OSCAR News
Charlie KØHNY decided to retire as a club officer. Charlie has served as Treasurer since 2003 and held several positions within the OSCAR over the past 25+ years. OSCAR membership appreciates the years of service and Elmering.

Paul WØFEI was nominated and voted in to replace Charlie as Treasurer. Paul passed all of the appropriate background checks. Thanks, Paul, for stepping up to fill the opening.

Charlie also served as the trustee of the club call sign, KCØBXJ. Tom NØUW agreed to become the new trustee.

OSCAR Web Site
At the OSCAR meeting in April, the web site hosting was discussed. OSCAR uses a free web hosting site and the annoying pop-ups have long been noted. Dave KCØUVY gratiously volunteered space on his business (Technology Navigators) server to host the OSCAR web site. The club authorized the expenditure to register oscarmn.org.

The URL http://oscarmn.org is active and the web site is in process of being moved. Note the URL does not include www.. Some links need to be corrected, so you might be accidently bumped back to the original web site. Some of the content (mostly pictures) previously removed due to space limitations was restored. No significant changes are planned to the content, but submissions are always accepted. Once the new site is up to snuff, the content on the orignal site will be replaced with links to the new site.

Thanks, Dave, for supplying the server space.

Thursday Night Net
Local radio personality Matt KAØPQW is the NCS for the local Thursday night net. The net on the Owatonna repeater (145.490 MHz) begins at 8:00 PM local. Be sure to check into the weekly net to practice communications in a controlled net and find out what is happening.

ARES News
Steele County ARES is a member of Steele County CAER. CAER is publishing a series of articles in the Owatonna Peoples Press on the many organizations involved with disaster response. Amateur Radio will be featured in an an upcoming article.

Technician Class
The 2007 class was a success! We started with six participants and ended with six participants. So far, we know five new licenses were earned as a result of the class. Congratulatiosn to Aaron, Dale, Mark, Tom, and Duane. The instructors would like to thank OSCAR for the support. Requests for a fall class and that is being evaluated.

VE Session
The 22-May VE session was staffed by Paul WØFEI, Ron WBØKRI, Deuel NSØL, and Tom NØUW. Six Tech exams and one General were administered. Five new licenses and one upgrade were earned. Listen up for the KDØ prefixes that will appear soon on the airwaves near you. At the time of this writing, nothing has shown up in the FCC data base.

We appreciate the VEs particpating in the program to administer the FCC license exams.

Field Day
Field Day is 23/24-Jun. Kris KCØREO has again agreed to chair the event. Rumor has it there will be a battle of the 40-meter verticals. Details will be finalized at the June OSCAR meeting. OSCAR will use the Crane Creek School Park at US Hwy-14 West and NW 52nd Ave, about 3 miles west of Wal-Mart. We have approval form Sheriff Ringhoffer to spend the night. If there is enough interest for an all night event, the EOC trailer will be brought up from Ellendale for our use.

Certified EMCOMM Volunteers From ARRL Letter
Want to obtain a certification in emergency communications? The National Registry of Certified EmComm Volunteers (NRCEV), offers four levels of national certification standards for emcomm volunteers. Many organizations produce training materials, such as the ARRL Emergency Communication courses. The requirements for the NRCEV certification bring training materials from a several sources together. One requirement for recertification every three years is continuing education. It must be noted, however, the NRCEV is a private certifying organization and is not recognized/endorsed by any National organizations.

Cell Phone Lightning Detection From PC World
Nokia Corp. hopes someday to add a lightning detector system designed for use in mobile phones. The invention involves the use of mobile phone signals to detect radio waves emitted by lightning. Typical electromagnetic pulses caused by a lightning stroke cover the frequencies between 10 Hz and 5 GHz with a peak around 500 Hz. Electro-magnetic interferences in a monitored RF channel are analyzed to determine if the interference seems to be caused by a lightning stroke. Software calculates the distance to the lightning and informs users of imminent strikes.

On the BPL Front From AR Newsline
Motorola decided to suspend development of its Powerline LV Access B-P-L. According to reports, this decision reflects declining interest in residential broadband service delivery among utilities. Motorola will focus on a product for use within multiple-unit dwellings called Powerline MU. The Powerline product restricted the application of high-frequency RF to the low-voltage side of the power transformers serving customers' homes. This avoided issues with signals applied to the medium-voltage wires that line many residential streets. Measurements and subjective listening tests on the ham bands showed that Powerline LV was Amateur Radio-friendly.

The ARRL filed a brief in a federal appeals petition for review of the FCC's BPL rules. The League contends the FCC's actions fundamentally alter the longstanding rights of radio spectrum licensees, including Amateur Radio operators. The brief asserts the FCC authorized the operation of unlicensed devices that interfere with licensed devices, concluding that BPL's acknowledged interference risks are manageable.