The SELARC "Hamster"

*Serving Amateur Radio Since 1974*

Published Monthly by the Southeast Louisiana Amateur Radio Club Inc.
<align="center">P.O. Box 1324, Hammond LA 70404
<align="center">Visit our website: www.selarc.org

* Club Meeting*
Tuesday, May 9, 7:00PM
Ponchatoula Community Center

If you would like to become a member of SELARC or renew your membership please print out and complete the application/renewal form at www.selarc.org/slrcappl.htm  and return it with your check to: P.O. Box 1324, Hammond LA 70404. Thanks!

LA Special Olympic Games will be held on May 19-21 on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University; ham volunteers will assist with communications. To volunteer contact Bob Priez This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ARRL Field Day will be on June 24-25 and the SELARC plans to participate will be discussed at the May and June club meetings. Bring your ideas and commitments to the meetings, and volunteer for the committee!!

Slidell EOC Hamfest will be Saturday, July 15th, at John Slidell Park, 105 Robert Road. Website: http://www.w5sla.net

Greater New Orleans Ham Fest will be on November 11th at the Harahan Lions Club Building, 1001 Hickory Avenue. For info https://www.facebook.com/groups/2044282109131267/

Hammond VE Group - ARRL/W5YI tests are scheduled for the last Sunday of each month [with the exception of holiday conflicts] in Room "B" of the North Oaks Medical System Diagnostic Center at 2pm with $15 testing fee. Bring photo ID and any appropriate CSCE. For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Find an Amateur Radio License Exam in Your Area.

President Mike Ansalve KF5JSO called the meeting to order at 7:04pm and led the Pledge of Allegiance, after which Francis KF5YNN offered the prayer. It was m/s/passed to approve minutes of the March 14 meeting as published in the "Hamster". Correspondence included bills and dues payments received. Treasurer Dave Catania N5QOX presented the financial report, which included a detailed 3-year comparison of the 2015, 2016 and 2017 hamfest expenses and income. It was m/s/passed to accept the financial report. Memberhip applications of Trent Hernandez KD5PCM of Mandeville and Ron Harry KG5SPZ of Hammond were voted and approved. Welcome to SELARC to both of them!

Attendance (38): Bob WB5FBS, Mike KF5JSO, David W5NPV, David Catania N5QOX, Jimmy AG5EJ, Dottie KF5YNM, Francis KF5YNN, Jerry N5GKJ, Roy KG5JSM, Donna KG5JSL, Ed KE5GMN, Pat KE5KMM, Mike KE5KMH, Tom W5PGS, Lyle KD5JRY, Lambert KG5DDW, Mary KG5ITF, Dean KG5AAE, Peter WB5ERM, Bill KB5OBW, Walt N5RYI, Ernie N5NIB, Alan KR5T, Tom KF6QJQ, Rich KG5DBA, Victor KG5OPA, Ron KG5SPZ & Laura, Tyrone N5XES, Jeff KF5TPX, Ralph K5CAV, John N5JHF, Scott KD5PCK, Trent KD5PCM, Kathryn N4USW, Keith KF5VLX, Judy AA5UZ and John AA5UY.

Committee Reports: Repeater (Bob WB5FBS) - good news is that the 145.130 repeater and 145.010 packet digipeater are working fine. The 444.250 repeater noise problem is increasing and will need to be repaired or replaced in the not to far future! The real serious problem that has the 147 repeater off-air will require examination of entire feedline, antenna and connectors to provide details about resolving the issue. A preliminary analysis by Pete WB5ERM indicates the problem is not the radio nor the duplexer, but lies after that point. Bob asked Pete, Tyrone N5XES, Dean KG5AAE, Jim WB5LSH and Keith KF5VLX to serve on the committee to decide options. ARES (Pat KE5KMM) - The new issue of the Tangi ARES newsletter has been sent out; the next ARES meeting will be May 11at 6pm in the SLU Pennington Center. Hams are invited to attend the open sessions of the National Hurricane Conference on April 19 at the Hyatt Hotel in New Orleans, and a SkyWarn class will be held at the Amite EOC on April 25, 6-8pm.

Old Business: (1) David N5QOX congratulated Ron Harry KG5SPZ who completed the Technician class.. (2)Bob WB5FBS reported that the special event station at the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival on April 8&9 was a nice event with 9 operators who worked 60 contacts on VHF. Operators over the two days were Roy KG5JSM, Ron KG5SPZ, Rich KG5DBA, Pat KE5KMM, Tom KF6QJQ, Lyle KD5JRY, Keith AG5GW, Ed KE5GMN and Bob WB5FBS. (3) There was lively discussion of the repeater situation, but real decisions will have to wait until facts are known. Estimates of the cost could possibly go from $5k to perhaps twice that amount. The committee will report at the May meeting. (4) June 24-25 Field Day committee will have to be appointed for plans of location, food, budget, etc.; Walter N5RYI offered a location in Covington that would be suitable which included room, A/C, bedrooms, water, parking and was next to the river. The site should be handicap accessible (especially to celebrate KC5WDH's birthday!)

New Business: (1) The LA Special Olympic Games in Hammond will be May 20-21 on the SLU campus; Bob WB5FBS requested ham radio volunteers. A handi-talki will be sufficient since all operations will be on the campus and simplex frequencies will be used. Contact Bob to volunteer! (2) The dates for the Multiple Sclerosis Bike Tour will be the first weekend in October (Oct. 7 & 8). (3) SELARC members Sandy Blaize W5TVW and John Stout N5JHF are volunteering as regular Net Control Stations for the Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net on 3.935MHz. Thanks to them for their service, and they invite you to check into the net which meets nightly at 0100 UTC.

Adjournment: It was m/s/passed to adjourn at 8:35pm.

John Fallows VE6EY of Calgary, Alberta has published a series of articles on the web called the "Arduino Ham Radio Starter Kit". The purpose of this information is to encourage more hams and their clubs to engage with the local maker community as a gateway to amateur radio. These articles explain Arduino basics in a ham radio context. They contain many suggestions about how amateurs can use Arduinos, as well as how a ham club can engage other makers in hobby activities.
Read More.

==> FCC Proposes Levying Huge Fine on New York Police Radio Jammer -- The FCC has proposed imposing a fine of more than $400,000 on a Queens, New York, man who has admitted making unauthorized transmissions on New York City Police Department (NYPD) radio frequencies, maliciously interfering with NYPD officers' communications. Jay Peralta, 20, is alleged to have transmitted false bomb threats, false claims of criminal activities involving firearms, false distress calls from purported NYPD officers, and threats against individual NYPD officers. The unauthorized transmissions began a year ago, according to the FCC. The FCC said the NAL addresses nine unauthorized and interfering transmissions that Peralta has admitted to the NYPD that he made on its radio system. According to the FCC, Peralta's unauthorized transmissions included false bomb threats, false claims of criminal activities involving firearms, false distress calls from purported NYPD officers, and threats against individual NYPD officers. Peralta was arrested last fall, along with two other men suspected of committing several robberies. According to news accounts, police found a cache of scanners and radios in one of the suspects' homes.

==> ARRL Reiterates its Case for New Band at 5 MHz -- In comments filed on March 20 with the FCC on its own January Petition for Rule Making (RM-11785), ARRL reiterated its case for a contiguous secondary 15-kHz wide, 60-meter band of 5,351.5 to 5,366.5 kHz in addition to the four existing discrete 60-meter channels that fall outside the requested band, with a permitted power level of 100 W EIRP and retention of current operating rules. More than 5 dozen comments, all supporting the proposed allocation, were filed on the League's petition. While some suggested more spectrum or higher power, or a combination, ARRL said in its comments that it does not at this time favor any changes in its initial request for a new band. The League proposal would implement a portion of the Final Acts of World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) that provided for a secondary international amateur allocation of 5,351.5 to 5,366.5 kHz at a maximum of 15 W EIRP. The League said the WRC-15 power limit of 15 W EIRP "would render the band unsuitable for emergency communication, especially between the US mainland and the Caribbean Basin during summer storms and hurricane season, when atmospheric noise can be severe. ARRL said there were good reasons for hewing to the proposal it initially crafted and filed with the FCC, most relating to the fact that the spectrum is shared with federal government users, and radio amateurs must avoid interfering with them.

==> ISS Packet System Returns to VHF- The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) packet digipeater system is again operating on VHF -- 145.825 MHz. The failure of an Ericsson handheld VHF transceiver on board the ISS last fall had caused ARISS to shift packet operation to 70 centimeters. In February, a cargo resupply mission delivered a new Ericsson 2-meter handheld to replace the one that had failed, which had been used in the Columbus module for school group contacts and for Amateur Radio packet. While the VHF transceiver was offline, ARISS shifted school contacts from NA1SS to the Kenwood TM-D710 transceiver in the Russian Service Module. NASA ISS Ham Project Coordinator Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, said the VHF capability now back in Columbus can be used in conjunction with passes involving the HamTV digital amateur television (DATV) system, which operates on 2.4 GHz. ARISS International Chair Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, said recently that ARISS continues to make progress on the development of the new interoperable radio system on the ISS "that we hope to use to replace our aging radio infrastructure in the Columbus module and the Service module." Packets digipeated in a valid APRS format via the ISS system and picked up by an internet gateway station are documented on the "Amateur Radio Stations heard via ISS" page.

==> Amateur Radio Gains a Champion in FAA Tower Safety Rules Controversy - The owners of certain Amateur Radio towers have a friend in FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who feels that tower-marking provisions required under the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016, now Public Law 114-190, "could use tweaks." In a March 10 blog post, O'Rielly expressed his belief that thousands of tower owners in the US could face expensive, unnecessary retrofits resulting from the law's unintended consequences. The new FAA law would impose additional marking requirements for a small number of Amateur Radio towers, however.
The law instructs the FAA to enact rules similar to state-level statutes now in place that are aimed at improving aircraft safety in the vicinity of METs set up in rural areas. In the wake of fatal crop dusting aircraft collisions with METs, often erected on short notice, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended in 2013 that states enact laws -- sometimes called "crop duster" statutes -- requiring marking and registration of METs.

--The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League

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Stay Radio active -- See you at the May 9th Meeting!

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