PRESIDENT'S COLUMN ~ by Lyndel Thiesen, N7LT

NWS/ARRL On-Air Event Set for November 27 (submitted by N7LT, Lyndel)

NEWINGTON, CT, Aug 25, 1999  -  The ARRL and the National Weather Service will cosponsor an on the air event November 27, 1999, the final Saturday of the Atlantic hurricane season. The National Weather Service Special Event, a sort of mini-contest, is aimed at recognizing the contributions amateurs make to the NWS during threatening weather. It will provide an opportunity for NWS personnel and amateurs to learn more about each other and their capabilities in severe weather situations. NWS personnel will be encouraged to get on the air, under the supervision of a licensed control operator, and to consider getting licensed. The event also will allow NWS offices to test back up communication in anticipation of Y2K.

The objective is for Amateur Radio operators at NWS sites to work as many other amateur stations as possible. The responsibility for setting up equipment and running the special event station at NWS sites rests with the local amateur community. Local NWS offices will provide the operators with a place to work the event, access to an area outdoors for antennas, power to run the equipment, and, of course, coffee.

Amateurs participating at NWS facilities should avoid interfering with office operations. At most, there should only be two operators at an NWS site at any time during the event. Amateur operators will be responsible for logging all contacts.

The event will run November 27 from 0000 UTC to 2400 UTC. Participating stations will operate on 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 6, and 2 meters. Although it's expected that most contacts will be on SSB, all other modes, including FM, CW, RTTY, and PSK3, may be used. Repeater contacts also are invited.

Operators will exchange their name, QTH, and a one or two word description of the weather at the operator's location (for example, "sunny" or "partly cloudy"). A script will be transmitted at regular intervals to announce the purpose of the event and to provide QSL information.

A Web site, http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gld/radio.htm, provides operating instructions, a list of participating site stations, and QSL information. Operators eligible for a QSL certificate should send a self addressed stamped envelope to the National Weather Service, 920 Armory Rd, Goodland, KS 67735. The NWS will create the certificate, check the logs, and issue the certificates based on the following levels of achievement:

ARRL NEWS and INFO

Under the plan adopted by the Board, the entry level to Amateur Radio would be known as Class D and would convey the privileges of the present Technician license. The written examination would be at the same level of difficulty as that of the present Technician examination, but consistent with the privileges of the license. All amateurs now licensed as Technicians would become Class D.

The next step would be known as Class C and would convey the privileges of the present General license, but with phone subbands expanded by 50 kHz on 75 and 15 meters and by 25 kHz on 40 meters. Class C would be the entry level to high frequency (HF) operating privileges. To upgrade from Class D to Class C, an amateur would pass a written examination on the operational and technical qualifications required for HF operation and a 5 word per minute Morse code examination. All amateurs now licensed as General, Technician Plus, and Novice would become Class C. The expansion of the telephony sub-bands would result from "refarming" of the Novice CW bands that are no longer required for their original purpose.

The third step would be known as Class B and would convey the privileges of the present Advanced license, but with phone subands expanded by 50 kHz on 75 and 15 meters and by 25 kHz on 40 meters. To upgrade from Class C to Class B, an amateur would pass a more advanced written examination similar in difficulty to the present Element 4A and a 12 word per minute Morse code examination. All amateurs now licensed as Advanced would become Class B.

The final step would be known as Class A and would convey the full privileges of the present Amateur Extra Class, with telephony sub-bands expanded by 50 kHz on 75 and 15 meters and by 25 kHz on 40 meters. To upgrade from Class B to Class A, an amateur would be required to pass the most difficult written examination in the sequence. Consistent with the practice in many other countries, no additional Morse code examination would be required beyond 12 words per minute. All amateurs presently licensed as Amateur Extra Class would become Class A.

In their discussions, Board members emphasized that the objective is to rationalize and simplify the amateur licensing structure without reducing the requirements for any class of license. Where reductions in Morse code requirements are proposed, there would be a corresponding increase in written examination standards. On the other hand, Board members were adamant that simplifying the structure should not come at the expense of privileges already earned by amateurs.

Therefore, present Novice and Technician Plus licensees, having earned entry-level HF operating privileges, would be granted the new entry-level HF license. Adoption of the simplification plan marks the culmination of 30 months of work by the Board, during which time the input of literally thousands of ARRL members and other amateurs and prospective amateurs was considered. The Board debated a wide variety of options including both smaller and larger numbers of license classes, higher and lower qualification levels, and different privileges. Nine of the 15 Directors voted in favor of the plan, with six opposed. Following the meeting ARRL President Rod Stafford, W6ROD, observed, "The debate was at times contentious and the result was not unanimous. Some Board members preferred greater simplification; others were uncomfortable with some of the changes being proposed. However, every Board member, without exception, left the meeting knowing that each of his or her colleagues did what they believe is best for the future of Amateur Radio."

Requirements for Amateur Licenses Under the ARRL Proposal :

UPCOMING CONTESTS

It's the fall of '99 and Intel wants you to buy a new computer!
~ written by John B. Benediktson, N7RSQ

It's not that your 250 or 300 or even 400mhz machine has become any slower or is any less capable of its job than it was last summer but Intel needs sales.  Unfortunately, the release of 500 and 600mhz systems hasn't brought anything new to the industry.  The fact that your processor can crank out 600 million operations a second (not really but just for argument sake) really makes very little difference if the buss that exchanges the information resulting from those operations can only handle 100 million.  Oh yes, I forgot, the video channel can handle up to 200 million.  But, wait!  The SGRAM or SDRAM on that video card at the other end of the video channel can only handle 100-130 million chunks of information per second so we are back to 100 million for round figures.    

Now this is a pretty back-woods approach to this; what about the difference between 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, or even 64 bit wide channels?  Won't that help?  Well, it could, if the entire channel and the source and the destination were all the same width.  In that case 100mhz of 32 bit might be equivalent to 200mhz of 16 bit channel; but alas even the pentium III has only 32 bit channels just like the Pentium, the Pentium Pro, and the rest, and the PCI and AGP bus can, at best, support 32 bits on the receiving end as a result (heck, even the ancient VLB supported 32 bit data transfers).  For further pain, some systems use PC-66 memory (memory capable of providing data reliably to a 66mhz cpu channel or buss).  You can bet data is clocked down to 66mhz or less on those systems.  Some systems do use PC-100 memory and shortly some will use PC-120 memory. 

Wow! It's time someone stood up and said "Hey Guys!  Lets get with speeding up the rest of my computer!".  Some work has been done in that arena, but nowhere near enough to keep up with the new speed demon processors.  While SCSI has grown into Ultra-Wide-SCSI and SCSI-III increasing burst thoughput from 8mb/sec to 40mb/sec, IDE standards have increased for 5-10mb/sec up to ATA-33 (33mb/sec) and ATA-66 (66mb/sec) but this is still no faster than our buss speeds (at least it is kind of close for once). 

But none of this comes close to 600mB/sec.  I had wondered why my clients who had gone out and purchased new 500 and 600mhz machines complained that they didn't seem any faster than the 300mhz machines they replaced.  A few questions and a little thought brought me the answer.  They replaced top-of-the-line 300mhz machines with 100mhz buss, 160mhz video cards (specialty item, very expensive), ultra-wide scsi hard drives, PC-100 memory, 512k cache (300mhz cache ram) with machines that are a sham; 600mhz cpu with 100mhz buss, 100mhz video card, scsi-II hard drive, PC-100 memory, and 256k cache (300mhz cache ram).  Little reason to wonder why this new machine doesn't "feel" faster!  It felt better to the checkbook!  It looked real cool; it even sounded cool; 600mhz!  But, lets face it, it can't do anything above 300mhz; and it can't talk to the outside world as fast as its predecessor. 

OOOPS!  We are the consumers!  We created this market!  It is high time we took back control of it and demanded appropriate technology for our money.  When you next go shopping for a computer, please ask yourself "what am I going to need this computer to do?"  and be very careful in choosing a machine that does those "things" well.  Remember, it is only as fast as the slowest component.   

The USA hosts the 1st ever Region 2 ARDF Championships  (Amateur Radio Direction Finding) written by Harely Leach, KI7XF

This August was the first time an ARDF championship was held in our region, which includes all of the Western Hemisphere. It took place in and around the Portland, OR area and had teams from Canada and the USA. It was a joint effort between the FARS (Friendship Amateur Radio Society) and the ARDF folks, which meant that there were competitors present from around the world, including:  Australia,  Bulgaria, Canada, Japan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Sweden & USA, but only Canada and the US could compete for the Region 2 awards. The ARDF style of "fox hunting" is a cross between Orienteering and transmitter/fox hunting. The contestants are timed from start to finish, as they attempt to find the five hidden transmitters on foot. Two separate events are held, one on 2-meters, and the other on 80-meters. The events are held in wooded areas, with a typical course covering 3-5 miles. There are separate divisions based on age and gender, so everyone can compete on a par with their peers. ARDF International style competitions started in Europe over 20 years ago, and the first World Championships were held in 1980. The 9th World Championships were held in Hungary in 1998 and marked the first time that a team from the USA competed. Next year (2000), the 10th World Championships will be held in China, and the USA team plans compete. The next Region competitions will be held in Vancouver, BC in 2001. Typically, regionals are held in odd years and the World Championships in even years.
I competed in both the 2 & 80 meter events in Portland, and had a good time visiting with all the contestants. Learned a few new words and some hand gestures too. It's a great sport that has been slow in gaining popularity in the US, mainly because nobody seemed to know about it. The other nations have had twenty years of practice, both physical and equipment wise, that blew me away. All of my DF gear proved to be inadequate and more suited to stone age hunts.

My only piece of gear that was worth anything, was a partial roll of duct tape. I can tell more of the story at the next club meeting.

Upcoming Events:

Tune into the 146.88 Bridger RepeaterTuedsay Night Net for future events, and visit the Upcoming Events page on the GHRC website!

The GHRC appreciates comments, suggestions and contributions from our members.
Contributions to the GHRC newsletter can be made by email to: ghrc@tangerinecity.com and can be in almost any format. Some reformatting of your submission may occur. You may also submit articles and information by mail to the club address at the beginning of this newsletter. ~editor