Details

Category: The Hamster

Published: 10 April 2020

The club membership rolls are updated after the March meeting. All members: Please check that you appear in the correct listings below.

Correction from the original version:

Thank You to the following members who sold 20 or more 2020 Hamfest tickets which covered your 2020 membership dues:

The following is the listing of SELARC lifetime members:

The below is the list of other members who did not sell $100 or more of Hamfest tickets, but who have submitted a payment for 2020 membership dues as of March 10, 2020:

==> Western Pennsylvania ARES Group Conducts District-Wide Simplex Drill
Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Western Pennsylvania Southwest District, which includes Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Washington, and Westmoreland counties, conducted a district-wide simplex practice drill on March 21. The exercise lasted about 4 hours, with all participants meeting on their local ARES county repeaters. Each county Emergency Coordinator served as net control stations, and all stations kept logs, which were to be sent to their local Emergency Coordinator for forwarding to the District Emergency Coordinator. ...

==> HamSCI 2020 Workshop Successfully Reworked as a Virtual Event
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the March 20 - 21 HamSCI Workshop went on as scheduled, moving to a free, all-digital webinar workshop. The theme of the 2020 workshop was "The Auroral Connection -- How does the aurora affect amateur radio, and what can we learn about the aurora from radio techniques?" Organizer and University of Scranton professor Nathaniel Frissell, W2NAF, told ARRL that he was quite happy with the outcome, after the in-person workshop had to be called off as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. ...

==> FCC Grants Temporary Emergency Authority to WISPs Operating in 5.8 GHz Band
The FCC has granted temporary permission to wireless internet service providers (WISPs) in rural portions of 29 states and the US Virgin Islands to operate in the 5.8 GHz band (5.850 - 5.895 GHz). The authorization, to help meet the temporary surge in demand for residential fixed broadband services during the COVID-19 pandemic, was one of multiple waivers issued in the past week that grant temporary access to a variety of bands in response to the uptick in residential broadband demand.
The 5.8 GHz grants were effective on March 26. Each grant is for 60 days, provided individual WISPs file STA applications within 10 days of March 26. Amateur radio shares this spectrum on a secondary basis with Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) systems and industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) applications, and that status remains unchanged. ...

==> ARRL Headquarters Closes, May QST Delivery is on Schedule
ARRL Headquarters has closed, in compliance with an executive order from Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont that all non-essential businesses and not-for-profit entities reduce their in-person workforces by 100%. ARRL has equipped as many Headquarters staffers as possible to work offsite.
"ARRL remains operational, while our teams work remotely to abide by Connecticut's Stay Home, Stay Safe policy, and most departments are maintaining business as usual," ARRL Interim CEO Barry Shelley, N1VXY, explained. "We are doing all we can under the circumstances and trying to maintain operations in as normal a way as possible." ...

==> Radio Amateurs Team Up to Help University Design Low-Cost Ventilator
Amateur radio volunteers from around the world have volunteered to assist University of Florida Professor Sam Lampotang and his engineering team in their quest to rapidly develop an open-source, low-cost patient ventilator that can be built anywhere from such commonly available components as PVC pipe and lawn-sprinkler valves.
The amateur radio volunteers are developing Arduino-based control software that will set the respiratory rate and other key parameters in treating critically ill coronavirus victims.
Multiple volunteers responding to a call for help from Gordon Gibby, MD, KX4Z, include noted software developer Jack Purdum, W8TEE, and uBITX transceiver maker Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE. University of Florida physicians are working to address the critical legal aspects as the design moves closer to fruition. The ventilator's valves would precisely time compressed oxygen flow into patient breathing circuits under Arduino control, allowing exhausted patients with "stiff" lungs impacted by viral pneumonia to survive until their body can clear the infection.
The software design team is also adding simple features such as an LCD display, encoders to choose parameters, and watchdog safety features.

==> Long Island CW Club Offering Free Online Code Instruction for Homebound Youngsters
The Long Island CW Club in New York is offering free online Morse code instruction for the "many youngsters at loose ends as a result of school closings due to COVID-19 concerns." The club's co-founder, Howard Bernstein, WB2UZE, pointed out that learning Morse code is "a fun and educational activity for children of all ages that can fill part of the gap left by the current unfortunate situation that has closed so many schools across the country."
Ongoing classes will take place Monday through Friday, specifically for school-agers anywhere across the country or overseas, via Zoom online video conferencing. ...

==> Tower-Mounted Christmas Lights Cheer California Neighborhood According to media reports, some Southern California residents have been turning their Christmas lights back on to bolster the mood of the neighborhood during the coronavirus pandemic.
"That caught my eye," Chip Margelli, K7JA, of Garden Grove, told ARRL. "Every year, I put lights up on my 70-foot fixed tower, turning it into the tallest Christmas tree in Garden Grove; it is quite a beacon in the neighborhood."
Because of knee replacement surgery last December, Margelli had not yet taken down his Christmas lights, so he re-lit them and put an announcement on the local Neighborhood Watch Facebook page. Margelli said a lot of positive comments indicated his neighbors would follow suit.

==> FCC Levies $18,000 Fine on Louisiana Amateur Radio Licensee
In an enforcement case prompted by complaints filed in 2017, the FCC has imposed an $18,000 forfeiture on Jerry W. Materne, KC5CSG, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, for intentional interference and failure to identify. The FCC had proposed the fine in a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) in the case in July 2018, and, based on Materne's response to the NAL, the agency affirmed the fine in a March 12 Forfeiture Order (FO).
As the FCC recounted in the FO, an FCC agent "observed Materne causing intentional interference to a local repeater by generating digital noise into an analog radio." The agent further reported that Materne failed to transmit his call sign, as required...

==> ARRL Calls for Continued Coexistence in 3.4 and 5.9 GHz Bands
In comments filed on March 9, ARRL said that while the FCC has not proposed to alter the secondary amateur allocation at 5.850 - 5.925 GHz, changes the FCC has proposed for other users "will constrain current and future amateur operations" in that band, if the proposals are adopted. The Amateur Radio Service shares the 5.850 - 5.925 GHz band on a secondary basis with Dedicated Short-Range Communications (DSRC) systems. Amateur radio also shares the 5.850 - 5.875 GHz segment with industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) applications. ARRL's comments were in response to a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 19-138, in which the FCC said it would "take a fresh and comprehensive look" at the rules for the 5.9 GHz band and proposed to make the lower 45 MHz of the band available for unlicensed operations and to permit vehicle safety systems in the upper 30 MHz of the band. ...

==> Georgia Institute of Technology CubeSat to Feature Amateur Radio Robot Operation
The Glenn Lightsey Research Group's Space Systems Design Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology is sponsoring a 1U CubeSat mission that will include a digital robot. The primary function of the GT-1 satellite is to serve as an educational proof of concept and satellite bus demonstrator...

==> "Team Exuberance" Aims to Lower the Average Age of Contesters
Seven of the world's top youth CW operators will convene at the western Pennsylvania superstation of Tim Duffy, K3LR, in late May, in an effort to lower the average age of contest operators -- especially CW operators. "Team Exuberance (TE)," comprised of teens and early 20-somethings, gained a reputation during the CQ WPX phone event in 2019. This year, they will tackle the CQ WPX CW contest on May 30 - 31. The young operators have been raising money to minimize the cost of the adventure for the participants and their families. ...

==> Outer Space is Your Next Radio Frontier!
You can make contacts through amateur radio satellites, and even with the International Space Station, using equipment you probably own right now! All it takes is the right information, which you'll find in ARRL's new book, Amateur Radio Satellites for Beginners. Dozens of spacecraft are in orbit just waiting for your signals, and more are being launched every year. ...

==> ARISS Celebrates Successful Launch Carrying Interoperable Radio System to ISS
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is celebrating the successful launch and docking of the SpaceX-20 commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). One payload on the flight is the ARISS Interoperable Radio System (IORS), which ARISS calls "the foundational element of the ARISS next-generation radio system" on the space station. Amateur radio has been an integral component of ISS missions since 2000. The Dragon cargo capsule docked successfully with the space station on March 9. ARISS-US Delegate for ARRL Rosalie White, K1STO, said hundreds of ARRL members contributed to make the IORS project happen, and ARISS is celebrating the 4-year-long project. ...

==> International Group Reactivating the Legendary Yasme VP2VB Call Sign
On Tuesday, March 10, an international group set sail to the British Virgin Islands and activated the VP2VB call sign of Yasme fame for 6 days, focusing on the low bands with two stations. VP2VB was the call sign of the legendary Danny Weil, VP2VB, skipper of the Yasme series of sailing vessels that carried the peripatetic adventurer as he traveled from one DX location to another in the 1950s and early 1960s. His activities provided the impetus to create The Yasme Foundation. ...

--The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League