THE AMPLIFIER

December

  6    Tar River ARC Meeting
16    RMARS Meeting
25    Merry Christmas
31    Countdown to Y2K

January

  1    Happy New Year!!
  3    Tar River ARC Meeting
16    Frostfest, Richmond Va.
20    RMARS Meeting
22    VE Exams Rocky Mount
 
 

Come up I-95 until you reach Exit 75 in Richmond. (This will be an exit for I-64 East)
Take Exit 75 for I-64 East (towards Norfolk - Virginia Beach)

Go approximately 1.5 miles to Exit 192 (Route 360) Take Exit 192 for Route 360 East

Go approximately a half-mile, and turn left into The Showplace.

Ticket pricing for FrostFest 2000 has been set to $6.00 per ticket.

Tickets will be available at the door on the day of the show
.
To order tickets by mail, please send an SASE along with a check made payable to Richmond Frostfest:

Richmond FrostFest 2000
Post Office Box 14828
Richmond, VA 23221-0828.

Note: An SASE is required for ticket-only orders. Tickets ordered by mail will also be $6.00 per ticket
 
 

AMATEUR RESTRUCTURING DETAILS POSSIBLE BY YEAR'S END
Knowledgeable sources in Washington say the amateur license restructuring issue has moved to the front burner at the FCC, and a Report and Order could be released before the end of 1999. The Amateur Radio community has been awaiting license restructuring--known officially as the 1998 Biennial Regulatory Review of Part 97 (WT Docket 98-143)--for nearly one year now. While no one has mentioned a hard-and-fast date to wrap up the long-awaited proceeding, reports from several sources suggest that the R&O draft is in its final stages and could be complete within a month or so. During a recent a visit to top FCC officials in Washington, League officials pressed again for early action on the license restructuring rulemaking. They were assured that the issue was not stalled and that the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau was "working very actively" to move restructuring along. Whatever its final form--and no one has hinted at that-license restructuring poses significant implications for Amateur Radio and its future direction and growth. On August 10, 1998, the FCC proposed to phase out the Novice and Technician Plus licenses, leaving just four amateur license classes in place--Technician, General, Advanced, and Extra. The Commission also asked the amateur community to express its opinions on Morse code requirements for licensing and testing, but offered no specific recommendations. At its July 1998 meeting, the ARRL Board of Directors--attempting to get the jump on restructuring--issued its own plan to restyle Amateur Radio. Among other details, the ARRL plan also calls for four license classes and for "reforming" Novice/Tech Plus subbands to provide additional spectrum for higher-class operators. Under the League plan, the Technician license remains unchanged, and the General becomes the entry-level ticket to HF operation. The ARRL proposed Morse code requirements of 5 WPM for General and 12 WPM for Advanced and Extra class. The restructuring debate generated more than 2200 comments to the FCC, many of them from individual amateurs. Once the FCC approves the Report & Order, a Public Notice will be issued, and the actual R&O will be released probably within a few days.

FCC LETTER INCLUDES OPERATING REMINDERS FOR NETS
FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth recently took advantage of an enforcement-related letter to issue some operating reminders for nets. On November 3, Hollingsworth wrote Alan E. Strauss, WA4JTK, of Carol City, Florida, to follow up on earlier complaints about the "14.247 DX Group," for which Strauss serves as net control. The FCC had contacted Strauss earlier this year regarding complaints that the 14.247 DX Group monopolized that frequency and interfered with ongoing amateur communications. The November 3 letter included correspondence the FCC received on August 4 that Hollingsworth said conflicts with Strauss's explanation of interference alleged to have occurred to the net in July. Hollingsworth said the case will remain open, and the FCC will continue to monitor net operations. Hollingsworth used the occasion of the Strauss letter to again point out that amateur frequencies are shared, and no net has a greater right than any other ham to a given frequency and cannot take over a frequency unless it is voluntarily relinquished. If the frequency is not relinquished, Hollingsworth said, amateurs must exercise "good Amateur practice" in choosing another frequency that does not disrupt existing communications. "A net 'taking over' a frequency from existing legitimate communications or deliberately operating disruptively close to existing legitimate communications will be considered to be engaging in deliberate interference," he wrote. Hollingsworth also told Strauss that the practice of "identifying only by the last two letters of an Amateur call sign is a violation of Part 97" of the FCC rules and that such practice "must not be condoned by your group." Some amateurs had construed the statement--widely reported elsewhere--as a tightening of FCC station identification enforcement policy. Hollingsworth says that's not the case. "All we said was that if only the last two letters are given, it doesn't meet Part 97," he said. He pointed out that if a calling station using an abbreviated ID is never acknowledged and given a chance to give a complete call sign, a legal ID would be lacking for that communication. To be strictly legal, stations using a suffix-letter ID always must identify within the first 10 minutes of the communication (and each 10 minutes thereafter) with a complete call sign. Hollingsworth restated the requirements in a follow-up letter to Strauss on November 16. Hollingsworth this week also reminded net control stations not to encourage rule violations by requiring check-ins to use two-letter IDs without allowing a legal ID at some point within the time limits of the rules.

FCC REAFFIRMS ORDER TO KEEP NORTH CAROLINA HAM OFF HF
The FCC has reaffirmed its position that John A. Abernethy, K4OKA, of Hickory, North Carolina, will have to stay off the HF bands until January 22, 2000. As a follow-up to a station visit last January and alleged malicious interference this past summer, FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth notified Abernethy July 27 that the Commission was modifying his license to prohibit operation below 30 MHz for 180 days, effective immediately. The FCC's July letter included a copy of a tape recording--supplied by complainants--of transmissions said to be of Abernethy's station on July 16. The FCC says the tape consists of deliberate interference on 75 meters and notes that Abernethy was warned about deliberate interference at the time his station was inspected. Abernethy, 75, subsequently disputed the authenticity of the tape recordings and requested the modification be lifted or lessened. But Hollingsworth told Abernethy this month that the sanction stands. "We will draw no conclusions from the tape recording, and even resolving the issue of the tape recording in your favor, we have no basis to rescind or change the modification of your license," Hollingsworth said in a November 3 letter to Abernethy. FCC personnel inspected Abernethy's station January 21 and 22 in the wake of what Hollingsworth has called "longstanding complaints from other amateurs and from our field offices regarding the operation of your station." In particular, he said, the FCC had received "numerous complaints" about profanity, obscenity, deliberate interference, and failure to properly identify. In his November 3 letter, Hollingsworth said the modification to take Abernethy off the HF bands for six months was based on findings made during the station inspections "including a tape recording that you had played over the air and which you showed to the Commission engineer." He suggested the FCC could have begun license revocation proceedings against K4OKA but decided on the modification instead. Complaints to the FCC alleged that Abernethy had aired something called the "Porkbutt Song," the FCC said. The FCC says its High Frequency Direction Finding Center in Maryland tracked the transmissions of the "Porkbutt Song" to K4OKA. Abernethy "voluntarily destroyed the tape recording" while FCC personnel looked on, Hollingsworth said. Hollingsworth reminded Abernethy that violation of the modification order will lead to revocation of his Amateur license. Abernethy may continue to operate on amateur frequencies above 30 MHz.
 
 

ARRL 160 Meter Contest December 3 - 5
ARRL 10 Meter Contest December 11-12
CQ 160 Meter Contest CW January 28 - 30
CQ 160 Meter Contest Phone February 25 - 27
North Carolina QSO Party February 26 - 27
ARRL DX Contest CW February 19 - 20
ARRL DX Contest Phone March 4 -5

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