© DELARA News a monthly publication of the Delaware Amateur Radio Association
DELARANEWS

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

ARRL Petitions FCC to Incorporate

Parity Act Provisions into its Amateur

Radio Rules

The ARRL has filed a Petition for Rulemaking (PRM) asking the FCC to amend its Part 97 Amateur Service rules to incorporate the provisions of the Amateur Radio Parity Act. The Petition has not yet been assigned a rule making (RM) number and is not yet open for public comment. In the past, the FCC has said that it would not take such action without guidance from the US Congress, but, as ARRL's Petition notes, Congress "has overwhelmingly and consistently" offered bipartisan support for the Amateur Radio Parity Act. "Private land use regulations which either prohibit or which do not accommodate the installation and maintenance of an effective outdoor antenna in residences of Amateur Service licensees are unquestionably the most significant and damaging impediments to Amateur Radio Service communications that exist now," ARRL said in its Petition. "They are already precluding opportunities for young people to become active in the avocation and to conduct technical self-training and participate in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] learning activities inherent in an active, experiential learning environment. Without the relief in this Petition, the future of Amateur Radio is bleak indeed." The proposed amendments would have no effect on the FCC's limited preemption policy in §97.15(b), which pertains to state and municipal governing bodies, ARRL said. Specifically, ARRL is proposing that the FCC amend Part 97 by adding a new subsection under §97.15 that prohibits and ceases the enforcement of "any private land use restriction, including restrictive covenants and regulations imposed by a community association," that either fails to permit a licensee to install and maintain an effective outdoor antenna capable of operation on all Amateur Radio frequency bands; on property under the exclusive use or control of the licensee; precludes or fails to permit Amateur Service communications, or which does not constitute the minimum practicable restriction on such communications to accomplish the lawful purposes specifically articulated in the declaration of covenants of a community association seeking to enforce such restriction. ARRL's proposed rule would not affect any existing antenna approved or installed before the effective date of a Report and Order resulting from ARRL's petition. The proposed provisions reflect the accommodation reached in the ultimate version of the Parity Act bill at the urging of federal lawmakers between ARRL and the Community Associations Institute (CAI), the only organization representing homeowners' associations. "That legislation was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives four separate times and has the support of the Senate Commerce Committee and the current Administration," ARRL stressed. "Private land use regulations are not 'contracts' in the sense that there is any meeting of the minds between the buyer and seller of land," ARRL said. "Rather, they are simply restrictions on the use of owned land, imposed by the developer of a subdivision... They bind all lots in the subdivision." ARRL noted in its Petition that an increasing number of homes available for purchase today are already subject to restrictive covenants prohibiting outdoor antennas. In addition, ARRL pointed out that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 gives the FCC jurisdiction "to preempt private land use regulations that conflict with federal policy..." -ARRL Letter

LOTW Tops a Billion!

As of December 19, more than 1 billion contact records have been entered into ARRL's Logbook of The World (LoTW) system. And, while 1 billion QSO records represents a significant milestone, a more important statistic may be the nearly 187 million contacts confirmed via LoTW over its 15-year history. The one billionth record was uploaded by 7X3WPL, the Sahara DX Radio Club, at 2332 UTC for a 20-meter SSB contact with with Davide Cler, IW1DQS, that took place on December 28, 2016. The upload resulted in a match (QSL). LoTW debuted in 2003 after a lot of behind-the-scenes planning and development. Initially, LoTW got off to a slow start. While user numbers gradually grew to about 5,000, a lot of hams didn't fully understand what LoTW was or how it worked, and opening an account could be cumbersome. LoTW continued with few major changes until October 2011, when a perfect storm struck -- a large ingestion of logs after the CQ World Wide DX Contest and a freak snowstorm that knocked out power for more than a week in most places. Field Services and Radiosport Department Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, said uninterruptible power source (UPS) backup power quickly depleted in the days-long power outage. "When the system came back online, it was overwhelmed with the amount of data coming in and could not keep up," Fusaro said. "The water was coming in faster than the pumps could pump it out. Crash!" The disaster was a blessing in disguise, though, because it revealed weaknesses in the LoTW software and hardware. Fusaro said the League spent tens of thousands of dollars for new hardware. IT Manager Mike Keane, K1MK, implemented code changes to expedite log processing by giving priority to small- to medium-sized logs and inserting mega-files as openings occurred. Fusaro said a lot of the large files contained duplicate data, bogging down the process so much that users were resending logs already in the queue. Through all of this, not one QSO record was lost, because LoTW uses a redundant backup process, Fusaro said. A LoTW users' group reflector and a queue-processing status page were set up. With better communication, Fusaro said, the system attracted additional numbers. Today, LoTW boasts some 112,000 users in all 340 DXCC entities, and 75% of all DXCC applications are filed via LoTW, which accounts for 86% of confirmations applied. Now, ARRL is looking at the development of LoTW 2.0, Fusaro said. "Over the years, we have added more awards that can be applied for using LoTW QSL credits: VUCC, Triple Play, and two CQ awards - - WPX and WAZ." "The service still has room for a lot of improvement, but it continues to grow and is the preferred method of confirming QSOs because it strives to protect the integrity of DXCC and all awards," Fusaro said. -ARRL Letter
DELARANews

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

ARRL Petitions FCC to Incorporate

Parity Act Provisions into its

Amateur Radio Rules

The ARRL has filed a Petition for Rulemaking (PRM) asking the FCC to amend its Part 97 Amateur Service rules to incorporate the provisions of the Amateur Radio Parity Act. The Petition has not yet been assigned a rule making (RM) number and is not yet open for public comment. In the past, the FCC has said that it would not take such action without guidance from the US Congress, but, as ARRL's Petition notes, Congress "has overwhelmingly and consistently" offered bipartisan support for the Amateur Radio Parity Act. "Private land use regulations which either prohibit or which do not accommodate the installation and maintenance of an effective outdoor antenna in residences of Amateur Service licensees are unquestionably the most significant and damaging impediments to Amateur Radio Service communications that exist now," ARRL said in its Petition. "They are already precluding opportunities for young people to become active in the avocation and to conduct technical self-training and participate in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] learning activities inherent in an active, experiential learning environment. Without the relief in this Petition, the future of Amateur Radio is bleak indeed." The proposed amendments would have no effect on the FCC's limited preemption policy in §97.15(b), which pertains to state and municipal governing bodies, ARRL said. Specifically, ARRL is proposing that the FCC amend Part 97 by adding a new subsection under §97.15 that prohibits and ceases the enforcement of "any private land use restriction, including restrictive covenants and regulations imposed by a community association," that either fails to permit a licensee to install and maintain an effective outdoor antenna capable of operation on all Amateur Radio frequency bands; on property under the exclusive use or control of the licensee; precludes or fails to permit Amateur Service communications, or which does not constitute the minimum practicable restriction on such communications to accomplish the lawful purposes specifically articulated in the declaration of covenants of a community association seeking to enforce such restriction. ARRL's proposed rule would not affect any existing antenna approved or installed before the effective date of a Report and Order resulting from ARRL's petition. The proposed provisions reflect the accommodation reached in the ultimate version of the Parity Act bill at the urging of federal lawmakers between ARRL and the Community Associations Institute (CAI), the only organization representing homeowners' associations. "That legislation was passed unanimously by the House of Representatives four separate times and has the support of the Senate Commerce Committee and the current Administration," ARRL stressed. "Private land use regulations are not 'contracts' in the sense that there is any meeting of the minds between the buyer and seller of land," ARRL said. "Rather, they are simply restrictions on the use of owned land, imposed by the developer of a subdivision... They bind all lots in the subdivision." ARRL noted in its Petition that an increasing number of homes available for purchase today are already subject to restrictive covenants prohibiting outdoor antennas. In addition, ARRL pointed out that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 gives the FCC jurisdiction "to preempt private land use regulations that conflict with federal policy..." -ARRL Letter