Upcoming Events
e-mail OSCAR You can now e-mail the club officers and webmaster at oscarmn@ll.net. This address will be checked weekly. This address will also be used for future communications from OSCAR. This will help unclog my (N0UW) personal e-mail, and track where the spam is coming from. Speaking of Spam I came across a report on how your e-mail address gets on spam lists. It is a study that originated by the Center for Democracy & Technology (whoever they are). It was interesting reading. You can download a .pdf or a .html version. Arthritis Walk Several OSCAR members assisted with communications for the Arthritis Walk in Owatonna on Saturday, 17-May. The walk used the trail from the Warshinski Chalet to Kaplan Woods. The progress of the participants was monitores using the 145.490 repeater. There were over 55 walkers and I know the organizers appreciated the assistance. Thanks to Willis KA0KEL, Gary KC0KEW, Gene K0UOY, and Tom N0UW for your help in this public service activity. County Emergency Assist Speaking of public service, we are still looking for volunteers that would be willing to assist county officials in the event of an emergency. Amatuer radio volunteers are routinely recognized in the media for the assistance provided. Public service is often one of reasons specified for supporting amateur radio interests in the legislative world. Please let us know at oscarmn@ll.net that you are willing to assist. Thanks!! Kid's Day A Kid's Day event is scheduled for June 21, from 1800-2400 UTC. Activity for Kid's Day takes place on 20, 15 and 10 meters and can include local 2-meter repeaters. The suggested exchange for Kid's Day is first name, age, location and favorite color. It's okay to work the same station again if the operator has changed. Kid's Day is intended to encourage young people (licensed or not) to enjoy Amateyr Radio with an on-the-air experience. It is an opportunity to generate interest in our hobby and allow hams to share the hobby with children. Kid's Day is not a contest, and patience is a must. The role of the licensee and control operator is to help with the basics, keep an eye on the technical aspects of the operation, observe third-party traffic agreements and be sure to ID at the proper intervals. In this event, it's the quality of the contacts that counts, not quantity. Get more details at ARRL Kid's Day Logbook of the World The long-anticipated "Logbook of the World" (LoTW) -- ARRL's secure electronic contact-confirmation system -- is being opened for beta testing. LoTW now is available to all who wish to participate in the beta testing program. Beta testing will wrap up later this year, but no specific date has been determined. See ARRL LoTW for more information. Scanner Law Update In the May OSCAR Newsletter, I mentioned the MN Scanner Law. While researching the scanner laws of neighboring states, I found a Federal Preemption notice for Amateur Radio. PR Docket 91-36 is the federal preemption of state and local laws concerning amateur use of transceivers capable of reception beyond amateur allocations. This preemption allows amateurs to possess a transceiver capable of reception (but not transmission) on frequencies adjoining the amateur VHF/UHF bands. It does not apply to scanners which are separate from an amateur transceiver. You can download a (5 page) .pdf file from the ARRL at PR Docket 91-36. It's probably a good ides to keep a copy in your car with a copy of your amateur license. Talk of the Nation The 30-Apr edition of "Talk of the Nation" on National Public Radio featured Danny Grgegory and Paul Sahre. They are co-authors of a book entitled "Hello World: A Life in Ham Radio". You can listen to the interview by host Neal Conan at Talk of the Nation . The interview is approximately 12 minutes. Keep Your FCC Data Current If your license has not expired, 47 C.F.R Section 97.21 requires you to apply for timely modification of the license as necessary to show your correct mailing address, name, club name, license trustee or custodian name. Revocation of your station license or suspension of your operator license may result when correspondence from the FCC is returned as undeliverable because you failed to provide the correct mailing address. It must be easy to forget your update. When OSCAR made the initial mailings last year, we had about 10% of the letters returned when using the address contained in the FCC data base. For an operator/primary station license, the application must be made on a FCC Form 605 document. From FCC US Frequency Allocation Chart
View, download, or order a US Frequency Allocation Chart from the Worked All States Map The New Jersey QRP Club has a Worked All States (WAS) map and record sheet on their web site. You can download .pdf versions at the New Jersey QRP Club web site. New Jersey QRP Club Side Note The NorCal QRP Club and the New Jersey QRP Club have joined forces, effective June 4, to form The American QRP Club. A larger, more comprehensive single journal, The Homebrewer, will replace QRP and QRP Homebrewer. The new club already has begun to consolidate kitting operations as well, and a new Web site http://www.a-qrp.org is in the offing. Detailed information is available on the American QRP Club's temporary Web site at the current NJQRP Web site. CT Logging Software The contest logging software CT became freeware as of April 2. A character-mode version of CT for Windows, CT 9.90, was released on April 22. It's designed to work with Windows 98 and later. (The latest DOS version is CT 9.89.003.) Visit the Update CT site to download the software. Users must uninstall old versions before attempting to load the newest version. Support will be via a users group reflector. From ARRL Spyware information I came across an interesting web site sharing information on browser hijacking, adware, and auto dialers. You can access the information at Spyware Info . Something to Sell or Buy? Something to Add? Don't forget the "classified" section of the OSCAR web site. The editor is always looking for ideas and submissions for future newsletters. Send ideas, articles, event dates, and updates to oscarmn@ll.net | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
