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The Egyptian Radio Club 2-Meter, Antenna Shoot-Out will be held 04 May 2008 (11 May if it rains) at Pleasant Ridge Park in Fairview Heights, IL. It’s a homebrew antenna contest. You get points for how well it works transmitting and how goofy it looks. $5 entry fee and the winner gets half the entry fees. Potluck lunch, so bring the whole family. Contact Frank Shears, K7RMJ, cuban9@charter.net; www.w9aiu.org
— W9AIU
The Great Plains Super Launch is the premier conference for near space explorers and enthusiasts dedicated to the education and study of aerospace science. It will be held 31 Jul-03 Aug 2008 at William Jewell College, 500 College Hill, Liberty, MO. The GPSL is an annual event for Amateur Radio and high-altitude balloon hobbyists to gather to share information and launch multiple balloons for recovery. In the effort to launch and track Simulated Satellites to the 100,000-foot altitude of Near Space, these groups must apply their knowledge of balloons, weather prediction, Amateur Radio telemetry and engineering. GPSL co-hosts are Near Space Ventures and CAPnSPACE; nearspaceventures.com. For additional information, visit the website at: www.superlaunch.org
— Near Space Ventures, Inc.
The 15th Annual Pacific Northwest VHF Conference will be held at the Best Western Lake Front Hotel and Conference Center in Moses Lake, Washington, 03-05 Oct 2008. The Pacific Northwest VHF Society is the hosting organization; however, you do not have to be a society member to attend. Registration will begin 01 Jul 2008. Join other Pacific Northwest weak signal VHF, UHF and Microwave operators for a fun and interesting weekend of presentations, activities and social events. There will be a full day of technical programs and related activities on Saturday, with no-host social events on Friday and Saturday evenings, and Sunday morning. Kicking things off, there will be a pre-conference, no-host pizza party on Friday evening at a Moses Lake location to be announced. This is a great chance to meet old friends and make some new ones too! Saturday opens with a no-host breakfast in the hotel restaurant, followed by a formal program of top-notch speakers and interesting round-table discussions throughout the morning and afternoon. A free buffet lunch is included in the day’s activities. Following a brief society annual meeting late Saturday afternoon, the day’s schedule concludes with an informal swap meet in the parking lot and a no-host prime rib dinner at the hotel restaurant. The Sunday morning no-host “Farewell Breakfast” will occur in the hotel restaurant. For additional information, check the PNWVHFS website at: www.pnwvhfs.org. Updates will be posted as the registration date approaches.
— Pacific Northwest VHF Society
Kosovo is being added to the list of countries and territories recognized for CQ DX awards, effective immediately, CQ DX Awards Manager Billy Williams, N4UF, announced today. Verifications for contacts made on or after 17 Feb 2008 are acceptable for CQ DX Award credit. CQ DX Honor Roll members with 335 or more credits should update by 31 May. All Kosovo contacts will count for field KN on applications for the CQ DX Field Award.
Kosovo’s status has been the subject of some controversy in the Amateur Radio community, as well as the world community, as the ARRL declared that special operations from there on 17 Feb will count as Serbia, not Kosovo, in terms of DXCC credit. The United States and many European countries immediately recognized Kosovo’s independence. However, Russia and China are opposed to it and Russia has threatened to veto any U.N. action to recognize Kosovo as an independent nation.
CQ magazine Editor Rich Moseson, W2VU, stated, “Because it is CQ’s policy to grant credit for contacts with ‘new’ entities as of the date that their status changes, we have decided not to wait for U.N. action, but to follow the lead of the United States and other countries that have recognized Kosovo’s independence, and to grant credit for contacts made with stations in Kosovo as of its independence day, 17 Feb 2008.”
This action does not affect the country list for the CQ WW DX Contest. CQWW rules state that its country list is composed of those entities on the DXCC list and the WAE (Worked All Europe) award list. If the WAE Committee decides to add Kosovo to its list, it will automatically be added to the CQWW list.
— W2VU
Buckmaster Publishing is excited to announce a new service for people who have taken their Amateur Radio exam and are waiting to see what their new call sign will be. We will notify them by e-mail of their new call sign as soon as it’s released if they fill out the form at http://hamcall.net/newhams. So if you know someone who will be taking an exam soon, please let him or her know about this service.
— KG4QIR
The 2010 Winter Olympics is seeking Amateur Radio volunteers. The Vancouver Olympics Committee has given Radio Amateurs of Canada details of their search for Ham Radio volunteers to assist during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games.
Of the 25,000 volunteers required, Amateur Radio operators are especially needed to help in technical roles during the events, and perhaps earlier. Volunteers must have their own local accommodation in Greater Vancouver or Whistler areas.
The on-line volunteer application form at www.vancouver2010.com includes space to list skills and experience. If the applicant wishes a communications or technical role, he or she should add a key phrase on their application form to make it easy for planners to identify them. And on the fifth application page, add the words “Amateur Radio Operator” in a box marked “Additional Information.”
Again, if you want to volunteer to provide communications support for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Winter Games, go to www.vancouver2010.com and fill out the form.
— Radio Amateurs of Canada, ARNewsline
The Tucson Amateur Packet Radio Corporation has announced that the 2008 joint Digital Communications Conference with the ARRL will take place 26-28 Sep 08 at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Elk Grove Village, IL, a suburb of Chicago, near O’Hare airport.
The conference is an international forum for radio amateurs to meet, publish their work and present new ideas and techniques. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results and practical applications. Forums will feature the latest developments in Amateur Radio digital communications, as well as demonstrations of emerging digital technology. Additional information is available online at: www.tapr.org/dcc.html
— TAPR, ARNewsline
Moviemaker Jim Brooks, 9V1YC, has two new DXpedition videos out. One deals with the 2006 Kermedec Island ZL8R operation. The other chronicles the 2007 BS7H Scarborough Reef operation. Both are professionally produced, broadcast-quality documentaries on DVD. More about these and Jim’s other 8 DXpedition films are on line at: www.dxvideos.com
— ARNewsline
Twenty-seven Los Angeles area Hams who are members of the Carson Sheriff Station Disaster Communications Service have been honored for their work on behalf of the community. All received individual and group awards for taking part in a wide range of emergency and public service episodes, including assisting in providing assistance during tactical alerts due to civil unrest. The Hams were also lauded for their work during the massive wildfires that plagued the region last fall.
In expressing support to the volunteers, a proclamation was issued. It said in part that together, local Ham Radio operators provided 7,986 hours of service to the agencies, and that the service provided by the Carson Station Disaster Communications Service volunteers has so far saved the taxpayers of Los Angeles County almost $320,000.
The Carson Station Disaster Communications Service is a volunteers group of Radio Amateurs who volunteer to provide communication links in the event that more traditional communication systems are disabled due to natural or manmade disasters. In addition to the 27 radio amateurs, 13 deputies, a firefighter, two station volunteers and two citizens were also recognized at the presentation event.
— ARNewsline from LA Sheriff’s Press Release
If you know a young Radio Amateur age 18 or younger who has done something very special in the Amateur Radio field, this is the time to consider nominating him or her for the 2008 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award. The Young Ham of the Year Award is presented annually to a licensed radio amateur (Ham) who is 18 years of age or younger, is a resident of the 50 United States, Canada provinces or Puerto Rico, and who has provided outstanding service to the nation, the community or the betterment of the state of the art in communications through the Amateur Radio hobby/service. All nominations must be received by 30 May 2008 on an official application and accompanied by verification materials. Applications forms are available for a self-addressed stamped envelope mailed to: The Young Ham of the Year Award, c/o Newsline, 28197 Robin Ave., Santa Clarita, CA 91350. The nominating applications are also available for electronic download or on-line submission from our special award website at: www.yhoty.org.
Here are some of the things you should be thinking about it in a nominee. First off, as noted above, the nominee must be age 18 or younger and a resident of the United States, Canada or Puerto Rico. He or she must hold a valid Amateur Radio service license issued by the United States FCC or Canadian telecommunications regulator, Industry Canada. Also, your nominee should be someone who has done something outstanding as an Amateur Radio operator. Perhaps it was something special he or she did for his community through the Amateur Radio service. Maybe it was some outstanding achievement that led to an improvement in Amateur Radio in his or her area. Or perhaps he or she was successful in recruiting a lot of new Hams. Whatever it was or is, we want to hear about it. If you’re looking at what makes a good candidate, we suggest you check out our special Young Ham of the Year website at www.yhoty.org and look at the credentials of past award winners.
Printable nominating forms and an on-line click-to-send form are available at www.yhoty.org. It’s very important that you, as a nominator, fill out the on-line or downloadable and printable application as required. If you’re sending it by way of the regular mail, please make sure it reaches us at Amateur Radio Newsline by 30 May 2008. That’s the deadline for all applications. In addition, we need as much documentation as you can give us so the committee can carefully evaluate each nominee. When we say documentation, we are talking about letters, e-mails, magazine articles, videos and other kinds of endorsements that would accompany the application. In the past, we’ve even had photos e-mailed in with some of the applications.
As in years past, the 2008 Young Ham of the Year will receive an expense paid trip to the Huntsville Hamfest in Alabama and a gift of Amateur Radio gear compliments of Vertex-Standard Corporation. Those are the folks who manufacture the famed Yaesu line of Ham Radio gear. And from our other primary corporate sponsor, CQ Magazine, the winner gets a week at Spacecamp Huntsville, where he or she can learn firsthand about man’s conquest of the final frontier.
But none of this can happen without you. Now is the time to get on line, go to www.yhoty.org and fill out that on-line nominating form or download a nominating form, print it and send it in. Either way, you and some worthy young Ham will be glad that you did.
— ARNewsline
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