*************** The ARRL Letter Vol. 23, No. 30 July 30, 2004 *************** IN THIS EDITION: * +BPL to bite the dust in Penn Yan, New York * +League asks FCC to clarify response to BPL complaint * +Echo is on! * +VECs mull question pools and restructuring * +Fires keep Nevada ARES/RACES volunteers hopping * +Time is tight for casual hamming by ISS crew * Solar Update * IN BRIEF: This weekend on the radio ARRL Certification and Continuing Education course registration Amateur Radio Emergency Communications course registration NARTE offering EMC seminar in September +California Historical Radio Society obtains late ARRL director's call sign +Spoofing generates new round of spurious arrl.net e-mail messages +Available on ARRL Audio News =========================================================== ==>BROADBAND PROVIDER TO DROP BPL IN NEW YORK TRIAL COMMUNITY The broadband provider that's been testing BPL in the Village of Penn Yan, New York, reportedly plans to "move away" from that technology. The Western New York community of some 5000 residents has been considering various proposals with Data Ventures (DVI) to offer broadband service. A BPL trial has been underway in Penn Yan for several months. The village reportedly would get 10 percent of the generated revenue. According to an article in the July 28 edition of the Finger Lakes Times Online, DVI now is proposing to employ wireless mesh "WiFi" technology instead of BPL. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, congratulated Penn Yan Mayor Douglas G. Marchionda Jr and DVI for going with wireless broadband instead of BPL. "Not only will your citizens receive better service, but a serious radio spectrum pollution problem has been averted as well," Sumner said in a fax to Marchionda and to DVI CEO Marc Burling. "We hope that other communities will be able to profit from your experience." Sumner raised the issue of interference complaints from the Penn Yan BPL trial with Marchionda last April. The Finger Lakes Times report quotes Burling as saying that his company didn't feel BPL was "commercially deployable." He also cited issues with the BPL trial including security concerns and interference--which will not be an issue with the wireless system. Burling told ARRL that the Penn Yan BPL system remains on line but would be shut down once DVI starts deploying its wireless system. As for BPL, "We are going to sit back and wait for an official ruling from the FCC and go from there," Burling added. Penn Yan already has rejected two DVI proposals to bring high-speed Internet service to the community, the newspaper said. Village officials reportedly met again with DVI representatives this week. DVI is partnering with Nortel to offer the wireless service. In a March 23 article "In This Power Play, High-Wire Act Riles Ham-Radio Fans," Wall Street Journal reporter Ken Brown described a "firestorm" of protest from amateurs when Penn Yan approved the BPL test plan. ARRL also has learned that Energy East--a cooperative of New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric--decided against deploying BPL in their Western New York service area. Energy East based its decision in large part on the high levels of radio frequency interference an engineer and company officials observed during a visit to the Penn Yan field trial. On July 29, Grand Haven, Michigan, announced that it had become the first community in the US to deploy a WiFi network <http://www.ottawawireless.net/about-us/press-room.html> that blankets the city and up to 15 miles off shore in Lake Michigan with broadband Internet access. For more information on BPL, visit the "Broadband Over Power Line (BPL) and Amateur Radio" <http://www.arrl.org/bpl/> page on the ARRL Web site. ==>ARRL SEEKS CLARIFICATION OF FCC RESPONSE TO BPL INTERFERENCE COMPLAINT The ARRL wants the FCC to further explain its recent response to a North Carolina amateur's complaint of BPL interference. FCC Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) Deputy Chief Bruce A. Franca replied July 22 to an April 27 BPL interference complaint from Thomas A. Brown, N4TAB, of Wake Forest. Brown had complained of BPL interference to his amateur HF mobile station emanating from a Progress Energy Corp (PEC) BPL field trial in the Raleigh area. In his letter, copied to ARRL, Franca said an on-site investigation had concluded that PEC's BPL trial "is in compliance" with FCC rules and that the company's ham band notching efforts "are effective" to avoid the potential for harmful interference. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, however, cited evidence to the contrary. "It is not at all clear that the tests and measurements taken by the FCC . . . established the absence of harmful interference to licensed stations," Sumner responded July 22. He said the League would like the OET to make its test report available to the general public or at least to the League for technical review and comment. The ARRL also wants to know what steps PEC took between April 27 and June 28--when the FCC began its testing--to address interference complaints from Brown and several other radio amateurs. The FCC defines as "harmful" any interference that "seriously degrades, obstructs or repeatedly interrupts a radiocommunication service operating in accordance with the Radio Regulations." According to Franca, FCC personnel "undertook extensive testing and measurements" of the PEC BPL system between June 28 and July 2. The complainant--Brown--says the FCC delegation never contacted him while it was in North Carolina. Franca says FCC measurements indicated notch depths averaging 24 dB below Part 15 emission limits, which he characterized as "sufficient to eliminate any signals that would be deemed capable of causing harmful interference, including interference to amateur operations." Franca maintained that "in no instances" were signal levels high enough to "cause serious degradation, obstruction, or repeated interruption" of amateur mobile or fixed communications. He conceded, however, that notching on 10 meters was somewhat less effective at the low end of the band and said the FCC would instruct PEC and its partner, Amperion, to widen its notch there. Sumner noted that the Part 15 device operators "must eliminate all harmful interference, and therefore in some cases must achieve more--in certain cases, considerably more--than a 24 dB reduction in order to be in compliance." He also cited recent reports from amateurs in the area indicating that strong BPL interference continues in parts of the PEC trial zone. Sumner told Franca that amateurs in the Raleigh area on July 17 and again July 22 monitored a BPL signal "at full strength and causing harmful interference" from 14.290 to 14.350 MHz. "Harmful interference" also was reported in the first 100 kHz of 15 meters as well as on the WWV/WWVH frequencies of 15.000 and 20.000 MHz and on several international broadcasting bands. "Even in the notched bands," Sumner said, "the interference was still evident on ordinary amateur equipment." He said it's clear to ARRL that the system's Holland Church Road site--where the most recent amateur measurements were taken--is in violation of Part 15. For his part, Brown--an engineer with considerable RF experience--said he was glad the FCC finally took some action but found some of Franca's assertions "very troubling." He told ARRL that his 14-page complaint cited interference "sufficient to mask a weak signal," although it did not register on his S meter. An active Amateur Radio Emergency Service District Emergency Coordinator, Brown said it's not unusual to have to copy similarly weak signals during an HF emergency net. "I suspect the principal reason for their coming down here was to say they've actually done something," Brown commented. He also worried that the FCC was attempting to define a standard of "acceptable interference" within the framework of what constitutes "harmful interference." "If it interferes, it interferes," he maintained. Sumner also requested that the FCC clarify some additional aspects of its North Carolina testing and measurement activities. "Until these points can be clarified," he concluded, "we trust that the Commission will not permit its conclusion to be erroneously represented as having given the Progress Energy trials a 'clean bill of health.'" ==>AMSAT "ECHO" SATELLITE OPENS FOR FM VOICE TRIAL RUN AMSAT-NA's new "Echo" satellite (AO-51) has been turned on for general use in FM repeat mode for a trial period of about three weeks. During that time, command stations on Earth will monitor AO-51's power budget and adjust the UHF Transmitter B (TX B) power as needed for good battery management. They'll also be watching the AMSAT Bulletin Board e-mail reflector, amsat-bb@amsat.org, for reports of how Echo is working. "We are most interested in hearing about how well Echo hears you and how well you hear it," said the Echo Command Team--Jim White, WD0E, and Mike Kingery, KE4AZN--in an AMSAT bulletin. White and Kingery note that this is a trial period of the FM voice repeater. The digital portion of Echo is not yet open for use. AMSAT Vice President for User Services Bruce Paige, KK5DO, says reports of successful QSOs on Echo's first day of operation came from all over the world, including the US, Brazil, New Zealand and Germany. A Russian Dnepr LV rocket carried AO-51 and several other payloads into orbit June 29 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The 10-inch-square microsat, circling some 800 km above Earth in a sun-synchronous orbit, will permit voice communication using handheld transceivers. The digital transponder and the store-and-forward BBS, are not yet open for general use. Initially, the AO-51 downlink transmitter was running at about 0.5 W. At that power level, AMSAT says, Earth stations will need a small directional antenna to hear it. If onboard power permits, ground controllers will slowly increase the transmitter's output during the trial period. The Echo FM voice uplink frequency is 145.920 MHz, and the downlink is 435.300 MHz. The downlink transmitter will come on when it hears an uplink signal with a 67 Hz CTCSS (PL) tone for about 1 second, and it will stay on for 10 seconds after that signal goes away. "This operation is just like a terrestrial FM repeater with a 1 second 'kerchunk' filter and a 10 second hang time," AMSAT noted. Transmitter A (TX A), now sending telemetry, generally will continue to operate on 435.150 MHz. AMSAT points out that Echo, which launched June 29, is still "wobbling a great deal," so the downlink polarization sense will vary. The Echo Command Team says it expects Echo will be heavily used during the first few days of the trial period. "It is good amateur practice and common courtesy to let everyone have a chance," they said. "Echo will hear you as well as or better than any previous amateur FM repeater satellite." With hundreds of stations trying out AO-51, ground controllers say they expect the transmitter will be on continuously when the spacecraft is over populated areas. The Echo satellite project is still some $8000 short of the $110,000 that was needed to launch the spacecraft. AMSAT guaranteed the full fare by borrowing from its dedicated funds, which now must be repaid. AMSAT--a 501(c)(3) organization--welcomes additional donations to bridge the funding gap. Visit the AMSAT AO-Echo Web page for additional details.--AMSAT News Service ==>VOLUNTEER EXAMINER COORDINATORS DISCUSS QUESTION POOLS, RESTRUCTURING The size, scope and comprehension level of Amateur Radio examination questions occupied much of the discussion as 11 of the nation's 14 Volunteer Examiner coordinators gathered this month in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. But those attending the National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (NCVEC) annual meeting July 23 reached no firm conclusions as they await FCC action on Amateur Radio restructuring. The FCC's Bill Cross, W3TN, told the VECs that the Commission--with help from some law school interns--is reviewing the approximately 6000 comments filed on 18 petitions addressing the Morse code as an exam element and Amateur Radio restructuring. Cross informed the VECs that a decision on restructuring or the Morse code issue is not imminent. "He indicated that some time will be necessary to review all the comments to glean some consensus on the number of license classes, whether or not to retain Morse code as a licensing requirement for HF operation, the proposed auto-upgrading of certain license classes and what to call any new beginner's license," said ARRL VEC Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ. FCC Special Counsel for Enforcement Riley Hollingsworth told the VECs he's "really aggravated" to still be dealing with enforcement issues resulting from several 1999 examination sessions in Yucaipa, California "where VEs apparently sold licenses." The situation occurred, Hollingsworth said, because "VEC management was asleep at the wheel." "It was a failure of imagination--a failure to think on the part of the manager about what he was there for in the first place," said Hollingsworth--borrowing a phrase from the recent 9/11 Commission report. In the Yucaipa case, he said, several volunteer examiners signed off on 250 examinations in a 26-month period. Following a 2000 FCC audit into exam sessions in Puerto Rico, Hollingsworth said, the FCC recalled 100 applicants for retesting, and only one showed up. Although Hollingsworth did not identify the VEC, both the Yucaipa and Puerto Rico cases involved the W5YI VEC, which referred the California exam session irregularities to the FCC after investigating on its own. In Puerto Rico, the W5YI VEC discontinued the services of all Puerto Rico VEs but those associated with the Arecibo Observatory Amateur Radio Club after irregularities came to light there. "I can tell you that so far I have been a fan of the VEC program," Hollingsworth said. "But if we have one more case of the magnitude of the Puerto Rico or Yucaipa cases, that's going to change fast." He pointed out that the FCC does not have to accept the services of any given VEC, and he said if any VECs are uncomfortable with taking responsibility for oversight, following up and random reviews of their test sessions, they can stop being VECs. "You have an obligation to remain awake at the wheel, and the point is not how fast or easily you can do your job, but how well you can do it." He said today's applicants will determine the character of the Amateur Radio Service in the future. "If your own VEs are running a license factory right in front of you, we are going to hold you responsible." Hollingsworth concluded by saying that he expects the VECs to "add integrity to the process" and be vigilant to avoid future embarrassments and problems. Filling in for Question Pool Committee Chairman Scotty Neustadter, W4WW, Jahnke reported on the past year's QPC activities, which included release of a new General class (Element 3) examination pool. Jahnke repeated a call for input to the Amateur Extra class (Element 4) syllabus, but he noted that any Element 4 review may be suspended if and when the FCC proceeds toward restructuring and establishment of a new beginner's license. Chosen to serve on the Question Pool Committee were Larry Pollock, NB5X, of the W5YI VEC, Neustadter, Wiley and Jahnke. Wiley will chair the committee. ARRL Amateur Radio Education and Technology Program (ETP) Coordinator Mark Spencer, WA8SME, wrapped up the conference with a presentation covering youth initiatives, instruction, motivating teachers and schools, and related ETP activities. He also displayed various project boards designed for classroom use. ==>FIRES MAKE JULY A BUSY MONTH FOR NEVADA ARES VOLUNTEERS Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers in Southern Nevada have been assisting firefighters attempting to quell the so-called Robbers' Fire. The 290-acre timber and brush blaze in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest some 36 miles northwest of Las Vegas has led authorities to close at least three state highways. Earlier this month Nevada ARES volunteers at the opposite end of the state assisted the American Red Cross during the destructive Waterfall Fire. "The activation of Clark County ARES/RACES continues for the Robbers' Fire on Mount Charleston," said Southern Nevada District Emergency Coordinator Glenn Hale, KB7REO, in a July 28 report to Nevada Section Manager Dick Flanagan, K7VC. "It does appear that things are getting under control. Clark County ARES/RACES will be active at least through the weekend working 24 hour shifts." Hale said that while ARES/RACES volunteers have handled some tactical messages for supplies, their primary tasks have included programming and issuing radios for firefighters as well as monitoring fire service radios. He said an ARES Mutual Assistance Team (ARESMAT) request was implemented to have Nye County ARES members assist if needed. After the Waterfall Fire broke out in mid-July, Bruce Wade, NZ7A, the American Red Cross disaster relief operation director, contacted Northern Nevada District Emergency Coordinator Don Carlson, KQ6FM, seeking ARES assistance. "An evacuation center was being set up, and he wanted staffing for both the evacuation center and at the Red Cross chapter headquarters in Reno," Carlson said. Amateurs were deployed at the chapter headquarters and at the evacuation center in Carson City--the state's capital. "In less than an hour from the initial call," Don Carlson said, "Amateur Radio communication through ARES had been established, and messages were beginning to pass between the two locations." Meanwhile, Washoe County EC Doug Abramson, KA7FOO, put out a successful plea for operators via the Western Nevada Noon Net. "The operations continued as the fire raged out of control, coming dangerously close to the state capital city itself," Carlson said. "At one point the fire was about a quarter mile from the governor's mansion and a local college." The Carson City Sheriff's Office ordered evacuations, and by the evening of July 15, hundreds of residents from communities west and northwest of Carson City started arriving at the evacuation center--by then an official Red Cross shelter. A second shelter opened the next day at a high school in southern Washoe County and immediately got Amateur Radio support. Carlson said the ARES activation continued until July 18. During the four-day event, more than 35 amateur operators from three Northern Nevada counties participated. The Waterfall Fire charred some 8700 acres and destroyed more than a dozen homes. The ARES activation drew words of praise from Wade on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Chapter, American Red Cross. "At all times your operators were on the ball and helped make the disaster relief operation go much smoother," Wade wrote. "Because it took a long time to get cell phones to all the our key people, many times you were the only link between the headquarters and the shelters." Carlson noted that many of the participating ARES volunteers had taken the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 1 course, and several had completed Level 2. He said their performance during the fire activation was testimony to their effectiveness. ==>ISS CREW SCHEDULE TIGHT FOR CASUAL HAMMING Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) says the ISS Expedition 9 crew of Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, and Gennady Padalka, RN3DT, has very limited time to pursue casual hamming from space. "The ARISS program is fortunate to have another all-ham crew that is very enthusiastic about talking to ground-based Amateur Radio operators," said ARISS spokesperson Scott Stevens, N3ASA. "The ARISS team wants to remind everyone that the crew is on a strict schedule, so the best time frame to try contacting them is between 0800 and 1900 UTC." Chances are even better during weekends, he added. Fincke and Padalka both got on the air--from NA1SS and RS0ISS, respectively--during ARRL Field Day in June, making some 60 contacts. Fincke has also made some casual QSOs. The ISS worldwide downlink frequency is 145.80 MHz. The FM voice uplink is 144.49 MHz in ITU Region 2 (which includes the Americas) and Region 3 (South Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Oceania), and it's 145.200 MHz for Region 1 (Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North Asia.). July 19 marked the midpoint of the Expedition 9 crew's six-month stay aboard the ISS. Fincke and Padalka are set to return to Earth October 19. Now preparing for an August 3 space walk, the crew this week packed unneeded equipment and trash into the Progress supply vehicle, which was scheduled to undock July 30. Undocking the Progress will clear the way for the space walk. The ARISS gear will be shut down during the space walk, starting at 0850 UTC on Monday, August 2. The radios should return to service approximately 0850 UTC on Wednesday, August 4. ARISS is an international educational outreach program with US participation from NASA, AMSAT and ARRL. ==>SOLAR UPDATE RA the Sun God Tad "Might As Well Be Walkin' on the Sun" Cook, K7RA, Seattle, Washington, reports: Sunspot 652 has rotated out of view, but it was the source of major excitement this week. Coronal mass ejections caused big geomagnetic storms on Sunday and Tuesday, July 25 and 27. The planetary A index was 122 on Sunday, 31 the next day and 162 on Tuesday. This caused radio blackouts on the HF bands, but it provided some excitement for 6-meter operators who reported great openings. The activity was enhanced by a south-pointing interplanetary magnetic field, leaving the Earth vulnerable to blasts of energy from the sun. Over the next few days expect unsettled to active geomagnetic conditions, and declining sunspot and solar flux numbers. Predicted planetary A index for Friday through Monday, July 30 through August 2, is 30, 20, 20 and 8. Predicted solar flux for the same period is 95, 90, 85 and 90. Solar flux is expected to peak again at about 125 around August 14-18. More sunspot activity is ahead, at least for the near term. Sunspot numbers for July 22 through 28 were 117, 86, 109, 130, 113, 66 and 66, with a mean of 98.1. The 10.7 cm flux was 172.9, 165.1, 147.2, 156.2, 128, 118.1 and 100.7, with a mean of 141.2. Estimated planetary A indices were 19, 47, 27, 122, 31, 162 and 14, with a mean of 60.3. Estimated mid-latitude A indices were 13, 21, 29, 64, 26, 119 and 11, with a mean of 40.4. __________________________________ ==>IN BRIEF: * This weekend on the radio: The RSGB RoPoCo 2 and the SARL HF Phone Contest are August 1. The ARS Spartan Sprint is August 3. JUST AHEAD: The North American QSO Party (CW), the ARRL UHF Contest, the TARA Grid Dip Contest, the 10-10 International Summer Contest (SSB), National Lighthouse Weekend QSO Contest and the European HF Championship are the weekend of August 7-8. See the ARRL Contest Branch page <http://www.arrl.org/contests/> and the WA7BNM Contest Calendar <http://www.hornucopia.com/contestcal/> for more info. * ARRL Certification and Continuing Education course registration: Registration for the ARRL RFI (EC-006) and Antenna Design and Construction (EC-009) courses remains open through Sunday, August 6. Classes begin Tuesday, August 8. Antenna Design and Construction students will, among other things, learn about basic dipoles and the ground planes and how to assemble combinations of these into more complex antennas. Students also learn about transmission lines, standing wave ratio, phased arrays and Yagis. Students participating in the RFI course will learn to identify various interference sources. To learn more, visit the ARRL Certification and Continuing Education Web page <http://www.arrl.org/cce/> or contact the ARRL Certification and Continuing Education Program Department <cce@arrl.org>. * Amateur Radio Emergency Communications course registration: Registration for the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level I on-line course (EC-001) opens Monday, August 2, 1201 AM EDT, and will remain open through the August 7-8 weekend or until all available seats have been filled--whichever comes first. Class begins Tuesday, August 17. Thanks to our grant sponsor--the United Technologies Corporation--the $45 registration fee paid upon enrollment will be reimbursed after successful completion of the course. During this registration period, seats are being offered to ARRL members on a first-come, first-served basis. To learn more, visit the ARRL Certification and Continuing Education Web page <http://www.arrl.org/cce>. For more information, contact Emergency Communications Course Manager Dan Miller, K3UFG, dmiller@arrl.org; 860-594-0340; cce@arrl.org. * NARTE offering EMC seminar in September: The National Association of Radio and Telecommunications Engineers (NARTE) <http://www.narte.org/> is hosting a professional-level electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) seminar Wednesday, September 28, at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel, Milford, Massachusetts (Exit 20 off I-495). The ARRL and NARTE have a Memorandum of Understanding and share concerns related to interference issues. As a result, NARTE is offering a special seminar discount rate of $440 (includes breakfast, lunch and lecture notebook) to ARRL members who register by August 13 (after that date, the discount rate increases to $535.) Seminar attendees will learn about EMC standards activities including: RF emission measurements, special applications above 1 GHz, compliance limit standards, standards cited by regulators, measurement uncertainty approach, basic emission and immunity test procedures, and test lab competency to ISO/IEC 17025. This course is primarily intended for those responsible for determining EMC characteristics and compliance of products with mandated and voluntary EMC standards. These individuals would include product developers, test engineers and technicians, product managers, regulatory compliance managers and test instrumentation developers. ARRL Lab Manager Ed Hare, W1RFI, and ARRL EMC/RFI Specialist Mike Gruber, W1MG, plan to attend. Primary instructor for the seminar is Don Heirman, of Don Heirman Consultants, a long-time chairman, expert and contributor on national and international EMC standardization. A registration form and more information are on the ARRL Web site <http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2004/07/28/1/emcseminar92804arrl.pdf>, or contact NARTE toll-free, 800-896-2783. * California Historical Radio Society obtains late ARRL director's call sign: The call sign of the late ARRL Pacific Division Director Jim Maxwell, W6CF, will live on in memoriam, thanks to Maxwell's widow, Trudy, KC6NAX, and the California Historical Radio Society (CHRS) <http://www.californiahistoricalradio.com/>. The club, which is restoring the former KRE (AM 1400 kHz) radio studio in Berkeley as its headquarters and as a vintage radio museum, will use W6CF for its amateur club station. Trudy Maxwell, who assented to the call sign acquisition, also donated her husband's extensive technical library to CHRS, and it has been moved to the KRE location as the James Maxwell Memorial Radio Library and Archive. Maxwell had an abiding interest in radio and electronics history, and Jim and Trudy Maxwell spearheaded initial efforts at ARRL Headquarters to catalogue documents from the League's early years (that work continues under Archivist Perry Williams, W1UED). Maxwell died unexpectedly February 6, 2003, at the age of 69, after serving three years on the ARRL Board. From 1994 until 2000, he was the Pacific Division Vice Director. The KRE parking lot, front entrance and studio appeared in the 1973 movie American Graffiti as the backdrop for the DJ Wolfman Jack sequences. An article, "Northern California Radio Group Gets Classic Radio Station," by Mike Adams, in the August issue of Antique Radio Classified <http://www.antiqueradio.com/> details the CHRS restoration effort.--some information provided by Bart Lee, KV6LEE, and Antique Radio Classified * Spoofing generates new round of spurious arrl.net e-mail messages: Recent e-mail messages purporting to be from "noreply@arrl.net," the "ARRL.net Support Team" or some similar variation are not from the ARRL. These messages are the result of a recent variant of a virus permeating the Internet. ARRL has heard from members who have received e-mails alleging that their ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service (@arrl.net) address has been used to send out spam and urging them to open an attachment to help resolve the situation. Opening the attachment will infect the recipient's computer. Outside of routine correspondence, the ARRL only sends e-mail to members who request mailings, such as W1AW bulletins and The ARRL Letter, and none of these are sent via the ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service. As a defense against these kinds of viruses, we recommend installing virus protection software on all personal computers and updating it on a regular basis. =========================================================== The ARRL Letter is published Fridays, 50 times each year, by the American Radio Relay League--The National Association For Amateur Radio--225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259; <http://www.arrl.org/>. Jim Haynie, W5JBP, President. The ARRL Letter offers a weekly e-mail digest of essential news of interest to active amateurs. The ARRL Letter strives to be timely, accurate, concise, and readable. Visit ARRLWeb <http://www.arrl.org/> for the latest news, updated as it happens. The ARRL Web site <http://www.arrl.org/> offers access to news, informative features and columns. ARRL Audio News <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/> is a weekly "ham radio newscast" compiled from The ARRL Letter. Material from The ARRL Letter may be republished or reproduced in whole or in part in any form without additional permission. Credit must be given to The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League. ==>Delivery problems (ARRL member direct delivery only!): letter-dlvy@arrl.org ==>Editorial questions or comments: Rick Lindquist, N1RL, n1rl@arrl.org ==>ARRL News on the Web: <http://www.arrl.org/> ==>ARRL Audio News: <http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/> or call 860-594-0384 ==>How to Get The ARRL Letter The ARRL Letter is available to ARRL members free of charge directly from ARRL HQ. To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your address for e-mail delivery: ARRL members first must register on the Members Only Web Site <http://www.arrl.org/members/>. 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