The ARRL Letter
Vol. 13, No. 17
September 19, 1994

IARU council addresses CW, 40 meters
          
International Morse code requirements and the status of the 40-
meter band were among topics discussed when the Administrative 
Council of the International Amateur Radio Union met in Singapore, 
September 10 to 12, 1994, after the IARU Region 3 Conference (a 
report on the Region 3 conference will appear in our next issue). 
The Administrative Council took the following actions:
	1. The ITU meetings at which IARU representation will be 
required during the coming year were identified. Representatives 
will be selected in accordance with existing policy. Terms of 
reference for IARU representatives to ITU meetings were adopted.
 	2. A budget for 1995-1997 was adopted as submitted by the 
International Secretariat. The budget calls for financial 
contributions from the three regional organizations to defray a 
portion of the expenses that are assumed by the International 
Secretariat beyond its constitutional obligation.
	3. The report of an ad hoc committee on the VGE (an ITU 
initiative to simplify the Radio Regulations) was received, and a 
policy was adopted regarding the position of the IARU on VGE 
proposals for WRC-95. The committee chairman, Wojciech Nietyksza, 
SP5FM, was requested to propose a policy on amateur sharing with 
ISM as referred to in the report. The committee was discharged 
with thanks.

40-meter preparations

 	4. The report of an ad hoc committee on the 7-MHz band was 
received. The IARU policy of seeking a worldwide, 300-kHz 
allocation in the vicinity of 7 MHz was reaffirmed. The President 
was requested to name a 7-MHz Strategy Group to guide preparations 
for a possible ITU conference on the issue, as recommended in the 
report.
 	5. A resolution concerning the requirement in the Radio 
Regulations for a demonstration of Morse code ability for 
operators licensed to use amateur frequencies below 30 MHz was 
adopted. Consistent with the views of the member-societies as 
expressed through the regional organizations, the IARU will 
neither propose nor support a change in the requirement at this 
time.
 	6. A revised strategic plan for the development of Amateur 
Radio was accepted, and the IS was instructed to distribute it to 
the regional executive committees.
 	7. The interim report of an ad hoc committee studying the 
future evolution of the IARU was received, and the committee was 
asked to continue its work in accordance with the principles 
outlined in the report.
 	8. Input from the IARU Satellite Ad Hoc Committee was 
considered, and resulted in several actions. The new position of 
IARU Satellite Adviser was created, terms of reference were 
adopted, and Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS5AKV, was named the 
initial appointee. Another new position of IARU Satellite 
Frequency Coordinator was created, and terms of reference were 
adopted. The initial appointment of IARU Satellite Frequency 
Coordinator will be made by the IARU Satellite Adviser in 
consultation with the amateur-satellite community.
 	9. The report of the IARU Monitoring System International 
Coordinator, ZL1BAD, was received. The Secretary was instructed to 
communicate with the IARU member-society in Lebanon regarding 
persistent intrusions of unlicensed stations into the amateur 
bands. The IARUMS International Coordinator was reappointed, and 
his terms of reference were confirmed.
 	10.The report of the IARU Coordinator for CISPR, Tom 
Sprenger, PA3AVV, was received. The report notes Mr. Sprenger's 
desire to step down from the position sometime in the coming year, 
at the pleasure of the Administrative Council. He was reappointed 
for the purpose of attending a CISPR meeting in Beijing later this 
year, and was asked to report back after that meeting with a 
recommendation concerning the possible creation of the substitute 
position of IARU EMC Adviser.
Upgrading beacons
 	11. The report of the IARU International Beacon Project 
Coordinator, W6ISQ, was received. The report outlines progress 
toward an upgrading of the worldwide time-sharing beacon network. 
The President was requested to consult with the IBP
Coordinator regarding continuous duty beacons. The IBP Coordinator 
and Assistant Coordinator were reappointed, and their terms of 
reference confirmed.
 	12. At the request of Region 3, the IARU membership rights 
of inactive member-societies in Myanmar and Brunei Darussalam were 
suspended until these societies show why they should be 
reinstated.
 	13. The plans of the International Secretariat to mark the 
Centenary of Radiocommunication in 1995 were endorsed.
 	14. A resolution was adopted designating the third 
Saturday of September as World Amateur Radio Day, as an 
opportunity to focus public attention on the benefits derived from 
Amateur Radio, and a theme for 1995 of "100 Years of Radio" was 
adopted.
 	15. A proposal for the creation of a new position of 
worldwide Amateur Radio Direction Finding Coordinator was 
considered, but it was determined that it was not appropriate at 
this time. The regions were encouraged to cooperate among 
themselves on this subject.
 	The members of the Administrative Council are IARU 
President W1RU, Vice President VK3KI, Secretary W4RA, and regional 
representatives PA0LOU, G3FKM, HK3DEU, YV5BPG, 9V1RH, and VK3ADW. 
The Administrative Council meets annually; the next meeting is 
scheduled for September 30 at Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.

Space Center hams mark Apollo landing
By Mike Hadley, KC4TCV, and Eric Smitt, K9ES

	The July 1969 broadcast to the world from Neil Armstrong 
that he had just set foot on the moon has to rate among the most 
famous radio transmissions of all time. To celebrate the 25th 
anniversary of that event, more than 3250 Amateur Radio operators 
from all over the globe sent their own transmissions to the 
Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in July 1994. In addition to KSC, this 
special event was supported by Amateur Radio clubs and groups at 
12 other NASA centers.
	At KSC, from July 19 to 22, 40 Amateur Radio operators, 
organized by Mike Hadley of Lockheed Space Operations Company, and 
representing more than 20 different companies and organizations 
from NASA, the Air Force, and their contractors at KSC and the 
Cape Canaveral Air Station, provided those contacts. 	The KSC 
special event radio station used Mike's amateur call sign -- 
KC4TCV -- for all bands and modes except CW, where Tom Nguyen, of 
NASA, provided his call sign -- AD4NA . The total contacts of all 
of the combined NASA facilities is still being counted, but 
preliminary estimates are over 15,000.
On their own time
	The KSC station operators managed to provide radio 
contacts to hams in 49 states and more than 40 DX countries during 
this 60-hour operation. This effort represented many hours of 
donated vacation and personal time during the planning, 
preparation, and operating of the station. A call was even 
received from the Queen Mary, in Long Beach, California!
	This Apollo 11 commemoration was announced worldwide in 
all the major Amateur Radio periodicals, via amateur packet radio, 
over satellites, and on the Internet. The benefits of all the 
preplanning were well recognized as soon as operations began. It 
seemed as if the entire world was standing by waiting for KSC to 
come on the air, and it was only a matter of hours before the 
operators had to start exchanging positions with the loggers for 
fear of losing their voices. 
	Thanks to the KSC Technical Learning Center, laptop 
computers were provided for all of the operating positions, to 
allow electronic logging of the contacts; Yaesu was kind enough to 
provide paper log books for manual logging.
	Several stations that called in had their children, some 
as young as six, speak to us, so that they could say they talked 
to the "Kennedy Space Center." A High School club in Texas had 
members lined up to contact us, while others, many from Canada and 
overseas, told us about their visits to KSC. We were excited to 
hear the enthusiasm and admiration that many people still have for 
the workers and the space shuttle program at KSC.
Certificates in demand
	Within days of the start of the operation, the special 
NASA mailbox reserved for this occasion was overflowing with mail 
-- with requests for the specially designed commemorative 
certificate used to confirm their contact with the Kennedy Space 
Center station. More than 800 pieces of mail were received within 
the first week after the event. This mountain of mail continues to 
remind us that operating the special event station was only the 
beginning of our public relations effort.
	We at KSC (and operators at most of the other NASA 
facilities) brought in our own personal radio equipment. At KSC, 
we set up the stations and antennas the weekend before the event, 
and took everything down the following weekend. By the following 
Sunday, there was little evidence that anything had taken place at 
the site! In addition to our HF setups, we had two packet 
stations, one for general packet operation and the other for 
connection to the Florida DX PacketCluster, as well as a 2-meter 
FM station to give locals a chance to contact KSC. One interesting 
contact on the 2 meter FM station was from an English tourist who 
was on a tour bus passing by the Launch Control Center and saw our 
antennas. When he arrived back at the Visitor Information Center, 
he immediately went out to his car and tuned around on his VHF 
radio until he located us and called in. He was very excited and 
happy to have been able to make the contact.
	The station location was in the middle of the Launch 
Complex 39 Press Site, the site of the launching of Apollo 11, and 
the current site of launching of the space shuttle. The KSC base 
operations contractor provided a triple-wide trailer used for fire 
rescue training, as the facility for the station site. This 
trailer is located approximately 1000 feet southeast of the huge 
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and Launch Control Center and 
directly next to the turning basin dock, where the external tank 
for the space shuttle is received by barge from Louisiana, and 
off-loaded and transferred to the VAB. To the east are Launch Pads 
39A and 39B, and to the southwest is the LC-39 Press Site 
Facility.
	To allow all three HF stations to operate on the air at 
the same time was the responsibility of the antenna chairman, Eric 
Smitt, K9ES , who selected two small triband yagis provided by the 
Platinum Coast Amateur Radio Society, a rotatable dipole for the 
"new bands," and three verticals provided by GAP. The antennas 
were well spaced, covering an area the size of a football field. 
NASA and McDonnell Douglas assisted by providing trailer-mounted 
towers for the beams. Space Coast REACT members provided a third 
tower trailer that held an AOP-1 satellite antenna array.
	Our special event certificates will be ready for mailing 
soon and we apologize for the delay. Those who contacted the 
special event stations are reminded that this was not a 
government-sponsored activity and that all costs have to be 
covered by the operators themselves, including printing of the 
certificates.

LEAGUE REPLIES TO WRC-95 PREPARATORY COMMENTS	

	The ARRL has commented on an FCC Notice of Inquiry in 
preparation for the next International Telecommunication Union 
World Radio Conference, scheduled for November 1995, in IC Docket 
94-31. (The League's comments were filed July 15, 1994.) 
	The League urged that any consideration of realignment of 
the 7-MHz band (see lead story) be held until the WRC scheduled 
for 2001, to give fixed and mobile services time to relocate to 
higher frequencies. The ARRL had earlier suggested that the issue 
be considered in 1999 but has now moved that back two years.
	A WARC-92 proposal (the last "WARC") to realign the band 
to the benefit of both broadcasters and amateurs was not adopted.
	In the matter of the 2300-MHz band, the League said that 
the directive in the 1994 US Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act 
that protects amateurs means that an international allocation for 
the Mobile Satellite Service at 2300 to 2310 or 2390 to 2420 MHz 
should not be considered.
	Finally, the League said again that a future agenda item 
should be an "International Amateur Radio Permit." Such an 
"automatic reciprocal" permit is already available among the 
countries of the European Conference of Postal and 
Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT), and the International 
Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has been promoting such an agreement 
among its members in ITU Region 2 (South and North America). 

HPM-125 CELEBRATION A ROUSING  SUCCESS!

	The 10-day Hiram Percy Maxim 125th Birthday Memorial 
Celebration appears to have been an overwhelming success. It has 
just ended as this is written, but many participants are reporting 
contact totals in the thousands, despite incredibly rotten HF 
propagation. Both 10 and 15 meters were practically useless, there 
was very little activity on the "new" bands, and the lower 
frequencies suffered outrageous storm static over much of the US.
	Despite this, pileups on "/125" stations were deep, on 
both voice modes and on CW. Perhaps most surprising (at least to 
this writer) was that few people asked what "/125" meant, at least 
on the CW bands. 
	The "contest community" is abuzz over this event and is 
wondering how all those casual operators who showed up can be 
encouraged to participate in the November Sweepstakes and other 
regular contests. Some believe the length (10 days) encouraged 
more and more "casuals" to operate as time went on; some think the 
two-page QST announcement written in "plain English" helped; 
others believe the basic certificate for working just 25 of the 
/125 stations helped. Time will tell.
	The highest contact total we have heard so far is 5125! 
That by Dave Hachadorian, K6LL/7, an Official Relay Station in 
Arizona, who reports 3802 QSOs on SSB and 1323 on CW, including 
470 with /125 stations. Way to go, Dave!
	During a special operation the first weekend of the 
activity, a number of HQ staff members and visitors cranked out 
about 3,000 contacts from W1AW/125.
	The Membership Services Department is going to be very 
busy issuing the handsome certificates for this operating event.

MAJORITY TURN DOWN RE-EXAMS IN VE PROBE

	In June, the Federal Communications Commission gave 51 
amateurs the choice of reappearing for examination or forfeiting 
the privileges they obtained through exams taken in 1992 and 1993. 
Of the 51, all of whom had taken exams in southern California, 
only three appeared for re-test, and all three failed. 
	The original exams were conducted at test sessions 
coordinated by the ARRL-VEC. A subsequent investigation by the 
ARRL and the FCC led the FCC to declare that irregularities on 
exam papers indicated fraud. In early August the FCC officially  
reduced the license classes attained at the sessions in question 
and made call sign changes, as appropriate, for all 51. (More 
information was in June, 1994 QST, p 83).

VE3ONT ADDS 50 MHZ TO EME CONTEST PLAN

	The Toronto VHF Society (VE3ONT) has added 50 MHz to the 
list of bands it will operate in the ARRL EME Contest held at the 
end of October and again in November.
	VE3ONT will use the 46-m (150-ft) dish operated by the 
Institute for Space and Terrestrial Science at Algonquin Park, 
Ontario. On 50 MHz, the antenna will be  linearly polarized, and 
output power will be 1 kW.
	Calculations show that 50-MHz stations with yagis as small 
as 6 elements or so and 1 kW should be able to work VE3ONT off the 
Moon; smaller stations  are urged to try as well.
 	Use of the dish at the Algonquin Space Complex is always 
subject to last minute  preemption for non-amateur purposes.

BRIEFS

	* The ARRL Program for the Disabled is seeking write-ups 
by and about disabled amateurs for use in materials (including 
QST) of interest to all hams. If you'd like to share your own 
story, or have experience helping disabled hams, we'd like to hear 
from you. Stories that emphasize the use of computer technology, 
adaptive/assistive devices, obstacles overcome, and practical 
solutions to everyday problems are of particular interest. Photos 
are also welcome. For more information, contact Mary E. Carcia, 
N7IAL, at HQ, or write to the ARRL Program for the Disabled, 225 
Main Street, Newington, CT 06111.
	* The ARRL Foundation has established The ARRL Program for 
the Disabled Fund, to raise funds for the development of 
educational and informational materials for disabled licensed or 
prospective hams. Your contribution can help make popular ARRL 
publications available in forms most useful to disabled hams and 
their instructors. You can help our disabled friends by sending 
your (tax-deductible) contribution to: The ARRL Foundation, "The 
ARRL Program for  the Disabled Fund," 225 Main Street,  Newington, 
CT 06111.
	* Correction to our listing of weather-related nets last 
issue: The Caribbean Maritime Mobile Net currently meets daily on 
7237 kHz at 1100 UTC for one hour, according to net manager L. K. 
Bean, KV4JC.
	* The space shuttle scheduled for launch October 27 will 
include a scientific experiment to investigate why astronauts 
develop symptoms of osteoporosis on long flights. The technician 
in charge of this project is Delina Stiner, N2MIA, an associate in 
research at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
	* Congratulations to Dan Gautschi, HB9CRQ, recipient of 
the fifth 2-meter DXCC award. 31-year-old Dan uses an array of 
eight 19-element yagis and an 8877 amplifier but says he can work 
stations "down to one yagi and a couple hundred watts."
10 years ago in The ARRL Letter
	The ARRL filed a petition with the FCC for an inquiry on 
the use of the MF bands by nongovernment radiolocation users and 
the next day the amateur community was surprised by an FCC 
proposal to reallocate half of the 160-meter band (1900 to 2000 
kHz) to the very same nongovernment radiolocation users. The 
Letter called this "the bureaucratic equivalent of a soap opera." 
The League immediately filed a motion to hold the FCC's Notice of 
Proposed Rule Making in abeyance pending the resolution of the 
League's petition for a study.
	The League also asked the FCC to issue a Declaratory 
Ruling of Limited Federal Preemption of State and Local Regulation 
of Amateur Radio Station Installation and Operation. This 
eventually became the famous, and successful, "PRB-1" ruling. A 
commercial group had already filed a similar petition for home 
satellite dish antennas, a petition which was opposed by several 
powerful organizations, including the National League of Cities 
and the National Association of Counties.
	The First ARRL-VEC exam took place at the ARRL Pacific 
Division Convention in Santa Clara, California, on September 1, 
1984. More than half of the 100 examinees passed.
	The FCC denied a petition to revisit the subject of a no-
code amateur license (an idea rejected by the Commission in June); 
the ARRL opposed a petition to allow an exam applicant to re-take 
a failed test within seven days after failing; repeater operators 
were being surveyed about interference from CATV systems; W0RPK 
and W3OTC were working 6-meter meteor burst using packet radio 
(including TAPR modems); and the HQ had five job openings for 
hams, as the 1980s "economic boom" picked up steam.

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