DELARANEWS

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

ARRL Creates New Online Groups for

Members to Communicate with

Leadership

ARRL's Committee on Communication with ARRL Members has opened new online forums where all radio amateurs -- ARRL members and non-members alike -- can discuss issues and topics in two-way conversation with ARRL leadership. The new groups are aimed at enhancing communication among ARRL leadership, staff, members, and prospective members, in a manner that enables timely updates and collegial discussion. This project was based on the success over the past several years of the ARRL-LoTW (Logbook of The World) Group in responding to Amateur Radio operators' questions and generating discussion on ways to improve that program. "The LOTW initiative has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of online Groups as a means of achieving the desired interaction," ARRL said in announcing the new groups. ARRL has added three online groups: • ARRL-Contesting -- Moderated by ARRL Contest Advisory Committee Chairman Dennis Egan, W1UE. • ARRL-Awards -- Moderated by ARRL Radiosport and Field Services Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ. `• ARRL-IARU -- Moderated by IARU Secretary Dave Sumner, K1ZZ. The existing ARRL-LOTW group, which has about 4,750 members, remains hosted by Groups.io but has moved. Everyone who subscribes to an ARRL Group is also automatically subscribed to the "ARRL Groups" group. This administrative feature will allow ARRL to convey routine announcements relevant to subscribers of all ARRL groups. ARRL IT Manager Michael Keane, K1MK, worked with Groups.io to set up the new groups. Since these new groups are hosted on a Groups.io platform, those wishing to subscribe must use a Groups.io username and password, if they have one, or create a Groups.io account if they don't. In the months ahead, the Committee envisions creating more online groups to support two-way communication focusing on areas of additional interest to radio amateurs, including ARRL activities, services, initiatives, and policies. ARRL currently hosts members-only online forums that include Awards and Contesting. While these forums will continue to operate, participants will be encouraged to post new threads in the appropriate new groups. Participants will be expected to adhere to some basic ground rules: • All questions are welcome, no matter how many times they have already been asked and answered, or how obvious the answers might be in the documentation. • Neither personal attacks nor foul language will be tolerated. Violators will immediately be placed on "moderated" status, meaning their subsequent posts will require Moderator approval until the Moderator's trust has been regained. • Individuals posting are reminded that these forums are open to everyone, including prospective hams and operators who are not ARRL members but may be thinking about joining. Civility and courtesy are expected, even when you may take issue with a post or thread topic. -ARRL Letter

World Radiocommunication Conference

2019 Opens in Egypt

World Radiocommunication Conference 2019 (WRC-19) is under way in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. More than 3,500 delegates from 193 member-states around the world are attending the month-long gathering, sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which opened today (October 28). WRC-19 delegates will discuss changes to the ITU Radio Regulations. Amateur radio issues are but a small part of the conference agenda. The ITU is characterizing the aim of the conference as forging pathways for future digital communications. “WRC-19 [is] to manage scarce radio-frequency spectrum for rapidly evolving terrestrial and space-based communication technologies,” ITU said in a news release, describing WRC-19 as an “international treatymaking conference governing the global management of scarce radio-frequency spectrum as well as geostationary-satellite and non-geostationary-satellite orbits.” UN Secretary-General António Guterres addressed WRC-19 by video. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and its member-societies are representing the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services with a team of 14 people from 10 countries. Agenda Items of particular interest to IARU are: • Agenda Item 1.1, to allocate spectrum in the 50 – 54 MHz Region in Region 1 to the Amateur Service. • Agenda Item 1.13, to consider new spectrum for International Mobile Telecommunications, which could potentially impact amateur spectrum at around 47 GHz. • Agenda Item 1.16, which could impact amateur spectrum at 5 GHz. • Agenda Item 9.1.6, addressing Wireless Power Transmission (WPT), where harmonics of WPT systems could negatively impact the MF/HF radio spectrum. • Agenda item 10, to consider WRC-23 agenda items that could impact the Amateur Service, including the 1240 – 1300 MHz band. “This meeting is the culmination of 4 years’ work by IARU in ITU and regional telecommunications organizations to protect and enhance Amateur Service frequency allocations,” IARU said. - ARRL Letter

Milestone for Cleveland Weather Hams

Skywarn Recognition Day 2020 - THE FINAL YEAR AT HOPKINS Skywarn Recognition Day will be taking place nationally on Saturday, December 7th, 2019 for 24 hours starting at 0000Z (Friday, Dec 6th, 7:00 PM Eastern until Saturday, Dec 7th, 7:00 PM Eastern). The NWS Cleveland Office will be participating from 12:00 PM until 7:00 PM on Saturday, December 7th, 2019. We will be operating under the call sign WX8CLE and will be active on UHF, VHF, and HF (HF bands to be determined later). We will also periodically spin the dial on local repeaters. Just like last year, we will operate UHF/VHF inside the office and HF outside in the new vehicle. Anyone interested in attending is encouraged to sign up here, but since we will be partially operating from outside, last minute walk ins are welcome. Access to the inside of the building will be restricted based on attendance as the operating area can only accommodate a certain number of people at once. As you may know, the Cleveland NWS office will be relocating in spring 2020 so this will be the last time to operate from the office at the airport! The address for the National Weather Service Cleveland is 5301 W Hangar Rd, Cleveland, OH 44135. This is off of Brookpark Rd, between NASA and Hopkins, behind the UPS hangar.
DELARANews

Ham Radio News

…because we don’t live in a vacuum

ARRL Creates New Online Groups

for Members to Communicate

with Leadership

ARRL's Committee on Communication with ARRL Members has opened new online forums where all radio amateurs -- ARRL members and non-members alike -- can discuss issues and topics in two-way conversation with ARRL leadership. The new groups are aimed at enhancing communication among ARRL leadership, staff, members, and prospective members, in a manner that enables timely updates and collegial discussion. This project was based on the success over the past several years of the ARRL-LoTW (Logbook of The World) Group in responding to Amateur Radio operators' questions and generating discussion on ways to improve that program. "The LOTW initiative has clearly demonstrated the effectiveness of online Groups as a means of achieving the desired interaction," ARRL said in announcing the new groups. ARRL has added three online groups: • ARRL-Contesting -- Moderated by ARRL Contest Advisory Committee Chairman Dennis Egan, W1UE. • ARRL-Awards -- Moderated by ARRL Radiosport and Field Services Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ. `• ARRL-IARU -- Moderated by IARU Secretary Dave Sumner, K1ZZ. The existing ARRL-LOTW group, which has about 4,750 members, remains hosted by Groups.io but has moved. Everyone who subscribes to an ARRL Group is also automatically subscribed to the "ARRL Groups" group. This administrative feature will allow ARRL to convey routine announcements relevant to subscribers of all ARRL groups. ARRL IT Manager Michael Keane, K1MK, worked with Groups.io to set up the new groups. Since these new groups are hosted on a Groups.io platform, those wishing to subscribe must use a Groups.io username and password, if they have one, or create a Groups.io account if they don't. In the months ahead, the Committee envisions creating more online groups to support two-way communication focusing on areas of additional interest to radio amateurs, including ARRL activities, services, initiatives, and policies. ARRL currently hosts members-only online forums that include Awards and Contesting. While these forums will continue to operate, participants will be encouraged to post new threads in the appropriate new groups. Participants will be expected to adhere to some basic ground rules: • All questions are welcome, no matter how many times they have already been asked and answered, or how obvious the answers might be in the documentation. • Neither personal attacks nor foul language will be tolerated. Violators will immediately be placed on "moderated" status, meaning their subsequent posts will require Moderator approval until the Moderator's trust has been regained. • Individuals posting are reminded that these forums are open to everyone, including prospective hams and operators who are not ARRL members but may be thinking about joining. Civility and courtesy are expected, even when you may take issue with a post or thread topic. -ARRL Letter