ARRL Hudson Division
January 2003
Hudson Division Beacon - e-mail edition
By Frank Fallon, N2FF, Director, Hudson Division, ARRL
30 East Williston Avenue, East Williston, NY 11596
(516) 746-7652
n2ff@arrl.org
Hudson Division Home Page - http://www.hudson.arrl.org
 
ARRL Members
 
Please continue to spread the word to others that may want to receive
this information that they will need to access the ARRL members only web
site. After becoming a member they must edit their profile and elect to
receive bulletins from the Section Manager and Director. If you are
already a member on the ARRL site (http://www.arrl.org) from the
"Members Only" box click on "members data page" and then under email
notification options set "Division/Section notices" to YES. You will
receive the next bulletin sent.
 
Happy New Year. I hope 2003 is a good year for us all and for ham
radio. Thanks to those that worked me in the ARRL RTTY Roundup. I
made 757 QSO's - not a winning score but fun nevertheless.
 
ALERT: If cabin fever is getting to you venture out this Sunday to
HRU2003 on Sunday January 19, 2003. It is an interesting event now in
its fourth year and well worth a visit - see info on the final page.
 
> ARRL BOARD MEETING THIS WEEK
 
The ARRL Board meeting will take place Friday and Saturday this week in
Hartford. The meeting is proceeded by committee meetings on Thursday
starting at 8:30 AM so everyone arrives Wednesday evening. For the past
few weeks members of the board family have been receiving reports to
read and have been preparing for the meetings.
 
The Membership Services Committee of which I am a member will meet
Thursday morning in the attic of W1AW. Two other committees, A&F and
VRC, will be meeting in Headquarters across the parking lot. The MSC
will hear a report on the status of LogBook of the World (LoTW) which is
at the moment is in beta testing. Logs are being uploaded and tested
against a number of contest reports such as CQ and ARRL Contests of
2002. Once that testing is complete the plan is to open the program to
further testing by members who can download the necessary conversion
programs from the Internet what are needed to process their logs before
uploading to LoTW. Once the log file is uploaded the program will
report matches for new countries and band modes. Plans are to announce
an operation date some time before May at which point all the files will
be zeroed out and the program will be implemented. Currently the time
in your log must be within five minutes or there will be no match. If
you get "no match" or the dreaded "not in the log message" you will have
to contact the station operator or QSL manager to sort out the problem. 
Many of us are looking forward to trying out the new system and
hopefully cutting down on direct QSLing costs and delays. But Dx
operators will be exchanging QSL cards for years to come.
 
I plan to introduce a motion at the MSC meeting to include club
competition for the RTTY Roundup (January contest) and the June VHF
Contest. We will also discuss SO2R contesting, the WAS Award, and the
incoming QSL Bureau operation and a number of other issues. At the
urging of K2SX and W2GD I plan to recommend that the CAC be asked to
survey whether SO2R should be made a separate category in ARRL contests.
That should make for lively discussions on the contest reflectors! At
the urging of Lew, W2BIE, we will be exploring "safe QSL routes" for
DXpeditioins.
 
The two-day board meeting will spend a great deal of time exploring the
implications of the current economy on the budget for 2003. There will
be a discussion about long range or "strategic" planning and a move to
make this a regular part of our board operations. We will hear from
IARU President Larry Price and Dave Sumner about WRC 2003 and chances
for worldwide standardization of the 7 Mhz band.
 
For more information see:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/01/10/100/?nc=1 and keep an eye
on the ARRL Web site for bulletins and additional coverage.
 
> NJDXA LOSES ANOTHER MEMBER - "Big Bob" K2GHV passes away
by Gerry Hull, W1VE/VE1RM
 
I was very sorry to learn that a long-time ham friend and all round good
guy "Big Bob", Bob Greenquist, K2GHV, passed away this evening. I'm
sure many of our NY/NJ members knew Bob.
 
Bob was once a very active member of the NJDXA, but had been in ill
health the last few years.
 
In the early 80s, when I used to work at ARRL HQ, I took quite a few
trips down to his Montvale, NJ, QTH to play in SS, CQWW and ARRL DX. We
were not top 10 finishers, but we sure had a lot of fun. It was a great
station on a postage-stamp lot, with Collins and Alpha gear, monobanders
and lots of homebrew cool stuff. Bob was a very active builder, and his
construction was second to none. We shared a love for computers, and
Bob and I experimented with our own early contesting programs on his
Heath Z80. Bob was also an accomplished CW op, and we spent a few field
days together, building large wire beams and pounding CW at speeds which
scared the local club boys. I was pleased to have him with me on a 1985
Expedition to Sable Island (CY0SAB) (VE1RM, VE1YX, VE1AIH and K2GHV),
where he had the time of his life.
 
My only regret is that we had both become busy over the past few years,
and had not seen each other as much as I would have liked.
 
Rest well, my friend. Good DX. dit dit.
 
> W2 QSL BUREAU The NJDXA, our W2 QSL Bureau, has begun on-line
subscriptions through Pay-Pal. If you are not already a subscriber, or
looking to renew ,just log on to the NJDXA web site at: 
http://www.njdxa.org and follow the instructions. The NJDXA is one of
the first bureaus to initiate on-line subscriptions.
 
> NEW JERSEY WTC PROCLAMATION
 
After many postponements, the proclamation recognizing the efforts of
New Jersey hams made during the WTC disaster of 2001 was read into the
proceedings of the New Jersey Legislature on December 12, 2002. Present
to accept the Proclamation on the Floor of the Assembly were: Hudson
Division Director Frank Fallon, N2FF; Vice Director Steve Mendelsohn,
W2ML; DEC Mike Adams, WA2MWT; and NNJ SM Bill Hudzik. The Proclamation
was sponsored by State Senator James Littell and Assemblymen Scott
Garrett, Guy Gregg, and Matt Ahearn (KB2PNN). SM Bill Hudzik, W2UDT
addressed the Assembly thanking the State for its recognition and
support of Amateur Radio. This was truly a high point for Amateur Radio
in New Jersey! The presentation can be viewed on-line by logging on to
the NJ State web site - http://www.njleg.state.us Click on "Archive
Proceedings". Select (view) December 12, 2002. This brings up the
video. About 12 minutes into the proceedings is the presentation. This
could not have happened without the support of NNJ hams gave! A copy of
the Proclamation is on the main page and is an updated version of the
original one issued in September. If you are planning on seeking a
building permit from your local town a copy of the proclamation should
be part of your submission. de W2UDT
 
> NEW JERSEY ANTENNA BILL NEEDS COSPONSORS 
 
Matt Ahearn. KB2PNN, New Jersey Assemblyman sent an e-mail announcing
that he has submitted our Bill into the Assembly as Bill A-3065! Matt's
initiative has saved us months of work. We still need a sponsor in the
Senate which we have to work toward. We are still looking for a Senate
sponsor. E-mail me if you have any NJ Senate contacts, please. Stand
by for directions as to how you can help. It's too early in the process
to begin letter writing.
 
> CABLEVISION EGRESS PROBLEM IN NEW JERSEY by John Gagen,W2YR,
Assistant Dir. 
 
The ARRL Hudson division had a cabinet meeting in December and I passed
a status report on the Cablevision problems to Frank Fallon at that
time. Frank advised me that he would put my report in an upcoming
"Hudson Division Beacon" report. 
 
I left the USA for South East Asia in December and prior to that date
the "harmfull interference" problems with cablevision egress had gone
away! As far as including this issue with the FCC ingress complaint is
concerned, it could be referenced and a note made that the courtesy of a
formal written reply from cablevision was never received.
 
Here is John's report to the Hudson Division Cabinet:
 
"This is a brief synopsis of the status of the "Harmful" Interference
recently generated by Cablevision, in the Coastal Monmouth County NJ
area. At the spring Hudson Division cabinet meeting I presented the
situation and the route we were taking for resolution. Cablevision was
at that time utilizing frequencies within the 40 meter amateur band as
part of their up-link Internet data services (optonline.net).
Cablevision was sent a letter advising them that their operations were
causing "Harmful" interference to licensed users of the 40 meter band
and they were asked to cease & desist from this interference. No reply
was ever received from Cablevision concerning this complaint!
Subsequently, Ed Hare (W1RFI) of ARRL headquarters staff contacted the
league's representative to the National Cable Television Association who
in turn contacted Cablevision corporate headquarters in Long Island.
This apparently did the trick as since that event, there has been no
more interference noticed within the last few weeks. Ed Hare again
contacted me this summer regarding some Cablevision ingress problems
being experienced in New Jersey. I advised Ed that this complaint was
not in Monmouth County but was in Bergen County northern New Jersey. Ed
at that time was going to ask Riley Hollingsworth of the FCC for
assistance but I asked Ed to instead consider writing Cablevision a
letter from the ARRL advising Cablevision of their problems, obligations
and our concerns. This should be followed up with another contact by our
NCTA rep. If these measures fail then the FCC could be brought into play
with the additional clout of our previous attempts at resolution.
 
What exactly Cablevision did remains a mystery. However, I suspect they
moved their operations out of the HF bands. I have scanned the entire HF
spectrum from 3 to 30 Mhz listening for their distinctive signals and
have not heard them lately. Additionally, The Wall, NJ serviced area has
replaced their extended cable plant and subscriber drop lines. These
cumulative measures may have helped resolve the problem. I am really of
the opinion that we all need to keep a very close eye on this situation
as Cablevision is expanding their operations into frequency spectrum
hitherto unused by them and ingress and egress problems will become more
commonplace. Complaints should always be made in reference to "HARMFUL"
interference and not leakage. Although these issues are related, cable
companies have traditionally tried to hide behind their permitted
leakage levels. These leakage levels are irrelevant in the FCC regs,
when the cable system operator causes any "Harmful" interference to lic.
 
 
> BOILED OWLS 
 
The Order of Boiled Owls of New York recently reelected its officers for
another year, i.e., President-Tony Japha, N2UN; VP - Les Kalmus, W2LK;
Secretary - Dennis McAlpine, K2SX; Treasurer Andy Bodony, K2LE. 
 
> LARKFIELD
 
The following is a list of the LARC Officers and Trustee's for 2003.
 
President Chuck Hartley N2JIY
Vice-President John Allocca WB2LUA
 
Secretary (open)
Treasurer Roger Rapp W2GLE
Trustee Jay Shroads K2JC
Trustee Rich Hiller AA2XK
Trustee Stan Coffield N2NKI
Trustee Ken Leydon W2KOP
Trustee Bob Maire W2RGM
Trustee Charlie Haubeil K2HTX
 
Chuck, n2jiy
 
 
> NEW YORK LEGISLATIVE SESSION ......
 
The Senate version of our New York antenna bill has been reintroduced
and is now S 63 (ah, that it were 10 digits higher) . Senate sponsor,
Senator Dale Volker, and his staff submitted the bill early and it has
received a very low number. We expect the Assembly version to be
introduced shortly by Assemblyman Tocci. We will begin letter writing
campaign shortly once the committee appointments are published. 
 
Unfortunately we are going to have to again contact our elected
representatives and push for passage of the bill. But the fact that the
Senate passed the same bill last year is a big advantage to our 2003
efforts.
 
>>>>>APPROVED HAMFESTS: 
 
Ham Radio University 2003 will take place Sunday, January 19, as part of
the ARRL New York City-Long Island Section Convention in Oyster Bay, New
York (East Woods School, 31 Yellow Cote Road). Billed as a day of
education about Amateur Radio, this year's event will feature new
forums--including sessions for nonhams as well as for experienced
operators. The focus will be hands-on, with special event station W2V on
the air and day-long demonstrations of digital communications, satellite
communications, low-power operating, emergency communications and other
modes and activities. Featured guest speaker and forum leader will be
Gordon West, WB6NOA. HRU 2003 will include an Amateur Radio examination
session. HRU 2003 is sponsored by the Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio
Club and is a cooperative effort among more than 20 clubs and
organizations in the New York City-Long Island area. Admission is open
to all ($2 donation), and refreshments will be available. Talk-in is on
the W2VL 146.85 and 147.210 repeaters. For more information contact ARRL
NYC-LI SM George Tranos, N2GA, or visit the ARRL New York City-Long
Island Web site. 
 
23 Feb 2003 + Long Island Mobile ARC
http://www.limarc.org
Contact:
Diane Ortiz, K2DO
PO Box 392
Levittown, NY 11756-0392
Phone: 631-286-7562 or 516-520-9311 
Email: hamfest@limarc.org
 
Hicksville, NY
Div: Hudson
Sect: New York City-Long Island 
 
 
1 Mar 2003 + Splitrock ARA
http://www.splitrockara.org
Contact:
Bonnie Greenfeld, KC2JVS
PO Box 610
Rockaway, NJ 07866
Phone: 866-457-6687 
Email: hamfest@splitrockara.org
 
Parsippany, NJ
Div: Hudson
Sect: Northern New Jersey
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------
ARRL Hudson Division
Director: Frank Fallon, N2FF
n2ff@arrl.org