ARRL Audio News from this edition is available at http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/audio/ for two weeks after publication.

Address Changes: Kathy Capodicasa, N1GZO, e-mail kcapodicasa@arrl.org.

Editorial: Rick Lindquist, N1RL, e-mail elindquist@arrl.org.

• +Gate 4 attracts hundreds
• +AMSAT-NA again seeks Phase 3D donations
• +New section managers appointed
• +DXCC announces higher fees
• +Sputnik PS2 keeps going and going
• +Canadian ham radio initiative scrapped
• Washington Post: Ham radio refuses to die
• CAROS to debut
• Solar update
• In Brief: This weekend on the radio; Correction/clarification; WØIFO named to FCC post; DARA scholarships; KC5VPF gets extra time aboard Mir; W1AW active in SS; DOVE-17 QSLs; K3VOA to provide rare DC multiplier; JSCARC gets NASA award

+Available on ARRL Audio News

The FCC does not expect to begin processing Gate 4 applications until after the first of the year. A spokesperson at the FCC's Gettysburg office said the current plan is to run the first-day applications on or about January 7, 1997, but emphasized that this is not a firm date.

The FCC has processed earlier vanity receipts through mid-November, including all work in process (WIPs) applications. In November, the FCC reports it got 517 electronic applications and 149 paper applications.

The FCC reports it got more than 800 electronic applications on December 2, the first day of Gate 4. Another 120 electronic applications showed up on December 3. A count of paper applications is not yet available.

Conceding that it still needs another $270,000 to meet its share of the costs for the Phase 3D campaign, AMSAT-NA is once again soliciting donations to its Phase 3D Fund. A solicitation went out late last month over the signature of AMSAT-NA President Bill Tynan, W3XO. The letter expresses optimism that Phase 3D can be launched "before mid-1998, perhaps even within 6 months." AMSAT is asking its members to kick in another $100 each, if possible. "I think you will agree that this is a small price to pay for the many hours of pleasure we will all receive when Phase 3D becomes operational," Tynan's appeal says.

Phase 3D was to have been launched this year, but the Amateur Radio package was bumped from the Ariane 502 flight after it could not complete necessary structural modifications in time to meet the launch schedule. The changes became necessary at the eleventh hour after the European Space Agency imposed more stringent vibration and stress standards on Ariane 5 payloads. AMSAT is hoping to hitch a ride aboard another Ariane 5 flight in 1998.

Tynan points out in his letter that the additional time has been put to good use. Phase 3D now will offer two S-band transmitters, each with a separate antenna. The integration team also is looking at ways to ensure maintenance of proper temperatures within the spacecraft.

AMSAT-NA's Keith Baker, KB1SF, said recently that he doesn't expect a new launch date will be set until European space authorities pin down the cause of the problems during the recent Ariane 502 flight--the flight that was to have carried Phase 3D aloft. An early shutdown in one stage put the payloads into lower-than-expected orbits.

Contributions in any amount are welcome to AMSAT-NA Phase 3D Fund, 850 Sligo Ave, Suite 600, Silver Spring, MD 20910-4703. Contributions are tax deductible.

Alabama, Kansas, and Northern New York have new Section Managers. In Alabama, the new SM, effective December 15, is Scott Johnston, N4YYQ, of Vincent. He replaces Tom Moore, KL7Q, who resigned. In Kansas, Orlan Q. Cook, WØOYH, of Shawnee, replaced Mike Brungardt, KØTQ, effective December 1. Brungardt has moved to Indiana. In Northern New York, Leslie "Les" Schmarder, WA2AEA, succeeded Charles Orem, KD2AJ, on December 2. Orem resigned for personal reasons.

Contact Scott Johnston, N4YYQ, at 1810 Macedonia Loop, Vincent, AL 35178; tel 205-960-6516; e-mail n4yyq@arrl.org. Contact Orlan Cook, WØOYH, at 12110 W. 71st St, Shawnee, KS 66216; tel 913-631-9663; e-mail w0oyh@arrl.org. Contact Les Schmarder, WA2AEA, at RR1 Box 236, Elizabethtown, NY 12932; tel 518-873-2189; e-mail wa2aea@arrl.org.

The ARRL DXCC Desk has announced new fees for DXCC, including a $10 fee for an initial DXCC application. This has been free for League members. It will also cost more for walk-in card checking at conventions or at League Headquarters.

All applicable fees are charged on each application. Applicant must supply return postage or an SASE for any cards or information requests. The new fees go into effect January 1, 1998.

*First application prices are for 120 QSOs maximum, and additional application prices are for 100 QSOs maximum. QSOs beyond those limits are charged at this price.

**includes pin

New fees also go into effect the first of the year for VUCC certificates and for WAS, Rag Chewers Club, Old Timers Club, Friendship, and WAC awards. An initial, replacement, or additional VUCC certificate will cost $10. Pins are $5. An initial WAS certificate will cost $5 plus return postage for your QSLs. WAS endorsements will be $3 plus return postage. The 5BWAS certificate will be $10 (includes pin) plus return postage, while the plaque will cost $30 plus shipping. The RCC and OTC awards will be $3 each while the Friendship Award will cost $5 (no charge for these awards from ARRL-affiliated clubs). The WAC and 5BWAC awards will be $3 for US applicants plus return postage for QSLs.

More than five weeks after its launch by hand from the Mir space station, the mini-Sputnik PS2 satellite beacon transmitter continues to beep away--the orbiting equivalent of the Energizer Bunny. Powered by just over three pounds of lithium batteries, the spacecraft's transmitter, on 145.82 MHz has been heard around the world and already has functioned longer than the original Sputnik 1 satellite did 40 years ago.

The Sputnik 40 Years project that led to the construction and launch of the satellite has been funded by private donations, and the program's sponsors say they "still have some small debts to pay." The organizers are seeking six additional sponsors at $6000 each. The satellite itself was built by students in Russia, while another group of students on France's Reunion Island built the transmitter.

A film and a book are in preparation, and Sputnik 40 Years expects to make presentations about the project at many national and international meetings, including the annual dinner of Aero-Club de France. Guy Pignolet, secretary of the Aero-Club of France and an engineer with the French Space Agency said the project would very much like to have US companies or even individuals "share the adventure." For more information, contact Pignolet at 2 place Maurice Quentin, 75039 Paris Cedex 01, France; e-mail pignolet@francenet.fr.

Reception reports go to The Radio Club of Jules Reydellet College FR5KJ, 103 Rue de la Republique, 97 489 Saint Denis Cedex, Reunion Island. Requests will be processed after the satellite has expired. For more information, see http://www.oceanes.fr/~fr5fc/spoutnik.html.

The Canadian government has decided not to delegate any responsibility for ham radio licensing to a nongovernmental service company affiliated with Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC). The announcement on November 28 by Industry Canada--that country's equivalent of our FCC--caught many Canadian hams by surprise--including some of those who had been involved in the process. The decision, announced at a meeting of the Amateur Delegation Working Group, concluded a four-year effort at collaboration between Industry Canada and the RAC. According to the RAC, "Industry Canada had decided to terminate the delegation initiative and to retain the administration of the Amateur Service in house. No reason was given for the termination."

Last February, the delegation effort stalled at the eleventh hour. The nongovernmental organization, known in English and French as Amateur Radio Administrative Services/Services Administratifs Radio Amateurs (ARAS-SARA) was to assume some ham radio administrative responsibilities for that country's 47,000 radio amateurs. In making the IC decision public, RAC said that it "deeply regrets Industry Canada's unilateral decision" to end the delegation project.

As announced at the same meeting, Industry Canada began polling a cross-section of Canadian hams to get their views on the ham radio administration with an eye toward possible changes. The two-day poll, begun December 1, was undertaken with little advance notice to RAC. The Kitchener-Waterloo Amateur Radio Club is conducting its own poll on the Internet (see http://www.kwarc.org) using the same questions plus an open-ended question.

A recent Washington Post article lumped ham radio with mah-jongg, model rocketry, and something called squished penny (technically "elongated" coins) as "The Hobbies That Refused to Die." The feature, in the paper's Sunday edition, appeared November 14. The gist of the report was that there's still room for ham radio and other "diehard" avocations in the age of "extreme sports and the Internet."

The section on ham radio focuses on the reporter's visit to Hamfest '97 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, sponsored by the Foundation for Amateur Radio, and mentions the article on ham radio that appeared earlier this year in Forbes magazine. The reporter, Dave Nuttycombe, touches on such ham activities as traffic handling, using H-Ts, and restoring older tube-type equipment. He also quotes several hams, including Jim Parsons, WA4LTO, and Geoff Adams, N3QFX, and there's a picture of Parsons at a ham station. Parsons told the reporter that part of ham radio's appeal to him is the challenge that's lacking on the Internet.

Some hams would balk at the article's overall premise that ham radio (he calls it simply "ham") is among the hobbies that have fallen out of fashion and are "now carried on by a valiant few." But Parsons--a graduate of Virginia Tech and an alumnus of its K4KDJ club station--said this week that the article sparked a bit of interest in the DC area. "Reaction has been great. We've gotten a few calls," he said.

The article mentions The Vienna Wireless Society, the Mount Vernon Amateur Radio Club and the Columbia Amateur Radio Association as contact points and gives a plug to Auto Call, the official journal of the Foundation for Amateur Radio. The circulation of the Washington Post Sunday edition is more than 1.1 million.

Cary Oler at the University of Lethbridge in Canada relays word of a new radio propagation service known as CAROS, or the Coordinated Amateur Radio Observation System. Oler says CAROS is based on the principle of amateurs contributing radio propagation information for others to use.

"We have, for several years, been planning to implement such a service, primarily to test whether amateurs can supply sufficient information to make such a global service useful," he said in a recent e-mail posting. "Its success or failure will be directly dependent upon those who use it and find it useful."

Oler says the project is interested in reports detailing normal, below-normal and above normal propagation on paths with which you are most familiar. Additionally, the project would like to hear about unusual propagation (non-great-circle, aurora-related, meteor-induced, etc) that you observe, as well as about rare contacts (both of which are routinely reported already via packet--Ed).

Oler says there are no limitations on reports. "We will accept reports from anyone, at any time, and on any frequency (from ELF to microwave and beyond). Moon-bounce communicators are welcome to join in the fun, as are satellite communicators and anyone else." He asks those submitting reports to be as specific as possible. Since there is a possibility that this service could generate data that might supplement types of future scientific research, we hope all submissions will be detailed and complete." Reports will be archived.

Post CAROS propagation reports to http://solar.uleth.ca/solar/www/subcaros.html.

The main CAROS web page at http://solar.uleth.ca/solar/www/caros.html is updated every five minutes. Direct questions or comments to coler@solar.stanford.edu.--thanks to Tom Frenaye, K1KI

Solar soothsayer Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: Average solar flux was down, and average sunspot numbers were up this week over the previous week. Solar flux on every day was above the 90-day average of 94, indicating a continuing upward trend. Look for good conditions during the ARRL 10 Meter Contest this weekend, although solar flux will not be as high as it has been lately. The predicted solar flux numbers for Saturday and Sunday are 94 and 96, and stable geomagnetic conditions are forecast.

Following the weekend the solar flux is expected to go above 100 for the rest of the month. Wire service stories this week reported from the American Geophysical Society meeting in San Francisco that the two year old Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is allowing better understanding and prediction of coronal mass ejections and interplanetary magnetic and particle storms. Observations from SOHO show that a particular buildup of magnetic fields on the Sun occurs before a mass eruption. You can visit the SOHO Web page at http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov.

Sunspot numbers for November 27 through December 3 were 44, 40, 48, 56, 73, 54 and 54 with a mean of 52.7. The 10.7 cm flux was 111.1, 116.3, 112.1, 112.4, 117, 112.2 and 112.2, with a mean of 113.3, and estimated planetary A indices were 2, 2, 2, 4, 3, 3, and 6, with a mean of 3.1.

Sunspot numbers for December 4 through 10 were 34, 58, 44, 70, 97, 94 and 72 with a mean of 67. The 10.7 cm flux was 107.3, 103.8, 108.8, 99, 98.1, 96.7 and 95.1, with a mean of 101.3, and estimated planetary A indices were 4, 8, 5, 3, 2, 2, and 15, with a mean of 5.6.

Here are some path predictions for 28 MHz for the 10 meter contest this weekend:.

From the Eastern USA to Europe, check 1530-1630 UTC; to South Africa check 1330-1930 UTC, especially 1500-1630 UTC; to the Caribbean 1400- 2030 UTC, especially 1530-1830 UTC; to South America 1400-2030 UTC, especially 1530-1830 UTC; to South Pacific 1700-2130 UTC, especially 1800-1930 UTC; to Hawaii 1800-2100 UTC, especially 1830-1930 UTC.

From Central USA to Europe, check 1530-1630 UTC; to South Africa check 1330-1930 UTC, particularly 1430-1700 UTC; to the Caribbean check 1400- 2030 UTC, especially 1530-1830 UTC; to South America 1400-2030 UTC, especially 1530-1830 UTC; to South Pacific check 1700-2130 UTC, especially 1800-1930 UTC; to Hawaii check 1800-2100 UTC, especially 1830- 1930 UTC.

From Western USA to South Africa, check 1730-2200 UTC, especially around 1830 UTC; to South America 1630-2330 UTC, especially 1800-2130 UTC; to the Caribbean 1600-2200 UTC, especially 1700-1900 UTC; to South Pacific 1730-0130 UTC, especially 1900-2130 UTC; to East Asia 2200-0030 UTC, especially around 2300 UTC; to Hawaii 1830-2330 UTC.

• This weekend on the radio: The ARRL 10 Meter Contest is the big operating event. See November QST, page 108, for details.

• Correction/clarification: Hams in Boulder City, Nevada, first petitioned the Planning Commission and City Council there in March 1992 (see "Nevada Hams Get a Better Deal," The ARRL Letter, Vol 16, No 48) and worked with city officials for five years to get a revision in the antenna code to allow a maximum tower height of 70 feet. Glenn Roberts, KU7Z, points out that when the Boulder City Council approved the revised chapter relating to tower height, it also voted to waive the $100 fee for a conditional use permit, in appreciation of the community services hams provide.--Glenn Roberts, KU7Z

• WØIFO named to FCC post: Dale N. Hatfield, WØIFO, has joined the FCC as chief technologist in the Office of Plans and Policy. Hatfield returns to the FCC and government service after a 15-year break, during which he founded and operated a telecommunications consulting business in Boulder, Colorado. Previously, Hatfield served as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and as Deputy Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. During the 1970s he served as chief of the Office of Plans and Policy at the FCC and also held positions in the Office of Telecommunications Policy in the White House. Hatfield has degrees from Case Institute of Technology and Purdue University. FCC Chairman William Kennard announced the appointment December 8.--FCC

• DARA scholarships: The Dayton Amateur Radio Association is accepting applications for its annual scholarship program. Applicants must be Amateur Radio operators and graduating high school seniors. Eight scholarships of up to $2000 apiece will be awarded. To request an application, send an SASE to DARA Scholarships, 45 Cinnamon Ct, Springboro, Ohio 45066-1000. The application deadline is June 1, 1998.--Stan Kuck, NY8F

• KC5VPF gets extra time aboard Mir: NASA has delayed next month's space shuttle flight to Mir, leaving American astronaut David Wolf, KC5VPF, aboard for at least another few days. The shuttle Endeavour was supposed to blast off January 15, but NASA announced Monday that the new launch date will be January 20. Wolf, who's been on Mir since late September, learned of the delay last weekend. The delay will give the Russian crew time to do additional work on Mir, including three spacewalks and the arrival of another supply ship. NASA also wants to check out problems discovered on the shuttle Columbia which returned to Earth last week after a two-week mission. Also, one of Endeavour's cargo bay doors accidentally was dented last week. The Endeavour will pick up Wolf and drop off his replacement, Andy Thomas, KD5CHF. Thomas will be the last US astronaut to live aboard Mir.

• W1AW active in SS: Both weekends of the November Sweepstakes were successful for W1AW. Zack Lau, W1VT, operated as QRP class during the CW SS, with a final score just under 80,000 points. During the SSB weekend, W1VT, Joe Carcia, NJ1Q, Joe Bottigleri, AA1GW, and Bev Fernandez, N1NAV, operated in low-power class and finished up with just under 108,000 points. W1AW got a Clean Sweep in the SSB weekend when Zack Lau worked the elusive Alaska section late in the contest. Mary Carcia, N7IAL, provided snacks after a night of contesting.

• DOVE-17 QSLs: Jim White, WDØE, reports many requests for DOVE-17 (DO-17) QSL cards. To receive a DOVE QSL, receiving stations should send a request indicating the date, time, and frequency the satellite was received. It's not necessary to send a breakdown of the satellite telemetry or a printout of received data. Include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) or an addressed envelope with an International Reply Coupon (IRC). Send reception reports to Dianne White, NØIZO, 45777 Rampart Rd Parker, CO 80138-4316.--AMSAT News Service

• K3VOA to provide rare DC multiplier: Thanks to the Voice of America Amateur Radio Club, The Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC) will again activate K3VOA to hand out the rare DC multiplier in the ARRL 10 Meter Contest, December 13-14. The multiop team (W3LEO, K3IXD, KD4QVT, N3NT, and WB3ECU) will be active on both CW and SSB. QSLs for this contest only go to W3LEO [ex KA3TGY]. Include an SASE.--W3LEO

• JSCARC gets NASA award: Matt Bordelon, KC5BTL, reports that the Johnson Space Center Amateur Radio Club, W5RRR, was nominated for the NASA Phase 1-STS-86 Award. The award cites "their outstanding support of NASA Phase 1 that allowed Michael Foale (KB5UAC) to contact friends, co-workers and family around the world via the W5RRR Amateur Radio station." The award justification said the ability to stay in touch with family members was a big psychological boost and that Amateur Radio was a "preferred method of communications due to is availability and ease of use for the crew members."

The ARRL Letter is published by the American Radio Relay League, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax 860-594-0259. Rodney J. Stafford, KB6ZV, President; David Sumner, K1ZZ, Executive Vice President.

Circulation, Kathy Capodicasa, N1GZO, e-mail kcapodicasa@arrl.org.

Editorial, Rick Lindquist, N1RL, e-mail elindquist@arrl.org.

Visit the ARRLWeb page at http://www.arrl.org.

The purpose of The ARRL Letter is to provide the essential news of interest to active, organizationally minded radio amateurs faster than it can be disseminated by our official journal, QST. We strive to be fast, accurate and readable in our reporting.

Material from The ARRL Letter may be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, including photoreproduction and electronic databanks, provided that credit is given to The ARRL Letter and The American Radio Relay League.

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• CompuServe and America Online subscribers, as a downloadable text file in the services' ham radio libraries

• The Netcom server, run by the Boston Amateur Radio Club and Mike Ardai, N1IST: Send e-mail to listserv@netcom.com (no subject needed). The body of the message should say subscribe letter-list.