The ARRL Letter Electronic Update October 25, 1996 Page author: rlindquist@arrl.org Page last revised 1:15 PM ET= 10/25/96 IN THIS UPDATE . . . Gate 2 Vanity Call Sign Grants: Any Day Now! FCC Stops Renewal Reminders ARRL Board in Session ARRL Letter Circulation Marconi Museum to Open in New Hampshire Boys & Girls Clubs to Embrace Ham Radio Geomagnetic Activity Up John "Bob" Vota, WB1FDY, SK In Brief: More astronaut hams; KE6HCI honored; New FCC Web searcher;= More Alexanderson info; Welcome aboard!; No cat GATE 2 VANITY CALL SIGN GRANTS: ANY DAY NOW! The FCC is holding to its schedule that first-day vanity call sign Gate 2 applications could be processed as early as today. As of October 11, the FCC had received more than 6400 applications in response to Gate 2, which opened just over a month ago. Personnel in the FCC's Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, office have been entering application information and lists of requested call signs since then. Slightly more than 4500 applications were filed on opening day, and the FCC has said it will consider all day- one applications as a group and grant licenses in random order. If the FCC is unable to grant a requested call sign, it will dismiss the application and notify the applicant by mail. Applicants may reapply, but hams whose applications are dismissed must request a refund of the $30 processing fee in writing and under separate= cover. FCC STOPS RENEWAL REMINDERS As of October 22, the FCC has ceased issuing Form 610R license expiration notices--reminders to hams that their tickets are going to expire within the next 90 days and that they must request renewal. The last notices sent by FCC covered into February 1997, although the specific date was not available. A Form 610R for renewal must be returned by mail only to the FCC. An FCC Public Notice is expected within a few days. The demise of the Form 610R means that hams--whose licenses are issued for ten-year periods--must take the initiative to remember the renewal date of their tickets and file a Form 610. An FCC spokesman in Gettysburg says the Commission hopes to have a Form 610 available soon on the World Wide Web to permit on-line renewals. Please note that the W5YI VEC in Dallas, Texas, has begun mailing renewal reminders and FCC forms to hams whose licenses are about to expire. If you receive a Form 610R directly from the FCC, you should return it only to the FCC. If you receive a renewal notice from the W5YI Group Inc and if you wish to have the W5YI VEC handle your renewal for a fee, follow the directions and return the renewal form to the W5YI VEC, not to the FCC. If your license will expire within 90 days, you may renew your license at no cost by completing an FCC Form 610 and returning it to: FCC, 1270 Fairfield Rd, Gettysburg, PA 17325-7245. ARRL BOARD IN SESSION The ARRL Board of Directors is meeting in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, through tomorrow (October 26). The board will consider issues dealing with the budget for= 1997. The board also will hear reports and recommendations from the three standing committees--membership services, volunteer resources and administration and finance. THE ARRL LETTER ELECTRONIC CIRCULATION A reminder to subscribers who get The ARRL Letter electronically directly from HQ: If your e-mail address changes or if you wish to be removed from the distribution list, please send an e-mail message request to Kathy Capodicasa, N1GZO, at ARRL HQ. Include your name, call sign and e-mail address (old and new if changing address) in the body of the message. Some subscribers get The ARRL Letter electronically via Netcom Internet services (sponsored by Mike Ardai, N1IST, and the Boston Amateur Radio Club). The Netcom automated listserver (listserv@netcom.com) redistributes the Letter (and several other ARRL lists) with the League's permission, but it is neither managed nor administered by HQ, and we do not handle subscribe or unsubscribe requests or complaints regarding this circulation route. To sign up or inquire about the Netcom lists, send e- mail to listserv@netcom.com. In the body of the message, type "subscribe letter-list" to add your name to the mailing list, or type "unsubscribe letter-list" to have it removed. Contact Mike Ardai at n1ist@netcom.com for more information. MARCONI MUSEUM TO OPEN IN NEW HAMPSHIRE Bedford, New Hampshire, will be the site of the US National Marconi Museum, to be run by The Guglielmo Marconi Foundation USA. Ray Minichiello, AA1KG--the founding chairman of the organization and a retired professional engineer--says the group hopes to open the museum early next year in Bedford's former police station. One of the exhibits the museum hopes to have is an exact replica of the wireless room aboard the RMS Titanic, which sank after striking an iceberg on its maiden voyage in 1912. Minichiello hopes one day to have the actual Marconi transmitter used by the Titanic's radio operator, Jack Phillips--if it's ever recovered from the bottom of the North Atlantic. The shipboard radio led directly to the rescue of 700 passengers, and Minichiello said having the actual Marconi radio would serve as a real tribute to the man who's credited with developing the first practical wireless system. Other Marconi museums are in Bologna and Genoa, Italy. Sites in Canada and on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, also take note of Marconi's legacy. For more information, call 603-472-9746 or write the museum at 18 North Amherst Rd, Bedford, NH 03110. BOYS & GIRLS CLUBS TO EMBRACE HAM RADIO Boys & Girls Clubs soon hope to offer an Amateur Radio program to members across the country. That word from Rick Zamoida, N1QZA, who's the teen/outreach director of the Manchester, New Hampshire, Boys & Girls Club and advisor to the only currently active ham radio club within the organization--the Manchester Boys & Girls Airwaves Amateur Radio Club. Under the current plan--and in cooperation with the ARRL--an effort is under way within the organization to target ham radio clubs, instructors and volunteers in each of the 15 ARRL divisions. Zamoida reports that the Boys & Girls Club in Santa Monica, California, already is developing a pilot program "to get the ball rolling." Zamoida's own Airwaves club also is playing a big role in developing a national ham radio program for Boys & Girls Clubs.= Others helping to organize the program include Richard Sommers, W6NSV, of the Radio Club of America, and Carole Perry, WB2MGP, of Media Mentors Inc and a well-known advocate of using ham radio in the classroom. Zamoida says ham radio is a great activity for Boys & Girls Clubs because it provides an outlet for social recreation and opportunities to develop leadership and cultural awareness. "It's a great hobby that's often overlooked," he said. For more information, call Zamoida at 603-625-5982. GEOMAGNETIC ACTIVITY UP Solar observer Tad Cook, KT7H, in Seattle, Washington, reports that solar activity remained low last week, but there was more geomagnetic activity. Conditions have been disturbed over the past few days, and the average A Index was about double this week compared to the week previous. Disturbed conditions are expected to fade through the weekend (CQ World Wide DX SSB Contest begins at 0000 UTC on October 26), and then become upset again around November 9 and again around November 15. Solar flux is expected to stay about the same.= Sunspot numbers for October 17 through 23 were 0, 0, 0, 0, 11, 0 and 0, respectively, with a mean of 1.6. The 10.7-cm flux was 68.5, 69.6, 71, 71.3, 69.7, 69.8 and 67.8, respectively, with a mean of 69.7. The planetary A indices for the same period were 6, 21, 31, 15, 7, 28, and 35, respectively, with a mean of 20.4. JOHN "BOB" VOTA, WB1FDY, SK John R. "Bob" Vota, WB1FDY, of Centerdale, Rhode Island, has died following a long battle with cancer. He was 58. Bob served as Rhode Island's section manager from 1985 until 1987, was a past president of the Providence Radio Association and a founder of the North Providence Radio Club. He also was an active CW op and contester and was a member of the Army Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) program, serving as its Rhode Island director for many years. His wife, Elaine, KA1PID, and two sons, Bob, KA1QYF, and Bill, KA1QYE, are among the survivors.--Rick Fairweather, K1KYI In Brief . . . More astronaut hams: Four more NASA astronauts are now licensed Amateur Radio operators! Mission specialists Ed Lu, KC5WKJ; Jean Francois-Clervoy, KC5WKG; and Carlos Noreiga will be on STS-84 in May 1997, and Marsha Ivins, KC5WKF, will be on STS-81 in January 1997. These are Mir docking missions (but not SAREX missions), where we hope to get permission to allow astronauts to use Mir's radios. --Rosalie White, WA1STO KE6HCI honored: Randy Foutch, KE6HCI, Fremont, California, has been named the 1996 Field Organization Volunteer of the Year for the Pacific Division by Director Brad Wyatt, K6WR. The award was made October 19 during the Pacific Division Convention--Pacificon '96--in Concord, California. Randy is a DEC and an assistant director. New FCC Web searcher: The FCC has installed a new search engine for use on its World Wide Web site at http://www.fcc.gov. It supports both concept and keyword searches to help Web users find FCC documents quickly and easily. The search utility also supports Boolean operators (and, not, or, etc.). Details on how to use the new search tool are located on the search page, http://www.fcc.gov/search.--FCC More Alexanderson info: John Gray, W6UZ, of Charlottesville, Virginia, offers some additional information about the Alexanderson alternator (see The ARRL Letter Electronic Update, October 18, 1996). In addition to the one on Sweden's west coast, he reports that several others were in operation in the early days of wireless, including two at the RCA (formerly Marconi) site at Bolinas, California. One operated as NPG on about 24 kHz during World War II under contract to the Navy; the other was sold to the Navy and shipped to Guam for installation after the liberation of that island. It remained in the crates and was never installed. The other one was dismantled in the early 50s by a salvage company for the copper it contained.--John Gray, W6UZ Welcome aboard! Martin Cook, N1FOC/G0TPO, is the new ARRL Outgoing QSL Service manager, assuming the reins from Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, who now manages W1AW. A native of Cheltenham, England, Martin has been licensed for 12 years. He's active in packet radio and HF. He and his wife Kate, N1ODI, live in Bristol, Connecticut. Kate works in the Publication Sales Department at HQ. No cat: When asked to describe radio, Albert Einstein is said to have provided an eloquent description: "You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head meows in Los Angeles. Do you understand this?" Einstein then continued: "Radio operates exactly the same way---you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat." The ARRL Letter The ARRL Letter is published by the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259. Rodney J. Stafford, KB6ZV, President; David Sumner, K1ZZ, Executive Vice President. Electronic edition circulation, Kathy Capodicasa, N1GZO, e-mail kcapodicasa@arrl.org. Editorial, Rick Lindquist, KX4V, e-mail rlindquist@arrl.org. Visit the ARRLWeb page at http://www.arrl.org. The purpose of The ARRL Letter is to provide the essential news of interest to active, organizationally minded radio amateurs faster than it can be disseminated by our official journal, QST. We strive to be fast, accurate and readable in our reporting. Material from The ARRL Letter may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, including photoreproduction and electronic databanks, provided that credit is given to The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League. ARRLWeb's home page ARRLWeb search Begin or renew your membership online Email ARRL HQ Email ARRLWebmaster Web page copyright 1996 by ARRL Inc