| May, 2007 |  |
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ARRL announces card checking program changes
The ARRL has announced some changes in the DXCC, WAS and VUCC card checking program rules. Effective immediately, the 10-year rule has been dropped for DXCC card checking. ARRL DXCC card checkers now have been authorized to check cards for current entities only, dating back to November 15, 1945. Card checkers still may not verify cards for 160-meter contacts nor cards confirming contacts with deleted entities. In addition, DXCC card checkers now may check applications for Worked All States Award (WAS) and VHF/UHF Century Club Award (VUCC), if they agree to do so. For more information, contact DXCC Manager Bill Moore, NC1L.
Attention All Amateurs ...
ARRL Offers Alternate Approach to “Regulation by Bandwidth”
In the wake of recent changes in the Part 97 Amateur Radio rules, the ARRL has revised its “regulation by bandwidth” proposals to match the new reality, avoid some unintended consequences and temper some of the controversy the original petition had aroused. In a November 2005 Petition for Rule Making (RM-11306), the League asked the FCC to establish a regulatory regime that would segment bands by necessary bandwidths ranging from 200 Hz to 100 kHz rather than by emission mode. The ARRL now is urging the FCC to adopt a “subset” of the rules contained in its original petition that largely affects only the amateur bands at 28 MHz and above.
Do not follow instructions in bogus e-mails
The ARRL is alerting members– and especially users of the ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service http://www.arrl.org/members-only/emailfwd.html
— about bogus e-mails that claim to be from the “arrl.net user support
team.” There is no such entity, and the messages do not originate with
ARRL but appear to be coming from outside the US. Recipients should not
follow the instructions in the e-mail, which reads, “We have
received reports that your e-mail account has been used to send a large
amount of unsolicited commercial email messages during this week. We
suspect that your computer had been infected by a recent virus and now
contains a hidden proxy server. We recommend you to follow our
instructions in order to keep your computer safe.” Following
the instructions will have the opposite effect, however, infecting your computer with the MyDoom Trojan worm and making it part of a spamming network. The League urges all members to invest in and use anti-virus software.
New digital communications email reflector set up
Amateurs interested in digital communications will be pleased
to hear that a new email reflector covering this area of the hobby has
recently been set up. The Yahoo Groups email reflector focuses on the
emerging world of digital amateur radio communications. It will be used
primarily to discuss the use of digital voice and data communication
techniques on the VHF and UHF bands. Technologies such as D-STAR, APCO
P25, packet radio, high speed multi media, Wi-Fi, PSK and FSK will be
covered. If you would like to join the group, please click here. On a
similar note, if you have written a paper on digital radio
communications, you might want to submit it for presentation at the
26th Annual ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference to be held
on 28 to 30 September in Connecticut, USA. The organisers of the
conference have just put out a call for papers. You do not need to
attend the event in order to have your paper published. The organisers
have also informed GB2RS that papers will be published exactly as
submitted and authors will retain all rights. The submission deadline
is 31 July 2007. Please send papers to Maty Weinberg at the ARRL, 225
Main St, Newington, Connecticut, 06111. You can also email submissions
to maty@arrl.org. [GB2RS]
Mark your calendars and plan to join us!
| May, 2007 | |
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