QSL Card
Submitted by Martin, AA1ON
Write-up by Bob, W1RH

After months of planning the following operators arrived in Asmara.  They were Franz/DJ9ZB, Elvira/IV3FSG, Max/I8NJH, Joe/KO4RR, Larry/NF6S, Mike/N9NS, and Bruce/WD4NGB.
The team's antennas were on the roof of a hotel at over 100 feet.  They made a presentation to students at the University and included licensing, propagation, and radio theory.

list.
The acting Treasurer requested the payment of dues which were in order at the previous meeting but not asked for due to inability of acting Treasurer to obtain complete accounts from regular Treasurer.  It was decided to open a temporary new set of books until Mr. Marcoux has the regular accounts in order.
No further business being before the club the meeting was adjourned at 9:45 p.m.
Following the business meeting code practice was held by Norman Thompson and the members not interested in code enjoyed looking over a P.P.T.P.T.A. transmitter built by Robert Ride which was on exhibition.
Ted Valpey who is selling for the Radio Shack passed around for inspection the new R-18 type tubes which the Shack is putting out for $5.95.

FARA - The Early Years
Transcribed by Karen Hess

The Framingham Amateur Radio Association, formerly called the Community Radio Association, is fortunate to have the notes dating back to the Club's first meeting.  Karen Hess, W1RH's XYL, has transcribed the hand written notes, verbatim, and they will appear in this and future issues of the Circuit.  They make for fascinating reading!
December 8, 1933
The 16^th regular meeting of the C.A.R.A. was called to order at 8:30 p.m. by Vice President J. D. McLean. 
The report of the Secty was read and accepted.
The majority of the meeting was devoted to discussion of club policies to be enforced in the future.
The constitution was read and commented upon by the Secty.
A committee composed of F. L. Tedford and Philip Ride was appointed by the Vice President to act as nomination committee.
A new entertainment committee composed of Ed Parsons, Herb Blanke and Wallace Coffin was appointed by the Vice President.
The Secty announced that the roll would be called at the next two meeting in order to check up on the active member

This month's QSL comes to us from Martin, AA1ON and features the new DXCC entity of Eritrea.  The card confirms Martin's November 1998 QSO on 20 meters with E30GA.
The back of the QSL says it better than I can:
Eritrea has only recently become a country.  In 1991 the Eritreans won a 30 year war for independence by defeating Ethiopia's army, the largest in Africa.  Eritrea became Africa's newest democracy in 1993 after an internationally supervised referendum where the population almost unanimously (99.8%) voted in favor of independence.  They are presently at war with Ethiopia over a border dispute.
The State of Eritrea has an area of 125,000 sq. km. and a population of about 3.5 million, of which about 350,000 live in the capital city of Asmara.  Asmara is located in the mountains, about 2400 meters altitude and 100 km inland from the Red Sea.  Other large cities are Keren, about 80 km northwest of Asmara, and Massawa, the country's major sea port.  Eritrea is located in the Horn of Africa, between latitudes 12 degrees and 18 degrees north.  It has 800 miles of Red Sea coastline and more than 355 islands.  It's neighbors are Ethiopia and Djibouti to the south and The Sudan on the west and north.  Since Asmara is at a high altitude, the weather is mild for so close to the Equator.

Dayton Hamvention's Amateur of the Year

Dayton Hamvention has named broadcasting engineer and propagation guru George Jacobs, W3ASK, as its Amateur of the Year. A renowned international broadcast engineering pioneer, Jacobs has authored hundreds of technical articles and is a co-author of a handbook detailing short wave radio propagation characteristics. Jacobs is perhaps best known in the amateur community as propagation editor for CQ for 50 years, and as a contributing editor for World Radio-TV Handbook for 39 years. 
Jacobs is credited with pioneering and developing the worldwide Voice of America system and with overseeing the post-1974 modernization of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. He also served as a delegate on international regulatory conferences.