Weekend Ham Radio Class

The Rochester ARC is having a weekend ham radio class. The class meets for two consecutive Saturdays, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. The class is fast paced, but covers all topics needed to pass the Technician written Element 2 exam. The class uses the ARRL Now You're Talking! as a study guide plus a set of charts and materials specifically developed for the class. Class sessions are held at the American Red Cross building in southeast Rochester.

The class fee of $30 covers the costs to provide the study guide plus copies of the presentation and review materials. The schedule for the next weekend ham radio class is:

• Saturday, August 16 -- Day 1
• Saturday, August 23 -- Day 2
• Thursday, September 11, VE Test

ARRL Kid's Web Pages

The ARRL web site now includes the Harmonics Web pages. The Web pages feature age-appropriate activities for kids. Visitors can play games, download informative printouts to color, read news articles about other kids involved with ham radio, work puzzles, click on live links, listen to audio samples of Morse code and space station contacts and much more. Throughout the site, kids are greeted by colorful cartoon "ham-sters" who explore the world of Amateur Radio along with the young people visiting the site. The pages target kids aged 5 to 15. Harmonics invites them to get acquainted with the basic concepts of Amateur Radio through immediate personal interaction and by discovering how other kids are using ham radio for personal communication and to expand their exploration of science and technology.

How Ham Radio Works

Want to find out how something works? Try taking your web browser over to http://howstuffworks.com. The site is a wealth of information on just about anything in life including ham radio. In fact, if you want a good laymens explanation of our hobby, click onto howstuffworks.com.

ARRL References

The ARRL posted a glossary of amateur radio and electronic terms and a list of abbreviations found in ARRL publications (as well as many other publications). The glossary is an HTML document while the abbreviation list is in PDF format.

W5YI Report SK

The last of the paper ham radio newsletters delivered by the postal system, the W5YI Report went QRT with its July 15 issue. The W5YI Report was started by Fred Maia, W5YI in the late 1970's as an information provider to the Richardson Wireless Klub near Dallas, Texas. Fred will continue his monthly column in CQ.

Ham Radio Magazine Anthologies

CQ Communications now owns the rights to Ham Radio magazine and decided to release to compilation books based on requests from the Amateur Radio community. A new series of anthologies, reprinting selected articles from the pages of ham radio, is now available from the folks at CQ Magazine. The first four books in the series were introduced two weeks ago at the 2003 Dayton Hamvention. The topics covered are: "Antennas, 1968 to1972;" "Antennas, 1973 to 1975;"Homebrewing Techniques" and "Troubleshooting Techniques." They can be ordered on-line at CQ

WRC-03 Highlights

The International Telecommunication Union has dropped the international requirement that amateurs operating below 30 MHz must first pass a Morse code exam. The new language of International Radio Regulation Article 25.5 now reads: "Administrations shall determine whether or not a person seeking a license to operate an amateur station shall demonstrate the ability to send and receive texts in Morse code signals." This leaves the question of requiring a code test optional for each government licensing authority.

FCC rules continue to require passage of a 5 word-per-minute code test for access to the amateur bands below 30 MHz, although it is widely expected that opponents of the code requirement will quickly file petitions with the FCC to drop it. Switzerland's Federal Office for Communications authorized Swiss CEPT Class 2 license holders to operate on the High Frequency bands without taking a Morse test effective from July 15th. The GB2RS News Service which reports the Radiocommunications Authority has issued a notice that ends of the Morse requirement for access to the High Frequency bands by hams in the UK.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has agreed to move international broadcasters off of 7100-7200 kHz by 2009, after which the band segment will be available to amateurs worldwide. The action will double the size of the 40-meter ham band in much of the world and will reduce by half the portion of the band in which amateurs in the Americas must compete with broadcasters for nighttime communications on 7 MHz. The only exceptions will be some countries in Region 3, mostly in the Middle East, that have already authorized fixed and mobile services on 7100-7200.

Old rules requiring that all international amateur communication be in "plain language" and which had raised questions in some countries about the legality of using certain digital modes for DX contacts, was replaced by a statement that, except for satellite control stations, international contacts "may not be encoded for the purpose of obscuring their meaning."

The same rule had limited the content of international contacts to "messages of a technical nature relating to tests and to remarks of a personal character for which, by reason of their unimportance, recourse to the public telecommunications service is not justified." This has been replaced by the less restrictive "(t)ransmissions between amateur stations of different countries shall be limited to communications incidental to the purposes of the amateur service ... and to remarks of a personal character."

The previous absolute ban on international third-party communication in the absence of a specific agreement between the countries involved was replaced. Article 25.3 now reads: "Amateur stations may be used for transmitting international communications on behalf of third parties only in the case of an emergency or disaster relief. An administration may determine the applicability of this provision to amateur stations under its jurisdiction." This eliminates the need for individual, country-by-country, agreements.

Although these changes were approved at the international level, it may take 2 years before the FCC is able to the incorporate changes.

Something to Sell or Buy? Something to Add?

Don't forget the "classified" section of the OSCAR web site. The editor is always looking for ideas and submissions for future newsletters. Send ideas, articles, event dates, and updates.