FEBRUARY MEETING
The February 14th meeting will feature guest speaker Gary Stilwell W6NJU, Southwestern Division Vice Director for the ARRL. Gary attended the recent ARRL Directors' meeting in Hartford, and will report on actions taken there. He will also discuss the Boards' concern over recent FCC regulatory rulings, and comment on other League matters as requested.
All members and guests are invited to attend. The meeting will start at Noon, in 238-543.
ARRL DIRECTORS CHALLENGE FCC
In a letter to all ARRL Affiliated Clubs, League President Harry J. Dannals has asked amateurs to band together to stop some disturbing trends showing up in the FCC.
" ... At the annual meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors, a major topic of discussion was the apparent trend by FCC toward progressively restrictive and unrealistic regulation governing amateur radio. Dockets 18803 (repeaters), 19245 (message traffic), 19162 (phone band suballocations) and 19555 (environmental protection) were cited as examples.
"Directors reported considerable adverse reaction among amateurs generally, with concern that such a philosophy could inhibit the desired growth, development and upgrading of capabilities and accomplishments of amateurs. Accordingly, the Board directed that a vigorous program be undertaken to seek more reasonable regulation of the amateur radio service. A copy of the enabling resolution is attached. (Ed. Note: See Page 2, this issue.)
" ... I request that you let me know (via Hq.) what are the views of your ,members toward this Board action. If there is general agreement, I also suggest that you point out the need for as many amateurs as possible to join and support ARRL, for if we are to be successful in accomplishing the objective of stemming this apparent trend to overly restrictive regulation, all amateurs must be united."
Sincerely yours,
Harry J. Dannals W2TUKWHEREAS, the highly developed radio communications technology existing in the world today is the direct outgrowth of contributions made by radio amateur enthusiasts over a period of more than 70 years; and
WHEREAS, the government of the United States including various administrative agencies, has traditionally followed the policy of permitting and encouraging the development and growth of the amateur radio service by adoption of only minimal regulations and broad general policies; and
WHEREAS, under the policy of minimal regulation the amateur radio service has developed to an extremely high level of proficiency and service to the nation in times of disaster and national emergency as well as in normal periods; and
WHEREAS, the Federal Communications Commission in recent months has adopted a number of amendments to its regulations and issued a number of interpretations of these and other regulations which evidence an abandonment of the policy of minimal and self regulation followed so successfully over the years, and has other proposed restrictive amendments under consideration which, if adopted, will further increase the level of governmental regulations; and
WHEREAS, these developments and trends are a matter of the greatest concern to amateurs throughout the nation and to the American Radio Relay League, the only nationwide membership organization representing active amateur radio licensees of all ages and interests; and
WHEREAS, a great number of amateurs, individually as well as through their local clubs affiliated with the League, have expressed deep concern over the apparent trend toward progressively restrictive and unilaterally-imposed regulations governing the Amateur Radio Service, and the potential inhibiting effect of this upon the orderly development of the Service as a public resource, as well as in carrying out the charter in Section 97.1 of the rules,
Now, therefore, BE IT RESOLVED, that the President and the General Manager are directed to undertake a vigorous program to seek reasonable and technically viable philosophies of regulation and interpretation, conferring at all necessary levels with appropriate Government departments and officials, and recommending to the Board of Directors courses of action which may be required to assure the continued availability of traditional latitudes and freedoms, and the full public service capabilities essential to the growth, improvement and usefulness of the amateur radio service.
- Adopted unanimously January 18, 1973, by the Board of Directors of the American Radio Relay League.
KNOW YOUR NEW OFFICERS
Our new slate of officers has had a chance to settle into their new duties and has had a chance to get acquainted with each other. Now is the time for the Club members to become acquainted with their officers. Ye olde Editor sent around a quickie questionnaire to all of them and here is a summary of what they answered. Incidentally, Marshall Fong, our new Secretary, has a touch of the London Flu and wasn't able to meet the press deadline; we'll catch him in the next issue.
PRESIDENT: Maurice A. Piroumian WA60PB
Maurice has been a licensed ham for three-years and a member of our Club for four years. He holds an Advanced ticket and is looking forward to getting his Extra rating as soon as he hurdles the code speed obstacle. He operates SSB on most of the lower bands, but wants to get back into CW for obvious reasons. His rig consists of the Drake line, a Heath SB-200 linear, an FT-101 for mobile QSO's, and a Monitorscope, Scanalyzer and phone patch. The antenna farm consists of a TH6DXX on a 65-ft telescopic tower, separate 80 and 40M inverted "V"s, a 4BTV vertical and a mobile all-band Swantenna.
WA60PB is a very active callsign on the air and he has WAS and WAC Certificates, and needs 8 more countries for a DXCC. He has also received an ARRL Public Service Award and a Polynesian Islands Diploma.
He is also a member of the La Crescenta Radio Club and a Life Member in the ARRL. Once Maurice became a ham, he literally yanked the rest of his family (XYL and two harmonics) into also going for their tickets; all were successful on the first try. There was a good reason for this, in that IOPB and crew often travel into the hinterlands on 4wheel drive, 30-50 miles from civilization, and all can use the rig in the truck to call for help if necessary.
"After becoming a ham," writes Maurice, "other interests developed, such as helping people during emergencies, phone patching, and satellite communications, all rewarding activities. I made my family get licenses so that when the children are away from home, we will still be able to talk to each other."
When asked what his plans are for the Club in the coming year, he replied, "Reshape the Club by active functions and, most important of all, improve communications between the Club Board of Directors and the members."
Maurice has been with JPL for 17 years and is a member of the Reliability Programs Section, in the QA & R Division, presently assigned as a Reliability Engineer on the Viking Orbiter effort.
VICE PRESIDENT: Richard L. (Dick) Ulrich K6KCY
Dick has been a licensed ham for 19 years and a member of our Club since its reorganization in 1968. During that time with the Club, he has held the office of Treasurer for three consecutive terms. Dick holds a Technician rating, and lists FM as his favorite mode of operating, followed by RTTY and AMSAT.
His rigs are multitudinous, including many Motorola FM's, a Trio TR2200, an R-390, a TDQ, Heath HX-20, some TTY gear (60 & 100 wpm) and "much test equipment." His antenna farm includes a J-Pole, colinear, ground planes, doublet 80-10 for MARS, and 10 elements on 2M.
He was active in the testing and setup of OSCAR 6 and has received a number of AMSAT Participation Awards, in addition to being active in the Crescenta Valley Radio Club, Santa Clarita Valley RC, AMSAT, MARS and RACES.
Dick's main enjoyment in hamming is experimentation, with just a little bit of operating thrown in. He enjoys helping others with their electronics problems and rig tune-ups, using his extensive collection of test gear; he calls it Ila reasonably complete setup," which may well be typical of his understatements.
As Club VP, Dick would like to try to get the Club interested in numerous projects, such as walkie-talkies, operating aids, and other useful items for your shack.
Dick has been with JPL for 13 years and is responsible for all of the electronic maintenance, construction and design for JPL's Table Mountain Observatory, and the Infrared Interferometry Project at McDonald Observatory, in Ft. Davis, Texas.
TREASURER Merrill Burnett K6BER
Merrill has been licensed for 18 years and a member of our Club for about one year. As a Technician, he expresses no favorite mode of operation, opting for all equally. He maintains that he has not been on the air of late, but is in the process of tuning up an old Motorola rig for 2M FM. As such his farm is in the throes of starting to grow elements and booms.
His interest in electronics led him into ham radio, and he likes to home brew most of his equipment. He was active as a former Civil Defense Officer in the Santa Monica Radio Communications Section. As Treasurer for our Club, Merrill promises to keep expenses low and require adequate justification before any approval of expenditures.
Merrill has been with JPL for about 18 months and is a member of the Reliability Programs Section, in the QA & R Division.
NOVICE LICENSE INSTRUCTION
While the JPL Amateur Radio Club is not currently giving licensing classes, those members desiring to obtain training in code and theory for their Novice Class License are invited to attend the classes being conducted by the Pasadena Radio Club (W6KA). This training is available to anyone with a sincere interest in obtaining their license and membership in the PRC is not necessary.
Classes are held every Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. (except the third Tuesday of the month, when the Pasadena Radio Club meets) at Leonard Thomas' Photo Studio, 2408 N. Lake Ave, Altadena. Leonard (who is WB6UWA) may be contacted for more information at 798-2217 (office) or 797- 1322 (home).
de Merv, W61UV
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If communication is talk, and a gap is an opening, then the communication gap is when you talk to someone with a hole in his head.
M. Habernickel, Jr.
. . . . . . . . . .AMSAT/OSCAR-6 ORBITAL PASSES OVER L.A.
Norm Chalfin K6PGX has programmed a local computer to yield data on all of the orbital passes of OSCAR-6 over the L.A. area for the next several months. These include both north-south, and vice versa. Norm has supplied your Editor-in-Grief with a copy of this printout. It is a bit too voluminous to reproduce here, so if you are curious as to when to look for the spacecraft, call 2475 for the latest pass information.
FOR SALE
FM 2 Meter Amplifier, 10 watts in-55 out. Only 60 days old. New cost $105; will sell for $75.
Jess Ball, X5726Drake 2NT, 75 W, xtal control, VFO, full break-in CW, mint condition; $100.
Pete Lyman X6310WANTED
Loan of alignment wrench for MIL Sig Gen TS-413 (mfd by Stamford Electronics about 1954), or description of wrench or trimmers used so that wrench can be located. Jack Bobrow X3591
Jet Propulsion Laboratory Amateur Radio Club
Attn: Bill Wood, Editor, Mail Stop DSCC-33
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena, CA 91109-8099
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