Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club

Amateur Radio in and around the Red River Valley Area of Northeast Texas

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Rick Leonhardt

December 6, 2022 Update

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CLUB NEWS – CLUB NEWS – CLUB NEWS – CLUB NEWS

We are trying something new with the site.  General news is being posted to the forums and Club news is being posted on this page.  At least on a trial basis.  The reason is to make it easy for people to swing by the site and click the very first button on the second menu from the top “Club News” and get updates on recent happenings.  There is a screen grab posted further down the page.  On the right we added a search box and a list of the next five upcoming events.  Please make a forum post or email us with comments and let us know what you think of the new format.  Whether you suggest that we move something on the site to make it easier to find, you discover that something is not indexing correctly so the search gets a bad result or you want us to bump up the number of calendar events displayed on the right; please just let us know.  This is your Club and your website so we want it to reflect your wishes.

Short notice alert: From Club member Wyndell Ferguson (K5WJF) – This coming Thursday (December 8th) from 7pm-8pm the National Weather Service (NWS) Shreveport office is going to conduct a Winter Skywarn Spotter Training webinar.  Here is a static image of their notice:

If you are interested in taking this training please click – NWS-Shreveport Virtual Winter SKYWARN Class – and sign up.

Reminder: The Club Christmas party is this coming Friday, December 9th, from 7pm-9pm, at Magel’s Grill.  There is no RSVP this year, just show up and join the festivities!  We look forward to seeing all of you there.

Reminder: The Club membership voted to move the December meeting from the weekend following Christmas to the weekend before Christmas.  The meeting location will be High Cotton.  0900 pre-meeting breakfast, 1000 meeting.  There will again be two presentations.  One will be a primer on Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) by Charles Penry (WA5VHU), Leo Salas (N5JEP) and Phillip Beall (W5EBC) and a mystery interactive presentation by Dan Beard (KB7JZI).

VE Testing Report: On Saturday, December 3rd, three people tested.  Two for General and one for Technician.  They were from from Greenville, Mt. Vernon and one near Commerce.

New feature: Have you ever tired of searching high and low for the manual to a radio or other piece of gear?  Maybe the piece of equipment did not come with a printed manual, maybe it is a specialized “additional” manual for a piece of gear (i.e. the Yaesu FTM-400 “APRS” or “GM” standalone manuals) or maybe you simply lost the one you previously had?  Well, suffer no more!  We have added a new page to the Club website – “Manuals”.  There we have provided links to the manuals for some of the equipment that we know some Club members own.  Here is a screen grab illustrating how to get there:

We prepopulated the list, but there will be more that need to be added.  Please, if you want us to add anything to that page just email admins@wb5rdd.org.

A Club meeting was held and FUN BROKE OUT!  – Club Meeting 11/19/2022 @ High Cotton – In case you you were unable to attend we had a Club meeting on November 19th.  Everyone present said it was really enjoyable and some even used the word FUN!  Wow!  Club meeting and fun used in the same sentence.  The Club officers are devoted to try and make that a frequent event.  For a complete rundown of the meeting please read the forum post at this link.

Great News! – In the debrief of the last meeting (click here to read all about it) the Club not only received our Lion’s Club fair distribution (~$1,400) but we also received a $500 personal donation.  Subsequently, another member anonymously donated 10 $100 bills ($1,000) to the Club.

 

Annual Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Exercise Set for May 14

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Annual Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Exercise Set for May 14

Posted date: May 12, 2022in: News

The US Department of Defense will host this year’s Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test on Saturday, May 14. While Armed Forces Day is May 21, the AFD cross-band military-amateur radio event traditionally takes place 1 week earlier to avoid any conflict with the Dayton Hamvention®. The event is open to all radio amateurs.

The AFD Cross-Band Test is two-way communications exercise between military and amateur radio stations, as authorized under FCC Part 97 rules (47 CFR § 97.111), and Department of Defense Instruction 4650.02 which establishes the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS). During the exercise, radio amateurs listen for stations on military operating frequencies and transmit on frequencies in adjacent amateur bands.

ARRL  The National Association for Amateur Radio® has promoted the participation of military and amateur radio stations in the AFD event for more than 50 years. In the August 1950 issue of ARRL’s membership journal, QST, it was noted that “232 persons made perfect copy of the ‘Greeting to Amateurs’ broadcast at 25 w.p.m. over 13 military frequencies and have received a Certificate of Merit signed by the Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Louis Johnson.”

There are 24 military stations registered across the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, that will be participating in the 2022 event. Several of those stations will be using the 60-meter interoperative channels during this exercise. All operations will be on a not-to-interfere basis, in case there are real-world missions being supported during the event timeframe.

An AFD Secretary of Defense message will also be sent in CW and RTTY, and an AFD message will also be transmitted utilizing the Military Standard (MIL-STD) serial PSK waveform (M110), followed by MIL-STD Wide Shift FSK (850 Hz RTTY), as described in MIL-STD 188-110A/B.

A detailed list of modes and frequencies for military/government stations taking part in the Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test and information on the AFD message is available at www.dodmars.org. In the upper right corner is a dropdown with all the information.

Complete the request form to obtain a QSL card at www.usarmymars.org/armed-forces-day-qsl-card-request.

 

 

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ARRL Grant Web Site (Re Posting to insure all members are aware)

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This is the post/email from Charles Penray.

Apparently there are two seperate grants available; the first one i looked at was only $1000

and not a good fit for our club (IMHO)

This one is $2500 to 25,000; there are links on the page for applications.

https://apply.mykaleidoscope.com/scholarships/arrlgrantapplication

News from ARRL for VEs

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Hi, I just rec’d this today so I thought I’d update the web site. Rick

FCC $35 Amateur Application Fee Effective Date will be April 19
Important Message from ARRL VEC

By Maria Somma, AB1FM, ARRL VEC Manager

 

The FCC released a Public Notice on March 23, 2022, stating that the amateur radio application fees, including those associated with Form 605 application filings, would become effective on April 19, 2022. The Federal Communications Commission’s authority to impose and collect fees is mandated by Congress.

 

The $35 application fee, when it becomes effective on April 19, will apply to new, renewal, and modification applications that request a new vanity call sign. The fee will be per application.

 

Administrative updates, such as a change of name, mailing or email address, and modification applications to upgrade an amateur radio licensee’s operator class*, will be exempt from fees. (*this new information was just confirmed by FCC staff on Tuesday, March 29.)

 

VECs and Volunteer Examiner (VE) teams will not have to collect the $35 fee at exam sessions.

Once the FCC application fee takes effect, new applicants will pay the $15 exam session fee to the ARRL VE team as usual and pay the $35 application fee directly to the FCC by using the CORES FRN Registration system. VEC and VE team licensing procedures will not change.

 

When the FCC receives the examination information from the VEC, it will email a link with payment instructions to each qualifying candidate. The candidate will have 10 calendar days, from the date of the application file number being issued, to pay. After the fee is paid, and the FCC has processed an application, examinees will receive a second email from the FCC with a link to their official license or, in very rare instances, an explanation for why the application was dismissed or denied. The link will be valid for 30 days.

 

Per usual procedures, examinees that pass multiple exams at one session, will have one application transmitted to the FCC reflecting the highest-level license class earned. Again, our procedures will not change. The new license candidates will have an extra step before the license is issued. VE teams can point candidates to our FCC Application Fee webpage. Our new ARRL VEC CSCEs also include information about the application fee and points candidates to the webpage. The FCC rule pertaining to CSCEs will not change. CSCE credit will continue to be valid for 365 days, starting from the date of issuance.

 

For VE teams holding exam sessions the weekend before April 19, the FCC advised that applications not received by the FCC before April 19 will be subjected to the fee. The ARRL VEC urges teams to upload sessions via our documents upload page to get your sessions to us as quickly as possible. Assuming the FCC electronic batch filing (EBF) system is functioning properly on Monday, April 18, the VEC staff will work to get these to the FCC before April 19. Email the VEC department at VEC@arrl.org for the upload instructions.

 

Additionally, the FCC stated that the fee for applications processed and dismissed will not be refundable. This includes vanity requests where the applicant does not receive the requested call sign. However, returned applications that are missing information will not require an additional fee, if the missing information is submitted to the FCC within the proper amount of time.

 

Youth Licensing Grant Program

Anticipating the implementation of the fee in 2022, the ARRL Board of Directors, approved the ARRL Youth Licensing Grant Program in July 2021. Under the program, ARRL will cover a one-time $35 application fee for license candidates younger than 18-years old for tests administered under the auspices of the ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (ARRL VEC). Qualified candidates also would pay a reduced exam session fee of $5 to the ARRL VEC. ARRL is finalizing details for administering the program.

 

Further news and instructions will follow as the FCC releases them. Details for the ARRL Youth Licensing Grant Program will be posted when available. For additional information, visit the resources below.

 

ARRL VEC Application Fees webpage:

arrl.org/fcc-application-fee

 

ARRL News Story: arrl.org/news/new-amateur-radio-license-applications-fee-to-become-effective-april-19-2022

 

FCC CORES Video Tutorials: fcc.gov/licensing-databases/fcc-registration-system-cores/commission-registration-system-video-tutorials

 

FCC Registration Help: apps.fcc.gov/cores/publicHome.do?help=true
ARRL VEC

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