Imlay, "fill in some history of PRB-1 that you might
not have heard, discuss how our current FCC is far more focused on the
Internet...[and] how the deed restrictions and HOA rules prohibiting
your antenna are not a 'private contract.'"
ARRL Files More "Grow Light" Ballast Complaints with FCC
The ARRL has filed three more complaints with the FCC, urging its
Enforcement Bureau to investigate and initiate enforcement proceedings
to halt the marketing and retail sale of certain RF lighting devices,
typically known as "grow light" ballasts, which, it said, violate FCC
Part 18 rules. The largely identical complaints zeroed in on three
specific products: The Galaxy Legacy Selective Wattage Ballast, the
Quantum Horticulture HPS/MH-600W RF Lighting Ballast, and the Lumatek
"Dial-a-Watt Air-Cooled" 1000 W Ballast. The League had complained to
the FCC in March 2014 about another Lumatek product, and noted that
"apparently nothing has been done to date" in that case. The ARRL
asserted that the three devices targeted in its most recent complaints
generate "blatantly excessive conducted emissions." Further, the
League alleged, the devices are being marketed and sold illegally --
in both instances in violation of FCC Part 18 rules. Supporting all
three complaints were detailed reports from the ARRL Laboratory that
quantify the League's emission level concerns.
A Quantum grow light ballast unit under test in the ARRL Lab.
"The level of conducted emissions from [these devices] is so high
that, as a practical matter, one RF ballast operated in a residential
environment would create preclusive interference to Amateur radio HF
communications throughout entire neighborhoods," ARRL General Counsel
Chris Imlay, W3KD, wrote in each complaint. The devices exceeded
conducted emission limits under all test conditions, "sometimes by
extreme margins, throughout most of the HF range," Imlay said in his
letters.
Samples of each RF lighting device cited were purchased by ARRL
through retail outlets. All are manufactured overseas and imported
into the US.
In a similar vein as its recent complaint about marketing of certain
RF lighting devices by The Home Depot, the ARRL pointed out that there
were no FCC labels on two of the devices mentioned nor any FCC
compliance information "anywhere in the documentation, or in or on the
box, or on the device itself," in violation of FCC Part 18 rules.
The League asked the FCC to require removal of all such illegal "grow
light" devices from retail sale and marketing and the recall of those
devices already sold or available for retail sale, and it said the
device importers should be subject to a forfeiture proceeding. Read
more.
AMSAT-NA, AMSAT-DL, and Virginia Tech Announce Potential Phase 3E
Opportunity
Virginia Tech has approached the US Government to fly the Phase 3E
space frame into high Earth orbit (HEO) in order to support scientific
payloads as well as serve as an Amateur Radio satellite. During the
AMSAT-DL Annual Meeting on July 4, the membership approved the
concept, agreeing to allow the Phase 3E space frame currently stored
in Germany to be shipped to Virginia Tech for further construction,
testing, and preparation for eventual launch into HEO, if the US
Government formally agrees to fund such a mission.
Should the project move forward, AMSAT-NA, as the satellite's initial
operator, will apply for frequency coordination from the IARU
Satellite Advisor and satellite licensing from the FCC.
Further developments and details will be announced as they become
known.
This latest satellite project comes on the heels of another, unrelated
effort with Virginia Tech ties that was announced earlier this year.
AMSAT-NA said in April that, if all goes according to plan, an Amateur
Radio payload will go into space on a geosynchronous satellite planned
for launch in 2017. AMSAT said it had accepted the opportunity to be a
"hosted payload" on a spacecraft that Millennium Space Systems (MSS)
of El Segundo, California, is under contract to design, launch, and
operate for the US Government. Virginia Tech's Hume Center for
National Security and Technology is a partner in the geosynchronous
Amateur Radio satellite project. -- Thanks to AMSAT News Service
Ad
FCC Sustains $22,000 Fine for Egregious On-Air Behavior
In the case of Michael Guernsey, KZ8O (ex-ND8V), of Parchment,
Michigan, the FCC imposed the full $22,000 fine it had proposed in
2014 for intentionally interfering with other Amateur Radio
communications and for failing to identify. In a July 22 Forfeiture
Order -- issued exactly 1 year from its Notice of Apparent Liability
(NAL) proposing the hefty fine -- the FCC cited Guernsey's "long
history of causing interference to other Amateur Radio operators" and
noted that he had been "warned repeatedly in writing." Guernsey's
interactions with the FCC Enforcement Bureau date back well over a
decade, and, at one point he agreed to a 9-month license suspension.
"Despite repeated warnings from the [Enforcement] Bureau regarding his
on-air behavior, Mr Guernsey's violations included the deliberate
playing of music on top of the transmissions of other amateur
operators in order to obstruct their ability to communicate on the
frequency," the FCC recounted in the July 22 Forfeiture Order. "Mr
Guernsey further used various animal noises to prevent the
communications of other stations with whom he had a longstanding and
well-documented dispute."
In responding to the 2014 NAL, Guernsey denied responsibility for the
interference and sought cancellation or reduction of the fine based on
inability to pay. The FCC was having none of it. The Commission said
its agents "positively confirmed the source" of the interfering
transmissions as Guernsey's residence and monitored them for 40
minutes.
"Considering the entire record, we find no reason to cancel, withdraw,
or reduce the proposed penalty," the FCC said in the Forfeiture Order
to Guernsey. He was given 30 days to pay the fine or arrange an
installment plan. Read more.
FCC Proposes Fining Georgia Ham $1000 for Failing to Identify
The FCC has proposed fining a Georgia ham $1000 for alleged failure to
properly identify. David J. Tolassi, W4BHV, had been warned last
August about not following the Commission's Part 97 ID rules. The FCC
said his "deliberate disregard" of that warning warranted the proposed
penalty.
"Mr Tolassi...has a history of failing to comply with the rules
governing the Amateur Radio Service," the FCC said in a July 22 Notice
of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (NAL). As the NAL recounted,
agents from the FCC's Atlanta Officeer incur these administrative costs that exceed the fee payments."
In 2014 the FCC raised the Amateur Service vanity call sign regulatory
fee from $16.10 to its current $21.40 for the 10-year license term.
The $5.30 increase was the largest such fee hike in many years. In a
typical fiscal year, the FCC collected on the order of $250,000 in
vanity call sign regulatory fees.
The FCC said the revenue it would otherwise have collected from such
regulatory fees "will be proportionally assessed on other wireless fee
categories." Congress has mandated that the FCC collect nearly $340
million in regulatory fees from all services in fiscal year 2015.
Ad
HAARP Facility Will Be Transferred to the University of
Alaska-Fairbanks on August 11
HAARP -- the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program -- will
transfer from military into academic hands next month. After a swell
of support last year from the scientific community and intervention by
Alaska US Sen Lisa Murkowski -- plus a lot of uncertainty before that
-- the US Air Force delayed its plans to shutter the ultra-high power
HAARP and demolish it. Now the University of Alaska-Fairbanks (UAF)
has won a bid to assume ownership of the facility near Gakona. That
will happen on August 11.
Part of the vast HAARP antenna field, looking down a row of
transmitter shelters.
"[N]ext month the facilities and equipment will formally transfer from
the military to the university," UAF spokesperson Marmian Grimes told
Alaska Public Media's KSKA in Anchorage. Grimes said the agreement is
not open ended, but it will allow UAF access to HAARP for 2 years,
during which time, the university and the Air Force can reach an
agreement regarding the transfer of land.
In January, ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, wrote the US Secretary of
Defense to urge that HAARP be maintained in its current condition
while UAF attempted to acquire the facility.
"Most of our 164,000 members employ ionospheric propagation of HF
radio signals for their communications and technical investigations,"
Sumner told then-Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. "Ionospheric research
therefore has great significance and importance to us."
As UAF's Grimes explained to KSKA, "Scientists would pay to use the
facility for their research projects, and that would support
operations, and is a common model for the university and research
community."
Those who pushed for HAARP to remain open as a scientific research
facility included several radio amateurs. UAF researcher and faculty
member Chris Fallen, KL3WX, told ARRL this week that he had no
information yet on the timing of the next experiment campaign or
future operations, beyond what's already been reported in the news
media. Fallen has conducted research at HAARP, and he was among those
who had expressed concern last summer that HAARP's equipment was being
carted off site for sale or disposal. He said little has been going on
at HAARP since June 2014, and even with the transfer to UAF, it
appears unlikely that any research would resume until the spring.
"I have not visited the facility in more than a year," he said, "but
my understanding is that most, if not all, of the important equipment
has been returned, while 'junk' and other antiquated equipment from
initial development and construction has been permanently removed."
Fallen told ARRL that he believes HAARP has "unique relevance to hams"
and could become the sort of self-sustaining facility that UAF
envisions. "Sustainable long-term success of the facility will depend
on UAF's ability to secure funding from multiple sources for research
operations, preferably including a large 'anchor tenant,'" he said
this week.
HAARP was constructed in 1990 at a cost of some $300 million.
World Scout Jamboree Participants Set to Speak with ISS via Amateur
Radio
Scouts attending the 23rd World Scout Jamboree in Japan are scheduled
to speak via Amateur Radio on July 31 with astronaut Kjell Lindgren,
KO5MOS ("cosmos"), on the ISS. Jamboree attendees are between 14 and
17 years old. This will mark the first ARISS contact from space by
Lindgren, who arrived on the ISS earlier this month on the ISS with
astronaut Kamiya Yui, KG5BPH, and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, RN3DX.
The direct Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)
contact will take place on 2 meters between NA1SS on station and
8N23WSJ at the Nippon Boy Scout Amateur Radio Club in Bunkyo-ku,
Japan. The roughly 10 minute event is set to start at approximately
1126 UTC. It's expected the contact will be conducted in English.
More than 30,000 Scouts and leaders from 161 countries around the
world have converged on Kirara-hama, Yamaguchi, Japan, for the
Jamboree. The theme of the 23rd World Scout Jamboree is "WA: A Spirit
of Unity." The Kanji character "WA" connotes a variety of meanings,
such as unity, harmony, cooperation, friendship, and peace.
Scouts attending the Jamboree will be able to enjoy a variety of
activities during their free time, including an Amateur Radio
workshop.
Past IARU Region 3 Director, WARC-79 Delegate Fred Johnson, ZL2AMJ, SK
Former International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 3 Director J.
F.C. "Fred" Johnson, ZL2AMJ, died on July 23. He was 83. Johnson was a
New Zealand delegate to World Administrative Radio Conference 1979
(WARC-79), where Amateur Radio gained access to the so-called "WARC
bands" -- 30, 17, and 12 meters.
Fred Johnson, ZL2AMJ.
"It was not happenstance that New Zealand was one of Amateur Radio's
strongest supporters before and during the conference," said ARRL CEO
David Sumner, K1ZZ, who attended WARC-79 as a member of the IARU team.
"Anyone who knew Fred will understand when I say that his work ethic
had a great deal to do with it, and with our ultimate success at the
conference."
Johnson was also a delegate to World Radiocommunication Conference
2003 (WRC-03), for which he chaired the drafting group for 7 MHz
issues.
Sumner said those attending the 2009 IARU Region 3 Conference in
Christchurch, New Zealand had the opportunity to see Johnson in his
favorite role -- that of teacher. "He showed how to use simple,
inexpensive devices to demonstrate basic principles of antennas and
polarization," he recalled.
Johnson was elected as a Director of IARU Region 3 in 1985, serving
until 2004 -- the last 10 years as Chairman of the Region 3 Board of
Directors, and he served on the IARU Administrative Council for a
total of 10 years between 1988 and 2003.
Johnson was born into Amateur Radio. His father, Joe, had been a radio
amateur, holding 2GA and ZL2GA, among other call signs over the years.
Fascinated by his dad's collection of ham radio literature, he read up
on radio and built his first crystal receiver at age 10. After World
War II, he constructed a tube receiver. When he got his Amateur Radio
license in 1950, he added a home-built transmitter.
In 2002, Johnson was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
At the 1999 IARU Region 1 Conference in Lillehammer, Norway, he was
honored as a Knight of the Order of the Golden Key by the Norwegian
Radio Relay League.
"One of the extraordinary dimensions of the IARU is how it brings
together people from all over the globe and from almost any walk of
life to work for a common purpose," said Sumner. "Millions of radio
amateurs don't realize they owe a debt of gratitude to Fred Johnson
and to other IARU volunteers like him -- but they do."
Ad
In Brief...
ARRL August UHF Contest is August 1-2: The focus will be on the bands
222 MHz and above when the ARRL August UHF Contest gets under way
August 1-2. During this time of year in North America, there is a
greater chance of enhanced tropospheric propagation that can extend
the usable range of UHF+ frequencies from line of sight to several
hundred miles. William Hepburn's Worldwide Tropospheric Ducting
Forecast website is an excellent resource. Many radios now include the
70 centimeter band, and antennas are small and easy to make. Easy
homebrew UHF antenna plans are in The ARRL Antenna Book and The ARRL
Handbook. Rovers are always welcome too, for those who enjoy getting
out and about. New rules for VHF+ contests allow all entrants to use
assistancts (also short-path or long-path). Tables
can easily be copied into word processing software. More information
is available at The Official VOACAP Blog. -- Thanks to Jari
Perkiömäki, OH6BG
Illinois Ham's Death Ruled a Homicide: Authorities in Illinois are
investigating as an apparent homicide the death earlier this month of
a Rockford radio amateur and repeater owner. Henry Murphy, WB9TFX,
died on July 18. He was 67. That morning, neighbors reported that
Murphy's house was on fire. After extinguishing the blaze, Winnebago
County investigators located the remains of Murphy and his dog in the
dwelling. The coroner determined that both had died of gunshot wounds
before the fire started. A US Army veteran, Murphy owned a local 70
centimeter repeater system that has been in operation since the early
1990s. He was a retired AT&T field tech. -- Thanks to QRZ.com via NN9P
OK1MS's EME Accomplishments Earn Kudos from Joe Taylor, K1JT: Nobel
Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, has congratulated Stanislav "Standa"
Blazka, OK1MS, for racking up an astonishing moonbounce (EME) record
on 2 meter CW. In a posting to the Moon-Net reflector, Zdenek Samek,
OK1DFC, noted that OK1MS recently reached 1000 initial EME CW contacts
on 144 MHz, after making his first such contact (with WA1JXN, now
W7GJ). His 1000th was with R6CS. Blazka holds WAS, WAC, and DXCC on 2
meter EME, CW only. He also holds WAZ No. 1 on EME. He has built all
or most of his own equipment. Taylor, who developed the WSJT software
suite that many EME operators now use, offered, "Hearty
congratulations to Standa, OK1MS, for this truly great achievement!"
The K7RA Solar Update
Tad Cook, K7RA, Seattle, reports: On July 30 at 0132 UTC, the
Australian Space Forecast Centre issued a geomagnetic disturbance
warning, noting that a high-speed solar wind from a recurring coronal
hole was expected to raise geomagnetic activity levels to minor storms
on July 31 and August 1. The Centre predicted quiet to minor storm
levels on July 31, and minor storms declining to unsettled conditions
on August 1.
Solar activity remains in the doldrums, with average daily sunspot
numbers rising just 4.5 points to 47.9 during the July 23-29 period,
as compared with a week earlier. Average daily solar flux over the
same periods rose just 1.5 points to 96.4.
The most active geomagnetic day was July 23, when the planetary A
index was 23, and the mid-latitude A index was 21. On July 23 a mild
geomagnetic storm occurred. It was caused by a coronal mass ejection
that did not hit Earth directly.
Predicted solar flux is 105, 107, 110, and 105 for July 30-August 2;
110 on August 3 and 4; 105 on August 5-6; 100 on August 7-9; 95 on
August 10-13; then 90 and 85 on August 14 and 15, then 100 on August
16-17. Solar flux peaks at 115 for August 28-31, then drops below 100
after September 5.
Predicted planetary A index is 8, 18, and 24 for July 30-August 1,
then 16, 12, and 8 for August 2-4; then 5, 8, and 20 for August 5-7;
15 on August 8-9; 8 on August 10; 5 on August 11-15; 10 on August 16;
5 on August 17-18; then 15 and 10 on August 19 and 20, and 5 for
August 21-23.
QST "50 MHz and Above" Editor Jon Jones, N0JK, notes that the summer
sers, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA
Sprint and QSO Parties.
QEX -- A Forum for Communications Experimenters. Published bi-monthly,
features technical articles, construction projects, columns, and other
items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals.
Free of charge to ARRL members...
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