West Gulf Division December, 2013, Issue 9 Newsletter
--- From the Directors Chair
--- K5C Celebrates, The Cleburne Courthouse Centennial Special Event
--- ARRL Foundation Scholarships
--- ARRL Centennial QSO Party Kicks Off January 1
--- WG Leadership to Operate Special Event Station
--- Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH Receives Radio Club of America’s Sarnoff Citation
--- December is YOTA Month
--- ARRL “Symbol Rate” Petition
--- Planned ARRL Events for K5RAV and N5AUS
--- Upcoming Hamfests/Conventions
News from David Woolweaver, K5RAV, West Gulf Division Director
--- From the Directors Chair
Greetings from the Rio Grande Valley! My last hamfest visit in 2013 was with the great folks at NCTECH in
Azle. With the 2013 event calendar complete, I have been busily working on hamfest and convention
preparations for next year. We have secured some excellent speakers for the Section, State, Division and
Centennial Conventions in 2014 and I hope that you will plan to attend and support all of these events.
Delta Division Director David Norris, K5UZ and I are pleased to formally announce that the 2014 WGD/Delta
Division Regional ARRL Centennial Convention will be hosting ARRL Consultant Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH
and also, QST Contributing Editor Ward Silver, N0AX. Both gentlemen will be amazing contributors to this
highly anticipated event. Director Norris and I have been working feverishly with HamCom, our Vice
Directors and our team of volunteers to make this event stand out. Joining the usual list of exhibitors will be
the ARRL’s popular EXPO booth. In addition, you may have the opportunity to work the Special Event Station,
W100AW/5. Look for more details in future newsletters, but plan now to be in Plano in June.
Vice Director Stratton and I have been working on our meeting notes for the 2014 ARRL Annual Board
Meeting, which will be held in Windsor, CT on January 17-18, 2014. As has become customary, together we
will be opening up W1AW on Sunday, January 19, and calling CQ WGD. However, this year will be especially
important as it will be a rare weekend for Amateurs to work the centennial call sign W100AW Special Event
Station. Look for more details on this event on Page 3 as it is our desire to prioritize WGD residents during
this opportunity.
Christmas time is always busy as clubs and their members come together to celebrate and spend a few
minutes reliving the great experiences that they shared in the year. John and I wish all of you a very Merry
Christmas and safe Holiday Season!
73, K5RAV
--- K5C Celebrates, The Cleburne Courthouse Centennial Special Event
The FCC approved of the selected “Ham Radio Special Event” call sign of K5C in early October, 2013. Eight
local volunteer radio operators were signed up to work the frequencies and mode of their choice, on
November 16. When the final log pages were in, it showed that they had contacted 399 amateur radio
stations in 37 different states in North America and 33 contacts in 14 foreign countries using voice and Morse
Code. These contacts included England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, Australia, Malta and
Canada.
The volunteer operators opened this celebration to the world. The control operators were:
Matt Galandat, KY5O
Jay Stanfield, WB5UDA
Ken Bush, KB5YBI
Jim Erickson, KB0DBJ
Mike Kegley, KB5QFU
Jim Chance, WV5K
Jason Smith, W5NEC
Marty Reeves, AB5L
Congratulations to all for a successful event!
(reprinted with permission from WB5UDA)
--- ARRL Foundation Scholarships
The ARRL Foundation is now receiving scholarship applications for the 2013/14 scholarship season. Each
year the ARRL Foundation awards more than 70 scholarships that have been funded entirely by the
generosity of radio amateurs and friends, to young hams that are pursuing higher education. The awards
range from $500 to $5000.
All applicants must submit a full application and transcript to be considered (other rules may apply to specific
scholarships). The application period for all ARRL Foundation Scholarship opened October 1 each year and
closes promptly on February 1, 2014. Awards are usually announced to the winners by letter in mid-May.
Applicants should review the scholarship descriptions as some awards have specific geographic criteria or
requirements as to course of study.
Governed by a nine member volunteer Board of Directors, the ARRL Foundation is devoted to providing
valuable programs to serve the Amateur Radio community. To learn more about the ARRL Foundation or its
scholarship program please visit their website at http://www.arrl.org/the-arrl-foundation.
--- ARRL Centennial QSO Party Kicks Off January 1
The ARRL celebrates its centennial in 2014.
As part of the mix of events marking the League's 100th anniversary, the ARRL Centennial QSO Party gets
underway at 0001 UTC on January 1. This is a year-long operating event, in which participants can
accumulate points and win awards, as well as work new stations and make new friends. During 2014 W1AW
will be on the air at least twice from every US state and from most US territories, and it will be easy to work
all states solely by contacting W1AW portable operations. This will be the first ARRL-sponsored operating
event for which every member is worth at least one point. The event is open to all, although only ARRL
members and appointees, elected officials, HQ staff, and W1AW are worth points. Working the ARRL's
president, for example, earns 300 points!
To qualify for points, all contacts must be two-way (no cross-band or cross-mode contacts), using CW, phone
(FM, SSB, AM, digital voice), digital (any digital mode, such as PSK31, RTTY) on 160, 80, 40, 30, 17, 15, 12, 10,
6, 2 and 1.25 meters, plus 70 centimeters and satellite. Stations exchange signal report and ARRL
abbreviation. Contacts do not have to be contest-style, and providing ARRL organizational information is not
required. A centennial database will assign point values to all logs submitted electronically. Those not
submitting electronically, however, will need to obtain the QSO information during the contact. Since this is
not a contest, participants may make contacts in any fashion they prefer.
The Centennial QSO Party is scored by totaling the values of all eligible contacts. There are no multipliers or
bonus points. Logs submitted via Logbook of the World (LoTW) will be scored automatically.
For full information, visit the ARRL Centennial QSO Party webpage.
--- WG Leadership to Operate Special Event Station
Director Woolweaver and Vice Director Stratton will be operating from W1AW in Newington, CT with the
Special Event Station call, W100AW, on Sunday, January 19, 2014 beginning at 9:00 AM until 2:00PM CST.
Look for the WG “Boys” on plus or minus 14.285 (+/-) Mhz USB. They will be calling, “CQ West Gulf Division.”
If you ever wanted to make a contact with W1AW, now is your chance! QSL 100%.
This will be the first opportunity for amateurs to contact the special event station on a weekend and we
expect a high volume of activity. In an effort to give WGD members priority, we are establishing a CALL LIST
whereby Division residents can pre-register for the event. K5RAV and N5AUS will then work the call list at
specific times in hopes that the propagation will permit contact with those who have pre-registered.
Please visit Call List Registration to pre-register. Registration will close at 8:00 PM on Sunday, January 12,
2014 so that we can post the call list and the time schedules in advance of operation. All pre-registrations
will be confirmed for contact information to insure residency.
Real time posting of frequency and operating schedule will be made on the West Gulf Facebook Page at “ARRL
– West Gulf Division” and on our Twitter Page “ARRL_WGD.”
--- Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH Receives Radio Club of America’s Sarnoff Citation
Retired FCC Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, of
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, is the 2013 recipient of the Sarnoff Citation. The Radio Club of America established
the award in 1973 to recognize an individual or club member for “significant contributions to the
advancement of electronic communications.” The Sarnoff Citation has been made to RCA members “who have
contributed to advancement of electronic communications in any significant manner, including nontechnical
support of the wireless industry,” the club’s website states.
“I could never adequately thank the Radio Club of America for this award,” Hollingsworth said in a statement
conveyed to those attending the awards banquet in Orlando. “To receive this — and it is still hard to believe
— from such a prestigious organization is an amazing journey for a 13 year old in South Carolina just learning
to appreciate the magic of radio. Thank you all, and thank you very much for benefitting the entire nation by
helping so many people choose a career in wireless.”
Hollingsworth’s engraved award, dated November 23, says, “For your significant contributions and
outstanding achievements in wireless communications.” Other Sarnoff Citation laureates include US Senator
Barry Goldwater, K7UGA (SK), ARRL Roanoke Division Director Dennis Bodson, W4PWF, and two-way radio
pioneer Fred M. Link, ex-W2ALU (SK).
In his FCC Enforcement Bureau position, Hollingsworth, who retired in 2008, revived enforcement of
Amateur Service rules and regulations.
(from the ARRL website)
--- December is YOTA Month
During December several European countries will promote ham radio to youth as part of a Youngsters On The
Air (YOTA) event, on all bands and modes. Stations will be on the air with “YOTA” as a call sign suffix or
appendage. “The idea for this is to break the ice for some youngsters,” said Bjorn Dettmaring, ON5CFG. “This
is not a contest but a shout out to the world of ham radio. Try to get as many youngsters as you can on the air
this month,” he urged.
Awards are available for operators or SWLs working or monitoring YOTA stations. Dettmaring said the
December event follows up on the success of the Youngsters On The Air events last summer. Awards are free
and will be distributed electronically. Only contacts during December 2013 are valid. Each station may be
counted only one time.
--- Regulatory: ARRL’s “Symbol Rate Petition Nears Top of FCC’s “Most Active Proceedings” List
As the Monday, December 23, deadline nears to comment on the ARRL's "Symbol Rate" Petition for Rule
Making (PRM), the petition has moved into second place on the FCC's "Most Active Proceedings" page (it was
in first place briefly). Since the FCC put the ARRL Petition on public notice for comment as RM-11708, it has
attracted 685 comments (as of December 19) and counting. The petition asks the FCC to delete the symbol
rate limit in §97.307(f) of its Amateur Service rules and to replace it with a maximum data emission
bandwidth of 2.8 kHz on frequencies below 29.7 MHz. In a briefing memorandum released this week, the
League took steps to clarify just what it is -- and is not -- asking the FCC to do. ARRL General Counsel Chris
Imlay, W3KD, said that while a significant majority of the comments support the petition, some appear not to
understand the petition's intent. The League reiterated that its filing would not "initiate any large scale plan
to convert to regulation of emissions by bandwidth," and would not affect any emissions other than data.
"The Petition proposes no changes that would affect in any way the existing rules governing Morse
telegraphy, phone, and image emissions," the ARRL stressed in its talking points. "The state of the art in
digital communications now allows transmission protocols in which the symbol rate exceeds the present
limitations of §97.307(f) of the FCC rules, but the necessary bandwidth of the protocol is within the
bandwidth of a typical HF single sideband channel (3 kHz)." The League contends that eliminating symbol
rate limitations for data emissions and substituting a maximum authorized bandwidth "would permit the
utilization of all HF data transmission protocols presently legal in the Amateur Radio Service, as well as state-
of-the-art protocols that fall within the authorized bandwidth."
The briefing memo stresses that the petition would not:
•affect HF sub-bands where phone and image emissions are now permitted nor affect HF CW operation.
•permit digital voice transmissions in data and RTTY subbands nor add rules affecting digital voice.
•change restrictions on automatically controlled digital stations.
•permit data emissions to use occupied bandwidths in excess of what is now allowed.
Further, the petition does not call on the FCC to expand the frequencies on which "unspecified digital codes"
may be used. The original petition, as filed, included an error that the ARRL corrected in an Erratum deleting
the erroneous reference to unspecified digital codes at HF. "It was never our intention to permit unspecified
digital codes at HF," the League said.
All told, the ARRL talking points state, the proposal represents a balanced approach. "ARRL attempted, in
adopting the 2.8 kHz maximum bandwidth proposal for data emissions at HF, to balance the two objectives of
facilitating use of new and future data emissions and protecting against usurpation of the band by a few data
stations," the briefing memorandum said. "Some bandwidth limit is necessary if the outdated symbol rate
limit is eliminated, as it should be."
Reply comments – ie, comments on filed comments – on the ARRL's petition are due by January 7, 2014.
(from the ARRL website)
--- Planned ARRL Events for K5RAV and N5AUS
Director Woolweaver, K5RAV and Vice Director Stratton, N5AUS plan to attend the following upcoming
events:
K5RAV
-- ARRL Annual Board Meeting, January 17-18, Windsor, CT
N5AUS
-- 2014 Amateur Radio Fiesta, January 11, Schertz, TX
-- ARRL Annual Board Meeting, January 17-18, Windsor, CT
ARRL Convention and Hamfest events are a great place to visit with the Division and Section Leadership! Each
event will also include an ARRL forum where you can receive additional insight into Division and Section
matters.
At anytime that you have a concern or just want to say hello, contact Director Woolweaver at
K5RAV@arrl.org.
-- Upcoming Hamfests and Conventions
01/11/2014 | 2014 Amateur Radio Fiesta
Location: Schertz, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: San Antonio Radio Club
Website: http://w5sc.org
01/17/2014 | North Texas Section Convention (Cowtown Hamfest)
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Type: ARRL Convention pending Executive Committee approval
Sponsor: Lockheed Martin Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.cowtownhamfest.org
02/22/2014 | Orange Hamfest 2014
Location: Orange, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Orange ARC & Jefferson County ARC
Website: http://www.qsl.net/w5nd/
03/01/2014 | 25th Elk City Hamfest
Location: Elk City, OK
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: West Central Oklahoma Amateur Radio Club
03/01/2014 | Irving ARC Hamfest 2014
Location: Irving, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Irving Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://www.irvingarc.org/iarchamfest.html
03/07/2014 | West Gulf Division Convention (Green Country Hamfest)
Location: Claremore, OK
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Green Country Hamfest Committee
Website: http://greencountryhamfest.org
03/08/2014 | Williamson County ARC Hamfest
Location: Georgetown, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Williamson County Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://wcarc.com
03/15/2014 | West Texas Section Convention (59th Annual St. Patrick's Day Hamfest)
Location: Midland, TX
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Midland Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://hamfest.w5qgg.org
03/22/2014 | South Texas Section Convention (Greater Houston Hamfest)
Location: Rosenberg, TX
Type: ARRL Convention
Sponsor: Brazos Valley Amateur Radio Club (BVARC)
Website: http://houstonhamfest.org
03/29/2014 | HamEXPO
Location: Belton, TX
Type: ARRL Hamfest
Sponsor: Temple Amateur Radio Club
Website: http://tarc.org
Pete Thomson (KE5GGY), commented on The 3916 Santa Nets. He said, "Christmas is our favorite time of year on The 3916 Nets. Each year on the Santa Nets we are blown away by the response. It's incredible to hear the excitement in kids' voices as they talk to Santa Claus on Ham Radio. Once again this year we'll be having 15 different Santa Nets on 3.916 MHz. This should give everyone a chance to get involved." Thomson added that The Santa Nets are a great way to let kids experience both the magic of Christmas and amateur radio. He said, "We encourage hams to get their kids, grand kids and even neighbor kids into their shacks to participate in the Santa Net. The kids love talking to Santa and we get an opportunity to show a young person how amateur radio works." 
