SOLID COPY  The Monthly Newsletter of the   Monongalia Wireless Association

WNPB TV has requested that the Monongalia Wireless Association make a donation to their campaign for new cameras. In this campaign they are trying to raise $150,000 in order to receive matching funds of $150,000 from the federal government. They have currently raise around $70,000. Their deadline to raise this money is February 28, 1997. As most of you are aware, the antennas and equipment for our repeater(s) are located at the WNPB tower site at Sand Springs.

"The question is do we want to support this and if so, how. Some of the ideas that have been suggested are:

 1. Do nothing. If the station has laid off the floor director and cameraman, they don't need a new camera.

 2. Give a straight cash donation of some amount the members perceive as correct.

 3. Match the funds the members want to contribute up to a cap of so many dollars as agreed upon by the membership.

 4. Any other way the membership may want.

 This topic will be discussed at the meeting on February 18, 1997."

 In the meantime, if you would like to make a donation on behalf of MWA, please send your contribution by February 13 or bring to the meeting on February 18. Make checks payable to MWA with a notation for WNPB Camera Fund.

Forward to:
 Monongalia Wireless Association
 PO Box 4263
 Morgantown, WV 26504
 

MWA is hosting the State Radio Council Meeting Saturday, March 8, 1997. The meeting will be held at Western Sizzlen in Westover. The meeting will start at approximately 1:00 P.M. Mark your calendar for this event.
 

On Feb. 6, 1997 the HF group met at KX2A's QTH; and 750 lbs. of party mix were consumed. K3JT moved a bunch of stuff, found the rig underneath, and worked 11 European and two Asian stations on 40 meters, using the big, saggy, yagi. KB8VVT explained, in words of one syllable, how everything mechanical works.

Our next gathering will be at N8TE's place on Wednesday, March 5; contact him to get a map and visa to get to his location.

The meeting after that will be at W8PT, on Sunday, April 6, for an antenna raising.

 73's , Jan KX2A

 ZCZC AS03

 QST de W1AW

 Space Bulletin 003 ARLS003

 >From ARRL Headquarters

 Newington, CT January 31, 1997

 To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS003

 ARLS003 Permission granted for Linenger to ham it up from Mir

 US ham-Astronaut Jerry Linenger, KC5HBR, has been granted permission for general QSOs and scheduled school radio contacts with unlicensed students and a control operator.

Getting permission involved approval by authorities in the US,

 Russia and Germany. Miles Mann, WF1F, Director of Educational Services for the Mir International Amateur Radio Experiment (MIREX), and Dave Larsen, N6CO, director of the MIREX board, signed an agreement on behalf of MIREX, while Sergei Samburov, RV3DR, chief of the Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department, signed for the Mir Amateur Radio Experiment (MAREX), and Joerg Hahn, DL3LUM, international coordinator, signed for the German Space Amateur Funk Experiment (SAFEX) group, which provided the ham equipment aboard Mir.

 The FCC also has given approval for Linenger (and for Astronaut Colin ''Michael'' Foale, KC5UAC--who will take Linenger's place in May) for general QSOs and third-party traffic with schools, family and friends. Linenger recently arrived on Mir via STS-81.

 According to Mann, applications for US school QSOs with cosmonauts are approved by MIREX, based on specific guidelines, before being sent on to Samburov and SAFEX. ''The Mir crews have busy work schedules, but our guidelines allow us to arrange--months in advance--school QSOs during crew off hours,'' he explained. The Cosmonaut Amateur Radio Department gives final approval for all QSOs and reserves the right to cancel at any time. Mir's daily experiments always have first priority over ham radio.

 Because Mir crews now include a US astronaut, SAREX and MIREX have begun to work together. Currently the SAREX program has about 80 schools on its waiting list. To get a Mir school QSO application, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to Educational Activities Department, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington CT 06111.

 A word on random QSOs with the Mir space station: Mir crews make random voice QSOs only during off hours. Do not ask the crew to schedule QSOs, as they do not have the long-term calendar. The 2-meter Mir frequencies recently were changed: The uplink frequency is 145.200 MHz and the downlink is 145.800 MHz. This change resulted from a recommendation from IARU Region 1 (Europe). Please do not ask the crew about it, as the crew does not set policy on frequencies.

ARRL members are being invited to add their ideas, comments and recommendations to those of the ARRL WRC-99 Planning Committee, which has suggested sweeping--and potentially controversial--changes to the Amateur Radio licensing structure in the US. On the table for open discussion and debate are proposals that include:

* elimination of the Novice license

* creation of a new Intermediate license to replace the Technician Plus

* expanded HF privileges for Intermediate licensees, including phone on 160, 75 and 15 meters

* a 10-wpm General CW test (with more stringent testing standards for all CW exams)

* expanded phone privileges for General-class and higher licensees

 Details of the plan, discussed during the recent ARRL Board of Directors meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, will appear in March QST. The Board says it seeks comments from members to ensure that before any plan goes forward, it enjoys broad support from the amateur community. The Board will not act on the issue at least until its July meeting.

 After its research revealed that as many as three Novices in four are inactive, the committee concluded that the Novice license is no longer useful. Although the committee would end the Novice license, its plan provides current Novices with an easy means to upgrade (via an open-book test) to the new Intermediate class license, which would replace the current

Technician Plus. All present Tech Plus licensees would become Intermediate licensees. The Basic license would supplant the Technician license--now the hobby's most-popular entry-level ticket--with no changes in privileges. In addition, the committee's plan would phase out the current Novice and Tech Plus bands on 80, 40 and 15 meters, and replace them with new Intermediate-class allocations. The committee's consensus plan for Intermediate-class licensees calls for new CW bands on 80, 40 and 15 meters starting 25 kHz up from the lower band edge, digital and phone-band privileges on 75 and 15 meters and a 50-kHz phone or CW segment at the top end of 160 meters, plus expanded Novice and Tech Plus CW and phone allocations on 10 meters.

 According to the proposal, Intermediate CW bands would be 3525 to 3700 kHz, 7025 to 7050 kHz, 21025 to 21150 kHz and 28050 to 28300 kHz. Digital operation was suggested for 3600 to 3625, 21100 to 21125 and 28100 to 28189 kHz. Phone privileges would include 1950 to 2000, 3900 to 4000, 21350 to 21450, SSB from 28300 to 28500 and FM from 29500 to 29700 kHz. Transmitter power for Intermediate-class licensees would be limited to 200 W PEP output (other licensees using these bands would not be limited to 200 W, however).

 General-class and higher amateurs also would benefit from the plan, if it's adopted according to the committee's outlines. General-class hams would get additional phone privileges 3800 to 3850, 7200 to 7225, and 21250 to 21300 kHz; Advanced-class hams would add 3725 to 3775, 7125 to 7150 and 21175 to 21225 kHz; Extra-class hams would also have 3700 to 3750, 7125 to 7150 and 21150 to 21200 kHz.

 With the exception of 40 meters, where Novice and Tech Plus licensees already have privileges, the committee suggested no changes on the hobby's narrowest and most crowded bands--including 20 meters and the narrow WARC bands at 30, 17 and 12 meters.

 The Intermediate CW test would be 5 words per minute (the same as the current Tech Plus requirement), but the committee proposed that the General class CW requirement be set at 10 wpm. There still would be no additional CW exam for the Advanced ticket, nor would there be any change in the 20-wpm requirement for the Extra. Exams for all classes would include a return to a sending test and the requirement for one minute of solid copy during a five-minute test--instead of the current method that tests on the content of the CW text.

 Right now, these major changes are only in the talking stage. "Let us be very clear about this," said ARRL Executive Vice President David Sumner, K1ZZ, who characterized the committee's proposals as a starting point for discussion, not a done deal. "The changes are not ARRL policy; nothing has been proposed to, or by, the FCC, and the ARRL Board is committed to making no decision before its July 1997 meeting." Sumner said there is no timetable to complete the process. Only after there is an opportunity for in-depth consideration and discussion by the membership will the ARRL Board consider taking the next step--to approach the FCC with a rulemaking proposal--a process that automatically invites additional comments and suggestions.

 Between the time they receive March QST and May, members are asked to voice their opinions on the committee's suggestions to their directors, whose postal and e-mail addresses are listed on page 10 of QST. All suggestions and comments--positive and negative--are welcome.

 The ARRL Letter
 Vol. 16, No. 5
 January 31, 1997
 
 

TESTING SESSIONS The next VE test session sponsored by MWA will be on Thursday, February 27, at 7 pm in the Engineering Sciences Building at WVU.
February 27, 1997   June 25, 1997	April 30, 1997
For additional information contact Jan Ditzian (KX2A) via one of the following methods.   Telephone: 412-324-9160   Packet: @ W8SP   E-Mail: DITZIAN@GREENEPA.NET   If you are planning to attend one of the sessions, please contact Jan prior to the testing date so the VE team can properly prepare for the exams.

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR If you have articles for SOLID COPY please contact me via any of the following methods:   on packet at W8SP   by mail at  Rt 3, Box 421   Morgantown, WV 26505   via telephone (304) 296-8823.   via E-Mail:   Norene_Arnold@wnpb.wvnet.edu   Articles for the March 1997 issue of SOLID COPY are due to me by Tuesday, March 4, 1997.

Copyright 1997 by the Monongalia Wireless Association. Material published herein is the opinion of the indicated authors and not necessarily the Monongalia Wireless Association. Permission is granted to reproduce materials herein in whole or in part provided credit is given to both author and to SOLID COPY.
 

The February meeting of MWA will be Tuesday, February 18, 1997 at 7:30 PM in the Engineering Sciences Building. The topic will be Amateur Radio and the Law.