Having to change our frequency from 3658 was not something any of us wanted to do but it was necessary because of changes to the Amateur Radio Band Plan by the FCC. It appears that maybe it was done without consideration of the problems it would cause Amateur Radio Operators who use the many different mode of Amateur Radio communications. Also all the CW Nets that would have to scramble to find another frequency.

3558 did not work well at all for WSN mainly because of excessive QRM. 3663 is working much better but we still have some difficulty with QRM and some inconsiderate operating skills by some operators. There are many operators who never use QRL.

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Harvey K7GXZ is temporarily off the air. He had bad luck when the big wind hit  in Spokane and tore up his antenna and put his rig out of commission. Don K7BFL went over and helped him get it fixed up and back on the air but then another disaster hit  and blew out his radio. Again Don went over to see if he could help fix it but found that their was nothing he could do to get it working.

So Harvey has to send it in to TenTec for repair and will be off the air for a month or more.

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It was sad news for WSN members to hear that Ed Doubbelaere W7LEI suddenly became a silent Key. Ed always was QNI on WSN and with a booming signal. He will be missed by all of us.

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 Bill W7NDO has left for his annual trip South for the winter. He does this every year and usually come back to Washington sometime in April

                       

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Pati W7ZIW has decided to have her surgery next Spring. For personal reasons. Mainly the weather is better and that makes it easier for getting to and from and also easier for her daughter to help her after the surgery.

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Dear Family and Friends,
   
Winter ’06 ended on Dec 19, ’05 but we still got in two days of X/C skiing in early January. By mid-January we had cherry tree sap blobs leaking from the tree in our front yard and winter was over. Time for biking and gardening.
   
Our son Brad is working on his professional engineering certification. Grandson Alex is a senior at Lewis and Clark H.S. in Spokane. Granddaughter Hanna is doing high school via the Internet at Insite, an on-line high school.
  
 Jennifer teaches first grade at Grant Elementary in Ephrata – her 17th year. Husband Danny continues to be head of maintenance at a pair of motels owned by one owner.  They have added a large complex of buildings that used to house the local community college. His skills at nearly every phase of his work are invaluable.  We all got a chuckle because he has become the computer technician as well. Sons Matthew and Chris will turn 12 and 14 in February. Matthew is doing baseball, football and drums. Chris is taking guitar and piano lessons. Both are in middle school, Matthew in Ephrata, at Chris in Moses Lake.
   
Donna got promoted to supervisor of the Moses Lake UPS office and continues to perform her duties as Hartline city Councilwoman. She and husband Jerry are great community supporters. They have headed up a very profitable Ducks Unlimited banquet and auction for two years.

Cynthia is still very active in ITC, Red Hats and Master Gardeners. Our 2005 Xmas letter described her xeriscape garden project. You can read about it in a recent issue of Wheatlife magazine. Go to www.wheatlifemagazine.com and click your way to the index of the November ’06 issue. The article is titled “Homestead Garden Changes” on page 42. I was unable to bring up the article but they should have it loaded into the database before long.
   
Don is a member of the Big Bend CC choir and this year had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of singing the Messiah at Carnegie Hall on Palm Sunday. Accompanied by the New England Philharmonic orchestra, our 300-voice chorus, composed of many choruses throughout the USA and Canada, performed all three parts of the Messiah flawlessly. Following our performance, the entire choir went on a dinner cruise around Manhattan Island. What an experience! We spent 5 days in NYC and while there, we had a great time going to the Broadway musical 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Dizzys Jazz Club and the Big Apple Barbershop concert. We had three days of Messiah training (we learned a lot!). After one 4-hour training session we had an enjoyable lunch with Don’s nephew Max who works in NYC.

Our next major trip was at the end of September to Hilton Head, S.C. for an off-year high school reunion (try the 53rd year reunion of the class of ’53!). We had a small group in a condo complex for one week. We’re a pretty close class and always have fun doing things together. For example, we went kayaking out in the bay for 2 hours with a naturalist describing the wildlife. It was great fun and educational to boot. After the reunion, we drove up to the Charleston, S.C. area and enjoyed doing the harbor tour, carriage tour, and yes, if you’ve been to Charleston, we had a dinner at the famous 82 Queen Street restaurant. We stayed at a friendly B & B in Summerville, took in local cuisine and toured the nearby Magnolia Plantation.

Five days after we returned home, Don had right knee replacement surgery on October 9. Despite a setback at the end of October due to overexertion doing yard work, he is progressing well and hopes to be back on X/C skinny skis this winter.

The holiday season is here and we hope that it will be a joyous one for you and your family.

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Mike VE7MMH is still in Jamaica and is getting anxious to come back home to North Vancouver BC. His 2 years will be up in April and he and Theresa are getting things ready now to move back home. He is very anxious to get back into His Ham Shack at home as he not been able to do much at all in Jamaica.

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We were sorry to hear on October 29 of the death of Shirley, XYL of David, VE7DWG.    She had been suffering from cancer; and now is in a better place.    Dave has his dog, "Princess" to help him through this difficult time.   Dave....our prayers are with you.

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I was able to forward 83 Santagrams from children to Don K7BFL via the Digital mode and then Don sends them to Ed AL7N in Farbanks, AK via 20 meter CW.  Ed forwards them to Santa in the North Pole for the kids.  All the kids write Santa a nice note and say that they have been good and then they ask for the things they want from him for Christmas.

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NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 19, 2006 -- In an historic move, the FCC has acted to drop the Morse code requirement for all Amateur Radio license classes. The Commission adopted the long-awaited Report and Order (R&O) in WT Docket 05-235, the "Morse code" proceeding, and released it December 19. The FCC R&O also includes an Order on Reconsideration in WT Docket 04-140 -- the "omnibus" proceeding. It will modify the Amateur Service rules in response to ARRL's request to accommodate automatically controlled narrowband digital stations on 80 meters in the wake of rule changes that became effective December 15. The Commission designated the 3585 to 3600 kHz frequency segment for such operations, although the segment will remain available for CW, RTTY and data. The effective date of the FCC's R&O will be 30 days after publication in the Federal Register -- most likely in February. Currently, Amateur Radio applicants must pass a 5 WPM Morse code test to operate on HF. The FCC's action will eliminate that requirement all around.

"This change eliminates an unnecessary regulatory burden that may discourage current Amateur Radio operators from advancing their skills and participating more fully in the benefits of Amateur Radio," the FCC said. The ARRL had asked the FCC to retain the 5 WPM for Amateur Extra class applicants only. The FCC proposed earlier to drop the requirement across the board, however, and it held to that decision.

The ARRL has been posting all relevant information on these important Part 97 rule revisions on its "FCC's Morse Code Report and Order WT Docket 05-235" Web page.
The FCC's action in WT Docket 05-235 will grant limited HF privileges to all Technician licensees, whether or not they've passed a Morse code examination. Once the R&O goes into effect next year, all Technician class license holders will be able to enjoy current "Tech Plus" HF privileges in addition to their current VHF/UHF privileges. The FCC R&O in the Morse code docket eliminates a disparity in the operating privileges for Technician and Technician Plus class licensees -- something the ARRL has asked the Commission to address following the release of the FCC's July 2005 Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) in WT Docket 05-235.

"With today's elimination of the Morse code exam requirements, the FCC concluded that the disparity between the operating privileges of Technician class licensees and Technician Plus class licensees should not be retained," the FCC public notice said. "Therefore, the FCC, in today's action, afforded Technician and Technician Plus licensees identical operating privileges."
Technician licensees without Element 1 Morse code credit currently have operating privileges on all amateur frequencies above 30 MHz. Technicians with Element 1 credit (ie, "Tech Plus" licensees) have limited HF privileges on 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters. Under the Part 97 rules the Commission proposed last year in its NPRM in WT Docket 05-235, current Technicians lacking Morse credit after the new rules went into effect would have had to upgrade to General to earn any HF privileges. Privileges will remain the same for Novice, General, Advanced and Amateur Extra class licensees.

The FCC has clarified that there will be no changes in the administration of Amateur Radio examination elements and in granting a Certificate for Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) for General and Extra class until the new rules go into effect. CSCEs are only valid for examination credit for 365 days from date of issuance; applicants cannot use CSCEs older than that to upgrade. Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs) will handle all upgrades through volunteer examiner teams.

Candidates for General or Amateur Extra testing between now and the effective date of the new rules will still have to pass Element 1 (5 WPM Morse code) to obtain new privileges. Those earning Element 3 or Element 4 credit between now and the effective date of the new rules will receive a CSCE from the VE team. Once the new rules are in place, anyone holding a valid CSCE may apply for an upgrade at a VE examination session and will have to pay the applicable fee, if any.

The wholesale elimination of a Morse code requirement for all license classes ends a longstanding national and international regulatory tradition in the requirements to gain access to Amateur Radio frequencies below 30 MHz. The first no-code license in the US was the Technician ticket, instituted in 1991. The question of whether or not to drop the Morse requirement altogether has been the subject of often-heated debate over the past several years, but the handwriting has been on the wall -- especially since the FCC instituted an across-the-board 5 WPM Morse requirement effective April 15, 2000, in the most-recent major Amateur Radio licensing restructuring (WT Docket 98-143).

The FCC said the R&O in WT Docket 05-235 comports with revisions to the international Radio Regulations resulting from World Radiocommunication Conference 2003 (WRC-03). At that gathering, delegates agreed to authorize each country to determine whether or not to require that applicants demonstrate Morse code proficiency in order to qualify for an Amateur Radio license with privileges on frequencies below 30 MHz.

The list of countries dropping the Morse requirement has been growing steadily since WRC-03. A number of countries, including Canada, the UK and several European nations, now no longer require applicants for an Amateur Radio license to pass a Morse code test to gain HF operating privileges. Following WRC-03, the FCC received several petitions for rule making asking it to eliminate the Morse requirement in the US
 

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ARRL Colorado Section Emergency Coordinator Ben Baker, KB0UBZ, says Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers activated this week after a blizzard struck December 20 and continued into the next day, paralyzing a large part of the state and stranding thousands of air and highway travelers. Snowfall totals averaging 20 to 30 inches around the Front Range of Denver and 40 inches or more in the foothills west of Denver, Baker said.

"ARES districts all along the Front Range are active, reporting snow totals as well as responding to served agency requests," Baker told ARRL Headquarters December 21. "Amateur Radio operators supporting the Red Cross and The Salvation Army have been staffing shelters, while other ARES members have been using their four-wheel drive vehicles to transport essential and emergency personnel to their assignments."

Colorado Gov Bill Owens declared a state of emergency and activated the Colorado National Guard to assist in rescuing stranded motorists. The Colorado Emergency Operations Center as well as county and local EOCs were opened By week's end, major highways and Denver's airport were reopened to traffic.

Elsewhere, ARES and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) teams across Western Washington activated December 14 after severe weather struck the Pacific Northwest, ARRL Western Washington Section Manager Ed Bruette, N7NVP told ARRL. Eight people died, and nearly 1.5 million homes and businesses lost electrical power in the wake of the strong winds and heavy rainfall, although the communications infrastructure "pretty well stayed intact," Bruette said.

"The need for ARES/RACES was to be staged and have circuits established at the local EOCs and ECCs in case of major communication outages, with a secondary mission to support Red Cross shelters," Bruette explained. "I'm fairly certain every local ARES/RACES team in Western Washington was activated." Fifteen American Red Cross shelters opened across the affected region, and the state activated its EOC at Fort Murray.

Winds approaching 70 MPH were clocked at SeaTac Airport, Seattle's official observation point, damaging the terminal and canceling flights. Bruette predicted it could take several days to restore power in outlying areas. Meanwhile, he noted, imprudent use of portable generators and other devices had caused at least two deaths and sent many more to emergency rooms with carbon monoxide poisoning.

"The number of CO poisonings in the area have been termed epidemic," Bruette said. "In one case, 30 apartment dwellers were burning charcoal indoors to stay warm." Gov Chris Gregoire urged Washingtonians to be aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide poising and to spread the word to those without power or heat.

Downed trees closed several major highways, while others fell victim to flooding. Blocked roads affected public safety agencies' ability to respond, Bruette said.

After weathering the worst of the storm at his fire district headquarters, Bruette says he returned home to find he still had power -- and "all my antennas are unharmed." Other radio amateurs in the region were not so lucky, he added.
      

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