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Smoke Test Vol. 2, Issue 1 http://www.qsl.net/mara
January 2000 |
Announcements Meeting Notice The next meeting of the Madison Area Repeater Association will
be on Monday, January 10, 2000. Meeting Agenda: 1. Final call for nominations Meeting Program Lets Hear From You! This month, we've turned the squelch down and would like to hear from you, our members. Whether it's a comment about the repeaters, a question regarding the swapfest, or a suggestion for future meeting programs, we'd love to hear and discuss them. So bring your ideas, one and all to the first MARA meeting of the Millennial Year. Editor's Note It is amazing how the face of amateur radio is so rapidly changing. Look at how far we have come since the beginning of the previous century. From the days of Marconi to today's world of pagers, cell phones, infrared sensors, and remote controlled devices, we have come a great distance in the advancement of radio, and amateurs have had a great part in that. Let us hope that in the next century, we will have just as great, if not a greater role in the development of worldwide communication. Random News and Notes of Interest
Amateur Radio Restructuring: What do I do? On December 30, 1999, the final business day before
2000, the FCC passed down it's long awaited restructuring of Amateur
Radio. Rather than bore you with the details of the entire report
I will summarize it like so:
No License - It might be suggestible to wait for now and take an exam after restructuring because the total number of questions on the exam will drop from 55 to 35. Whether the difficulty of these questions will increase is unknown, but most likely, the quantity of questions to study and length of time needed to study will be reduced. Novice - The Novice is a dying breed of operator. Those of you lucky enough to know one can tell them this: Upgrade now. The FCC did not state how a Novice would upgrade after the restructuring, but one of the definite possibilities could be to make them take the new 35 question written Technician (essentially, retake the first written element). Technician - For the no code technician, there is no change that requires you to study now. It is up to you. However, you may wish to look at the current General written to see if you are comfortable with it, and if you are, take it and learn your code within a year, not only will you save yourself 5 questions, but you'll be able to talk around the world. Tech Plus and Tech's Licensed before 3/21/87 - For the techs licensed before 3/21/87, congratulations, you can upgrade to a General class license by presenting a copy of your license at a VEC session and filing an application after April 15. For the Tech Plus, (Technicians licensed after 3/21/87 but holding certification for 5 wpm), if you are comfortable with the General written, upgrade now. The new test will be 35 questions in length, and who knows what it will include. General - If you hold a General class license, I would recommend you wait until after the restructuring to take the next element (unless you are already prepared for the Advanced). The current road to Extra is 90 questions, but after restructuring it will only be 50. Advanced - Although no new Advanced class licensees will be made, the FCC has authorized you to prepare and give the General written exam at VEC sessions. In terms of upgrading, the current road of 40 questions beats the future of 50 questions. Therefore, if you wish to upgrade, upgrade now. Amateur Extra - It may be lonely at the top right now, but in a few months that may no longer be the case. Sorry, the FCC didn't give you anything more, but there are now tons of other amateurs that can use your help and experience studying for their tests as they try to upgrade in this licensing interim period. A word about CW (directed primarily at General class licensees and above): Some of you may be bitter about the dropping of the faster code requirement. In fact, some of you, I'm sure, are very bitter about it. I want to remind you that Morse code will still have its place in amateur radio. CW is a highly efficient form of communication. It propagates well, its bandwidth footprint is tiny compared to other modes, and as any contester knows, you probably won't win if you don't know the code. Code speed will still be used to discriminate in DX/Special Event Station pileups and contests. Don't think that it will go to waste. Remember, when other forms of communication are compromised, you must use the lowest common denominator (or mode for that matter). The Internet may clog, but CW is simple, basic, and universal. Morse code has served us well thus far, and it will still serve us in the future. |
Web Wise Ham Radio Last month, we looked at the ARRL, QRZ, and the WI SM page. This month, we'll compare web sites of some of the major amateur radio manufacturers. At the end of each review, there is a "happiness index." This ten point index is a measure of how pleased I was with the website overall. This includes several factors, such as functional links, up to date information, easy navigation, and completeness of information. Yaesu - http://www.yaesu.com/yaesu.html The Yaesu website is straight out and simple. At the top of the page, there are links to several vital areas including Products, Dealers, New Products, Phone List, Tech Support, and Parts/Manuals. I found their information on products to be satisfactory, listing the features of each radio in similar fashion to the magazine. In fact, to this extent, too much so. The pictures that they use look as if they were scanned from a mangled copy of QST. They do have a large listing of dealers with links to their web page (2 dead out of 25). Their tech support information is just phone numbers and e-mail addresses. I couldn't find any information on what to do for service but sending an e-mail to tech support did yield a result (I have a Yaesu HT that needs to be fixed). Happiness Index: 7.0 Icom - http://www.icomamerica.com Icom's site was quite impressive. Although the site is divided among the radio services, they seem quite up to date and have an excellent feature that all major web sites should have: a page listing recent updates. On their site, they have the standard information, product features, and new product promotions. However, above and beyond that, I found that they had more specs listed, more coupons, and had an excellent service section that listed most common service problems for their radios (even discontinued models). Tech Support and repair information was clearly placed. They also had a link to the ARRL for new ham information, links to their band plan charts, and country/prefix list. Happiness Index: 9.0 Kenwood - http://www.kenwood.net Kenwood's site is quite slick. It is snappy, well laid out, and easy to navigate. Not only that, but if you buy a radio from them, they'll give you a hat. Now how cool is that? Seriously, the best feature of this site is their FTP directory that contains programming software, service bulletins, and manuals for their radios. They also have their own store for Kenwood accessories (t-shirts, jackets, etc.). The only problem I had with this site was while doing a dealer search, and when it returned a dealer without a website, it took you back to the previous page when you clicked on the name. Other than that, the site was quite nice. Happiness Index: 9.5 Next Issue: Storm Analyzing Tools for the Savvy SKYWARN Spotters. Y2K: Why It Mattered Like many hams, I was a volunteer at the Wisconsin Emergency Operations Center on New Year's Eve, waiting for the inevitable end of the world. Twelve o'clock came and went without a hitch, and one might be lead into thinking that the preparations and the massive operations were all for naught. Not so. As any good ham knows, practice makes perfect, and
while this certainly wasn't an official practice, it was an excellent
test of the roles we might play in the event of a large-scale
emergency. Throughout the night, we learned that even our best plans have faults, and that adaptability to the situation is key. This was especially apparent in the HF net where band conditions and other QRM got so badly out of hand, that the net was moved to another frequency. On the VHF side, we learned, at the WEM that consolidation of frequencies will be needed. (It was very difficult to monitor four 2-meter frequencies, packet, PACTOR, and HF.) We also learned that ham radio still triumphs in communication over other services. At the state EOC, we were kept up to date on when county EOCs shut down through the HF net, something that the EOCs themselves sometimes failed to do through their own networks. The entire EOC staff was impressed with our results. Again, I would like to extend a big thanks to all those who participated in the event. It was beneficial to everyone involved. New MARA Board of Directors
Policy
The MARA Board of Directors will do our best to follow all by-laws of MARA. "Robert's Rules of Order" will be followed to the best of the BOD's knowledge and ability. The MARA BOD reserves the right to exercise common sense as defined by the BOD when implementing these rules of order. MARA appreciates and encourages volunteer support for various activities of the club. The MARA BOD will, at its discretion, accept or reject any such person deemed not suited for any/all particular MARA activities. i.e.: We will, for what we think is just cause dismiss any such person from an activity. We will dismiss from general membership any person whom in the opinion of the BOD causes excessive disruptions in normal discussions at meetings, or other club proceedings. Any member dismissed will forfeit all "dues paid" for the rest of current membership year. That member will come before the BOD to determine further membership status. Any person who feels that their rights have been compromised by this policy has recourse according to the by-laws of the Madison Area Repeater Association Inc. Signed by the Board of Directors November 13, 1999 Schedule of Upcoming Events MARA Meeting ................January 10, 2000 Treasurer's Report Current Balance............................. $5525.96 John W. Hicks, KA9KYB Volunteer For Swapfest 2000
Benefits to Volunteering:
If interested, contact Sam, KG9NG |
The
meeting will start at 7:30 PM at the Badger Chapter of the American
Red Cross located at 4860 Sheboygan Ave. To get to the Red Cross
take Whitney Way north to Sheboygan Ave. left on Sheboygan to
the Red Cross.
So,
with only 3 license classes left, and a unique time period ahead
of us for upgrades, what should you do to improve your situation?
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