Ham Radio Clubs Encouraged to Innovate

ARRL Public Relations Committee Chairman Scott Westerman, W9WSW, believes collegiate Amateur Radio clubs need to blow away the dust and cobwebs and modernize, in order to attract new members. He urges college and university ham radio clubs to seek common technological ground with younger generations, in order to attract new Amateur Radio licensees.

“We really need to be thinking in terms of…state-of-the-art technology, because that’s what ‘the kids’ are looking for nowadays,” Westerman told ARRL Marketing Manager Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, during a brief interview at the 2017 Orlando HamCation 10-12 February 2017, which hosted this year’s ARRL Southeastern Division Convention. “The big challenge is how to get them away from their cellphones.”

Westerman, a Michigan State University (MSU) alumnus and executive director of the MSU Alumni Association, recalled his own student days, when MSU Amateur Radio Club (MSUARC) station W8SH had a Collins S-Line for a station. Founded in 1919, the MSUARC is one of the oldest collegiate ham clubs in the US.

Collegiate clubs need to tap into students’ interest in “parallel” technological realms, such as the Maker Movement or those already experimenting with electronics, Westerman said. “At one time or another, we were all in that parallel universe, and there was something that brought us to ham radio,” he offered.

Westerman said the MSU club has come up with a program to get students on HF via a remote base. “So, you can get into our state-of-the-art shack, you can check out a control head, a Kenwood TS-480, take it back to your dorm, plug it into the Wi-Fi network, and work the world!”

ARRL Story - http://www.arrl.org/news/campus-ham-radio-clubs-encouraged-to-boost-vitality-through-innovation

Cadet Radio Exercise BLUE HAM 2

A radio exercise on 5MHz (using the RSGB Band plan channels) is planned in for two weekends - 18-19th March and 25-26th March 2017.

No specific timings have been agreed, this is to allow flexibility in operating conditions and availability of operators (this is from feedback from the previous exercise); we hope the two weekends will attract more participants to get involved.

The cadet callsigns being issued will range from MRE01 to MRE98 - NO location details will be given by the cadet stations; details required for the 'Contact Report' from the Amateur will be their Callsign and Maidenhead Locator.

Cadet stations will report back via email to a central location and points awarded for the number of contacts cadets collect.

Exercise Feedback - http://alphacharlie.org.uk/exercise-blue-ham/

Comments on ARRL Petition to Allocate New 5 MHz Band

The FCC has invited comments on the ARRL's January 2017 Petition for Rulemaking to allocate a new, contiguous secondary band at 5 MHz to the Amateur Radio Service.

The ARRL also asked the Commission to keep four of the current five 60-meter channels - one would be within the new band - as well as the current operating rules, including the 100 W PEP effective radiated power (ERP) limit. The federal government is the primary user of the 5 MHz spectrum.

The FCC has designated the League's Petition as RM-11785 and put it on public notice.

Comments are due Monday 20th March 2017, ARRL plans to file comments in support of its petition.

The proposed ARRL action would implement a portion of the Final Acts of World Radiocommunication Conference 2015 (WRC-15) that provided for a secondary international allocation of 5,351.5 to 5,366.5 kHz to the Amateur Service; that band includes 5,358.5 KHz, one of the existing 5 MHz channels in the US. The FCC has not yet acted to implement other portions of the WRC-15 Final Acts.

“Such implementation will allow radio amateurs engaged in emergency and disaster relief communications, and especially those between the United States and the Caribbean basin, to more reliably, more flexibly and more capably conduct those communications [and preparedness exercises], before the next hurricane season in the summer of 2017.”

— ARRL

The League said that 14 years of Amateur Radio experience using the five discrete 5-MHz channels have shown that hams can get along well with primary users at 5 MHz, while complying with the regulations established for their use. "Neither ARRL, nor, apparently, NTIA is aware of a single reported instance of interference to a federal user by a radio amateur operating at 5 MHz to date," ARRL said in its petition. NTIA - the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which regulates federal spectrum - initially proposed the five channels for Amateur Radio use. In recent years, Amateur Radio has cooperated with federal users such as FEMA in conducting communication interoperability exercises.

The League said in its petition that while the Amateur Radio community is grateful to the FCC and NTIA for providing some access to the 5-MHz band, "the five channels are, simply stated, completely inadequate to accommodate the emergency preparedness needs of the Amateur Service in this HF frequency range," ARRL said. Access even to the tiny 15-kHz wide band adopted at WRC-15 would "radically improve the current, very limited capacity of the Amateur Service in the United States to address emergencies and disaster relief," ARRL said.

The WRC-15 Final Acts stipulated a power limit of 15 W effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP), "completely defeats the entire premise for the allocation in the first place." comments the ARRL.

ARRL said the FCC should permit a power level of 100 W PEP ERP, assuming use of a 0 dBd gain antenna, in the contiguous 60-meter band. "To impose the power limit adopted at WRC-15 for the contiguous band would render the band unsuitable for emergency and public service communications," the League said.

The ITU Radio Regulations permit assignments at variance with the International Table of Allocations, provided a non-interference condition is attached.

Make your comment - https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/