October 2015 Newsletter A full color copy of this newsletter with pictures and hamfest flyers can be found at www.az-arrl.org or http://www.arrl.org/Groups/view/arizona or www.facebook.com/arrlarizona Duh why did I have this newsletter done on October 1st and did not publish to the Section. I got distracted and thought I had. Ok you can take it out on me when you see me at the ham events. The Southwest Division Convention was really exciting there were lots of vendors and a real buzz to the event. If you have never attended one of these you should put them on your calendar. Plan ahead and get the most out it. The seminars were great, the vendors were extremely friendly. I had a table set up there for Arizona Section since we are hosting the 2016 Southwest convention at the Yuma Hamfest February 19th through the 20th 2016, I handed out flyers concerning the southwest convention and at the banquet dinner it was announced that next year 2016 would be in Yuma, Arizona. Go to http://www.yumahamfest.org for further information or snail mail Director of the Yuma Amateur Radio Hamfest Organization (YARHO), Roger Hunt (K7MEX). Snail mail YARHO P.O. Box 1843 Yuma, AZ 85366-1843. First Auxiliary Communications class in Arizona Arizona saw its first Auxiliary Communications (AuxComm) course on a packed weekend of August 29-30. The AuxComm course is provided by the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Emergency Communications, and trains ham radio operators to be technical specialists providing emergency communications to local, county and state governments. The Arizona Department of Emergency Management hosted the class, where instructors Carter Davis KG6FV and Arnie Lewin W7BIA took 21 participants through the 20 hour course, teaching AuxComm roles and responsibilities, the incident radio communications plan, interoperability and team management. Among others, students represented ARES/RACES, CERT groups, law enforcement, faith-based groups and search and rescue organizations. These volunteers got a chance to meet each other, work together and share their own agency knowledge before a disaster occurred. "The most valuable thing that I took away was the networking with my classmates. Having faces and names means that we are all better prepared for a future event," said one participant. "Also valuable was to see the way the incident action plan came together. I realized that the ICS forms weren't just for documentation after the fact, but were used during an event as well." Present at the course were Morgan Hoaglin WW7B, Dennis Bietry KE7EJF and Mike Drapkin WB2SEF. In addition to teaching some units of the course, they have been recently certified as AuxComm trainers, and will be providing future AuxComm training in Arizona. Andrew Cornwall Jr. KF7CC Yours truly Robert Spencer KE8DM ARRL Arizona Section Manager attended this training session. OUTSTANDING class and Instructors thank you to them for taking the time to put this on, it was great. 1 YEAR OF PLUTO SPECIAL EVENT DECEMBER 2015 Pluto and Flagstaff, Arizona are forever linked in history. On February 18th, 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer, discovered Pluto at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, using a blink comparator and photographic plates. Eighty five years later, the New Horizons probe reached the Pluto system, imaging Pluto, Charon, and the other small moons. The year 2015 has been designated the "Year of Pluto." To celebrate, the members of the Northern Arizona DX Association(NADXA) are sponsoring a special event using the call sign of W7P from 00:00Z December 5th to 2400Z December 13. Operations will take place at Lowell Observatory, from inside the Pluto discovery telescope dome, as well as, the homes of the club members. Members will be operating both CW & SSB. There also will be a very special guest operator, Doug Tombaugh,N3PDT, nephew of Clyde Tombaugh who will operate for 3 days during the early part of the event(Dec 6, 7, & 8th as time permits). Any station who contacts W7P at least once will be eligible for a beautiful glossy commemorative certificate for $5. It will be cardstock quality, frameable and shows a New Horizons image of Pluto, pictures of Lowell telescopes, a brief history of Pluto's discovery, and a description of the New Horizons communication system. All certificates will include a QSL card. USA participants can obtain QSL cards with an SASE or a minimum of a $2 donation sent only to the W7P “Pluto” address as listed in QRZ.com or see details at www.nadxa.com website. All DX contacts send $7. for the certificate or a minimum of a$2 donation & an S.A.E. for QSL. Certificate and QSL request can be sent in the same envelope. Contact Bob Wertz, NF7E, President, Northern Arizona DX Association [email protected] or call 928- 527-0993. ARIZONA SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR Emcomm is an ever evolving function. Many times, I talk to hams about the FEMA independent study courses and get a response similar to: “I’ve been a ham for 35 years. I don’t need any extra training.” Well, the reality is, they need it more than the new hams. Emcomm has been evolving since the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Hams need the training to understand how they fit in a response and can properly support it. The days of just showing up to help are long over and those hams actually can become a part of the problem. Don’t be a part of the problem, be a part of the solution and take IS-100b, IS-200b, IS-700a and IS-800b. They are online and free at www.training.fema.gov/is. After you have received your completion certificate forward it to your DEC. Have questions? Contact your local District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) / Dennis Bietry-KE7EJF Section Emergency Coordinator [email protected] ARRL Board Approves Dues Hike 07/20/2015 Meeting over the weekend in Windsor, Connecticut, the ARRL Board of Directors has approved a $10 increase in the League’s annual dues rate, effective January 1, 2016. In doing so, the Board adopted a recommendation of the Administration & Finance Committee. ARRL basic dues have been held at $39 a year since 2001. Sumner said the League has done as much as it can to hold off a dues increase for more than a decade, but now it’s a necessity, not an option. “One of the most difficult decisions a membership organization faces is a dues increase,” he said. “Over the past 14 years we have managed to hold the increase in expenses to just 19 percent, against a US inflation rate of 32 percent over the same period. We have implemented operating efficiencies that allowed reducing the staff by 15 percent while expanding the range of services to members and to Amateur Radio as a whole. We created a development program, offering to those members who have greater financial capacity an opportunity to support their national association at a higher level.” 2 HAMFESTS AND RELATED EVENTS OCTOBER - Oct 10 1600Z to Oct 11 0600Z and Oct 11 1400Z to Oct 11 2359Z the 2015 Arizona QSO Party, sponsored by the ARRL Arizona Section and Catalina Radio Club. www.azqsoparty.org/ Phone, CW and Digital modes on 160/80/40/20/15/10/6/2 meters. Single-Op, Multi-Op, Arizona Multi-Multi, Arizona County Expedition and Mobile categories. If any Arizona clubs are interested in hosting the Special Event Station, please contact [email protected]. - 17 October 2015 CopaFest Maricopa Amateur Radio Association, Harrah's Complex, located on Ak-Chin land, Ultra Star Multi Tainment Center 16000 Maricopa Road, Maricopa AZ 85139 http://www.copahams.com - October 23 2015 - October 24 2015 Arizona State Convention kingmanhamfest.com Location: Mohave County Fairgrounds2600 Fairgrounds Blvd. Kingman, AZ 86401 Website: http://k7mpr.net Sponsor: Mohave Amateur Radio Club Talk-In: 147.240 (PL 123.0) Public Contact: William Smith , KD7MIA 1530 Ellerman Drive Kingman, AZ 86401 Phone: 928-529-2299928-529-2299 Email: [email protected] ARRL Affiliated Clubs & NEW ARRL CLUBS. If your club is not affiliated with the ARRL contact Tom Fulmer N7TKF AZ Section Affiliated Club Coordinator. If your club has changed officers or had an election please contact Tom immediately. Section Managers, FROM Norm Fusaro The Club Update mechanism has been upgraded. Now when a club updates the information on the ARRL club pages the changes are displayed as soon as the information is submitted. The tutorial on the club page www.arrl.org/clubs has been updated to reflect the changes in the updating procedure. Here is the direct link to the pdf tutorial. http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Clubs/Club%20Update%20Online_20150806.pdf At the July meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors, the board directed HQ to issue one of our new SSC pennants to each Special Service Club. Please reach out to your Special Service Clubs and have them verify that the club information is correct and that their Special Service Club status is up to date. http://www.arrl.org/ssc-application Having this information correct will reduce the number of items returned to HQ because of a bad address. Be sure to include your section Affiliated Club Coordinators in this task. If you have any questions about any of this or other club business please contact me at [email protected] or call me at 860-594-0230. 73, Norm Fusaro, W3IZ Assistant Manager Field Service & Radiosport Dept. Reminder to all ARRL Affiliated Clubs - please update your club information. Contact Tom N7TKF if you need help with this, as he is more than willing to help you so that this gets done.