News for Amateur Radio Operators In and Around Hillsdale County

 

On Thursday, August 23 the Club Potluck Picnic was held at Owens Memorial Park on Baw Beese Lake.  The event was originally scheduled for August 16 but weather concerns postponed it a week.  The Club provided hamburgers and hot dogs and there were plenty of good side dishes on hand.  Everyone that was there had a good time.

 

Michigan House Bill 5027, aka PRB-1, is still stuck in committee with no action.  The bill would put state law in sync with FCC regulations with respect to encumbrances to antenna structures.  According to Michigan ARRL Section Manager Larry Camp WB8R, a similar bill will be introduced soon in the Michigan Senate.  Hillsdale County’s Senator Bruce Caswell has signed on as a co-sponsor.  Once the bill is assigned to committee, Amateurs will be encouraged to write their senator requesting continued support.  ARRL Michigan leadership has a form letter ready for this purpose and will advise when the letters should be utilized.  Click here to follow the progress of House Bill 5027.

 

Several months ago Congress charged the FCC to conduct a study into the uses and capabilities of Amateur Radio Service communications in emergencies and disaster relief, and into the existence of impediments, including the effects of unreasonable or unnecessary private land use restrictions on residential antenna installations.  Click here to view the FCC report that was recently released.

 

The cost of an Amateur Radio vanity call sign will increase 80 cents, from $14.20 to $15 starting September 4.  The vanity call sign fee is payable when applying for a new vanity call sign and when renewing a vanity call sign for a new 10 year term.  (story)

 

QST Managing Editor Joel P. Kleinman N1BKE died August 18 from injuries received during a house fire.  He was 64.  Kleinman was responsible for the coordination, organization, control and completion of all aspects of QST’s editorial content each month. (ARRL story)

 

The ARRL Board voted to change the Field Day rules to permit Class A and B stations to begin setting up earlier.  Under the new rules setup may begin Thursday night at midnight UTC (Thursday 8pm EDT).  However, cumulative setup time shall not exceed 24 hours.  Field Day 2013 will be the weekend of June 22-23.

 

The National Football League is switching from analog to digital technology for coaches to relay plays to quarterbacks.  The system was tested during the preseason and Pro Bowl last year before getting rolled out in every NFL stadium permanently this year.  (story)

 

The U.S. Coast guard recently reported multiple waterspouts on Lake Michigan three to five miles from the coast of Manistee. The NWS in Marquette also received reports of waterspouts on Lake Superior.  (Stories with pictures: story 1 - story 2)

 

Area townships are upgrading tornado sirens to be narrowband compliant by January.  The FCC is enforcing the narrowband radio transmission requirement on all state and local public safety agencies.  According to Hillsdale County Emergency Manager and 911 Director Doug Sanford N8WFB, the process of converting sirens in Hillsdale County to narrowband is close to completion with only two sites remaining in wideband.  (story)

 

Army MARS headquarters operations will be expanded with recruiting of a full-time senior MARS Program Officer.  The Program Officer position is the first full-time staff expansion at MARS headquarters in at least a decade.  (story)

 

The TV show “CBS News Sunday Morning” recently aired a piece on the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), a large area of land surrounding the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in Green Bank, West Virginia.  The NRQZ was set up to protect the observatory, a very large and very sensitive radio telescope listening for the faintest of signals from space.  In the NRQZ the federal government bans most gadgets that transmit.  (CBS Video Report – NRQZ website)

 

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has expressed public support for a .radio top-level domain name.  Under the proposal as put forth by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), registration will be available to all eligible radio representative organizations and broadcasters, Internet radios, radio amateurs, radio professionals and their respective representative organizations, as well as companies providing radio-specific products and services in order to create a worldwide radio community.  (story)

 

Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) announced that it would split the Ontario Section into four new sections.  The new Section boundaries went into effect on September 1 and will affect ARRL contests and Field Day.  (RAC bulletin - ARRL story – map)

 

Betty Ona, wife of club member Bill Ona KA8WBR, passed away unexpectedly on Wednesday, August 8.  (obituary)

 

Don't forget to check in to the Monday night net, held weekly at 7pm on the 147.06 repeater. 

 

The next Ham Breakfast will be Saturday, September 8 at 8am at The Coffee Shop, 119 W Main St in North Adams. (map).  Please come join us.

 

The next club meeting will be Thursday, September 20 at Hillsdale High School (map) in room 131.  Take Bacon Street to Hornet Drive, then turn left at the top of the hill into the parking lot that long ago was the tennis courts.  Use the north entrance by the generator.

 

The next board meeting will be Thursday, September 6 at 7pm at McDonald's in Hillsdale (map).  Board meetings are open to all club members.

 

Upcoming Events

September 6 - Board Meeting

September 8 - Ham Breakfast at North Adams Coffee Shop (map)

September 9 - Findlay Hamfest (info & map)

September 16 - Adrian Hamfest (info & map)

September 20 - Club Meeting

October 4 – Board Meeting

October 13 – Ham Breakfast

October 18 – Club Meeting

October 21 – Kalamazoo Hamfest (info & map)