From Harris County (TX) ARES Training Website

Getting to Know Your Radio

Knowing how to access the basic functions on the radios that you use during an emergency response is an important skill as emergency communicators. I have seen incidents during public service events where an operator could not change a parameter such as frequency, tone, power, etc. This affected net operations since an operator was not able to communicate due an issue such as the wrong tone being selected. The time to learn how to operate communications gear is not during a response.
Continue reading “Knowing Your Radio” →

By Ken Reed for Emergency Management (govtech.com)

Where to go During a Communications Shutdown

Local radio amateur group volunteers can help maintain communications until the normal operations resume.

If you’ve been in meetings and exercises that simulate a total communications loss, you’ve likely wondered what you would do in the event of a catastrophic failure that takes down cellular, Internet, power, and even your own systems.
Continue reading “Article about Communications Shutdown” →

From ARRL:

International Crystal Manufacturing Going Out of Business

International Crystal Manufacturing (ICM) of Oklahoma City has announced that it will be going out of business, probably at the end of May. Royden Freeland Jr., son of the company’s founder, posted a letter this week on the ICM website.

“We will be honoring all orders that we have already taken and will be able to fill a limited amount of new orders, dependent upon raw materials available,” Freeland said. “We would like to thank you for your past business. The success of ICM over the previous 66 years has been largely due to its amazing customer base.”

International Crystal produces RF control devices — quartz crystals, oscillators, QCM crystals, filters, TCXOs/VCTCXOs, and precision crystals.

Royden R. Freeland Sr. founded International Crystal in 1950, at first operating out of his garage. One of his first contracts was to produce crystals for Collins Radio. The elder Freeland and his wife died in a 1978 air crash, and his son took over the company, which expanded into the production of other electronics in the 1980s.

In the 1990s, though, it sold off some of its equipment and distribution business to concentrate on its core enterprise — the manufacture of crystal and oscillator products.

The announcement caught some manufacturers off guard, and they are seeking to source the products they had been buying from ICM, one of the remaining US-based manufacturers of crystal products. Radio amateurs requiring crystals for projects or as replacement parts for older equipment also will have to look elsewhere.
Read more.

Submitted by KD4WX

From ARRL Delta Division Email:

GM Delta Division Members,

The ARRL Board of Directors is seeking opinions from the membership concerning a possible new entry level class of amateur license in the United States. Hence, I would like to draw your attention to a survey we are conducting and encourage everyone to take it if you have not done so already.

The Entry Level License Ad Hoc Committee was established by the ARRL Board of Directors at the July 2016 board meeting and the committee was appointed in September 2016. As part of its ongoing work, the committee is gathering member input and will make recommendations to the Board for possible rules changes to submit to the FCC.

The result could mean changes to the Technician license, but it could also be an additional, but simpler, license with privileges that would give a newcomer a taste of most facets of ham radio from HF to VHF and UHF. It would be reminiscent of the old Novice ticket.

The committee has created an online member survey. Please complete and submit the survey no later than April 7, 2017. Survey results will be published.

The link to the survey is: http://www.arrl.org/license-1 or it can be accessed through the ARRL website.

We value your input!

73 ES DX

DE K5UZ

——————————————————————–
ARRL Delta Division
Director: David A Norris, K5UZ
k5uz@arrl.org
——————————————————————–

From Delta Division Letter:

Greetings Delta Division Members,

It gives me great pleasure to announce that HR-555 (we just missed getting 599, but I’ll take the raspy tone and S-5 strength for a good QSO) the 2017 Amateur Radio Parity Act was passed with much praise of radio amateurs and with no dissent yesterday evening. Per the ARRL web news:

Just 10 days after being introduced, the 2017 Amateur Radio Parity Act legislation, H.R. 555, passed the U.S. House of Representatives this week on unanimous consent under a suspension of House rules. The bill’s language is identical to that of the 2015 measure, H.R. 1301, which won House approval late last summer after attracting 126 co-sponsors, but failed to clear the U.S. Senate last fall as the 114th Congress wound down. The new bill, again sponsored by Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), was introduced on January 13 with initial co-sponsorship by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Rep. Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR), who chairs the influential House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

H.R. 555 calls on the FCC to establish rules prohibiting the application of deed restrictions that preclude Amateur Radio communications on their face or as applied. Deed restrictions would have to impose the minimum practicable restriction on Amateur Radio communications to accomplish the lawful purposes of homeowners association seeking to enforce the restriction

“The grassroots effort of Amateur Radio operators across this nation in support of the Amateur Radio Parity Act has been remarkable, nothing like we have ever seen before,” ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, said. “To all hams, keep going! Now is the time to charge forward with that same momentum to the Senate. We can do it!” The bill arrives in the U.S. Senate with ample time in which to garner its approval through an education campaign.

Last year we almost passed this act but for one hold out in the US Senate who has now changed his position. Our grass roots effort on lobbying and writing the Senate now begins. We will be contacting you the members with our plans on getting this passed and to President Trumps desk. I should state that this could not have been done without the herculean effort that you, the members, put forth over the past two years. It has been a long and sometimes rough road but now we may be ending a happy end to this journey. Let’s make this last full measure a successful victory for radio amateurs in the USA.

Thank you!

73 ES QRX

DE K5UZ
DE WB4RHQ

Submitted by KD4WX

From ARRL:

Illegal Drone Transmitters Could Interfere with Air Traffic Control, ARRL Complaint Asserts

01/12/2017
In what it calls an “extremely urgent complaint” to the FCC, ARRL has targeted the interference potential of a series of audio/video transmitters used on unmanned aircraft and marketed as Amateur Radio equipment. In a January 10 letter to the FCC Spectrum Enforcement Division, ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD, said the transmitters use frequencies intended for navigational aids, air traffic control radar, air route surveillance radars, and global positioning systems.

“This is, in ARRL’s view, a potentially very serious interference problem, and it is respectfully requested that the products referenced…be investigated and removed from the marketplace immediately and that the importers be subjected to normal sanctions,” ARRL’s letter said. Some of the transmitters operate on frequencies between 1,010 and 1,280 MHz. “These video transmitters are being marketed ostensibly as Amateur Radio equipment,” the League said, “but of the listed frequencies on which the devices operate, only one, 1280 MHz, would be within the Amateur Radio allocation at 1240-1300 MHz.” Even then, ARRL said, operation there would conflict with a channel used for radio location.

ARRL said the use of 1,040 and 1,080 MHz, which would directly conflict with air traffic control transponder frequencies, represented the greatest threat to the safety of flight. The use of 1,010 MHz, employed for aeronautical guidance, could also be problematic.

ARRL cited the Lawmate transmitter and companion 6 W amplifier as examples of problematic devices being marketed in the US. Each costs less than $100 via the Internet. The device carries no FCC identification number.

“[T]he target market for these devices is the drone hobbyist, not licensed radio amateurs. The device, due to the channel configuration, has no valid Amateur Radio application,” ARRL told the FCC. “While these transmitters are marked as appropriate for amateur use, they cannot be used legally for Amateur Radio communications.” In the hands of unlicensed individuals, the transmitters could also cause interference to Amateur Radio communication in the 1.2 GHz band, ARRL contended.

The League said it’s obvious that the devices at issue lack proper FCC equipment authorization under FCC Part 15 rules, which require such low-power intentional radiators to be certified.

“Of most concern is the capability of the devices to cripple the operation of the [air traffic control] secondary target/transponder systems,” ARRL said. “These illegal transmitters represent a significant hazard to public safety in general and the safety of flight specifically.”

The surge in sales of drones has been dramatic. The FAA has predicted that combined commercial and hobby sales will increase from 2.5 million in 2016 to 7 million by 2020.

In Exhibit A of the January 10 letter, “Illegal Drones Threaten Public Safety,” the League noted that some of the drones and associated equipment it has come across “are blatantly illegal at multiple levels,” with some drone TV transmitters described as “particularly alarming.”

“Rated at six times over the legal power limit, and on critical air navigation transponder frequencies, these devices represent a real and dangerous threat to the safety of flight, especially when operated from a drone platform that can be hundreds of feet in the air,” the exhibit narrative asserted.

Submitted by KD4WX

SB SPACE ARL ARLS012
ARLS012 New Amateur Radio FM Transponder CubeSat Now in Space

The BY70-1 CubeSat launched on December 28 from the Taiyuan Space Launch Center in China, but in a lower orbit than intended. The satellite carries an Amateur Radio FM transponder.

BY70-1 was intended to go into a 530 kilometer (approximately 329-mile) circular Sun-synchronous orbit, but it appears the orbit is 524 x 212 kilometers, which will give the spacecraft an orbital lifetime of just a month or two.

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, reported working Wyatt Dirks, AC0RA, through the FM transponder during the 1709 UTC pass on December 28. “Uplink requires precise frequency adjustment, and there’s a delay on the downlink, but the signal is strong,” Stoetzer said.

BY70-1 is a 2U CubeSat project for education and Amateur Radio. It features 3-axis stabilization and deployable solar panels. In addition to the FM transponder, BY70-1 has a camera, and plans call for downloading images and telemetry via a 9600 bps BPSK downlink. The IARU Amateur Satellite Frequency Coordination pages list an uplink of 145.920 MHz, and a downlink of 436.200 MHz.

AMSAT-UK has more information online at, https://amsat-uk.org/2016/12/27/by70-1-fm-transponder-satellite/ .

Submitted by KD4WX

Source Unknown:

ARE YOU PREPARED?

You have your radio equipment ready and charged, along with keeping your portable computer up-to-date…but what else should you have ready to go? What plans should you have made in advance for the possibility of activation, or heaven forbid, evacuation? Are you prepared to take care of yourself, along with your family, if called upon to serve others?
Here are a few of resources to get you thinking of possibly solutions:

Have you taken a CPR/AED/First Aid Course recently? The Red Cross offers this lifesaving skillset through a variety of venues http://www.redcross.org/ux/take-a-class. Check with your local library, firehouse, or hospital for an opportunity to become certified. The American Heart & Lung Association also provides this training: http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/CPRAndECC/CPR_UCM_001118_SubHomePage.jsp

Plan to take part in your local Community Emergency Response Team (IS-317) training course. Part of this course is taken online https://training.fema.gov/is/courseoverview.aspx?code=IS-317, and the other half is hands-on. The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates individuals about disaster preparedness and trains and organizes teams of volunteers that can support their communities during disasters. The CERT Program offers training in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, and disaster medical operations. With proper CERT training, you can help protect your family, neighbors, and co-workers if a disaster occurs.

Do you have a Family Communication Plan established? Do you have a local, and out-of-state ‘point of contact’ in case there is a lapse in our local communications infrastructure? Visit https://www.ready.gov/ for a list of resources that can assist you to create this plan, along with other checklists for various types of incidences.

Submitted by: KD4WX