The Indianapolis Radio Club Newsletter Founded 1914 “The oldest continuously operating Amateur Radio Club in the United States” May, 2007 Newsletter [][][]Upcoming Meetings: []June 8, 2007: Annual equipment auction HAVE A GOOD SUMMER! []September 14: First meeting after summer break [][][]Highlights of the May 11, 2007 meeting: []Due to circumstances beyond the control of the Club, the D-Star presentation was postponed. Chuck Crist, W9IH, and Tom Chance, K9XV, stepped in to provide a couple of presentations for the meeting. Chuck presented some information regarding the USS Indianapolis On the Air event. Tom gave an interesting presentation on Amateur Satellites. [][][]Ham Radio News: [][]DON’T MISS THE USS INDIANAPOLIS OTA EVENT! Operators are needed for the USS Indianapolis Museum ships On The Air event. This is a great opportunity to be a part of history, and to get the chance to make some neat contacts for the USS Indianapolis, her survivors, and those that were lost at sea. There will be 3 stations operating at the USS Indianapolis Memorial just off of the Canal, downtown. The stations will be operating from around 8:00 p.m. local Friday, June 8, until 8:00 p.m. local Sunday, June 10. T o get more information on the event, point your browser to http://www.indyradioclub.org/ussindy.htm. [][]DAYTON BUS TRIP A SUCCESS! Blessed with perfect weather, the bus trip to the Dayton Hamvention was a smashing success! There were a total of 35 of us that met early in the morning to get picked up by our congenial driver, im. We had a very nice trip over, with a quick breakfast stop in Richmond. Once at Hara Arena, we were dropped off at the front door of the hall, and the adventure began! What started as a cool morning, turned into a really nice afternoon, making for a perfect time in the morning to shop inside, and then an opportunity in the afternoon to see the “treasures” outside. Our bus was available from around noon on for us to store items in, or just relax in. It was parked just outside of the flea market area. After a full day of shopping, eating, bargaining, and renewing old acquaintances, we boarded the bus for the trip back home, stopping in Richmond again for a relaxed dinner at MCL. Special congratulations to Dovid Ofstein, K9DCO, who passed his Extra exam at the FREE testing sessions hosted by the Laurel VEC. For those of you that were on the trip, you know what a blast it was, for those of you that weren’t on the bus, well, there’s always next year! Here’s our “class picture”. [][]W9ICE D-STAR SYSTEM CHANGES The W9ICE group has recently made some changes and improvements to their D-Star capabilities. They have recently put a D-Star Gateway on line, in addition to adding a 2 meter D-Star repeater at 147.39 MHz. This repeater has a fairly small footprint right now due to antenna issues, but the UHF side at 444.125 is doing very well. The group is also in the midst of some other changes due to having to vacate the Channel 40 TV tower. For all of the details, go to http://w9ice.com/information__projects.htm. [][]CENTRAL DIVISION VHF-UHF ADVISORY COMMITTEE From George Isely, W9GIG, ARRL Central Division Director: Your Central Division representative to the VHF-UHF Advisory Committee is Kermit Carlson, W9XA, of Batavia Illinois. The VUAC is responsible for collecting input and recommending changes to the ARRL VHF/UHF Contests to the Programs & Services Committee of the ARRL Board of Directors. Any one who has input regarding these VHF/UHF activities should contact Kermit directly at: w9xa@yahoo.com. The VUAC is presently considering rules affecting the "Rover Class" of contest operation. Anybody currently active as a VHF/UHF contest rover should contact Kermit W9XA with their input. An email reflector is being established to facilitate discussion between amateurs in the ARRL Central Division regarding issues pertaining to ARRL VHF/UHF contesting. Anyone wishing to be included in this forum should contact W9XA. [][]ARRL WITHDRAWS "REGULATION BY BANDWIDTH" PETITION The ARRL has announced it's withdrawing its controversial November 2005 Petition for Rule Making (RM-11306) calling on the FCC to establish a regulatory regime to segment bands by necessary bandwidth rather than by emission mode. The League cited "widespread misconceptions" surrounding the petition as a primary reason for deciding to remove it from FCC consideration. The ARRL left open the option of refiling the same or a similar petition in the future, however. "The withdrawal of the petition will permit a full discussion and consideration of options at the July 2007 meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors," said ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN. "The petition then can be recast with a better explanation of its scope and the reasons for the proposed changes." [][]ARRL AIDING EFFORT TO MITIGATE REPEATER INFTERFERENCE TO MILITARY RADARS The ARRL has been working with the US Department of Defense to develop a plan to mitigate alleged interference from 70 cm ham radio repeaters to military radar systems on both coasts. Citing an increasing number of interference complaints, the US Air Force has asked the FCC to order dozens of repeater systems to either mitigate interference to the ''PAVE PAWS'' radars in Massachusetts and California or shut down. Amateur Radio is secondary to government users from 420 to 450 MHz and must not interfere with primary users. The Commission has not yet responded. ARRL Regulatory Information Specialist Dan Henderson, N1ND, stresses that the Defense Department acknowledges Amateur Radio's value in disasters and emergencies and is being extremely cooperative, and a wholesale shutdown of US 70 cm Amateur Radio activity is not in the offing. The situation affects 15 repeaters in the vicinity of Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and more than 100 repeaters within some 140 miles of Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, California. PAVE PAWS is a missile and satellite detection and tracking system, and its facilities occupy essentially the entire 70 cm band – one factor that makes mitigation difficult. As a ''first step,'' however, the ARRL is recommending that all affected repeater owners reduce power -- possibly to as little as 5 W effective radiated power (ERP). ''We understand the difficulty this may cause to owners and users,'' Henderson said, ''but the alternative to operating with a smaller coverage area may be not operating at all.'' Henderson says the League is still seeking further information on the problem. ''Until the Defense Department accepts a mitigation plan, repeater owners should exercise patience,'' he cautioned. Contact Dan Henderson, N1ND, N1ND@ARRL.ORG, or 860-594-0236, with specific questions or issues associated with this situation. [][]APPLICATION SURGE CONTINUES UNDER NEW AMATEUR RULES It's been just a little more than two months since the FCC dropped the requirement that Amateur Radio applicants pass a Morse code test to earn operating privileges below 30 MHz. While the initial avalanche of applications immediately following February 23, when the no-Morse testing regime went into effect, has abated somewhat, business remains brisk for the ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator staff. "It's slowing down a little bit, but it's still substantially above what we usually see," observed ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. She estimated that new Amateur Radio applications were up by 35 percent, while upgrade applications were up by 150 percent over last year's volume. In a typical pre-February 23 week, Somma said, ARRL VEC would receive paperwork from approximately 115 test sessions. "It's on the order of 150 to 200 sessions per week now!" she exclaimed. Somma and ARRL VEC staffers concurred that applications were roughly evenly split between newcomers and upgraders. She said she's also seen a spike in the number of applications from General and higher class radio amateurs to serve as volunteer examiners. The still-heavy volume has stretched the amount of time it takes for an application to proceed from examination session to license grant. "I think we're looking at eight to ten days from the test date, " Somma allowed. By and large, those on the waiting end have been patient and understanding, she added. There's no light at the end of the tunnel just yet. Somma and her staff are looking ahead to 450 examination sessions registered for May, another 400 in June and 320 apiece during July and August. And summer is "the slow season," she remarked. Another 900 test sessions already are on the calendar for the rest of 2007. [][]FCC PLANS TO LOWER VANITY CALL SIGN COST The FCC has proposed reducing the regulatory fee to obtain or retain an Amateur Radio vanity call sign by more than 40 percent starting later this year. In a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) released April 18, "Assessment and Collection of Regulatory Fees for Fiscal Year 2007," in MD Docket 07-81, the Commission is proposing to cut the fee from its current $20.80 to $11.70. If ultimately adopted, that would mark the lowest fee in the history of the current vanity call sign program. The FCC proposed to collect nearly $290.3 million in FY 2007 regulatory fees. The vanity call sign fee has fluctuated over the 11 years of the current vanity call sign program, from a low of $12 to a high of $50. The FCC says it anticipates some 14,700 Amateur Radio vanity call sign "payment units" or applications during the next fiscal year. Those holding vanity call signs issued prior to 1996 are exempt from having to pay the vanity call sign regulatory fee at renewal, however. That's because Congress did not authorize the FCC to collect regulatory fees until 1993. Such "heritage" vanity call sign holders do not appear as vanity licensees in the FCC Amateur Radio database. [][]DIRECTV MAY GET INTO BPL MARKET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Satellite television provider DirecTV Group Inc. may test delivering high-speed Internet service through power lines in a major U.S. city in the next year, its chief executive said on Monday. DirecTV and others are talking to companies that specialize in providing broadband through the electrical grid, Chief Executive Chase Carey said at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit in New York. "We're not the only ones talking to them," Carey said, in response to a question on whether DirecTV would consider a test in a major city. "I think you'll see some meaningful tests in this arena." DirecTV would like to test delivering Internet access on power lines in a "top 50 city where you're covering at least half the city." [][]DX NEWS: ITU APPROVES MONTENEGRO, SERBIA CALL SIGN AGREEMENT Although it became a country -- and a DXCC entity -- in its own right last June, Montenegro has not had an Amateur Radio call sign block to call its own until this month. According to The Daily DX, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) did not want to give Montenegro an entirely new prefix, so it required the states of Montenegro and Serbia to agree upon one or two prefixes from the five (4N, 4O, YT, YU and YZ) assigned to the former Serbia-Montenegro. An agreement was reached May 11, and the ITU now lists 4O (that's "four Oscar") as Montenegro's. This means Montenegro stations may use 4O0 through 4O9, while Serbia stations will continue to use YT and YU prefixes for all call districts, 0 through 9. The ITU has taken back the former 4N and YZ prefixes for future reassignment. The ITU reportedly wants the two nations to complete the transition to new call sign blocks as soon as possible. The Daily DX Editor Bernie McClenny, W3UR, recommends that DXers update their logging software carefully to reflect the changes. [][][]Welcome New Member: The Indianapolis Radio Club would like to welcome new member Don Smith, N9BGW. [][]GET YOUR BLIND DRAW DONATION TICKETS! For only $10 per ticket, you can get a chance to win one of the following great prizes: 1st prize – Kenwood TS-570D (radio only) 2nd prize – Yaesu FT-857D (radio only) 3rd prize – MFJ-269 Antenna Analyzer Drawing will take place at the Indy Radio Club’s K9OOA Broad Ripple Swapfest on August 4, 2007. You don’t need to be present to win! There will only be 300 tickets sold, so the chances are good! You can buy your tickets at an IRC meeting, at the Swapfest, or from an officer of the club. [][]OPERATING CONDITION PICTURES With the summer approaching, I plan to continue to put out monthly newsletters. Since there are no meetings in July and August, I might need some “filler” material. What I would like to do is get hams to send me photos of their shacks, whether they’re neat or not. Or you could send me pix of you operating at a summer campground, or some other unique operating conditions. Who knows, if I get enough pictures, I may be able to continue the feature in the fall. Send your pictures to me at my address below. 73, Ken [][][]SEND ME YOUR HAM RADIO NEWS If anyone has any items for the newsletter, please send them to Ken Bandy at kc9glq@arrl.net Signals from the Past: From the November/December, 1953 Indianapolis Radio Club Amachewer: In voicing an opinion of conditions in the recent DX test sponsored by CQ, I think there should be a WOS award. (Worked One Station)! [Sounds like conditions then were similar to now] [][][]Upcoming Area Radio Events: []* USS Indianapolis “Museum Ships OTA” Station ;June 8 – 10 (local) Stations will be set up close to the USS Indianapolis Monument, same location as last time. Go to http://www.indyradioclub.org/ussindy.htm for more information. []* Indy Hamfest Saturday, July 7...Go to www.indyhamfest.com for more info [][][]Current IRC Officers: * President: Tom Chance, K9XV - ..EMAIL k9xv@arrl.net * Vice Pres.: Dave Miller, K9RTT - ..EMAIL dmiller@ivytech.edu * Secretary: Ken Bandy, KC9GLQ - ..EMAIL kc9glq@arrl.net * Treasurer: Judy Gardner, AA9GW - ..EMAIL aa9gw@juno.com * Chief Operator: Dave Craig, N9QVO - ..EMAIL slough@svs.net * Dir. at large: Bob Osterhous, W9PSE - EMAIL rosterhous@iquest.net * Dir. at large: Tom Price, WB9UNG – EMAIL pricetr@comcast.net * Dir. at large: Hank Wolfla, K9LZJ – EMAIL hwolfla@insightbb.com 2