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ARRL, FCC, Department of Defense Review New Developments in PAVE PAWS Interference Mitigation
The FCC, ARRL representatives and agents of the various US Air Force units working on developing a plan to mitigate alleged interference from 70 cm ham radio repeaters to PAVE PAWS radar systems on both coasts met February 20 via conference call. The purpose of the conference was to review the status of the mitigation plans at both sites: the Massachusetts Military Reservation on Cape Cod and Beale AFB, north of Sacramento, California.
Thanks to the cooperation and assistance of the involved repeater owners on Cape Cod, ARRL Regulatory Branch Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, said, “I am pleased to be able to pass along that at this time that the Department of Defense has determined that the levels of harmful interference to the PAVE PAWS radar site on Cape Cod have been sufficiently reduced. As part of this determination, they are not rescheduling additional follow-up testing for that area until sometime in 2009.”
Henderson said that this decision doesn’t mean New England is back to pre-mitigation repeater operation: “Any mitigation steps that have been taken should remain in place. A repeater that has gone off the air should not be simply turned back on at its original power level - its previously determined mitigation standard still applies in order to protect the primary user from harmful interference.”
Henderson stressed that the entire process is ongoing. “The high degree of voluntary cooperation shown by the owners of Air Force-identified repeaters has helped demonstrate to the DoD that the amateur community takes its responsibility seriously. This should help us retain access to the band in the long run.”
Nominations Invited for 2008 Young Ham of the Year Award
Nominations are now being accepted for the 2008 Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year (YHOTY) Award. The award honors a licensee 18 years old or younger who has used ham radio to significantly contribute to the benefit of the Amateur Radio Service, to the state of the communications art, to the community or the nation. Any FCC licensed radio amateur, age 18 or younger, residing in the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii), Canada or Puerto Rico is eligible to be nominated for this award. Nominations and supporting materials must be submitted before May 30, 2008 on an official application.
2010 Olympics seeks amateur radio volunteers
The Vancouver Olympics Committee (VANOC) has given Radio Amateurs of Canada details of their search for ham radio volunteers to assist during the Olympic Winter Games (Feb. 12-28, 2010) and Paralympic Winter Games (March 12-21, 2010). Volunteers must have their own local accommodation in Greater Vancouver or Whistler areas.
GAREC-2008 in Friedrichshafen, Germany
The fourth Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Conference, GAREC- 2008, will take place on Thursday, 26, and Friday, 27 June 2008 in Friedrichshafen, Germany, in combination with HamRadio 2008 (27-29 June).
VP6DX breaks expedition records
Last month’s VP6DX Ducie Island DXpedition logged nearly 183,700 contacts. This included nearly 7,000 on top band and more than 10,000 using digital modes. They made an almost equal number of CW and SSB contacts at around 87,000 each. By the time the south Pacific operation finished on 27 February, the group had broken several records. One was for the largest number of contacts made by any radio expedition. Further detailed information is on the web at www.vp6dx.com
| April, 2008 | |
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