ARRL Vows Continued Pursuit of the Amateur Radio Parity
Act in the 115th Congress
The Amateur Radio Parity Act, H.R. 1301, died an unbefitting
death as the 114th Congress of the United States drew to a close today. After
having passed the House of Representatives on a unanimous vote, the bill
stalled in the Senate due to the intervention of only one member, Sen. Bill
Nelson (D-FL).
Over the course of the past year, Sen. Nelson has received
thousands of e-mails, letters, and phone calls from concerned constituents
asking for his support of H.R. 1301. Numerous meetings were held with his
senior staff in an effort to move the legislation forward. Negotiations, which
led to an agreement with the national association of homeowner’s associations
and publicly supported by CAI and ARRL, were brushed aside by Sen. Nelson as
irrelevant.
In a final meeting with the Senator’s staff earlier this
week, it became clear that no matter what was said or done, the Senator opposed
the bill and refused to allow it to move forward. Unfortunately, as the bill
did not receive floor time, the only manner in which it could get passed in the
Senate would be through a process that required unanimous consent, which means
no one opposes the bill.
The legislation will be reintroduced in both houses of
Congress after the 115th Session begins in January. We have already been in
contact with the sponsors of the bill to allow for an early introduction, which
will give us more time to obtain success. We believe that we can get his bill
adopted given the fact that we were inches away from crossing the goal line. We
will continue to need the support of the membership, particularly in Florida,
as we go forward through the next year.
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ANNOUNCING >> The
Second Annual Ohio ARES VHF Simplex Contest!
Some questions, and answers:
- On the bonus situations, the EOC bonus is exactly
what it says- operation must be from an EOC, not a nearby trailer or remote
location. EOC ops, add 50 points to your total contact score. Operation from
any portable location (trailer, tent, park bench, igloo) is 100 points added to
your total contact score. Contact an ARES officer of any type, add
5 points to that contact (in other words, if your contact says he’s an EC, it’s
worth 6 points.)
- On digital. All modes are open, we’ve had some
questions as to ‘which’ mode. Any of the modes commonly accepted for NBEMS
work!
- Frequencies haven’t been mentioned. Grab any you
like- if your district has a prescribed simplex frequency, try that first.
Anything except a repeater. Make sure you get the county or location of
your contact- the whole point is to be able to plot your best coverage area.
Look for ‘real’ signal reports.
- You know what? If you get bored and want to fry some
eggs on your six-meter antennas, go for it. DO NOT INCLUDE your six contacts
for a score, but plotting coverage will be good!
- HAVE FUN!
Here are the rules again!
Purpose
ARES is tasked with being able to provide communications
“When all else fails.” Local
communication is critical and typically
takes place on the VHF or UHF amateur band. In order to improve our ability to
perform on these bands, Ohio Section ARES is sponsoring the ARES VHF Contest
(Yeah, we know, but calling it the Ohio VHF / UHF Contest got a little
long-winded). Participants in the contest are encouraged to make as many
contacts as possible within the time-frame of the contest, with as many different
geographical locations as the bands permit. The contest is open to all amateur
operators, ARES members are strongly encouraged to participate. How else are
you going to win the ‘bragging rights’ session of your next ARES meeting?
When did you say it was?
The contest is January 14, 2017. The start
time is (for those of us who sleep in) 10 AM through 6 PM Eastern. Yeah, a
civilized time-frame that doesn’t rob sleep, and allows time with the family.
Why, you can even watch a few cartoons in the morning!
Where you gonna be?
You may operate this contest from anywhere. There are
certain benefits for venturing out from your warm, comfortable home station.
EOC stations can gain extra points. Portable stations can gain even MORE extra
points – that is, if your frozen fingers will still be able to operate a
keyboard. Portable stations MUST use portable antennas, nothing permanently
attached…kind of like Field Day on ice. We are not going with any mobile
operation this time. The image of a bunch of vehicles running around with
portable towers, 150 pounds of antenna hardware and an occasional grounding
anchor is best left to the ARRL contesters.
Da Bands – a la’ Mode
Because local emergency communication takes place primarily
on the two meter and 70 centimeter bands, the contest is limited to those two
bands. Within each band, we will have these modes: FM Simplex,
“Everything else” Simplex; DIGITAL simplex contacts will make up a third mode
on each band. Contacts with a station count once per mode- if you can
talk the other guy into abandoning “his frequency” and meeting you on SSB or
CW, more power to ya! NO REPEATER CONTACTS WILL COUNT. If you get
bored, you certainly are welcome to chat amongst yourselves on repeaters, or
simplex, or cell phones, or smoke signals.
Da Contacts
The goal is to contact as many different stations in as many
different counties as possible. You can make as many overall contacts as you
like, they will then be multiplied by the number of counties you’ve reached.
Extra points will be available for contacting an EC, AEC, DEC, ADEC, ASEC or
SEC. Pretty simple- any more complex and we’ll confuse the scorekeepers.
Da Score
Each FM Simplex contact counts as 1 point.
Each non- FM simplex contact counts as 1 point.
Each digital simplex contact counts as 1 point.
(Detect a pattern here?)
Contact with EC, AEC, DEC, ADEC, ASEC or SEC adds 5 points.
Contact with an EOC or with a portable station adds 5
points.
Operation from an EOC add 50 points to your total contact
score.
Operation from a portable location add 100 points to your
total contact score.
Total contact score (all bands/modes added together) will be
multiplied by the total number of counties you contacted.
Da Logs
Please use any of the appropriate computer logging programs,
paper dupe sheets, a well-worn slide rule or rusty abacus. Just keep all
that to yourself, we can’t find anyone with the time to go through all the
detail contacts. Submit an email to “ contest@delares.org “ with
the following:
Your name:
Group name:
Location: (City, county)
FM Simplex Contacts:
“Everything else” Simplex Contacts:
Digital Simplex Contacts:
EOC bonus:
Portable bonus:
Total Contact Score (Add above together, but you figured
that out already):
Multiply by total number of counties contacted (include your
own!):
Bask in the glory of a well thought out, well executed
effort!
Definition of acronyms..
EOC = Emergency Operations Center NBEMS = Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System
ARES = Amateur Radio Emergency Service
SM = Section Manager
SEC = Section Emergency Coordinator
ASEC = Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator
DEC = District Emergency Coordinator
ADEC = Assistant District Emergency Coordinator
EC = Emergency Coordinator
AEC = Assistant Emergency Coordinator
CW = Continuous Wave
SSB = Single-Side Band
FM = Frequency Modulation
EOC = Emergency Operations Center NBEMS = Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System
ARES = Amateur Radio Emergency Service
SM = Section Manager
SEC = Section Emergency Coordinator
ASEC = Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator
DEC = District Emergency Coordinator
ADEC = Assistant District Emergency Coordinator
EC = Emergency Coordinator
AEC = Assistant Emergency Coordinator
CW = Continuous Wave
SSB = Single-Side Band
FM = Frequency Modulation
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Ohio Amateurs in Action..
Hey Gang, I haven’t heard much lately from any of you.. Now
I know that every club has done events this year, so send me those pictures of
your events.. Field Day, bike races, marathons and all those fun activities
that you’ve found yourself involved in where Amateurs are in Action!!
You can find a photo gallery of what I’ve received so far
at:
http://arrl-ohio.org/action_pics/action.html
as well as there is a link to this page right from the main page of the Ohio
Section website..
I’m sure you all of pictures that you could send. Send your
pictures to me at: n8sy@n8sy.com
and include a brief explanation of the event and I’ll get the pictures added to
the gallery.. I’m looking for new pictures that I might be able to use in the
next Ohio Section Banner, so make sure that you get your pictures to me.. I
want a great representation of ALL of the Ohio Section.
C’mon gang.. send me those action pictures! I’m sure that
there are a lot of them out there and I want them ALL!! Don’t be
bashful.
**********
Are you getting those emails from me? If not, all you have
to do is to “Opt-In” to receive them. Just send me an email at: n8sy@n8sy.com and let me know that you want to
be added.. It’s really that easy.
I urge all of you to make sure that everyone, regardless of
whether they are a League member or not, get signed up to receive these emails.
You can always “Opt-Out” at any time if you feel
this is not what you were expecting.
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Upcoming Hamfests in Ohio..
01/15/2017 | Sunday Creek Amateur Radio Federation Hamfest
Location: Nelsonville, OH
Sponsor: Sunday Creek Amateur Radio Federation
Website: http://www.scarfarc.com
01/29/2017 | TUSCO Amateur Radio Club Hamfest
Location: Strasburg, OH
Sponsor: Tusco Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://tuscoarc.org
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Got questions, concerns or would just like to sit and chat
awhile?
Give me a call at (419) 512-4445 or email me at: n8sy@n8sy.com
Want to sit and just chat awhile? I’m available..
Heck, I’ll even buy!!
**********
Finally.. from Janie,
KB8YPW and myself.. Have a very Merry
Christmas and a GREAT New Year..
I’ve just got to say this since it’s my Alma
Mater, GO BUCKS - beat Clemson on New Years Eve!!!!!
eof..