OFFICERS FOR 1977 ELECTED AT DECEMBER MEETING

The slate of officers, as prepared by the Nominating Committee, was presented to the membership at the general meeting of December 8. Since there were no further nominations from the floor, the proposed slate was elected by voice vote from the floor. (The Secretary breathed a sigh of relief, because if others had been nominated, he would have had to resort to a mail ballot of all members. That's over 100 ballots to distribute, receive, and count!)

The officers elected were:

President: Jim Lumsden, WA6MYJ
Vice-President: Dick Piety, K6SVP
Secretary: Jack Patzold
Treasurer: Ron Ploszaj, WA6TPW

Three additional offices and the above make up the Board of Directors. The additional offices are Trustee, Emergency Communications Manager (both of whom are yet to be appointed by the new administration) and the Director-at-Large, who is normally the immediate past president. The new officers will be installed at the January meeting, after which the additional directors will be announced.

These gentlemen are to be congratulated on their election, and all members should pledge their support to them. They have an important and tough job to do for the next year. Jim in particular will need all the support we can give him, as he will be at Cape Kennedy for nearly half the year supporting the MJS77 launch. We expect to keep schedules with him there, in true amateur radio spirit, and keep him informed as to club progress thereby. And he will have his trusty spokesman here at JPL in the form of Dick Piety.

Let's get started. Send your $2 dues for 1977 to Ron Ploszaj, 230-136 for starters; then drop a note or make a phone call to Jim Lumsden (233-103, X 6726) and tell him how you might be better served by the club that you just joined. Thanks and let's make '77 even better than '76!

SIX MEMBERS CITED FOR OUTSTANDING CLUB SERVICE

At the December meeting, President Brokl presented awards to six club members in recognition of outstanding service to the club in 1976. "Certificates of Recognition" went to Dick Piety, K6SVP, Facilities, Norm Chalfin, K6PGX, Photographer; Nash Williams, W6HCD, Program Chairman; and Ralph West, WB6YMF, Secretary. A "Board of Directors Certificate of Recognition" was presented to your humbled editor, Merv MacMedan, W6IUV, for the Newsletter. And the "President's Award" was presented to Jim Lumsden, WA6MYJ, for his leadership of the N6V activity. According to Stan, the reason for the awards was to make sure that everyone is aware of the effort that these people put into their work for the club and that while there is no pay for it, there is visible proof that it is appreciated. Perhaps, it may even help convince others that volunteering for a task isn't all that bad after all! Congratulations!

AMATEUR RADIO EXHIBIT IN LIBRARY

A display, "Hams in Space Communications" has been set up in the Library in Bldg. 111. Club members and others interested are urged to visit the Library during January, February, and March. The display includes amateur spacecraft models, photos, and other memorabilia. [K6PGX]

CALL FOR CODE TAPES TO REPORT IN

There are several sets of code tapes outstanding which were obtained from Norm Chalfin, Education Committee Chairman, by persons on Lab. It would be appreciated if those now holding such tapes would call Norm at X 6833 indicating if they still want to hold them. [K6PGX]

DECEMBER BOARD MEETING MINUTES

As the December Board Meeting would have interfered with useful work on December 22 (Christmas parties in particular) it was not held; consequently we have no minutes to print and I can use this space to wish everyone a Happy New Year. [W6IUV]

OOOOOOOPS!

In last month's article about N6V, it is stated on Page 2 that N6V worked most of the guys on 2m FM in the Ensenada Radio Club. It appears that, at times, N6V operators became somewhat euphoric and perhaps stretched a point. In this case, it was the Tijuana Radio Club we worked, which is quite a bit closer than Ensenada! Our apologies to the TRC and thanks to Nash Williams for bringing it to our attention.

CONGRATULATIONS to K6SVP on passing his Advanced Class Exam on Dec. 15. Amazing how SSTV can motivate!

NEW AMATEUR BANDS PROPOSED FOR WARC-79

The FCC has issued its Third Notice of Inquiry concerning the 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference detailing the new amateur frequency allocations to be asked for. The band-by-band breakdown is as follows:

1600 Meters: A new band, 160-190 kHz.
160 Meters: 1750-1800 kHz*; 1800-1900 kHz.
  (Note that the old 1900-2000 kHz is lost.)
80 Meters: 3500-3900 kHz; 3900-4000 kHz*
40 Meters: 6950-7100 kHz; 7100-7300 kHz*
20 Meters: 13950-14400 kHz.
15 Meters: 20700-21200 kHz.
10 Meters: 28000-29700 kHz. (No change)
6 Meters: 50 - 54 MHz. (No change)
2 Meters: 144 - 148 MHz. (No change)
1-¼ Meters: 220 - 225 MHz*
3/4 Meter: 420 - 450 MHz*
3/8 Meter: A new band, 902-928 MHz*

Above 1 GHz, all the bands we presently have are included in the proposal along with specific subbands for the Amateur Satellite Service.

* = Shared with other services. In the proposal, the 220 MHz band would be shared with radio-location and land mobile services. This could open the door for allocation to Class E CB!

Initial reaction to the Amateur Radio portions of the 280-page document is that we could have done a lot worse. Though none of the three new HF bands the WARC working group had proposed made it into the Notice, the only band in which we'd lose some spectrum is 160. 40, 20 and 15 all gain spectrum, and 400 exclusive kHz on 80 would be a nice bonus, as would the new 160 kHz and 900 MHz bands.

Comments on the Notice of Inquiry must be filed by January 31 and Reply Comments by February 21 - far less time than had been expected. Since the book-sized document is not available in sufficient quantities for general distribution, ARRL is offering an abstract covering the amateur portions with suggestions as to appropriate comments - - SASE with 24¢ postage will bring you a copy. Club members should note that our Trustee and ARRL Vice Director, Jay Holladay, W6EJJ, has both the abstract and the original FCC document if you wish to look them over, but copies are out of the question.

Dick Baldwin, ARRL General Manager, has issued some guidelines for those drafting comments on the proposal. He says that we should comment favorably in areas where we agree with the proposal, not just omit mention. This is necessary because other services will probably be unhappy seeing our service make gains and will seek to have those positions modified.

Dick believes that the 15-meter band is unduly distorted from what it has been in the past, with attendant massive equipment changes required to allow existing equipment to be used there. He feels it would be worth giving up the additional 50 kHz proposed by the FCC to keep the band as it is now. FCC's position is that the change was needed to accommodate requirements of the Maritime Mobile Service. Their band could, as an alternative, suggests Dick, be moved to 20650-21O0O kHz.

A third comment is that adequate attention was not given to the original request for new Amateur bands at 10, 18 and 24 MHz. Even a narrow band at each of these frequencies would help maintain continuous contacts with certain areas of the world during times of changing conditions. Sharing with other fixed services is not an unacceptable position, because one of the guidelines for these new allocations is that they must support our communication needs from 1980 to the year 2000. By then, we would expect most of the fixed services to be on cables or satellites, leaving these bands essentially ours; but on the other hand, the frequencies will be needed to support growing numbers of hams, which are expected to increase from 750,000 in 1975 to 1,000,000 in 1980 and to six million by 2000.

Baldwin also makes the point that the amateur bands have served as a reservoir of frequencies available to the government during times of national emergency as in World War II. The maintenance of our present bands, plus the new bands at 10, 18, and 24 MHz would be deposited in the "bank."

All club members are requested to consider what this proposal means to them and then write their comments to the FCC on the subject before January 31. For conference preparations, FCC requires an original and 19 copies to be provided. It would be appreciated if members would also send a copy of their submittal to Jay Holladay, Mail Stop 126-112, to help ARRL develop their filing to the FCC. This will be completed at the ARRL Board of Directors meeting, January 20-21. You may also pass along any other comments on matters you would like to have brought up at that meeting through Jay, who plans to attend, along with our Division Director, John Griggs, W6KW.

[Tnx to HR Report, ARRL, and W6EJJ on this one.]

MT. WILSON REPEATER RETURNS

WR6ABE, the Mt. Wilson repeater on 147.435/146.40 is returning to the air January 1 under the guise of WR6AMD. It has been off the air for a number of weeks while it and its management was overhauled in an effort to clean up some of the bad operating practices of users. Written rules and regulations have been distributed, and those not abiding by the rules are publicly chastised by being mentioned in a daily bulletin on the air; however, it is hoped that those unwittingly violating the rules will be advised by their peers on the air in a friendly manner. A booklet explaining the rules and philosophy of this wide-area coverage repeater is available from the WR6ABE/WR6AMD Control Group, 13135 Ventura Blvd, Suite 203, Studio City, Calif. 91604. We wish the new WR6AMD best wishes for a well-disciplined New Year!

BERRY COMES BACK

Emergency Communications Manager Glenn Berry, K6GHJ should be returning to his office by the time you read this. Glenn had surgery December 1 to remove a cancerous growth in his nose after radiation treatments were found to be ineffective last summer. They believe it is fully controlled now and Glenn should be as good as ever. Glad to have you back, OM!

WANTED:

Single band (40 meters) SSB transceiver, inexpensive. Paul Lecoq, K6KNA X 5517 or 213-794-5166.

****** DUES FOR '77 DUE! Happy New Year! *****



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