The ARRL Letter Vol. 12, No. 6 March 24, 1993 W2HD is "Ham of the Year" Former ARRL president gets top Hamvention award For the third time in the past four years an ARRL dignitary has been named the Dayton Hamvention Ham of the Year. This year the winner is Harry J. Dannals, W2HD, ARRL president from 1972 to 1982. Dannals was cited for his three decades of volunteer work on behalf of Amateur Radio in ARRL positions ranging from section manager to the top spot as president. The Hamvention's Technical Excellence Award this year goes to AMSAT Vice President of Engineering and ARRL Technical Advisor Richard Jansson, WD4FAB. Jansson has volunteered his engineering expertise to a number of ARRL book and magazine presentations, and for AMSAT has helped in the design of several Oscar satellites. Robert Adams, WA9ZMO, was picked for the Hamvention's Special Achievement Award, for his 3,328 phone patches run for military personnel during the 1991 Gulf war. That work earned Adams a place in the Guiness Book of World Records, according to the Hamvention Awards Committee. Adams, 46, is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. He lives in Palos Heights, Illinois. Harry Dannals, 65, was first licensed in 1946 as a teen-ager with W2TUK, a call sign he held until receiving W2HD in 1976. His father was W2GG/K4GG (now a Silent Key) and a brother, Frank, is W2DRL. Dannals learned the Morse code at age 10 and was sending code practice to Naval Communications reservists a few laters later; his father was commanding officer of a USNR communications unit on Long Island. Dannals says he probably wouldn't have waited quite so long (9 years) to get his first amateur ticket if the family hadn't moved quite so often and the Second World War hadn't intervened. After moves from Long Island to Pennsylvania, then Virginia, then to Balboa in the U.S. Canal Zone, Dannals joined the Navy three days after graduating from Balboa High School. Dannals served two years in the Navy as a Radioman Second Class and was the youngest supervisor of the watch at a major Navy shore station, NBA. After discharge in 1946 he went to the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn to earn a B.S. in electrical engineering. During his freshman year he joined the ranks of amateurs as W2TUK. Dannals first worked for ERCO Radio Labs on Long Island, a small company owned by W2GYL and whose chief engineer was W2FI. He then went to work for Sperry (now called Unisys), where he met his wife, Kay, and from where he retired 38 years later. Harry Dannals has been an integral part of the ARRL for nearly 40 years, beginning with election as NYC-LI Section Communications Manager in 1955 through Hudson Division vice director (1961-64), division director (1965- 72), and culminating in ARRL president from 1972 to 1982. Since 1984 he has been ARRL President Emeritus. During his 10 years as president Dannals logged more than half a million miles of air travel and visited all 50 states as well as Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, Canada, and Mexico. Dannals is most proud of the ARRL success at the World Administrative Radio Conference in 1979, although he did not attend. "Such a trip wouldhave been a waste of money," he said, "just to wave the League flag when there were so many talented and experienced staff people and others doing the job so capably." Today, W2HD is in his second term as president of the Quarter Century Wireless Club. Locally, he's a director of the Albemarle Amateur Radio Club, and a volunteer examiner. In 1992 he received the club's Elmer of the Year award. Busy in retirement When Dick Jansson, WD4FAB, took a medical retirement from Martin Marietta Aerospace in 1982, at age 52, Amateur Radio was the boost he needed at what he describes as a "low point" in his life, enabling him to continue challenging work on behalf of other amateurs. That work has now been recognized by the Hamvention awards committee. As a senior staff engineer at Martin Marietta, Jansson did research in "cryogenic thermal design," as he told *QST* in early 1982. He simultaneously was helping AMSAT in the thermal design of the Phase 3 satellites. Jansson has now channeled his mechanical engineering pursuits into a high-tech hobby, and notes that he has more analytic capability at home today with his personal computers than was available professionally to him ten years with a mainframe computer. Jansson uses three computers for his AMSAT efforts from his home in Maitland, Florida: a 80486/DX2-66 for "the heavy-hitting number crunching" of engineering analyses; a '386 for the "mundane tasks of word processing"; and and a '386 notebook p.c. for use on the road. All are LAN- connected. Interestingly, Dick Jansson was picked by the Hamvention for his *mechanical* (not electrical) achievements, possibly a "first" in our electronics hobby. Other recent Hamvention Ham of the Year winners include former ARRL General Manager and International Affairs Vice President Richard Baldwin, W1RU, in 1992; John Johnston, W3BE, chief of the FCC's Personal Radio Branch, in 1991; and ARRL Hudson Division Director Steve Mendelsohn, WA2DHF, in 1990. The 1993 winners will receive their awards at the Hamvention banquet on April 24, 1993. Ham with scanner hears apparent death plot An Arizona amateur has been credited with helping expose an apparent plot by two teen-agers to poison a teacher and classmate. Wayne Spaulding, KB7JYG, of Mesa, Arizona, east of Phoenix, overheard a cordless telephone conversation on the 46 MHz band on the evening of March 10, in which poisoning was mentioned. Spaulding taped the conversation and the next day called the police. Police played the tape for the Mesa High School track coach, Gary Butler, who identified the two voices on the tape as those of students in his home room, one a 16- year-old, the other 17 years old. Butler one of the youths' targets, as was a 15-year-old girl. Police have booked both teen-agers on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder. Police said one of the teens had a "sizable amount" of poisonous drain cleaner with him at the time of his arrest, according to *The Arizona Republic*. Police told the newspaper that eavesdropping on cordless telephones is not illegal but implied that the reception was made on a "ham radio," when in fact Spaulding was listening on a ordinary consumer scanner radio. The two youths are scheduled for hearings in early April to determine whether they should be tried as adults on the conspiracy charges. Wayne Spaulding has been a licensed amateur for about two and a half years and his primary interests are on the UHF amateur bands. He and his wife, Cheri, both hold Technician class licenses. Cheri is N7PHR. Wayne Spaulding, coincidentally, works for the Mesa school system, designing and building electronic equipment to enable disabled students to use computers. FCC PROPOSES GREATER USE OF 902-928 MHz SPECTRUM The FCC has proposed new rules to allow greater use of the 902-928 MHz band for so-called automatic vehicle monitoring systems. The proposed new rules would replace interim rules adopted in 1974. An FCC news release says "The Commission proposed to expand the service to encompass location of all objects, animate and inanimate, and to allow licensees to provide service on a private carrier basis to individuals, the Federal Government, and Part 90 eligibles. The Commission also proposed to rename the AVM service as the Location and Monitoring Service (LMS) and to define LMS as the use of non-voice signalling methods from and to radio units to make known the location of such units. "Comments are requested on this proposal and on whether LMS systems and other entities currently occupying the 902-928 MHz band will be capable of handling any increased congestion. "In the 902-928 MHz band, the Commission proposed that wide-band and narrow-band LMS systems not be licensed on the same spectrum. The Commission proposed the wide-band LMS systems be licensed on the 904-912 and 918-926 MHz bands and the narrow-band LMS systems be licensed on the 902-904, 912-918, and 926-928 MHz bands. The Commission believes that wideband systems are capable of operating in a shared environment, with cooperation among the various licensees, but solicits comments on the need and desirability of providing for exclusivity for some period of time...." FCC PLANS 449-MHZ NPRM ON WIND PROFILER SYSTEMS Tthe FCC on March 10 agreed to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Notice of Inquiry on the subject of wind profiler radars (ET Docket 93-59). The FCC said it "has proposed to allocate the 449 MHz band for wind profiler radar systems (wind profilers) and requested comment on whether wind profilers also should be accommodated in the 915 MHz band, as proposed by Radian Corporation, or in some other frequency band .... The 449 MHz band that the Commission is proposing for wind profiler radars currently is allocated on a primary basis for Government radiolocation operations by the military. "In addition, the 449 MHz band is allocated on a secondary basis to the Amateur Radio Service and to Government and non-Government radiolocation systems for coastal radars." A major topic of the docket proceeding is expected to be the exact nature of the sharing arrangement. FCC PROPOSES NEW GUIDES ON EFFECTS OF RADIATION The FCC has proposed changing its guidelines for evaluating environmental RF radiation, to reflect the guidelines adopted in 1992 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Inc. (IEEE). "The new guidelines differ significantly from those they replace," the Commission said. "For example two 'tiers' of exposure levels are now recommended, one for 'controlled' environments, and another, generally more restrictive, for 'uncontrolled' environments. Also, new restrictions are placed on currents induced in the human body by RF fields below 100 MHz. "Another significant change is the imposition of stricter limitations on automatic exclusions for low-power devices, such as hand-held radios and telephones, based on operating power. The 1982 guidelines generally excluded such devices with powers of seven watts or less. The new guidelines contain more complex and more restrictive criteria for such exclusions, with allowable power decreasing as frequency increases." FCC Issues formal 219-220 MHZ proposal The FCC has issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making in its proposal to create a new shared band for amateurs at 219-220 MHz. In RM-7747 to Commission would allocate 219-220 MHz to amateurs on a secondary basis for amateur auxiliary station (point-to-point) packet backbone networks and other amateur point-to-point fixed communications. "The proposed allocation would allocate," the FCC says, "frequency congestion that amateurs are experiencing in certain areas of the country in the 222-225 MHz band and would facilitate establishment of regional and nationwide backbone networks for amateur packet communications." The FCC also proposes requirements "to ensure that secondary use of the 219-220 MHz band by amateurs does not interfee with primary and existing secondary licensees in this and adjacent bands. "These proposals," the FCC's NPRM continues, "are in response to a petition for rule making (RM-7747) filed by the American Radio Relay League." A detailed report on the League's filing appears in *QST* for August, 1991, page 58. The FCC's proposal acknowledges that most outside parties responding to the League's petition support it, including amateur groups; the Chief Regulatory Counsel of the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA, on behalf of the National Communications System; and the New Hampshire Office of Emergency Management. The 216-218 and 219-220 MHz bands currently are occupied on a primary basis by the maritime mobile service for Automated Maritime Telecommunications Systems (AMTS) and the 218-219 MHz band is allocated on a primary basis to Interactive Video and Data Services (IVDS). Additional frequencies between 216 and 220 MHz are allocated on a secondary basis to wildlife telemetry, radiolocation, fixed and land mobile services, and the aeronautical mobile service. The only service to oppose the petition was the Association for Maximum Service Television (MSTV), saying that no amateur operations should be allowed in the 216-220 MHz range because of a potential for interference to TV channel 13 (at 210-216 MHz). The FCC has concluded that amateur access to 216-219 MHz range is not feasible because of potential interference to other point-to-point services, and to TV channel 13. The FCC does, however, support amateur use of 219- 220, saying that amateurs can divide the one megahertz into ten 100-kHz channels, allowing them the additional packet backbones they need. The FCC also says it believes amateurs have the technical expertise to design their packet systems to operate in the 219-220 MHz band without interference to other services. The FCC also agreed that power limits suggested by the ARRL in its petition 25 watts PEP for Novices, 50 watts PEP for all others) "are appropriate and reasonable." In 1991 the ARRL and Watercom (an AMTS service) had suggested mandatory coordination of amateur operations, but the FCC said such an arrangement would not be permissible under the Communications Act. As for possible amateur interference to AMTS stations, the FCC proposes a notification plan similar to one originally proposed by Watercom for its service. Amateurs would be required to notify the appropriate AMTS licensee of any amateur station that would be within 240 km (150 miles) of an AMTS station. The FCC also proposes to require amateurs to obtain written approval from the appropriate AMTS licensee before operating within 80 km (50 miles) of an AMTS station. Finally, amateur operation in the 219-220 MHz band would be limited to 56 kilobauds and a maximum bandwidth of 100 kHz. The Comment deadline for this NPRM is June 15, 1993. The Reply Comment deadline is July 15, 1993. More information on this NPRM will appear in May *QST*. BRIEFS * The FCC has dropped the station location address from amateur licenses, effective with new license Form 660, introduced in February. The mailing address now becomes the only means for the FCC to communicate with amateur licensees. For now Volunteer Examiner Coordinators are being told to ignore the station location information asked for on current FCC Form 610s (Section I, Line 8). "We expect this will improve the processing time at FCC for applications," ARRL VEC Manager Bart Jahnke, KB9NM said. Jahnke also said he expects that FCC will drop the station location box from future printings of the Form 610. * A southern California amateur has won his antenna lawsuit after a three year battle. Jeff Wolf, WA6DAL, of Palos Verdes Estates was found by a judge in a non-binding arbitration hearing to have been in full compliance with 1989 plans for his antenna system approved by both the PV Homes Association and the city of Palos Verdes Estates. When several neighbors complained after Wolf's tower went up, the homes association began challenging the installation. Wolf was represented by his brother Andrew, a lawyer at the hearing. "Before I could even call my brother to the stand," Andrew told the Palos Verdes *Peninsula News*, "the judge turned and said 'What are we doing here?'" * In our last issue we noted three new members of the ARRL Headquarters 10-Year-Club but inadvertently left out a fourth -- Nao Akiyama, NX1L. Nao is International Programs Manager and, in his spare time, one of the building's most active DXers. * September, 1992 *QST* reported on FCC action against James Winstead, KK6SM, who admitted causing intentional interference to both amateur and commercial channels in the San Francisco Bay area from October, 1990 through July, 1991. The story reported that Winstead was hit with a Notice of Apparent Liability for $15,000, which was issued May 18, 1992. According to the FCC's David Hartshorn, Winstead appealed the fine, and it was reduced to $2,000 in July, 1992. In addition, Winstead's amateur and commercial licenses were suspended for one year, beginning September 24, 1991. * Amateurs in Vermont will get a break on their call sign auto plates if a bill before the state's house of representatives passes. The bill, H.377, would repeal a current law that requires those holding special plates for "safety organizations" to pay $20 *every year* at renewal time. Democratic State Rep. John Freidin introduced the bill, saying "amateur radio operators make a valuable contributin to Vermont and charge nothing for their services, while the state's cost for re-issuing special plates is no greater than its cost for re-issuing regular plates." Vermont amateurs are being asked to contact their representatives to urge them to co-sponsor H.377. * Former FCC Chairman Alfred E. Sikes has joined the Hearst Corporation to, according to the *New York Times*, "head [its] efforts to marry its journalistic resources with satellite, computer and other emerging technologies," as head of Hearst's new Media and Technology Group. Sikes, 53, said that his new job was not to be a lobbyist. "This job is a business job," Sikes told the *Times*. * The ARRL Awards Committee has unanimously voted, on recommendation of the DX Advisory Committee, to delete the Abu Ail Islands from the ARRL DXCC Countries List, effective March 31, 1991 -- the date when the islands became "unadministered." * 2-meter DXCC Number 3 has been issued, to Kjell Rasmusson, SM7BAE, of Staffanstorp, Sweden. He submitted 102 QSLs, following in the footsteps of winners Number 1, W5UN, and Number 2, KB8RQ. * The rules for "rover" entries in ARRL VHF contests have been changed, effective with the June VHF QSO Party, for which full rules will appear in May *QST*. *eofb