We have had the opportunity to interview ARRL CEO, Executive Vice President and Secretary David Sumner, K1ZZ for this month’s issue of our club newsletter, the eQRM.

Make sure to read the 4-page interview in the May issue of our PDF newsletter.

Participate in the discussion and go to the QRZ forum thread

In our EXCLUSIVE interview with David Sumner, K1ZZ, we talk with him about the future of amateur radio, his opinion on the current licensing structure, the 1979 WARC, and more.

Here is an excerpt from the interview:

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eQRM: I am an Eagle Scout, and I learned about amateur radio from a Merit Badge class taught by our local radio club. What are your ideas on how to get more youth involved in the hobby, beyond the summer teaching academies offered by the ARRL?

K1ZZ: Needless to say, young people take connectivity for granted; it’s no longer a capability that is uniquely ours as radio amateurs. But how many of them understand how their cell phone works? Our Teachers Institutes train almost 100 teachers per year in how to give their students hands-on opportunities to develop wireless technology literacy. If we had the resources we would expand the program. Our measure of success is not the number of young people who become licensed as a result, although that’s a nice byproduct of success in a school.

Amateur Radio isn’t for everyone. If we were to attract one young person in 100 we’d be doing better than we ever have. Every generation has more people than that who are curious about how things work – not just manmade devices such as cell phones, but natural phenomena such as radio propagation. Countless contributions to science and technology have been made by people who began by using Amateur Radio as an outlet for their curiosity. Our task is to make sure that Amateur Radio continues to be there for future generations, and to make sure they know it’s there.
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Read the rest of the interview by downloading the May issue of our monthly club newsletter, the eQRM!

Stay tuned for next month’s interview, where we interview newly-elected ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN.

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Make sure to watch our Twitter feed on May 2, starting at 7AM EST. We will be Tweeting live from Mile 21.5 at the Pittsburgh Marathon!

Check our Twitter feed for more updates.

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From the ARRL

Several months ago I posted information regarding a bill that was introduced into the House of Representatives here in Pennsylvania. The bill was designated HB-2070. This bill was designed to prohibit hand held cell phones from being used while a vehicle was in motion. Unfortunately the wording of the bill is such that amateur radio devices particularly handhelds could also be prohibited with the passage of this bill. While we have worked for the past several months to get this bill amended it has not been done at this time. I strongly urge every amateur and their relatives and friends to write, email or call their state senators and oppose the passage of this bill unless specific language is added to exempt amateur radio devices from the bill. Some legislative people feel that all our radios are permanently
installed in vehicle as part of the bill exempts devices that are
physically or electrically integral to the vehicle. This needs all of
our immediate attention to contact our local reps and oppose passage.
If you need help determining your state officials check the following
web site http://www.legis.state.pa.us/ in the upper right corner you
can enter your zip code to get the officials for your district.

A reminder to members is to be sure to check the data you have in
your member profile at the ARRL website. If you change your email
service be sure to update that info on the members only section of the
website. The new website is expected to be functional in April barring
no further difficulties. With the update many exciting new features are
being added that will help all of us to experience a more user friendly
web site. In addition to HQ staff the directors, vice-directors and
section managers have been working for the past several weeks to test
the site and many issues have been found and corrected. This has been a major work in progress and the staff has done a wonderful job handling the change over and correcting issues as they have been discovered. These people have worked tirelessly to provide the members with a functional new approach to the web. I wish to extend my personal thanks to all who have worked so diligently to make this happen.

The next hamfest is the Two Rivers hamfest on April 25.
Additional information is available at http://www.tworiversarc.com.
This is a correction of information I had last month. An area of
information for hamfest officials is that HQ has a new policy with
regard to information brochures for hamfest. The material to be sent
from HQ must be selected by the hamfest chairperson. The info is
included in your approval letter. There is a charge to the hamfest for
shipping the materials. Many of the handouts are available at no charge
except for the shipping fees. If you need assistance in what to order
contact me at n3mse@arrl.org.

Last month I had mentioned a new section traffic manager would be
announced. Unfortunately that person was not able to take on the duties of the traffic manager. For the present time I am continuing to file the monthly reports for the section but I honestly need your help to have someone take over this function. Traffic handling is a necessary service and I do not want to lose this valuable service. If you are involved and have a knowledge of traffic handling and particularly can participate in the section net please contact me if you are willing to assume these duties.

As always I encourage you to join one of the various traffic nets
and help deliver messages to individuals in your community and
throughout the country as operators struggle to keep the keep this
activity running strong. The section net is on 3983 every evening at
approximately 6:00 PM local time.

Join the nets and lets all get Radio Active.

73
John V. Rodgers, N3MSE
W. Pa. Section Manager

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From the QRZ Forums

According to an announcement just out on the IARU website, from today contacts made using QSONet and HamSphere are now officially amateur radio contacts and can count towards amateur radio awards.

The announcement says: “There is an ever increasing use of computer and internet technology to facilitate the making of contacts between amateur radio operators. For many years use of the DX Cluster has been permitted to locate DX contacts to work and many operators now use internet sites to arrange skeds for needed contacts. We also see the development of new digital modes that can make possible contacts between stations that neither side can even hear. Permitting the use of VOIP modes to make contacts is simply an extension of the use of this facilitating technology, by removing the unreliability caused by the behaviour of the ionosphere. This move will also be welcomed by the many radio amateurs living in antenna-restricted locations who are no longer able to be active on what have traditionally been regarded as ‘the airwaves’.”

Addressing the criticism that no radio is actually used when making contacts via QSONet or HamSphere, the statement says: “Many amateur operators nowadays use laptop computers which are connected to the internet via a wi-fi router. This does, of course, involve the use of radio. Initially, therefore, only contacts made using a laptop with a wireless connection will be allowed to count under this new ruling. The frequency should be logged as 2.4GHz. This restriction will be reviewed at a later date.”

More information on this development will apparently be posted on the site at midday today.

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The following is an email to Bob DeMarco, WA3ZRM regarding volunteers from the Amateur Radio community:

Dear Mr Robert J De Marco,

I read on the ARRL website that you are the contact person for the Beaver Valley Area . I also noticed that many of the email addresses and names provided on the ARRL website for club contacts either do not match or are duplicated for more then one club. If this information gets to you and you are no longer the contact person for your club, would you please forward this email on to the correct person.

I am the Executive Director of The North American Center for Emergency Communications, Inc. (NACEC), a non-profit emergency communications organization, which is still based in Minnesota. This organization has been more or less dormant for about the last 10 years, but it is currently in the process of becoming very active. The mission of our organization, founded in 1992, was refocused in January 2010 to provide commercial communication support to large scale disaster areas here in the US and around the globe. We will accomplish this by providing field teams which will include commercial communications technicians who hold an FCC GROL or equivalent license and at least 5 years of experience. The field team will be equipped so they can provide commercial radio and digital communications systems to meet the immediate communications needs of the aid and relief organizations and agencies serving within the disaster area. The field team technicians, if needed, will also provide their technical skills to assist in bringing local communications systems back online. We expect this last item will be used more in developing countries.

From time to time during large disasters our field team technicians may benefit from the assistance of volunteers from the amateur radio community. We are looking for volunteers from the amateur radio community first because it is made up of individuals whose professions vary widely, from doctors and attorneys to auto mechanics and retired lumberjacks, yet who have many things in common with our commercial communications technicians and this organization. They share an interest in communications, electronics and a desire to be of service to others!

Can you bring our need for volunteers to the attention of your club’s members? I have set up a special volunteer application form for use only by licensed amateur radio operators who wish to volunteer their time and skills to help our technicians bring communications back into large scale disaster areas. This application can be found at www.nacec.org/vol_app_ars.php.

As we expand our organization and its capabilities, we hope that you and your club members will follow our progress and take an active role in our success. You can also follow us online if you wish. You will find links to our Twitter, Facebook, and email following accounts on the lower left-hand side of most pages on our website, www.nacec.org.

Should you have any questions I hope that you will contact me directly.

73

Edward Addy KEØEG, Executive Director
North American Center For Emergency Communications, (NACEC)

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We have an opportunity to lend our support to passage of legislation that will help the FCC acquire the expertise needed to understand, regulate, and support communications in a rapidly changing technical environment.

On March 10, H.R. 4809 was introduced to the House of Representatives. The bill has been assigned to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The “FCC Commissioners’ Technical Resource Enhancement Act” would authorize each FCC commissioner to appoint an electrical engineer or computer scientist to their staff to provide technical consultation when appropriate.

We ask that you send a letter to your local House member asking for support of H.R. 4809. A sample letter is included in this email. As always the sample letters should be personalized for your own Representative. You can obtain the names and addresses of your local Member of Congress from the ARRL Web Site Members Only area at:

www.arrl.org/members-only/

As in the past, we are requesting that you send your letter to our Washington representative:

As a signed attachment to an email to arrl@chwatco.com

As a signed fax to 703-684-7594

As a regular letter to John Chwat
Chwat & Co.
625 Slaters Lane
Suite 103
Alexandria, VA 22314

Should you choose to email their letter, please send it as an attachment to the email instead of it being the text of the email.
This allows the letter to be easily printed and delivered. Our representative will gather the letters and deliver them in person to each representative’s office, where it will be logged in. This not only assures that your mail reaches your representative, but also gives us a chance to see how many responses we get.

If you would prefer to draft your own letter supporting H.R. 4809 instead of editing the sample, please consider these recommendations

Identify the bill by number and title: H.R. 4809, the “”FCC Commissioners’ Technical Resource Enhancement Act”:
Keep the letter brief and on topic – one page at the most.
Ask the Representative to consider becoming a cosponsor and support this legislation.
Thank them for their consideration.
Simple is better when making this kind of request. Representatives and their staffs are looking to gauge interest and support for the bill. A lengthy letter that strays off topic can detract from the focus of asking for support for this specific legislation.
Please send a copy of your letter to Chwat & Co. This allows our team to discuss accurately with the Representatives and their staff the amount of support for the bill in each district.

Thank you for your support!

Dave Prestel, W8AJR
Division Legislative Action Chair
ARRL Atlantic Division

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Dear Beaver Valley Leaders,

6 days from now a historic ceremony will be taking place! The 100th
Anniversary Volunteer Celebration is scheduled for Thursday March 18,
2010 at Heinz Field~ West Club Lounge.

This year Beaver Valley will be awarding the Silver Beaver Award to
Mark Murdoch. We will be also honoring the following District Award
recipients:

District Award of Merit
Evelyn Gower
Tom Walsh
John Onuska Jr.

Cubmaster of the Year
Jeff Knechtel
Scoutmaster of the Year
Randy Gleason

Venturing Advisor of the Year
Arletta Cruzan

Unit Commissioner of the Year
Jeff Eberle

District Board Member of the Year
Tony DiTullio

Most Valuable Scouter
John Carr

Please log on today to register for the event:
http://www.doubleknot.com/Registration/CalendarDetail.asp?orgkey=486&activitykey=703620

Irv Gable

Beaver Valley District
Greater Pittsburgh Council
Boys Scouts of America
(412) 325-7975
(412) 232-3606 [FAX]
Email: irvin.gable@scouting.org
Follow us on: Facebook – Beaver Valley District or on Twitter -GPCBVD

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The snow is finally melting here in Western Pennsylvania and with the warmer weather the weather service is now predicting some rain for the next few days. This may serve as a need for amateurs to help provide communications in the event of flooding in some of the low lying areas. This might serve as a good time to check your grab and go kit to be sure they are properly stocked and also to charge the batteries on your handhelds. While I am sure we all are hoping that flooding will not take place with the amount of snow melting and the rainfall expected we may experience problems due to run off conditions. Be sure to monitor your local repeaters and be prepared should the local EC need to activate.
In the near future we will be working together with PEMA to combine communications resources into a platform called ACS. This will be a combination of what is currently races, ares, CAP, react and other communications forms. Section emergency coordinator Larry Keller will be posting information as he receives it on to the ARES website and also distribute the info to the DEC’s and EC’s as it becomes available.
A tentative meeting of emergency leaders will be scheduled for early June. Larry is working on the details for the event and we will announce more details in the near future. Part of this will involve a bit of restructuring of the ARES program in the section. Individuals with ideas for topics should contact Larry at ab3er@arrl.net.
A reminder to members is to be sure to check the data you have in your member profile at the ARRL website. If you change your email service be sure to update that info on the members only section of the website. The new website is expected to be functional the end of March barring no further difficulties. HQ wanted to provide the best experience so as problems were found delays were inevitable.
I will be announcing the name of the new section traffic manager in the very near future. This has been a difficult position to fill and I will be glad to finally have someone handling the functions. It has taken a bit longer than I had wished for me to decide on a suitable individual.
Hamfest coming up in our area begins with the Foothills hamfest on Sunday March 14. Information is available at http://www.w3lww.org/ I unfortunately will not be able to attend as I will be with my grand daughter for her fourth birthday. The next hamfest is the Two rivers hamfest on April 25. Additional information is available at http://www.tworiversarc.com. An area of information for hamfest officials is that HQ has a new policy with regard to information brochures for hamfest. The material to be sent from HQ must be
selected by the hamfest chairperson. The info is included in your approval letter. There is NO Charge for this material to be sent to the hamfest. That has been changed and HQ will paid shipping costs. If you need assistance in what to order contact me at n3mse@arrl.org.
As always I encourage you to join one of the various traffic nets and help deliver messages to individuals in your community and throughout the country as operators struggle to keep the keep this activity running strong. The section net is on 3983 every evening at approximately 4:45 PM local time due to poor band conditions. Join the nets and lets all get Radio Active.

73
John V. Rodgers, N3MSE
W. Pa. Section Manager

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To all displayers, vendors, and attendees,

Grant Miller, KB3QFQ
Eagle Scout, Boy Scout Troop 405
Beaver Valley TechFest 2010 Coordinator

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