Mar Meeting

The Meeting for March was held at the Vernal City Police Dept. Keith Caldwell gave a demonstration on direction finding and with the exception of a few minor glitches it went very well. There was talk of some future excersizes to help develope some of these skills. Since the meeting was held on St. Patricks day there were plenty of green treats on hand, including a green bread alligator that everyone thought was to cute to tear apart and eat, or they were afraid of it I'm not sure which.

Editors Notes

The newsletter this time is comprised mostly of items gleaned from the ARRL letters that Jay so diligently forwards each week if it weren't for those this letter would be awfully small. Thanks Jay

I once again plead with anyone who will listen for input to this project. Thanks Von

Testing Session

There was a testing session held March 30^th in Roosevelt. John Grover was the only one testing that night and he successfully completed the Technician Exam. We would like to welcome him to the world of amateur radio and look forward to hearing him on the air. His call sign will be published as soon as it is posted.

ARISS DECLARES ISS SPECIAL EVENT DAY APRIL 12

Casual Amateur Radio contacts with the hams aboard the International Space Station have been few and far between. That could change next month when a special event day for ham radio has been declared.

"The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, team has received permission from the ISS controllers to declare April 12 Cosmonautics Day--a special event day for ham radio on the International Space Station," ARISS spokesperson Will Marchant, KC6ROL, announced today.

The ARISS international team is asking the ISS Expedition 2 crew--on a voluntary basis--to run general QSOs over Earth's major land masses to help celebrate Cosmonautics Day, Marchant said. Given the interest expressed by earthbound hams in making a contact with the ISS, the ARISS team also is hoping the crew will be enthusiastic about the idea.

Cosmonautics Day will mark the 40th anniversary of the first human space flight by USSR cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, the 30th anniversary of Salyut 1--the first space station, and the 20th anniversary of the initial launch of the first reusable space vehicle--the space shuttle.

Marchant said the crew will be involved with stowage activities on April 12, "so they should have a fair amount of flexibility in adjusting their schedule." Two hams now are aboard the International Space Station--Expedition 2 Crew Commander Yury Usachev, UA9AD, and US astronaut Susan Helms, KC7NHZ. Helms already has made a few casual contacts and this week participated in a scheduled ARISS contact with a California elementary

school using the station's NA1SS call sign. It's not known if Usachev has been active on the air while over Russia.

The following frequencies have been announced for ARISS general QSOs: Voice and packet downlink: 145.80 (worldwide); voice uplink: 144.49 for Regions 2

and 3 (the Americas, and the Pacific); voice uplink: 145.20 for Region 1 (Europe, Central Asia and Africa); packet uplink: 145.99 (worldwide). The ISS Amateur Radio packet system still is not operational, but Marchant said ARISS has been working with the crew and hopes it will be up and running by then.

Marchant said that specific operating times and modes for Cosmonautics Day, as well as additional details, will be announced on the ARISS Web page

http://ariss.gsfc.nasa.gov/

FCC TURNS AWAY RESTRUCTURING PETITIONS FOR RECONSIDERATION

The FCC has declined to make any significant changes to the way it implemented Amateur Radio "restructuring" last April. The Commission has turned down several requests for changes in the Amateur Service rules contained in five petitions for partial reconsideration of its Report and Order WT Docket 98-143, released December 30, 1999. The ARRL was among the petitioners.

In a Memorandum Opinion and Order released April 6, the FCC by and large denied all petitions for changes to its restructuring Order--although it did claim to grant one ARRL request--and it made some minor housekeeping changes to the amateur rules.

Among the issues was a request from the ARRL and other petitioners that the FCC continue to maintain records that indicate whether a Technician licensee has Morse code element credit. The FCC noted that its current Universal

Licensing System software was modified to display a "P" (for Plus) in the field that indicates former license class when a Technician Plus class license is renewed. "This capability results in the amateur service database being able to provide a de facto Technician Plus licensee database," the FCC asserted in its MO&O. The FCC did not address how its database will distinguish current Technician licensees who subsequently earn Morse code

(Element 1) credit. Those licensees have only a Certificate of Completion of Examination (CSCE), which will never be reflected in the database, even upon license renewal.

The FCC also decided to not extend Element 1 credit to all past licensees who had ever earned it--something else the ARRL had asked for. Under current rules, the holder of an expired Novice or a pre-February 14, 1991, Technician license can get Element 1 credit. The FCC said that "most examinees" who ever held a General, Advanced or Amateur Extra ticket also once held a Novice or a pre-February 14, 1991, Technician ticket that grants Element 1 credit.

Left out in the cold by the FCC's decision is anyone who went directly to Conditional or General class without ever holding a Novice ticket. The FCC also declined to extend permanent credit to Element 1 CSCEs held by Technicians to obtain HF privileges. These CSCEs are good for 365 days for upgrading purposes but confer only additional operating privileges for Technicians beyond that time.

The FCC refused to reinstate the 20 WPM Morse code exam for Extra. The FCC said that since restructuring went into effect nearly a year ago, "there does not appear to be any decline in the proper operation of amateur stations." The FCC also declined to ban the practice of allowing applicants to retake a failed examination element at a single test session simply by paying a second fee to the VE team. And the Commission did not go along with

requests to set the total number of questions at 50 for the Technician and General class test and at 100 for the Amateur Extra test.

The FCC also declined to make any changes--at least for now--in the arrangement of mode-related Amateur Radio subbands, as some petitioners had requested. The FCC said it believed it should let the amateur community "reach a consensus regarding a comprehensive restructuring of operating privileges for all licensees" before making any changes.

Also denied were requests to: institute a new entry-level Communicator license class in the Amateur Service; elevate former "Class A" operators licensed prior to 1951 to Amateur Extra, instead of leaving them at Advanced

class; give Element 4 exam credit to examinees who'd held a Conditional, General or Advanced ticket before November 22, 1968--when "incentive licensing" became effective.

The FCC MO&O is available at

http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/wt98-143-recon.pdf .

Inside Amateur Radio

The following story has been excerpted from Inside Amateur Radio, by the late Lenore Jensen,W6NAZ. The book can be purchased from Worldradio Books, P.O. Box 189490, Sacramento, CA 95818. Price is $9.00 plus $2.00 shipping and handling. CA residents please add $0.70 sales Tax

The Case of the Labrador Cat

It didn't happen to Yardley Beers, W0JF, himself, but he swears it was told to him by a Ham in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The radio contact was between a station in Pennsylvania and one in Labrador. Their conversation went:

Labrador: What do you do for a living?

Pennsylvania: I'm a veterinary surgeon and I just happen to have my radio shack right here in the animal hospital.

Labrador: That's just what we need here. Our cat is sick.

Penn: What's wrong with her?

Lab: (described the symptoms)

Club Officers

President Keith Caldwell KK7EX

Vice President Lee Turner KK7SI

Secretary Kay Johnson KC7MGD

Treasurer Jay Hansen KA7BPB

Net Manager Lee Turner KK7SI

Board Members

Jay Hansen KA7BPB

Jerry Goodrich N7JCP

Chandler Fisher W7BYU

Repeaters

Blue Mountain 147.100 + 136.5 Hz

Duchesne 147.260 +

Roosevelt 145.490 - 136.5 Hz

Tabby 147.240 + 136.5 Hz

Grizzly Ridge 147.040 + 136.5 Hz

Bruin Peak 147.320 + 88.5 Hz

Blue Mtn 444.700 Tx 136.5 Hz

449.700 RxPenn: Nothing serious, just give her some sulfa in the amount I will prescribe and she will be all right in a few days.

About a week later a second contact took place:

Penn: I've been desperately looking for you. Unfortunately I told our newspaper about how I prescribed for your cat and they are pestering me to find out how she is. How is she?

Lab: Fine. Stand by a minute and I'll get her to tell you herself.

When the Labrador Ham brought the cat to the microphone, no amount of persuasion or coercion could get her to make any sound at all. Now sometimes a bit of "radio frequency" (RF) gets loose around radio rooms. Touching metal can produce a small spark similar to static electricity. While still refusing to make any sound she started to sniff the microphone. Sure enough, there was RF on it! She emitted a loud yowl!

Lab: Did you hear that?

Penn: Did we ever hear that! Listen! ( His hospital was erupting with a loud chorus of barking patients! )

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