IN THIS EDITION:

• +Colombian quake springs hams to action
• +Tornadoes, cleanup keep Dixie hams busy
• +FCC comes a callin' in the Carolinas
• +League seeks ULS changes
• SAREX Working Group chairman seeks cooperation
• Solar update
• In Brief: This weekend on the radio; BT1WW on 160; Vanity update; 5 MHz experiment--no additional help needed; ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service; King Hussein, JY1, back in US; SUNSAT launch delayed; K6STI goes out of software business; Congressional ham

+ Available on ARRL Audio News

COLOMBIAN QUAKE SPRINGS HAMS TO ACTION

Amateur Radio nets activated in short order on 20 and 40 meters following an earthquake January 25 in West Central Colombia. The quake, measuring 6 on the Richter scale, killed more than 1000 people, injured thousands of others, and caused major structural damage. The Salvation Army reports more than 150,000 people missing in Colombia's mountainous coffee-growing region. The initial tremor and some aftershocks were felt in the capital city of Bogota. News media in Colombia were reporting "chaos" in the city of Armenia, where some residents stormed and looted stores and supermarkets when relief supplies failed to materialize. Martial law was declared there.

"In most cases, the problem is in the distribution," said Dallas Carter, W3PP, in Laurel, Delaware. Carter monitored some of the first reports of the quake via Amateur Radio on a 20-meter relief net run by HK3SA and HK3RQA and has been assisting as a US net control--sometimes for as long as 12 hours a day. Amateur activities were taking place on 14.347 MHz and locally on 7.085 and 7.090 MHz.

Ham radio was a major source of information out of the affected area in the hours immediately following the disaster. "They are requesting blood, water, medical assistance, rescue equipment," Carter said this week. He said HK3SA was flown into the city of Armenia and has set up an HF operation to maintain contact via 40 and 20 meters to directly handle international health-and-welfare requests as well as keep in touch with the capital. He said 2-meter repeaters were being used for local emergency coordination.

The Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) has established contact with hams in Colombia and a net on 14.265 MHz and was helping with inquiries about victims. At this point, most of the health-and-welfare traffic was coming into the US from the stricken regions, while not much was going into the area. The Salvation Army's Michael Koenemund, KB1CKF, reported that the Salvation Army had dispatched a 10-member assessment and first response team from Bogota to the affected cities of Pereira and Ibaque. "The team will render primary services, including food, water and shelter," he said.

The International Red Cross in Colombia has dispatched a team of 80, plus relief equipment and supplies "There's an extreme shortage of doctors," Carter said. "They're still digging people out."

The ARRL has offered its assistance to the Liga Colombiana de Radioaficionados (LCRA), the League's IARU sister society in Colombia.

Media in Bogota have set up Web sites with information from the affected areas including lists of individual names and status. See http://www.rcntv.com.co or http://www.eureka.com.co/terremoto/ (Spanish) or http://www.eureka.com.co/terremoto/indexEn.html (English).

TORNADOES, CLEANUP KEEP DIXIE HAMS BUSY

Additional severe weather hit parts of the South January 22, less than a day after tornadoes killed eight people in Arkansas and injured many others in Arkansas and Tennessee. Amateur Radio operators volunteered as needed in the wake of the January 21 tornadoes as well as the storms the following day reported in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. Few additional injuries and no deaths were reported, and damage for the most part was minimal.

Arkansas Section Manager Roger Gray, N5QS, reported several amateurs working with cleanup crews, disaster assessment teams, or Red Cross mobile feeding stations after the January 21 tornadoes that swept the Little Rock area and badly damaged the town of Beebe.

ARES nets were activated on both local VHF repeaters and on 75 meters after more than 30 tornadoes touched down in White County. "I personally saw one pass within one mile of my house and within a half mile of [ARRL Vice President Joel Harrison] W5ZN's house. Gray says White County ARES closed down January 26 after nearly a week's operation. Gray reports that on several occasions as the storms developed, various net control stations were forced to take cover and hand over NCS duties to another station. White County EC James Wiles, KK5WM, in Beebe, was forced to seek shelter after his home suffered tornado damage. "He was later able to return to salvage his radio equipment and set up a station at a shelter and man it single-handed through the night," Gray said.

A health-and-welfare and disaster recovery net evolved from the storm-spotting net after the storms had passed through, and net control moved to Red Cross headquarters. Gray said more than 70 hams assisted with traffic for the Red Cross and Salvation Army as well as health-and-welfare inquiries, emergency, and general disaster recovery. "Three crossband repeaters were in operation to allow low-power stations to access distant repeaters," he said. Hams also made temporary repairs to the local ambulance service base station antenna.

In Tennessee, Madison County EC Kenny Johns, AB4EG, worked with volunteers from several areas to assist the Red Cross with damage assessment in 19 affected counties. Johns said in Jackson and in Madison County, more than 300 homes, apartments and mobile homes were completely destroyed. Another 357 received extreme damage. ARRL Delta Division Vice Director Henry Leggette, WD4Q, visited the Jackson area January 28 and met with members of John's club, the West Tennessee Amateur Radio Society, who were coordinating activities on VHF and UHF. He reported that more than 200 hams helped out in some way after the storms. "This made me very proud to be an Amateur Radio operator," Leggette said.

The town of Clarksville, Tennessee, also received significant damage from the January 22 storms. Under the direction of Albert Furlow, KA1FFO, members of the Clarksville Amateur Radio Transmitting Society's (CATS) disaster team activated a SKYWARN net. After the storm, CAT members worked with the Red Cross and emergency officials, passing spot information and later assisting with damage assessment. Furlow reports hams also will help with the cleanup effort this weekend.

On January 22, National Red Cross Headquarters requested Virginia ARES to follow up after a reported F4 tornado struck the northeastern Mississippi town of Corinth, cutting off contact with the community of approximately 14,000. The Red Cross contacted Virginia ARES to attempt to get information on possible damage and injuries. Volunteers were able to get information via the Mississippi Emergency Net indicating trees and power lines down and some property damage, but no deaths and only one injury. Virginia ARES relayed all information to the Red Cross, which indicated that it was the first news they had received from the affected area.

FCC COMES A CALLIN' IN THE CAROLINAS

FCC engineering and legal staff conducted unannounced Amateur Radio station inspections January 21 and 22 in North and South Carolina, reports FCC amateur enforcement honcho Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH.

"Commission personnel inspected the stations of John A. Abernethy, K4OKA, an Extra Class licensee in Hickory, North Carolina, and Richard Whiten, WB2OTK, a General Class licensee in Easley, South Carolina," Hollingsworth said.

In both visits, FCC officials were accompanied by local law enforcement personnel. Hollingsworth said both amateurs cooperated with the inspections, which lasted approximately two hours apiece. FCC officials said that both operators "were the subjects of many complaints about their operations on the 75 and 20 meter Amateur bands." The officials said the results of the inspections were "under review," and declined further comment.

Earlier this month, the FCC issued a stern warning to an Indian River County, Florida ham who, the FCC said, had been using the amateur airwaves to transmit information on, among other things, the credit reports, criminal records, and mortgage foreclosures of other hams and their families. "You have apparently made these disclosures and broadcasts for the purpose of deliberately and maliciously interfering with licensed Amateurs operating on those bands, and for harassment or perceived retaliation," said the letter, signed by Hollingsworth.

"We view this matter as extremely serious," he told the ARRL. Hollingsworth called the alleged operation "contrary to the purpose of Amateur Radio" and said that it "endangers the entire Amateur Radio frequency allocation internationally."

LEAGUE SEEKS ULS CHANGES

The ARRL has asked the FCC to make some minor alterations to its impending Universal Licensing System rules. The ULS, being phased in by the FCC throughout 1999, will consolidate application forms and procedures for several FCC services. Among other things, it will replace the venerable FCC Form 610 series with a new Form 605 and will provide for electronic filing, modification, and renewal for amateurs.

The ULS Report and Order was issued last October by the FCC, which also took the occasion to amend the rules to make it easier for foreign hams to operate temporarily in the US.

In a petition for partial reconsideration, the League said it wants the FCC to continue to issue paper license documents; to come up with a way for applicants not having a Taxpayer Identification Number--typically a Social Security Number--to meet ULS requirements to provide one; and to include on Form 605 a section for Volunteer Examiners to certify that an applicant has met the requirements for a new or upgraded ham ticket. In addition, the League plans to ask the FCC to restore wording in Section 97.15(e) that references the limited federal preemption, PRB-1. The section was inadvertently deleted during the Commission's redrafting of the rules to accommodate the ULS changes.

The ARRL already has expressed concerns over FCC suggestions that the agency might do away with paper license documents altogether and rely instead on the "license grant"--the virtual document that resides within the FCC's computerized amateur database. In its latest filing, January 12, the League said that in some states that regulate possession of scanning receivers but exempt amateurs, inability to produce a license document could result in "arrest and criminal prosecution as well as seizure of equipment by local law enforcement." The League said hams operating overseas also often must produce a paper document. The ARRL noted that the CEPT agreement requires US hams traveling in CEPT countries to possess a US government-issued license document and that ITU regulations "appear to require" a government-issued license document.

The League also called on the FCC to devise a means for those not holding a TIN--such as foreigners who hold US ham tickets--to comply with the ULS rules which require an applicant to provide one. "One possibility for these persons would be for the Commission to issue them some substitute TIN or some other type of registration number," the League proposed.

Finally, the ARRL pointed out to the FCC that neither the main Form 605 nor the Amateur Radio Schedule D contains a section for VE certifications and called on the Commission to modify the form to include the section as it now appears on Form 610.

SAREX WORKING GROUP CHAIRMAN CALLS FOR COMMON SENSE AND COOPERATION

The Chairman of the Space Amateur Radio EXperiment Working Group, Roy Neal, K6DUE, has lashed out at those he says have "sought to destroy" the Amateur Radio International Space Station (ARISS) program. SAREX, an ARISS partner, coordinates the Amateur Radio efforts of AMSAT, ARRL, and NASA for manned space flights.

"I have been distressed by the recent actions taken by some individuals," he said. "They are waging a war on our international cooperation." Neal's remarks, issued January 18 as a "White Paper to ARISS" focus on ARISS' concerns about the direction of the independent so-called MAREX-NA project headed by Miles Mann, WF1F. Neal does not mention Mann or his program by name, however.

"NASA and its partners have enough problems putting together an international space station. NASA does not want or need problems with Amateur Radio," Neal said. "These individuals have written messages saying they plan to create such problems if they don't get their way."

With cooperation from some Russian space officials, Mann and his colleagues recently deployed an amateur slow-scan TV system aboard the Mir space station. The system has been operating on Mir's normal 2-meter packet and FM voice frequency, however, instead of on the 70-cm frequency coordinated for the SSTV system.

"Unfortunately, they apparently have little appreciation for the complexity, level of detail, and effort required to ensure a permanent Amateur Radio presence in space," Neal said. "These people have demonstrated their willingness to flout the coordination program by announcing that the SSTV system will continue to operate on 145.985 MHz instead of the 70-cm frequency coordinated for that purpose."

Saying the time has come "to turn off the nonsense and turn on the common sense," Neal said he does not plan to engage in a contest of words "which no one can win." At the same time, he said, the door is open to consideration of all viable Amateur Radio projects for the International Space Station.

"The ARISS team welcomes participation by all," he said, in an apparent reference to claims by Mann that ARISS was turning away outside projects.

ARISS partners met last weekend in Houston, Texas, to discuss project status as well as plans for the initial, interim, and permanent deployment of Amateur Radio equipment aboard the ISS.

SOLAR UPDATE

Solar sage Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Solar activity was down slightly this week when compared to last. Average sunspot values were 35 points, lower, but solar flux was off by less than 6 points. Average solar flux for the previous 90 days was 140.1, and daily solar flux values were below this level on the last three days of the reporting week. Expect solar flux to continue lower at 112, 110 and 110 for January 29-31. Planetary A index for the same three days is projected to be 8, 5 and 8, which is not too bad for the CQ WW 160-Meter contest.

The projected solar flux for January 30-31 of 110 is quite low, all of 30 points lower than the average for the 90 days previous to the reporting week. Flux values also dipped down to this level on January 10, but prior to that had not been this low since late October. Solar flux is expected to rise next week, to above 130 around February 8, above 140 three days later, and around 155 by mid-month. Look for unsettled geomagnetic conditions around February 9-11 and February 19.

During the same week last year average sunspot numbers were 17 points lower, and average solar flux was about 55 points lower.

Sunspot numbers for January 21 through 27 were 134, 141, 117, 107, 81, 47, and 64, with a mean of 98.7. The 10.7-cm flux was 175.3, 177.9, 165.9, 161.8, 138.1, 133.2, and 125.4, with a mean of 153.9. The estimated planetary A indices were 5, 10, 16, 13, 9, 4 and 9, with a mean of 9.4.

In Brief:

• This weekend on the radio: The CQ WW 160-Meter DX Contest (CW) is January 29-31. Also look for the REF French Contest (CW), the UBA Contest (Phone), the YL International QSO Party (CW) and the Kansas QSO Party.
  Just ahead: The North American Sprint, the Minnesota QSO Party, the Delaware QSO Party, the Vermont QSO Party, the New Hampshire QSO Party, the FYBO Winter QRP Field Day, the Ten Ten International Net Winter Phone QSO Party, the YL-OM Contest, and--last but not least--the Spring Classic Radio Exchange are February 6-8.

• BT1WW on 160: The Chinese Radio Sports Association (CRSA) will air a special event experimental station for 48 hours to participate the CQ WW 160-Meter Contest from Beijing. What is unique is that the antenna is some 300 feet above the ground, thus it can almost see the Statue of Liberty! But the sad news is that the location is rather noisy and mounting a receiving antenna is impossible. So you may hear BT1WW, but you will have to boost your signal to get through to downtown Beijing. The operators of this event include BA1AB, BA1OK, and OH2BH. --Tim Totten, N4GN

• Vanity update: The FCC office in Gettysburg reports it has completed processing vanity applications received through January 7. In a processing run January 21, the FCC issued 169 license grants. Another 158 applications landed in the work in process, or WIPs, stack.

• 5 MHz experiment--no additional help needed: In response to inquiries about the ARRL's recently granted WA2XSY Experimental Radio Service license for investigations on 5 MHz, the League has been requested by FCC staff to advise that no additional participants are being sought at this time. Additionally, operating schedules have not been established but will be announced if monitoring reports are solicited as part of the experiment.

• ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service: Starting February 1, ARRL members will be able to sign up via the Members Only Web Site (http://www.arrl.org/members-only/) for the League's new E-Mail Forwarding Service. The forwarding--or alias--service is available at no additional charge for ARRL members. It will provide members with a uniform "callsign@arrl.net" e-mail address that remains the same even if the user changes e-mail service providers. Details are available on the Members Only Web Site at http://www.arrl.org/members-only/emailfwd.html. The service does not affect usability of your original e-mail address, which will continue to be the one reflected in outgoing messages.

• King Hussein, JY1, back in US: Jordan's King Hussein, JY1, headed back to the US January 27 for what press reports are calling "urgent medical treatment" after he suffered a relapse in his recuperation from non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer. Before leaving Jordan, the king named his eldest son, Abdullah, as his future successor and as regent in his absence. Hussein, 63, had returned to Jordan January 17 after six months of chemotherapy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He'll return to the clinic for further treatment. During his earlier stay in the US, Hussein had occasionally taken to the amateur airwaves, much to the surprise and delight of those who encountered him--usually on 20 meters.--from press reports

• SUNSAT launch delayed: At first frustrated by numerous weather-related delays, the Boeing team that's attempting to launch a Delta II rocket carrying the SUNSAT amateur satellite and other payloads aloft ran into a technical snag during the January 28 launch attempt. Eric Lemmon, WB6FLY, reports: "At 1044 UTC on Thursday, January 28th, the Delta-II rocket experienced an engine cutoff immediately after the engine start command was issued. The shutoff is sent automatically when an anomaly in the engine sequence is detected. The cause is currently under investigation. No damage occurred to the rocket or to the three satellites that comprise its payload. The delay will probably be a few days, and no further information is available at this time."--WB6FLY

• K6STI goes out of software business: Ham radio software developer Brian Beezley, K6STI, has gone out of business. Beezley says he's dropping distribution and further software development as a result of the piracy of his RITTY radioteletype program. He says an overseas ham broke the copy protection on a demo version of his program and posted the pirated version on the Internet. That prompted him to discontinue selling software altogether, he said. "I've just had enough of it. I'm really quite disgusted and bitter," Beezley remarked. "I hate being stolen from." He said his software business was his main source of income, and he's not sure what he'll do next. Dick Stevens, N1RCT, who runs the "All Things RTTY" Web site (http://www.megalink.net/~n1rct/) called it "a sad day." He has pulled all versions of RITTY from his site. Beezley said he'll sell RITTY "if somebody wants it" but he has no plans to offer support or further program enhancements. He also had developed five antenna programs, including the Yagi-optimizing program YO. Beezley remains available only via the USPS at 3532 Linda Vista Dr, San Marcos, CA 92069. He no longer has e-mail service.

• Congressional ham: Greg Walden, WB7OCE, elected to Congress from Oregon's second Congressional district of Oregon, was sworn in earlier this month. He replaces Rep Bob Smith, who retired last year. No stranger to the Capitol, Walden served as Smith's chief of staff from 1981 until 1987, during which time he got to know Perry Williams, W1UED, the League's Washington Area Coordinator. Walden is a League member and broadcaster who owns several radio stations in Oregon. Previously, he served in the Oregon legislature.