RADIOACTIVITIES Newsletter of the Argonne Amateur Radio Club
Volume XLI, Number 8	August, 2000

At the same time, Hollingsworth said, amateurs wielding their newly minted HF privileges as a result of restructuring have generated no enforcement problems whatsoever. “In fact, had I not known about the restructuring, I wouldn’t know it from an enforcement standpoint,” he said. “I’ve noticed no difference.” Hollingsworth encouraged veteran operators to bring newcomers to the HF bands “into the fold” and teach them to be proficient, compliant operators.

Hollingsworth noted that while the pace of amateur complaints continues to slow, the Amateur Service still is not where it should be from a compliance standpoint. “Today, the equipment seems to be better than a lot of the operators,” he said, adding that he did not expect to change his enforcement pace for the next several years. The trend toward fewer overall complaints, he said, will on the more complicated cases, including unlicensed operation. “We can’t tolerate unlicensed operation,” he said. “The whole allocation system breaks down if you tolerate unlicensed operation.”

Hollingsworth also said the federal government has ramped up its efforts to collect fines in those cases where they’ve been levied on violators. In the meantime, he said he plans to continue to curry voluntary amateur compliance, without fines or license revocations. “The main goal is not to take licenses. The main goal is compliance,” he said.

During his brief visit to Connecticut, Hollingsworth also spoke informally with ARRL Board members and League officers prior to the July 21 Board of Directors meeting in Hartford.

Described as an agency-wide registration system for anyone filing applications with or making payments to the FCC, CORES will assign a unique 10-digit FCC Registration Number, or FRN to all registrants. Once the system is fully deployed, all Commission systems that handle financial, authorization of service, and enforcement activities will use the FRN. The FCC says use of the FRN will allow it to more rapidly verify fee payment. Amateurs mailing payments to the FCC — for example, as part of a vanity sign application — would include their FRN — once assigned — on the revised FCC Form 159.

The on-line filing system and further information on CORES is available by visiting the FCC Web site, http://www.fcc.gov and clicking on the CORES registration link.

For the time being, using an FRN is voluntary, although the Commission says it will consider making it mandatory in the future for anyone doing business with the FCC. That’s not expected to happen until sometime next year, however. The FCC says it will modify its licensing and filing systems — including ULS — over the next several months to accept and use the FRN.

The FCC’s Steve Linn confirmed this week that while CORES registration will supplant ULS registration, the ULS itself will remain the licensing database system for Wireless Telecommunications Bureau licensees, including amateurs. For now, the ULS remains available to new registrants. Amateurs who registered in the ULS prior to June 22 automatically have been registered in CORES and will receive an FCC Registration Number in the mail. ULS registrants also may search for their FRN on-line at the FCC’s CORES site.

The FCC says ULS passwords will become CORES passwords in most cases. It’s possible to register on CORES using a paper Form 160. As with the ULS, those registering with CORES must supply a Taxpayer Identification Number, or TIN. For individuals, this is usually a Social Security Number. Club stations must obtain an Assigned Taxpayer Identification Number (ATIN) before registering on CORES or ULS.

Linn says anyone can register via CORES and obtain an FRN. “CORES/FRN is entity registration,” he said. “You don’t need a license to be registered.” Linn says the FCC is making every attempt to minimize the impact of CORES/FRN on Amateur Radio licensees, and no action will be required on the part of amateur licensees already registered in ULS. A copy of the FCC Public Notice on CORES/FRN is available at http://www.arrl.org/announce/regulatory/da001596.pdf.

Things are still not peachy keen as there is still work to be done to make sure that we are on a 100% footing as much as can be had with the repeater. We still have a power amplifier that is giving us fits and will probably require some major surgery. The board members have unanimously given the green light to do whatever it takes to bring things up to where they should be.

We, the officers and board members, were troubled over the reports that some members were forced to use other machines to effect their normal communications. A considerable amount of pressure has been and is still being felt concerning the maintenance of the repeater. We are listening! With great satisfaction I listened to the good signal reports from those that were on the repeater when it was brought back up at a quarter past 7 p.m. on the 24^th, just it time for the Skywarn net. I think that was the first time that I have checked into a net using the repeater itself.

And now that it is up and running again (instead of limping) I hope to hear you on the Monday night net. Will you be there?

Most significantly affected by the change was the standing of Team Finland, OH1EH and OH1NOA, which moved up from 20th to fifth place in the standings. The team operated as S537L.

After the winners of WRTC 2000 were announced in Bled, Slovenia, July 11, Team Finland questioned why its reported score was much lower than the one they believed they had submitted. Chief Referee David Sumner, K1ZZ, says this occurred because the referees ended up having to rely on a binary file to score the results instead of extracting the log data from text files as originally intended.

Sumner explained that while Team Finland had submitted a complete text file of its log, the team’s binary file turned out to be incomplete. The text-file log that Team Finland submitted earned them a fifth place finish, however.

“The referees’ team apologizes for initially reporting a lower score,” Sumner said. In posting the final official results this week, Sumner also noted that several teams had said that their multipliers were lower than expected.

Rescoring the logs to accommodate the Team Finland problem, Sumner explained, not only eliminated some “not-in-log” score reductions for other contestants, but gave the referees an opportunity to correct some multiplier scoring and “to conduct a more complete review of the logged call signs, resulting in some changes to ’bad’ calls.”

Sumner said this was done “in order to provide the most accurate record possible of the results of WRTC 2000.”

The WRTC 2000 referees let stand the final score of the S511E team of DL6FBL and DL1MFL. That score was based on the submission of a truncated log that was missing approximately one hour of operation. The problem occurred when the teamcopied its log to a floppy disk that was nearly full for submittal. The DL6FBL-DL1MFL team moved from fifth to sixth place as a result of this week’s scoring adjustments.

The WRTC-2000 top 10 finishers represented world-class contesters from seven countries, including three from the US and two bi-national teams — UT4UZ from Ukraine and RW1AC from Russia, who operated as S523W, and DL6RAI from Germany and OE2VEL, from Austria, who operated as S533G.

Many remember him best for his late-night talk program on New York’s WOR, where he sometimes spoke of his Amateur Radio activities. After his death, some hams wrote the ARRL to say they’d been inspired by Shepherd’s monologues to pursue their own radio activities. Shepherd also wrote and produced several programs for public television and once was the banquet speaker at the Dayton Hamvention. — Broadcasting & Cable; Shop Talk

Once a year, West puts on a no-cost ham course for young people that run on Friday and Saturday. He also invites kids to take advantage of ARRL’s low-cost family membership rate or youth membership rate — depending on whether there’s already a licensed ham in the youngster’s household.

He also makes different types of radio equipment available for the kids — this year’s class ranged from 10 to 18 years old — to try out. Area hams are asked to stand by at their stations to give the newly licensed kids a chance to make QSOs. “One of the elements of the final test I give is to make contact with another radio station,” West says. “That will also give them a chance to try out a variety of radio equipment.”

What better day for a young person to get licensed than on Kid’s Day — when more than 1000 other kids already were out there on the airwaves? — thanks to Rosalie White, K1STO

There will be a special 160-meter presentation by DXing on the Edge author Jeff Briggs, K1ZM as well as a propagation program by NCJ and Worldradio columnist Carl Luetzelschwab, K9LA.

On-site ARRL DXCC card checking will be available too. Program details and on-line registration is available at the W9DXCC home page, http://www.qth.com/w9dxcc or via e-mail from W9DXCC 2000 Chairman Bill Smith, W9VA, w9va@aol.com.

“Your wife makes a delicious roast,” one chief said.

“Thanks,” his friend said. “But I’m sure gonna miss her.”

We have enough youth. How about a fountain of smart?

Learn from your parents’ mistakes — use birth control.

Make it idiot proof and someone will make a better idiot.

Lorena Bobbitt for White House intern.

Keep honking — I’m reloading.