ARRL Hudson Division
. October 2002
 Hudson Division Beacon - e-mail edition
 By Frank Fallon, N2FF, Director, Hudson Division, ARRL
 30 East Williston Avenue, East Williston, NY 11596
 (516) 746-7652
 n2ff@arrl.org
 Hudson Division Home Page - http://www.hudson.arrl.org
 
ARRL Members
 
Please continue to spread the word to others that may want to receive
this information that they will need to access the ARRL members only web
site.  After becoming a member they must edit their profile and elect to
receive bulletins from the Section Manager and Director. If you are
already a member on the ARRL site (http://www.arrl.org) from the
"Members Only" box click on "members data page" and then under email
notification options set "Division/Section notices" to YES. You will
receive the next bulletin sent.
 
ALERT: Looking for DX and QSL cards try the CQWW SSB Contest this
weekend - especially Sunday when the big guns will have worked them all.
 If you want DX QSL cards, make sure to send money to NJDXA. See
http://www.njdxa.org to learn how to receive incoming QSL cards.
 
GSBARC Hamfest this Sunday. See the last page for details. LIMARC rain
date November 10th. 
 
> HUDSON DIVISION AWARD WINNERS SELECTED
 
The Hudson Division Awards Committee has selected Tom Carrubba, KA2D, to
receive the Amateur of the Year Award for 2002. Tom, a resident of
North Babylon, is the Section Emergency Coordinator for the NLI Section
and was the point man in the ARES 9/11 response. He was responsible for
feeding operators into Manhattan from outside the area. Earlier this
year he was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Western Washington
Section Convention and was awarded the prestigious Kenwood "Top Gun"
award at Dayton. Tom is past president of the Great South Bay ARC and
is an active contester and DXer. 
 
Dave Watros, WD2K, of Schodack Landing, NY was selected for the "Grand
Ole Ham" award. Dave is a long time ham and member of the Rip Van
Winkle ARS and long time editor of the club newsletter who contracted
polio as a child. He has been helping others for years. Dave will,
unfortunately, not be able to receive the award in person but some of
his friends will be on hand to pick it up.
 
Tom Marrin, W2RN, of Woodbridge, NJ was awarded Technical Achievement. 
Licensed for more than thirty years, Dave is in the Electronic
Engineering Department at NBC News. He has unselfishly given of his
time, expertise, and equipment to put a number of New Jersey repeaters
on the air and keep them going. Time and again he has helped others
with less experience solve their technical problem and get their rig
back on the air. 
 
Honored guest at the event will be New Jersey Assemblyman Matt Ahearn,
KB2PNN, of  Fair Lawn who will shortly introduce a New Jersey tower
bill. Assembly Ahearn, who represents the 38th district in Bergen
County, recently contacted Director Fallon offering to sponsor a New
Jersey tower bill after reading about our planned effort in the Hudson
Division "Beacon" newsletter. Assemblyman Ahearn, a former Army
paratrooper who went to law school after serving as a U.S. Defense
Department analyst, was a member of the Fair Lawn Borough Council. 
Assemblyman Ahearn was a communications officer with the 82nd Airborne
Division in the early 1980's became a ham as a teenager.
 
The awards will be presented at a dinner to be held at Biagio's
Restorante in Paramus, New Jersey on November 9th at 7 PM. The event
is hosted by the 10-70 Repeater Association. We hope many of you will
be able to attend and help us honor the recipients of the awards. 
Dinner includes an appetizer, a house salad, a choice of five entries,
coffee and tea, dessert and unlimited soda. Dinner is $38 per person
including gratuities and tax with unlimited soda. A cash bar will be
available. The restaurant gets rave reviews from the many local hams
who have eaten there. There will be a choice of five entrees and plenty
of door prizes and a "loot bag" for all. ARRL, Hal Communications,
Alinco, Writelog, World Radio, prizes have already been received. More
are on their way. It will be a fun event.
 
Tickets are available from the 10-70 Repeater Association, 235 Van
Emburgh Ave., Ridgewood, NJ 07450-2918 or e-mail Joyce at
KA2ANF@aol.com Order forms are available on the division web site.
 
> HR 4720 FINALLY HAS NY SUPPORT
 
Additional sponsors continue to sign on to HR 4720. Have you asked your
congressperson to support this bill? New to the supporter list are
representatives Constance Morella (R-MD), Mike McIntyre (D-NC), and
Michael McNulty (D-NY). See
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2002/09/11/103/?nc=1 for details.
 
Members of the Schenectday Amateur Radio Association told me at a recent
meeting that a number of them had contacted their local Congress man,
Michael McNulty, asking for support. He apparently reacted positively
to their requests. We need more NJ and NY hams to make these important
contacts.
 
Visit the US House of Representatives Write Your Representative Service
available on the ARRL Web page, for information on how to contact your
representative. The ARRL requests those writing or e-mailing members of
Congress--whether or not they are supporting this legislation--to copy
ARRL on their correspondence--via e-mail to ccr-bill@arrl.org or via US
Mail to CC&R Bill, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.
Correspondents should include the bill number, HR 4720, as well as their
name and address on all correspondence. 
 
> NEW YORK LEGISLATIVE SESSION ……
 
We are hearing conflicting rumors about the legislature going back into
session after the election in early December to vote themselves a pay
increase. My guess is that they will not go back. We would like to
make A 1565 part of the package if they reconvene in December. Needless
to say we are very disappointed in the failure of Sheldon Silver and the
Democratic leaderships failure to take action on the bill after the
Senate passed their version. We continue to pressure key Democrats on
this issue. Should you meet your NY Assembly representative between now
and Election Day let them know how you feel about their failure to act
on this bill.
 
> INTERESTED IN PSK 31 ?
 
 The PODXS DPX (digital prefix) Contest, sponsored by the Penn-Ohio DX
Society (PODXS); 0000z thru 2400z, December 14, 2002; Digital modes only
(see rules web page below for details); Bands 160 thru 6 meters (no WARC
bands); Work stations once per band/mode. Exchange - name, prefix and
070 Club member number (non-members send SPC); Mode categories - PSK,
MFSK, RTTY, Hell, Throb, Packet, Multimode and SWL; Power multipliers 
(all powers max output) - High (100w max) x1, Low (40w max) x2, QRP (5w
max) x3; Final score is (Total QSO's per band) * (Total different
prefixes worked) * Power Multiplier; Count prefixes once only. To be
valid, scores must be received via our online score submission form
found at http://podxs.com/html/DPX_online_score.html or e-mail Logs to
wm2u@arrl.net by the last entry date 13th January 2003. Logs must be
available for review if requested. Please read web rules for details on
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/070_dpx.html or http://www.podxs.com. Info
e-mail to Jay, n3dqu@aol.com or Ernie, wm2u@arrl.net.
 
 Into PSK31 mode? The PODXS 070 Club is offering free membership for
any DPX Contest participant who submits a valid entry showing contacts
made with 50 different PSK31 stations. For more info on this offer and
the 070 Club check out the DPX Contest site at 
http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/070_dpx.html 
 
> TARA RTTY SPRINT 
 
Not many division clubs sponsor a contest, but the Troy Amateur Radio
Association sponsors more than one. The TARA RTTY Sprint will be held 
December 1, 2001 (Saturday) From: 18:00 UTC until 02:00 UTC December 2.
 Check their web site for more details at http://www.n2ty.org/
The Troy club also maintains a PSK31 reflector. More info on PSK can be
found on WM2U's Digital World web page at http://www.qsl.net/wm2u/
 
==>ARRL OFFICIALS UPBEAT ABOUT REACHING 5-MHZ COMPROMISE
 
ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, and General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD,
say they're optimistic about reaching a resolution to issues that could
otherwise block plans for a new 5 MHz band. Until surprise opposition
surfaced from the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA), the FCC appeared to have put ARRL's request for a
new, domestic-only, secondary amateur allocation at 60 meters on the
fast track.
 
In an eleventh-hour move a month ago, the NTIA recommended in a letter
to the FCC--sent after the comment deadline--that the Commission not go
forward with a proposal for an Amateur Radio allocation at 5250 to 5400
kHz. The NTIA regulates radio spectrum allocated to the federal
government.
 
"We are working together with the Federal agencies involved toward a
solution of the impasse raised by the NTIA letter," Imlay said after he
and Haynie attended a series of meetings September 19 in Washington,
DC.
 
Acting NTIA Associate Administrator for Spectrum Management Fredrick R.
Wentland had said in an August 21 letter that critical federal agencies,
including the Department of Justice, the US Coast Guard and the
Department of Defense, were making extensive use of 5 MHz frequencies.
He worried that the 5 MHz proposal the FCC put forth last May at the
ARRL's request "does not adequately provide for protection from harmful
interference to these critical government operations."
 
After initially huddling this week with NTIA and FCC officials and staff
members, Haynie and Imlay met face-to-face with representatives of the
agencies involved to share mutual concerns.
 
"They are willing to work with us," Haynie said. "Chris and I left
feeling a whole lot better." Haynie said hammering out some differences
will involve some further meetings--including one with the US Navy--but
that he and Imlay were feeling much more positive about the situation.
 
"I feel confident we'll get something," Haynie said. "I don't think
we'll get everything we want, but it's certainly a start, and it's a lot
better than what it was this time last week."
 
One difficulty in the negotiations is that some of the information on
the government's use of the 5-MHz frequencies involved is classified.
"We were given some hints about the sensitivity and the seriousness of
some of the activity that's going on," Haynie said, "and we fully
appreciate that now--more so than before--because we just didn't, and
couldn't, know. The important thing is that we have established a good
working relationship with the Justice Department and the Coast Guard."
 
Imlay said the discussions tended to center on power restrictions and
frequencies but emphasized that no decisions were reached. The ARRL
proposal called for a 150-kHz wide band and the full legal power
limit.
Imlay hinted, however, that perhaps a smaller band than the one
requested coupled with some power output limitations, was a real
possibility. 
 
The ARRL has called the 5 MHz allocation "an urgent priority of the
Amateur Service" and has asked that the proceeding to grant it be
expedited. Until the latest snafu, the FCC had been expected by early
next year to issue a Report and Order on proposals for the 5-MHz band, a
new low-frequency allocation in the vicinity of 136 kHz and primary
Amateur and Amateur-Satellite status at 2400 to 2402 MHz.
 
==>VINTAGE 1AW QSL BRINGS RECORD PRICE
 
We're not certain if ARRL co-founder and first president Hiram Percy
Maxim would have been proud or surprised to know that one of his old 1AW
QSLs apparently set a price record for the sale of a single QSL card. A
1923-vintage HPM 1AW card recently went for $2125 on the eBay auction
site

.
 
Neither the seller nor the buyer have been identified, but ARRL member
Paul Cassel, VE3SY, of Petersburg, Ontario, Canada, acted as the sale
agent and posted the card on the auction site. "The winning bidder is in
California and is a very serious QSL collector," he said after the
auction closed. Cassel pledged to donate half of his sale commission to
the W1AW Endowment Fund http://www.arrl.org/endoww1aw.html
 
The 1AW card appears to verify reception of 9CTR on a wavelength of 193
meters rather than a two-way contact. "You were calling another 9,"
Maxim wrote in the card's "Remarks" section. Although the card proclaims
"American Radio Relay League Station 1AW" across the top, the now-famous
call sign was Maxim's own personal call sign at the time, not the
League's, and Maxim operated from his home in Hartford.
 
Until the 1AW card sale, Cassel says the highest known price paid for a
single QSL card was more than $1100 for an AC4YN QSL from the Tibet
DXpedition of Sir Evan Nepean, G5YN, who died last March at age 92.
 
> VIDEO SITE FOR 9/11
 
Sit back and watch. This is VERY impressive, so I had to share it with
you.
 
http://www.vw-team.de/usa.swf
 
It takes a long time to load but is worth the wait. Patience is
required.
 
> WORDS OF WISDOM FROM RILEY "Good Amateur Practice" Means Never Having
to Say You're Sorry
 
>From the ARRL Web Site: (In case you missed this one.)
 
NEWINGTON, CT, Oct 9, 2002--FCC Special Counsel Riley Hollingsworth has
endorsed a list of several points that he feels help to define the
concept of "good amateur practice." Section 97.101(a) of the Amateur
Radio Service rules refers to "good engineering and good amateur
practice"--considered to refer to maintaining the highest standards of
engineering and on-the-air comportment. But the rule lacks specifics.
 
 "Good amateur practice is a hard thing to define," Hollingsworth
conceded. "I'd have to say it's operating
with the realization that frequencies are shared, that there's going to
be occasional interference and that's no reason to become hateful and
paranoid."
 
Hollingsworth says amateurs have to realize that more people than ever
are listening in than ever before, especially since September 11, 2001,
and that amateurs always need to remember that "our rights end where
another person's begin."
 
A Michigan Amateur Radio club has been credited with distributing a list
of "Riley-isms" culled from Holingsworth's various talks at conventions
and hamfests and club meetings around the US. Hollingsworth--who
verified that he had been cited accurately--says his various comments
represent an effort to flesh out what "good amateur practice" consists
of for the considerate Amateur Radio operator.
 
According to Hollingsworth, good amateur practice means:
 
* giving a little ground--even if you have a right
 not to--in order to help preserve Amateur Radio
 and not cause it to get a bad name or hasten the
 day when it becomes obsolete.
 
* respecting band plans, because they make it
 possible for every mode to have a chance.
 
* not transmitting a 6-kHz bandwidth signal when
 there are lots of people on the band.
 
* not acting like an idiot just because you were stepped on.
 
* being aware that we all love Amateur Radio, and there's no need
to damage or disgrace it just to save face.
 
* keeping personal conflicts off the air. Settle your arguments on
the telephone, the Internet or in person. Just keep them off the
air.
 
* cutting a net or a contester a break, even if you don't have to
and even if you have no interest whatsoever in nets or
contesting.
 
* operating so that if a neighbor, niece or nephew or news
reporter hears you, that person will be impressed with Amateur
Radio.
 
* realizing that every right carries responsibilities, and just
because you may have a right to do certain things doesn't mean
it's right to do them in every circumstance.
 
* you don't "own" or get preference to use any frequency even
though you've been on the same spot every morning for years
shooting the breeze with Harry.
 
* not operating so that whoever hears you becomes sorry they ever
got into Amateur Radio in the first place.
 
Hollingsworth notes that the list "doesn't touch on a lot of other
technical issues, such as using 1500 W when your signal report received
is 40 over 9." Good amateur practice, he said, "just means a lot of
things that can't always be quantified."--thanks to Riley
Hollingsworth
 
> PUMPKIN PATROL - Wednesday night, 10/30
 
(Halloween Eve) -and- Thursday night, 10/31 (Halloween Night) (7-11 P.M.
both nights). Brenda N2TTO and myself Andrew N2FTR are once again (for
our 11th year as a club!) working with the NY State Police in this
highly appreciated effort.
 
If you can spare 2 hours (or more) to help out on either night (7-9 P.M.
or 9-11 P.M. shifts), please let me know which night(s) and time(s) you
could take a shift. A shift entails sitting near one of the assigned
bridges that cross I-84 in Dutchess County with a 2 meter (required) or
440 radio (suggested)(and bring a cell phone if you have one as well). 
Any suspicious activity is reported by you to one of our net control
stations - under no circumstances do you get involved with any
particular activity that you see going on. This is an absolute must!! 
SAFETY FIRST!
 
If you have a 'buddy', let me know that as well, as we do NOT allow
Pumpkin Patrol participants to be by themselves. If you do not have a
'buddy' (fellow ham or friend), we will do our best to pair you up.
 
So let me know please if you can help! We certainly appreciate it. -
Andrew, N2FTR@arrl.net
 
 
 
>>>>>APPROVED HAMFESTS: 
 
 27 Oct 2002 + Town of Babylon ARES Lindenhurst, NY
 http://www.tobares.org Div:Hudson
Contact:Walter Wenzel, KA2RGI Sect: New York City-Long 
 Island
 373 15th Street
 West Babylon, NY 11704-2606
 Phone: 631-957-0218 
 Email: ka2rgi@arrl.net
 
10 Nov 2002 + Long Island Mobile ARC Bethpage, NY
 http://www.limarc.org Div: Hudson
 Contact: Diane Ortiz, K2DO Sect: New York 
 City-Long Island
 PO Box 392
 Levittown, NY 11756-0392
 Phone: 516-520-9311 or 631-286-7562 
 Email: hamfest@limarc.org
 
(Note: If you a attended the original LIMARC rainy October event and
handed in your door prize ticket, see them at the door for free
admission.)
 
23 Feb 2003 + Long Island Mobile ARC Bethpage, NY
 http://www.limarc.org Div: Hudson
 Contact: Diane Ortiz, K2DO Sect: New York 
 City-Long Island
 PO Box 392
 Levittown, NY 11756-0392
  Phone: 516-520-9311 or 631-286-7562 
 Email: hamfest@limarc.org
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARRL Hudson Division
Director: Frank Fallon, N2FF
n2ff@arrl.org