
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 15, No. 2
March 8, 1996
__________________________________
INSIDE:

* At Deadline: Hams respond to WI train wreck disaster
* Reward offered in Teetson murders
* FCC drops VEC conflict rules
* Petitions, Telecoms Act hold up vanity call signs
* Stafford appoints DXCC committee
* ATV rocket launch set
* Digital conference set for September in Seattle
* Florida hams help FCC snag unlicensed repeater users
* Twin brothers, twin calls
* Sunspots missing
* In Brief: DF4TR back on Earth; new IOTA address; good news
   for OK repeater owners; AO-10 coming back; orbital calendars
   available; Amateur Radio Month in NJ.
__________________________________

At Deadline . . .

* Ham radio operators stepped in to help after a freight train carrying 
liquid propane derailed early on the morning of March 4 in Weyauwega, 
Wisconsin. One tanker car exploded, and others caught on fire. As of March 
8, six cars carrying liquid propane were burning. Authorities evacuated 1700 
residents of the town, west of Appleton in Waupaca County, fearing another 
explosion. Fire officials say the fire may burn for several days, and 
residents won't be allowed back in until the fire burns itself out. Among 
those evacuated were residents of two nursing homes. "The Division of 
Emergency Government brought us in immediately," said Waupaca County EC Bob 
Krueger, N9BKF. He reported ARES volunteers from several counties were 
working in three shifts around the clock to provide communication for 
emergency response personnel and for the American Red Cross, which has set 
up two shelters in Waupaca. Krueger said the Amateur Radio network is using 
a couple of 2-meter repeaters to support communication at the incident 
command post and the staging area back from the scene. He said ham radio was 
helping to relieve the burden on the public service communication system and 
would be available if telephone systems should fail. Hams also were 
providing health-and-welfare traffic. RACES volunteers were handling 
long-haul traffic from the scene on 75 meters to the state Division of 
Emergency Government and the Red Cross in Madison, the state capital. "We've 
got a lot of tired people," said Krueger, who's also RACES officer for 
Waupaca County.

__________________________________

FAMILY OF SLAIN HAM COUPLE OFFERS $10,000 REWARD

The family of Floyd and Winnie Teetson has offered a $10,000 reward for 
information leading to the arrest and successful prosecution of the couple's 
killer or killers. Authorities in Louisiana continue their investigation 
into deaths but apparently have no new leads in the brutal slayings February 
21 of former ARRL Delta Director Floyd Teetson, W5MUG, and his wife Winnie, 
WN5YTR. Newspaper reports quoted a Webster Parish (Louisiana) coroner's 
investigator as saying he believes the murder was the work of one person. 
The Teetsons were found slain at their home near Heflin, Louisiana, February 
23. Authorities believe the couple died on the evening of February 21. The 
Webster Parish Sheriff's Department and Louisiana State Police have 
questioned several individuals, but have made no arrests, according to news 
reports. The Teetsons' minivan, which had been parked under a carport 
adjoining a utility shed where the couple's bodies were found, has been 
taken to a police crime lab. The vehicle's rear hatch was open when police 
first arrived and discovered the bodies.

A DXpedition group the Teetsons had planned to accompany to Little Cayman 
Island in the Caribbean used Floyd Teetson's Caymans call sign, ZF2FT, in 
the couple's memory during the ARRL International DX Contest (SSB) weekend 
of March 2-3. The ZF2FT crew included the Teetsons' close friend Troy 
Ballard, W5AU, and Shreveport hams Brian Lewis, N5OCD and Billy Hillman, 
N5XIQ. "We sure missed Floyd and Winnie down there," Lewis said. Along with 
their contest exchanges, several operators commented, "This one is for 
Floyd" and "Floyd and Winnie were good friends," he added. "The Teetsons had 
lots of ham friends." The team racked up 4,286,520 points in their memorial 
effort.

Floyd served as ARRL Delta Division director in 1962 and '63. Prior to that, 
he was the SCM of Mississippi (1960-61). He was an Honor Roll DXer and 
active contester and had been a member of several multi-op contest teams 
operating from various Caribbean DX sites. The Teetsons were active ARRL 
members.

Following funeral services in Heflin February 26, the family held a memorial 
service March 2 in Madison, Mississippi. Floyd, an electrical engineer, had 
worked for BellSouth in the Jackson, Mississippi, area before moving to 
Heflin, Louisiana about six years ago. Winnie had worked as a medical 
technologist during the couple's years in Mississippi.

Floyd, 74, was a native of Elroy, Wisconsin. His three children from a prior 
marriage--a son and two daughters--survive him. Winnie, 69, was a native of 
Heflin, Louisiana. She is survived by her mother, one son and two daughters 
from a previous marriage, and four sisters.

FCC DROPS VEC CONFLICT-OF-INTEREST RULES

The FCC has formally eliminated conflict-of-interest provisions that had 
applied to the administration of Amateur Radio exams. The action conforms 
Part 97 of the rules to the provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 
1996, recently signed into law by President Clinton.

The Commission also eliminated a requirement that volunteer examiners and 
volunteer examiner coordinators maintain records of out-of-pocket expenses 
and annually certify those expenses to the FCC. The FCC notes that VEs and 
VECs still may recover actual out-of-pocket costs from examinees. The 
maximum reimbursement fee is $6.07 for 1996.

The FCC said the rules changes will eliminate "unnecessary regulatory 
burdens."

The former provisions precluded equipment manufacturers and their employees 
and anyone who prepares or distributes ham radio license study materials 
from administering Amateur Radio license examinations. The underlying 
purpose was to prevent an employee from favoring examinees who had purchased 
manuals or equipment produced or distributed by the VE or the VE's employer. 
The FCC has concluded that other rules provisions, combined with current 
Amateur Radio license examination procedures, will protect against potential 
abuses.

The FCC notice announcing the rules changes pointed out that Section 97.523 
requires VECs to cooperate in maintaining a single question pool for each 
examination element. As a result, all exam materials and manuals must draw 
from the standard question pool, which is widely available to the public. 
Also, the FCC noted, each exam is administered by three VEs and coordinated 
by a VEC. The Commission said it would be highly unlikely for any examinee 
to be favored by a VE or VEC.

The FCC said the 12 years of experience with the VEC system has shown that 
breaches of trust by VECs and VEs can be dealt with swiftly and immediately 
by disaccrediting the offending VEs or rescinding the VEC agreement.

The FCC adopted the rules changes February 28, 1996. They become effective 
30 days after publication in the Federal Register.

PETITIONS, TELECOMS ACT BEHIND VANITY CALL SIGN DELAY

A lack of FCC action on four Petitions for Reconsideration and a flurry of 
activity to implement the provisions of the newly signed Telecommunications 
Act of 1996 are among the factors behind the Commission's recently announced 
delay in the Amateur Radio vanity call sign program. The FCC has said it 
would wait at least until mid-year to announce when it plans to open the 
first gate or gates of the long-awaited program. The FCC had been expected 
to announce opening dates early this year. The deadline to file comments has 
expired.

Still awaiting FCC action are Petitions for Reconsideration filed last fall 
by Charnelle H. Summers, W4IJE; David B. Popkin, W2CC; Robert Nelson, on 
behalf of the Hill Country Amateur Radio Club; and Christine M. Gill, on 
behalf of the Southern California Repeater and Remote Base Association.

In his petition, Summers asks the FCC to amend the vanity call sign rules to 
permit survivors of Extra Class licensees to get a late parent's call sign 
without having to upgrade, but only if the applicant has held an Advanced 
Class license for at least 25 years and the parent had been dead for more 
than two years. Summers would like to obtain W4AR, the call sign of his late 
father, who died in 1991. In its Memorandum and Order, the FCC granted a 
reconsideration request by Popkin to limit relatives to obtaining the call 
signs of deceased relatives that were of the same or lower operator class 
held by the applicant.

Popkin, in his latest petition, wants the FCC to fine tune the wording of 
the rules to make it clear that if no call signs on an applicant's list of 
choices is available, the FCC refund the fee and would not classify the 
original call sign vacated by the applicant as a vanity call sign requiring 
a fee for future renewals. He also asks that renewal applications be 
accepted on the license expiration date, not just prior to the date.

The Hill Country Amateur Radio Club of Kerrville, Texas, requests the FCC 
permit club stations issued licenses after March 24, 1995, to apply for the 
call sign of a deceased member under Gate 1A. The club's call sign, KC5OJZ, 
was issued May 5, 1995.

The Southern California Repeater and Remote Base Association petition 
asserts that in the process of revising the vanity call sign rules, the FCC 
"unintentionally introduced inequities." The association cites the 
Commission's denial of an ARRL reconsideration request to limit an 
applications for a vanity call sign to those available in the applicant's 
call sign district. The association wants the commission to change the 
procedures for Gate 1 filings to allow for placing a deceased family 
member's higher-grade call sign in "reserve" for two years to give an 
applicant time to upgrade. Both the SCRRBA and Summers expressed concerns 
that the FCC failed to provide a two-year "upgrade period" as the vanity 
call sign program commences.

FCC vanity call sign application Form 610V is now available, but the FCC 
will not accept completed forms until it opens the appropriate filing gates. 
Prospective applicants can get the FCC Form 610V package by writing ARRL, 
225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111. Please include an sase. Form 610V also is 
available from the FCC via the Internet at http://www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form610V 
or ftp://ftp.fcc.gov/pub/Forms/Form610V/, or by fax at 202-418-0177. Ask for 
Form 006108. The FCC's Forms Distribution Center also accepts orders for 
Form 610V at 800-418-3676.

ARRL PRESIDENT STAFFORD APPOINTS COMMITTEE TO STUDY DXCC

ARRL President Rod Stafford, KB6ZV, has appointed John Kanode, N4MM, to 
chair a committee to review the entire DXCC Program. The ARRL Board of 
Directors, at its meeting in Savannah, Georgia, asked President Stafford to 
name the committee. The panel will recommend changes necessary to "encourage 
broader participation by more amateurs, make the program more equitable, 
create better understood criteria for DXCC 'countries,' improve the process 
of reviewing requests for additions and deletions to the ARRL DXCC List and 
increase efficiency in the administration of the program."

In any case, there are no plans to scrap the DXCC program, said DXCC Manager 
Bill Kennamer, K5FUV, one of those named to the committee. "It's too 
important in the greater scheme of things, internationally," he said.

The committee is unofficially known as the DXCC 2000 Committee, reflecting 
its goal to have any changes to the DXCC program in place by the year 2000. 
Kennamer said he does not anticipate restarting the entire DXCC program, as 
has been suggested. "But we might make certain changes to make it more of a 
level playing field," he said. Applicable "country" credits from the current 
DXCC program will continue to count regardless of what other changes may 
occur.

Also appointed were Larry Price, W4RA; Rick Roderick, K5UR; Jim Maxwell, 
W6CF; Walt Stinson, WOCP; Garth Hamilton, VE3HO; Bob Winn, W5KNE; Wayne 
Mills, N7NG; and Chuck Hutchinson, K8CH.

1996 ARRL AND TAPR DIGITAL CONFAB SET

Mark your calendars and make plans now to attend the year's premier Amateur 
Radio digital communications event. The 1996 ARRL and TAPR Digital 
Communications Conference is set for September 20-22, 1996, in Seattle, 
Washington--just minutes from the SeaTac Airport. This marks the first time 
the ARRL Digital Communications Conference and TAPR Annual General Meeting 
have joined into one conference. Local sponsors include the Puget Sound 
Amateur Radio TCP/IP Group and Boeing Employees Amateur Radio Society 
(BEARS).

This international forum is for hams and experts in digital communications, 
networking and related technologies to meet, publish their work and present 
new ideas and techniques for discussion. Presenters and those attending have 
the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and 
software advances, theories, experimental results and practical 
applications.

Papers are invited for publication in the conference proceedings. 
Presentation at the conference is not required for publication. Send papers 
by July 23, 1996 to Maty Weinberg, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 
USA or via the Internet at lweinberg@arrl.org. Maty has details on format 
requirements.

ARRL and TAPR especially welcome papers from full-time students to compete 
for the first annual student papers award. Two $500 travel awards will be 
present for best technical/theory-oriented paper by a student and for best 
educational or community-oriented application paper by a student. Papers 
should relate directly to a wireless digital communication topic. Papers 
co-authored by educators or telecommunications professionals also are 
eligible for this award, as long as a student is the first author. 
First-year awards have been funded through a grant by The ARRL Foundation 
Inc. The deadline for completed student paper manuscripts is June 11 (please 
note this date is earlier than the deadline for general papers)

For full details and paper guidelines, contact TAPR (see below) or check 
http://www.tapr.org on the World Wide Web.

Workshop presentations include Keith Sproul, WU2Z, on APRS packet-location 
software; Dewayne Hendricks, WA8DZP, on "How to Utilize Part 15 Radios for 
Ham Applications," and a workshop on Wireless Networking using WA4DSY 56K RF 
modem technology and its accessories.

For more information on the conference, registration, and hotel 
reservations, contact TAPR, 8987-309 E Tanque Verde Rd, No. 337, Tucson, AZ 
85749-9399, tel 817-383-0000; fax 817-566-2544; e-mail tapr@tapr.org.

ATV ROCKET LAUNCH SET

Amateur Radio plays a role in plans to launch an ATV-carrying rocket from 
Sheboygan, Wisconsin, nearly 50 miles into the air over Lake Michigan, as 
part of the Wisconsin Rockets for Schools Project, a program to stimulate 
interest and excitement in mathematics and science. Some 3000 students, most 
in grades 6 through 12, are expected to witness the May 4 launch of the 
11-foot-long Super Loki sounding rocket that will carry a black-and-white 
camera, ATV transmitter and radiotelemetry gear aloft. When the rocket 
reaches its peak altitude, it releases the payload and switches on the 
equipment automatically, explained Bryan Suits, WB8WKN, of Houghton, 
Michigan, who's in charge of the ATV payload. Over the next half-hour or so, 
the payload will descend into Lake Michigan on a Mylar parachute-type 
device. "One frame of video is 100% success. Anything after that is a 
bonus," Suits said, but added: "We hope to see the entire descent."

The Rockets for Schools program puts an emphasis on meteorological and 
environmental monitoring. Forty-five students will participate directly on 
one of the five teams: Launch, Range Safety, Tracking and Communication, 
Payload and Recovery.

If it all works, ground-station monitors will see Lake Michigan from aloft. 
In addition, radiotelemetry equipment will transmit data on battery voltage, 
internal temperature, external temperature and, possibly, ozone levels in 
the atmosphere. The camera will be aimed out the side of the payload device, 
which weighs about 17 lb. The ATV transmitter will put out up to 2 W of 
power on 434 MHz into a simple dipole or quarter-wave (with the metallic 
case as a counterpoise). Three 3-V lithium batteries will power the 
equipment. Telemetry and a CW identifier will be carried on the audio 
subcarrier. A floatation device is to deploy to keep the payload afloat for 
recovery. Plans to include a GPS unit were scrapped, Suits said.

"It should be quite a show," Suits said of the one-time experimental event. 
It's believed this will be the first sub-orbital rocket launched from 
Wisconsin. The first Rockets for Schools launch was in Florida in 1993.

The ambitious educational project must comply not just with local and 
federal laws but with the laws of physics as well. Just for the Amateur 
Radio component, Suits--a physics professor at Michigan Technological 
University--has found the demands are stringent. Space in the payload is 
very tight: it measures approximately 1.6 inches in diameter by 1 foot long. 
In addition, the launch will impose some 100 g of force and temperatures 
could rise briefly into the region of 250? C. Suits says he's done some ATV 
work on the ground but "never anything this ambitious" before.

Prior to the rocket launch, Near Space Sciences, a group involved with the 
rocket launch, will send up a balloon with an amateur crossband repeater, 
color ATV system and GPS. The equipment on the balloon will facilitate 
communication between the launch site and outlying areas.

The project had obtained approvals from the FAA, the EPA, the US Coast Guard 
and "a whole pile of local authorities," Suits said. ARRL General Counsel 
Chris Imlay, N3AKD, is helping with FCC notifications and approvals required 
for operation above 50 km (approximately 31 miles) altitude.

FLORIDA HAMS, FCC CLIP UNLICENSED LAWNMOWER MEN

What started out sounding like intermod from a lawn service company on a 
Sarasota, Florida, Amateur Radio repeater (W4IE/R, 146.91 MHz) in 
mid-February turned into a three-week-long ordeal involving the FCC and a 
lot of legwork by the Sarasota Amateur Radio Association, the repeater's 
sponsor. The intermod turned out to be bootlegging, and club members logged 
and transcribed transmissions by several people using false call 
signs--including phone-patch calls.

After about a week, the FCC's Tampa, Florida, office was called in. 
Initially, the FCC was reluctant to deal with the problem, but after club 
officials called the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau in Washington, 
D.C., the problem was handled quickly. By month's end, the field 
engineer-in-charge told the Sarasota hams who had done the tracking that 
they would be in the area that day.

On the afternoon of February 27, the FCC told the hams that they had 
established a "fingerprint" of the offenders' transmitter and--as a 
bonus--also had identified two other individuals who had been making rude 
noises on the repeater! In the joint effort that ensued, FCC field personnel 
and the Sarasota hams physically located and observed the perpetrators that 
same day. That evening, FCC personnel called at the home of the owner of the 
lawn service whose workers had been using the W4IE repeater. The FCC stated 
the owner was "very cooperative," and several radios and the employees 
involved were rounded up. Club members later learned that charges were filed 
against the lawn service and the involved employees.--KF4DMP, Sarasota 
Amateur Radio Association Amplifier

TWIN BROTHERS, TWIN CALL SIGNS

Floyd Bumpus is N5EL. His identical twin, Lloyd Bumpus, is N6EL. How'd they 
do that?! Well, it was just good timing.

In 1977, when the FCC allowed Extra Class licensees to apply for special 
call signs, Floyd was K5OKQ, and Lloyd was W6PXB (ex-K5ELY). They wrote a 
joint letter to the FCC and each sent a Form 610. On the same day, April 2, 
they received N5EL and N6EL. "Keeping up with current affairs concerning 
Amateur Radio through QST and other publications allowed us to be at the 
right place at the right time," said Floyd.

The twins got interested in ham radio near the end of World War II, when 
their oldest brother was captured by the German Army in the Battle of the 
Bulge. The War Department sent a "missing-in-action" telegram to the family. 
A few months later, they received a postcard from a ham radio operator in 
New York City saying he'd intercepted a message from a German station giving 
a list of names of prisoners of war being sent to a certain prison camp. The 
brother's name was on the list. "We had not received any information until 
this time about the welfare of our brother," Floyd recalled. "Within a few 
weeks we received a form card from him saying he was at the prison camp as 
had been noted on the postcard from the ham operator."

Eventually their brother was liberated, and Lloyd and Floyd joined the US 
Navy, serving together. Lloyd became a radio op and stayed 22 years, while 
Floyd got out after 4. In 1956, Lloyd--stationed in Asmara, Eritrea, at the 
time--made a phone patch to Floyd via Dick Freeling, W5TIZ, an A-1 Operator 
from Little Rock, Arkansas, who was completely blind. That's when the twins 
really got interested in the hobby and have since enjoyed QSOs with each 
other from all over the world.

"Amateur Radio has a special place in our lives, and I sincerely hope all 
operators can enjoy our hobby as much as we have. We are both very active in 
promoting Amateur Radio," Floyd said.--Rosalie White, WA1STO

SUNSPOTS TURN UP MISSING

Keep those low-band antennas up! Solar seer Tad Cook, KT7H, reports solar 
activity continues to be extremely low, with extended periods of no sunspots 
at all. "It looks like 1996 will certainly be the year of the quiet sun for 
cycle 22," said Cook. Current projections show the sunspot minima (ie, 
numbers of sunspots observed) will occur this year, with the minimum solar 
flux still a year off. After the minimum, activity should begin to move 
upward rapidly, and even 10 meters could be exciting again in a few years, 
he said.

Current 80 and 160-meter conditions are good, especially with the quiet 
geomagnetic conditions we are experiencing. Conditions on the higher bands 
should improve soon because of seasonal variations as we head into spring, 
and not because of solar activity.

Flux levels should be back up to 75 by the third week of March, after 
leveling off around 70 earlier in the month. Quiet geomagnetic conditions 
should prevail, but some moderate disturbances are possible March 10, 11 and 
23.

__________________________________
In Brief . . .

* German cosmonaut Thomas Reiter, DF4TR, is back on Earth. Reiter ended the 
longest European Space Agency manned mission February 29 with the successful 
landing of the Soyuz TM-22 spacecraft. Reiter and Russian cosmonauts Yuri 
Gidzenko and Sergei Avdeev had been aboard the Mir orbital complex since 
September 1995. Reiter, who's 37, has entered the record books as the first 
ESA astronaut to perform a spacewalk and the first European to make a second 
walk in space. At 180 days, his mission is the longest by a 
non-Russian.--AMSAT News Service.

* The RSGB has a new address to mail Islands on the Air (IOTA) program 
inquiries and administrative correspondence. The RSGB emphasizes this 
address should not be used for QSL checking or IOTA award applications. The 
address is: RSGB IOTA Programme, PO Box 9, Potters Bar, Herts EN6 3RH, 
England. RSGB says all other correspondence should be directed to the 
authorized checkpoints.
Good news for repeater operators with autopatch lines in Oklahoma's 
Southwestern Bell service area. Repeater owners now pay residential rates 
instead of commercial rates for telephone service to ham clubs' autopatch 
sites.

* OSCAR-10 may be coming back to life. Reports indicate the satellite's 
transponder is putting out a beacon tone and that the downlink has been 
functional. The spacecraft has been plagued by low levels of solar energy on 
its panels. Meanwhile, RS-12 apparently is offering strong signals via its 
newly activated 2-meter downlink on Mode KT. The uplink passband is 
21.21-21.25 MHz; the 2-meter downlink passband is 145.91-145.95 MHz.

* ARRL publishes monthly orbital calendars, which include equator crossings 
for many popular amateur satellites and the Mir Space Station Complex. These 
data are helpful for those who manually track satellites. To get a copy, 
send a 4x9-inch SASE with two units of First-Class postage each month to 
Technical Department (ORBITS), ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111.

* June will be Amateur Radio Month in New Jersey, according to a 
proclamation by Gov. Whitman. The occasion is the 80th anniversary of the 
South Jersey Radio Association, which may be the oldest ham radio club in 
the US.
__________________________________

The ARRL Letter is published by the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main 
St, Newington, CT 06111, tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259. Rodney J. 
Stafford, KB6ZV, President; David Sumner, K1ZZ, Executive Vice President.

Electronic edition circulation/address changes, Kathy Capodicasa, 
kcapodicasa@arrl.org.
Printed edition circulation, Mark Dzamba, 860-594-0253.
Editorial, Rick Lindquist, Assistant Technical Editor, rlindquist@arrl.org.

The purpose of The ARRL Letter is to provide the essential news of interest 
to active, organizationally minded radio amateurs faster than it can be 
disseminated by our official journal, QST. We strive to be fast, accurate 
and readable in our reporting.

Material from The ARRL Letter may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any 
form, including photoreproduction and electronic databanks, provided that 
credit is given to The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.


