News Letter -- February 2007

Volume 25, Number 2

The answer to last month's trivia question is: "the International Telecommunications Union has divided the world into three regions and North and South America and surrounding waters comprise Region 2."

We had a good turnout at our January 8^th, 2007 meeting and all the TRARC officers that served the club in 2006 will again serve the club in 2007 with the exception of President. Bernard J. Krebs - KCØRRJ - was elected club President for 2007 and I'm sure he will do an excellent job. I'm sure he will get all the "good advice and assistance" that I received.

Mary Lewton and Joe Callahan - NØQAU - and Emil Wieglenda - NØDK - have worked hard getting a Technician Class going (meets at the Dickinson LEC at 1:00 pm on Saturdays) and there are still quite a few club members interested in upgrading from Technician to general class, so if you are interested in upgrading get in contact with Mary, Joe, or Emil. It now appears that the FCC will be eliminating the Morse Code requirement for the General Class rating, so hopefully there will be more license upgrades and more people entering the wonderful world of "Ham Radio".

As I look back over 2006, we finally got our supply trailer finished, had a PERFECT "Field Day", a wonderful "Club Picnic", and ended the year with a great "Christmas Party" at the Elk's Club. We even got to celebrate Bill - KØUB - and Irene - WDØDAW - 50^th Wedding Anniversary. What made my job as President enjoyable was seeing all the club members who worked so hard at out club functions to make them successful. All I can say is "THANK YOU".

Even though I'm now living in Mandan, I'll try to attend the TRARC major functions for 2007. Hope to see you at the Central Amateur radio Club hamfest in Bismarck, ND on February 24^th, 2007.

CHECK YOUR CALENDAR

Feb 3 ............................ FORX ARC Hamfest

Feb 5 ........................... TRARC Meeting @ LEC 7 PM

Feb 24 ......................... CDARC Hamfest

If you are in need of a test session, contact either Bill Bosch, KØUB or Emil Wieglenda,
NØDK. Bill is associated with ARRL VEC and Emil is W5YI. They will let you know when

the next test session will be held.

Bill 701-483-3869 Emil 701-483-4953

Thanks to the suggestion of Emil to offer general class for upgrades and the efforts of Mary Lewton to contact potential students we had four come to the organizational meeting on January 6th and have picked up a few more since then. The code requirement has been dropped for all classes of license now so maybe we'll see a lot more upgrades. The Technician class also has four students at this time. Good luck to all of our students.

Our monthly meeting was held on January 8th since the first was a holiday. Election of officers was held and are as follows - Bernie Krebs, KC0RRJ President; Darryl Wehner KC0EWH Vice President and Laurie KC0NHW Secretary/Treasurer. Congratulations to our new officers. Thanks to our outgoing president, Dick Hansen, and the rest of last years officers. We had a very nice turnout at the meeting thanks to the efforts of Joe N0QAU who called many members to notify them of the meeting.

On New Year's Eve 2006 we were shocked and saddened to hear the news of the sudden death of Betty Huskinson. Special memories filled all of our minds - camping outings that included crafting, mud facials, manicures, repairing bad hair cuts and fixing hair, fun and above all the food she so loved to prepare.She was a very generous person who delighted in taking care of those who were most in need. As someone was heard to say "a kind lady with a big heart". We'll miss you Betty! Rest in Peace!

Stay warm and let us count our blessings that all we have is the cold. Others in the South are not so fortunate.

73, Margaret KB7ITR

Birthdays for February

Lee Larsen KBØNCV
2 - 04

Michael Hastings NØUDG
2 - 13

Warren Pierce K7UPS
2 - 17

Emil Wieglenda NØDK
2 - 20

Faye Nelson KØTUP
2 - 25

Art Ekblad KØQQ
2 - 28

==>PRESIDENT EXPRESSES APPRECIATION TO AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS <==

President George W. Bush has written the ARRL to recognize the just-ended Hello Amateur Radio public relations campaign and to extend "greetings to all those celebrating 100 years of voices over the airwaves." The president said the centennial of Reginald Fessenden's landmark Christmas Eve 1906 voice broadcast "opened the door for technological advances" that improved the lives of people around the world.

"I appreciate all who work in radio, and I am grateful to the Amateur Radio operators who provide emergency communications that help make our country safer and more secure," President Bush wrote. "Your good work strengthens our society and represents the American spirit."

ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, conceived and developed the Hello campaign. He says that while that initiative is formally over, ARRL public information coordinators and officers will take advantage in the new year of the momentum it generated.

"As we begin launching the new Emergency Communications campaign, the friendships and goodwill developed in Hello will aid in future promotions of Amateur Radio," Pitts commented. "For 100 years, radio in its many forms has saved lives and aided in crises. We have a great legacy and a bright future."

The grand finale of the Hello campaign December 29-30 involved special event operations from W1AW (see The ARRL Letter, Vol 26, No 02, Jan 12, 2007), W1F at Brant Rock, Massachusetts (see below), and GB1FVT in Scotland.

The theme of the ARRL's 2007 public relations initiative is "Ham Radio . . .Getting the Message Through for your Family and Community." It will focus on Amateur Radio's capability to provide reliable emergency communication when traditional systems fail or become overloaded.

NORTH DAKOTA SECTION

NORTH DAKOTA: SM, Kent Olson, KAØLDG -Happy New Year! I hope you are keeping warm with the recent cold snap - I guess it was bound to come sooner or later. With the new FCC ruling regarding CW, there are a few General upgrade license classes about to happen around the state. Time to step up and volunteer to teach one of the classes. Now is the chance to mold those upgrading into good operators on the HF bands. Congratulations to Don Galitz, KCØDCF, Who was named the RRRA's Ham of the Year. Pete NØFW and Rod KEØA of Grand Forks just returned from a DXpedition at St Croix, US Virgin Islands. They hammed it up for five days and made 3,049 contacts from all over the world. The Grand Forks hams helped out the Salvation Army's Bell Ringing Campaign and raised quite a bit of money. It was the most raised at the location where they worked, and the money was matched by a local construction firm. Great Job! The Dickinson hams have done some repair work to the Superlink 440 node and have it up and running again. They are also looking for a repeater location around the Bowman area. The 94 repeater in Bismarck has been replaced, and now requires a 170.2 Hz PL tone for access.

Please send me your news to post here. The winter hamfests are coming soon: Grand Forks February 3rd, Bismarck February 24th, and Fargo on April 21st - hope to see you there.
Section's web site:
http://home.earthlink.net/~qtipf16/. HF NM KØJIM net reports for Dec: Goose River Net, 5/63/1; WX Net 52/483/6; Data Net 31/375/7.

ARRL North Dakota Section
Section Manager: Kent R. Olson, KA0LDG
ka0ldg@arrl.org

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