Now you can access W1AW Morse code practice via ARRLWeb using RealAudio files. Visit http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/morse. html. A single click on a file name starts the practice. You’ll need RealAudio (available free at http://www.real.com) to listen to these files. The practice files include the same text used for W1AW’s regular code practice transmissions. The files are updated after W1AW broadcasts them. The Standard method is used for code speeds above 18 WPM. For code speeds below 18 WPM, Farnsworth method is used. The Web Morse practice follows the same format used by W1AW code practice transmissions.
The practice text comes from QST.
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NASA’s Pat Kilroy, WD8LAQ, and other Goddard Space Flight Center Starshine employees and Naval Research Lab Project Starshine members got a chance to visually spot the Starshine satellite shortly after it was released June 5 by the shuttle Discovery. Armed with some International Space Station sighting predictions he’d worked up, Kilroy and others gazed skyward from a Goddard parking lot in the early morning hours. “Patience and persistence paid off,” he said. The group saw Discovery first. Then, within a few degrees of the shuttle, “we observed a star flash from out of nowhere that got as bright as Venus is just after sunset. Starshine sighted!”
The mirror-covered satellite—which resembles a 1970s disco ball—is designed to catch the sun’s light and reflect it to Earth. The satellite’s 900 mirrors were polished by students. NASA has estimated that as many as 25,000 youngsters in elementary through high school will plot the satellite’s orbit and use their observations as part of their science and mathematics studies, as part of Project Starshine.
Hams are being asked to help out with Project Starshine. Students will need to record the exact time they see the satellite and measure the satellite’s right ascension and declination. They will have to use stopwatches synchronized with international time signals—radio stations WWV in Colorado and WWVH in Honolulu.
Since most students don’t own shortwave receivers, Project Starshine Director Gil Moore, N7YTK, has asked hams across the US offer their help with this volunteer, non- governmental project. Start by clicking on “Participating Schools” on Project Starshine’s Web site, http://www.azinet.com/starshine/index.html. Then, call a school to volunteer your services. Moore also suggests that schools find local hams to call—so you could be asked to help.
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The FCC has clarified that Amateur Radio applicants using the Universal Licensing System don’t have to provide a telephone number or e-mail address as long as they provide a valid US mailing address. But the Commission has yet to provide a convenient way for ULS electronic filers to get around having to supply a telephone number. The clarification was contained in a recent FCC order that addresses various issues for reconsideration in its ULS proceeding. The FCC says it considers it "reasonable" to request telephone numbers and e-mail addresses but that the data will be optional for hams.
As currently configured, the ULS still requires applicants to provide a telephone number in order to register, but not an e-mail address. An FCC spokesman told the ARRL recently that applicants lacking a telephone number could use a business telephone, the telephone number of a close friend or relative, or just fill in the field on the electronic form with zeros.
When the FCC implements the Universal Licensing System for the Amateur Service August 2, registrants will be required to supply a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN—typically your Social Security Number) in order to register and be asked to supply a telephone number. The paper FCC Form 610--being phased out in favor of the new Form 605--already requests a daytime telephone number. Applicants without Internet access can register on the ULS using a paper Form 605, available from the FCC.
The question of whether or not telephone numbers that have been provided to the ULS will be made part of the public licensee database is "still being reviewed," an FCC spokesperson said this week. Current information on the FCC Web site suggests that telephone numbers provided to the ULS will be available in the public ULS records.
ULS registration is required in order to receive FCC services in the future. To register, visit http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls/ and click on "TIN/Call Sign Registration."
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Ham radio will not become part of the FCC’s new Universal Licensing System until August 16. The FCC has postponed ULS deployment for the Amateur Service for two weeks while it deals with several issues raised over the past few weeks by Volunteer Examiner Coordinators and others. The ULS was to have gone into effect for hams starting August 2.
The FCC also said that any amateur licensee telephone numbers the FCC collects or already has collected will not be made available to the public.
Supplying a telephone number, fax number or e-mail address when registering for or using the ULS is optional.
The FCC will issue a Public Notice soon that will outline transition issues, filing instructions and other information.
The FCC already has warned that applicants should anticipate processing delays during the first couple of weeks the ULS is in effect. In addition, daily amateur database updates may not be posted to the Internet until all the kinks are worked out.
Registration in the ULS is required in order to receive FCC services in the future. Individuals eligible to hold a Social Security Number must provide this number to the FCC in order to be registered in the ULS. To register, visit http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/uls/ and click on “TIN/Call Sign Registration.” For more information and frequently asked questions about the impending ULS, visit http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/ulstext.html.
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The FCC’s top Amateur Radio enforcer, Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, says the Commission won’t be targeting clubs with multiple call signs unless the FCC has reason to believe that there’s been abuse of the licensing process. Clubs holding multiple call signs for reasonably legitimate purposes need not worry that the FCC will take back their call signs, he said.
“We’re only concerned about abuse of the licensing process,” Hollingsworth told the ARRL. “I’m only concerned about those who ‘work’ the system, eating up keying time with our processors with no apparent purpose other than to squirrel call signs or scarf up vanity call signs.” Hollingsworth has said that in an era of tight budgets and smaller staffs, the FCC needs to minimize its administrative workload that sometimes includes manually keying in information for amateur applications.
Hollingsworth concedes that the FCC rules place no upper limit on the number of club station call signs a club may hold.
Some trustees of clubs with multiple call signs for packet nodes or individual repeaters have expressed concerns that their call signs might be the targets of the FCC’s recent initiative to reduce what’s sometimes called call sign “warehousing” or “hoarding.”
Recently, the trustee of some three dozen club station call signs agreed to give up all but one of them. Hollingsworth also has inquired of several other individuals listed as responsible parties for multiple call signs— including several members of the same family in California—and has asked the licensees to justify the grants.
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The FCC wants to know who was the control operator and where he or she was when it visited the station of Glenn Baxter, K1MAN, in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, in mid- May and failed to find Baxter or anyone else on the premises. As FCC Attorney for Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, announced at the Dayton Hamvention, FCC engineers from the Commission’s Boston office unsuccessfully attempted to inspect Baxter’s station while it was on the air May 14 and again the following day. They reported that the station was transmitting, but facilities appeared to be locked and no one was around.
Hollingsworth wrote Baxter June 25 to formally inquire into the circumstances of the May visits. He also asked if K1MAN employed station automation equipment and if the station ever was remotely controlled.
The FCC says that during its first attempt to visit K1MAN, on the morning of May 14, 1999, K1MAN was transmitting on 3.975 MHz. FCC personnel say they were unable to find anyone—either at Baxter’s station at the tip of Long Point or at his nearby residence—and, according to Hollingsworth’s letter, “there were no vehicles on the premises.”
“The radio transmissions continued while the FCC personnel went to your residence at Point Road, but there was no one present there either,” Hollingsworth wrote. The next day while K1MAN was on the air, Hollingsworth wrote, “FCC personnel again attempted to inspect your station but there was no one present and there were no vehicles.”
In addition to the name, address, and telephone number of the control operator on those two occasions, the FCC also wants to find out where the control operator was and at what times, and on what frequencies, K1MAN transmitted on May 14 and 15, 1999.
Hollingsworth also asked Baxter to list the name, address and telephone number of all control operators of K1MAN during the hours of operation listed on Baxter’s Web site and in his daily transmissions. He also inquired if any portions of K1MAN transmissions automated, and, if so, to provide details and a copy of the control circuit.
In addition, Hollingsworth asked Baxter to list the programming schedule for K1MAN for the period of January 1, 1998 through June 1, 1999, “and provide the dates, times and frequencies,” as well as the name address, and telephone number of the control operator for each of those transmissions.
The FCC also wants to know if automated tape control devices were utilized at K1MAN during the period January 1, 1998 to June 1, 1999, and, if so, on what dates, times, and frequencies.
Hollingsworth’s letter also asks Baxter to list all dates, times and frequencies that K1MAN has transmitted without a control operator being present since the inception of the license term on October 17, 1995.
Finally, the FCC said it wants to know if K1MAN has been controlled remotely since the inception of the license term on October 17, 1995, and, if so, on what dates, times, frequencies. Hollingsworth’s letter also requested a “detailed schematic of the control circuit configuration.”
The FCC letter gave Baxter 30 days to provide the requested information.
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International Amateur Radio Permits (IARPs) for US Amateurs are being issued by the ARRL. The IARP permits US licensees to operate in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela without having to obtain a special license. The IARP is valid in any country that is a signatory to the CITEL Amateur Convention. The Class 1 IARP—available to Tech Plus and higher class licensees—carries all operating privileges. The Class 2 IARP—equivalent to the US Technician ticket—carries all privileges above 30 MHz. An IARP is not a license, but it certifies the existence of a license. Applicants must submit a formal IARP application from ARRLWeb (visit http://www.arrl.org/field/regulations/io/#iarp ) or the information the application requests, plus a photo ID, a copy of a current Amateur Radio license, a photo (from 1.0-inch to 1.5- inch square) and a $10 processing fee (for rush delivery add $10 for a total of $20) to ARRL-IARP, 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111. The IARP is valid for one year or until FCC license expiration, whichever comes first.
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