RADIOACTIVITIES Newsletter of the Argonne Amateur Radio Club
Volume XLII, Number 9	September, 2001

“It is time for the Commission to stop those encroachments, because they have gone too far already,” the ARRL said.

The League said AeroAstro’s petition for a commercial Miscellaneous Wireless Communication Service allocation at 2300 to 2305 MHz not only would impose “preclusive operating conditions” on hams but represents “yet another in the continuing series of encroachments” into amateur allocations between 2300 and 2450 MHz. The ARRL asserted that AeroAstro has failed to back up its claim that hams and low-power commercial operations can share the band on a co-primary basis without interfering with each other.

An interference study prepared by the ARRL Lab and attached to the League’s comments predicts “intolerable” interference, especially to weak signals, if the AeroAstro petition were granted.

ARRL has petitioned to elevate the Amateur Service from secondary to primary status on the band and requested that no commercial operations be introduced. AeroAstro seeks co-primary status with the Amateur Service to accommodate its Satellite Enabled Notification System (SENS) position-monitoring system under MWCS rules. The FCC put both petitions on public notice last month, and both parties filed comments earlier this month. There is no primary occupant at 2300-2305 MHz.

The League asked the FCC to dismiss the AeroAstro petition as defective and to grant the League’s petition for primary amateur status at 2300 to 2305 MHz.

Just a little while ago I applied for a vanity callsign. (After all I have been an Extra for the past 18 months or so and it would be nice to shed two letters. It makes it easier on the fist and DX gets a 2 by 1 (or 1 by 2) faster as well.) I applied for my new (I hope) callsign over the Internet, digitally conversing with the FCC computers directly. I even paid the required fee that way.

Now what gets me is that within about a three week period I will know whether my application is either successful or has been denied.

I know that in today’s world that might not sound like such fast service. But I remember the time when I upgraded to Technician (the original kind!) and it took about ten weeks for the new license to arrive in the mail! I like this kind of progress!

On another note: There was a “behind the scenes” emergency very recently and it required a very rapid response. And I was very pleased to see that it got it. It seems that the powers that be (the building manager) wanted to start using a little used room in one of the buildings here on site. Well, wouldn’t you know it but that very space contained the clubs antennas, masts, tents, guylines, ropes, bags of concrete, etc. And we had to move them fast or lose them. To thy dumpster.

The “word” was put out and a good response was gotten that made it possible to move all of our gear to the new site in one lunch hour. A big THANK YOU to those who answered the call. It was worth the sweat!

Designed and assembled by midshipmen at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, PCSat’s first mission was to provide practical hands-on experience in support of the students’ aerospace curriculum. The midshipmen worked under the guidance of Academy Senior Project Engineer Bob Bruninga, WB4APR - the acknowledged “father of APRS.”

“We hope that PCsat will be a new direction for amateur satellites by serving the communications needs of travelers with only mobile and hand-held radios anywhere on Earth,” Bruninga said. PCSat will be the first satellite to report its exact position directly to users via its onboard GPS. This means that whenever the bird’s in view, users won’t need tracking software to determine its position.

According to Bruninga, the satellite will demonstrate vehicle tracking and communication for GPS-equipped remote travelers - including Naval Academy vessels at sea, cross-country travelers, expeditions or anyone far from the existing APRS terrestrial tracking infrastructure http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/digis.html.

In addition to its APRS capabilities, the satellite will offer 1200 and 9600-baud packet operation on VHF (145.825 MHz) and UHF (435.250 MHz). For APRS digipeating, the satellite will use the recognized North American APRS frequency of 144.39 MHz.

Bruninga said that PCsat should make a great classroom tool, since its telemetry can be received by any hand-held packet radio for display to students on their PCs. “And with the Internet connectivity of ground stations worldwide,” he said, “classes are not limited to observing passes only over their school, but anytime PCSat is in view of any other participating school.”

PCSat was deemed spaceworthy last month. Bruninga left this week for Alaska and the launch preparations. PCSat will be one of four satellites in the Kodiak Star payload, and the only one with Amateur Radio capabilities. The others are Sapphire, Starshine III, and PicoSat. For more information, visit the PCSat Web site, http://web.usna.navy.mil/~bruninga/pcsat.html.

• (A) Administrations are to continue to verify both technical and operational qualifictions of RadioAmateurs.
• (B) Maintaining the non-commercial nature of Amateur Services, including amateur satellites.
• (C) Specific provisions to recognize the role of disaster communications in the Amateur Radio Service.
• (D) Possible elimination of prohibition against transmission of international communications on behalf of third parties.
• (E) Removal of prohibition against radioamateur communications regardless of objections expressed by the administration of either of the countries between whom the communications are made.
• (F) Elimination of provisions that merely and redundantly repeat regulations that generally apply to all radio services.

With a group of largely Technician class operators at this point, Kent said she and the other K5DES members are looking forward to upgrading, so they can chat more readily with stations in other countries and learn more about different cultures.

Item (A) directs attention to Article S25 — with one paragraph therein stipulating the International Morse Code requirement for all administrations (nations) allowing radioamateur use of RF spectrum in the low bands (less than 30 MHz [or 10m]). It is WIDELY agreed by those well familiar with international radio amateur matters that the elimination of the CW requirement is a foregone conclusion. Great and heated controversy on this matter should prove no great surprise. It is difficult to determine exactly how our representative, the ARRL, plans to approach this matter. Articles in QST are not completely clear on this matter (although it is VERY clear that these articles have a very thick layer of political prudence — they want to ensure a united front by the amateur population and do not want to fracture the commitment of that community (and quite rightly so).

But what does the amateur community believe with regard to CW? There are polls here on QRZ.COM that show that amateurs believe that CW should REMAIN a requirement for access to frequencies under 30 MHz by a factor of over 2 to 1!! And one of the polls also shows that amateurs believe 2 to 1 that the RF spectrum should indeed be divided into digital and voice segments so as to minimize intermodal interference!! It is not clear what our representatives at the ARRL plan to recommend at WRC-2003. On the basis of the poll results here at QRZ.COM there does not appear to be any substantial basis for ARRL’s extremely cautious, careful, and discrete approach to this matter. The ARRL is our representative to WRC-2003. Is it practicable or worthwhile to let them know what we think? 73 de N4INU

02		WB9LSK		Clarence		Yorkville, IL
06		KV9Y		Ed		Burr Ridge, IL
07		NF9N		David		Orland Park, IL
09		AA9HV		Bill		Country Club Hills, IL
10		N9HOH		Harold		Minooka, IL
12		N9FPQ		Raymond		Lemont, IL
13		NU9B		Donald		Elmhurst, IL
13		N9TJW		Larry		Worth, IL
15		KB9CTJ		Loren		Minooka, IL
18		N9WQI		Jim		Downers Grove, IL
18		KB9KOD		Peter		Chicago, IL
21		WB9TUF		Darrell		Elmhurst, IL
25		KA9WLT		Doug		Broadview, IL
26		K9CZB		Gary		Dixon, IL
28		N9JPV		Pat		Westmont, IL
28		KB9KYK		Steve		Plainfield, IL

The fisherman dove into the water. In ten powerful strokes, he reached the woman, put his arm around her, and swam back to shore.

Depositing her at the feet of the man the fisherman said, “Okay, where is my hundred?”

The man said, “Look, when I say her going down for the third time, I thought it was my wife. But this is my mother in law.”

The fisherman reached into his pocket and said, “Just my luck. How much do I owe you?”

Please contact Ron Hensel, K9ZE at 630-365-0213 or k9ze@aol.com.

Once again we had an excellent turnout for our 17^th annual potluck dinner and travelogue sponsored by the Argonne Amateur Radio Club. About 75 Radio Club members and friends joined together at the St. John Lutheran Church in Darien for a delicious meal followed by a “Cruise Around South America” slide presentation.

Santiago, Chile was our starting point, beginning with a three day visit to the 500 year old Spanish Conquistador-founded city, still bearing remnants of old Spain and its culture. Then on to the twin port cities of Valpairso and Vina del Mar where we boarded our luxury cruise liner, Mercury. We sailed southward, enjoying all the amenities aboard ship and visited the quaint fishing and resort village of Puerto Montt, the southernmost Chilean city of Punta Arenas and Argentina’s historic city of Ushuaia at the bottom of South America. Our ship sailed the famous and treacherous waters of the Magellan Strait, the Beagle Channel and the Sir Francis Drake Passage before arriving at the base of South America, the infamous Cape Horn.

Rounding the “Horn” we sailed up the eastern coast of the continent, stopping at Puerto Madryn where we enjoyed a visit with 50,000 Magellanic penguins. Continuing northward we stopped to tour Montevideo, Uruguay, and completed our cruise at the fascinating city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A 1300 mile flight to visit the largest and most remarkable waterfall in the world was an outstanding feature of our trip. The climax came with the final three days visiting and touring the city of Buenos Aires, with a dinner and show featuring tango music and tango dancing performed as only the Argentines can do it.

We owe a debt of gratitude to Doris and Bill Karraker for their help in organizing, planning and assisting in making the “Evening Under the Stars” a successful and delightful event, to the St. John Lutheran Church for the use of their fine facility, and to the staff at St. John who set tables and chairs for the program. And last but not least, to all you folks who brought their favorite dish to pass and attended the program. Thanks everyone, for coming.......      Chuck and Anne Vesely   KA9BIO

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(Mostly about us)

“Cruise Around South America”

“The Last ½ Page”

The club also wants to thank Chuck, KA9BIO and Anne for the F.B. travelog they put on for the club, their family and friends!

We got a phone call from Bonnie & Fred Propper WB9VUT that Fred fell and hurt himself and is in some pain. They also want you to know they have a new phone number, 815-436-0691 and are still in Plainfield.

I got a surprise card from Honolulu! How many of you remember Rich Doering, WA6CFM? Rich was a Rail Fan as some of you may recall. The card showes a steamer on the Sugar Cane Line in Maui. Thanks Rich.

From Net Control, Paul, W9FNM, after 15 years told us he was moving out of state. We all felt bad but in a few days he told us the rest of the story. A change in plans and Paul will be operating from a QTH 6 blocks away — Good news!!!

George Nixon, N9EJS was next telling us he is leaving for the State for Texas. We will miss all of them — no date has been given for their departure. Watch your newsletter for more info on the above.

The Burr Ridge Zip Code has been changed from 60521 to 60527 — there are several club members here in Burr Ridge who will have to change: Roger,WA9PUE, Dennis, W9DS, Ed Martin, KV9Y, Bill, W9AVE & others.

During a dream he let out with a loud Hello — The next morning his wife said if you see anyone you know tonite, just wave.