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President's Message
My first order of business this month is to thank you all for allowing me to serve another term as the president of FARA. All kidding aside, it's a great honor to have a group of people ask you to lead them. I'll do what I can to make this coming year fun for all. I would imagine that, besides food, this would involve some kit building (I have a neat regenerative receiver project) and continued improvements to the shack. We're working on a budget and Sumner's been putting a lot of effort into showing us where our money comes from and where it goes. Bob is working to line up some great programs, and Dick is doing his usual great job of directing.
By the time this edition of the Circuit hits the street, Field Day 1999 will be a done deal. I hope you all had fun. We can't do an event of this magnitude without a lot of support, and the usual major contributors have my deepest gratitude. I especially want to thank Dick and Marsha for their many efforts in making the weekend a success (most notably in the food area), Bob and Robert for helping with the logistics and shelter, Dave and Martin for being master competition organizers, Bev for remembering all the stuff I forgot, George for the truck, and Jim for being in charge of waste management. If I left someone out, I apologize, you all know what you did, and we couldn't have Field Day without everyone pitching in and helping.
The best part of the end of the year is not Field Day, but the distribution of scholarships. We were able to award four scholarships at the last meeting. We have already received some very nice thank you notes, which are displayed in the shack. Dick and the rest of the committee did another great job.
73,
Peter, KA1AXY
CALLING ALL CODE-LESS TECHNICIANS!
By Ed, W1NXC
VHF is a lot of fun but you can get in on some real action. How? By simply passing a 5wpm code test which adds a plus to your Tech license. Only then can you explore the HF bands on 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters, thus joining in the excitement of DX chasing, contesting etc.
Furthermore, if either the ARRL or the FCC band restructuring plan is adopted, the Tech-Plus licensees will inherit even more bandwidth privileges. The ARRL proposal, which the FCC has been requested to approve, gives Tech-Plus operators 2700 kHz of additional frequencies, thus allowing operation on 160, 20, 12, 17 and 30 meters (these bands are currently restricted to higher class licensees).
The FCC plan is somewhat similar but both proposals offer the most advantages to Tech-Plus licensees. Meanwhile no changes to the current question pools are contemplated, pending resolution of the restructuring of the rules governing the Amateur Radio Service-This could come as early as this fall.
No-Code Tech license holders interested in obtaining code proficiency at 5 wpm can call Ed, W1NXC or any of the FARA officers for further information.
Note: The Advanced question pool scheduled to change July 1, 1999 will remain current until further notice.
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