February is a dreary month for most.  Feb 12^th, Sunday, can be especially hard.  No more football (!) and Spring is a long ways off.

So….  We’re going to have some fun!

We’re working on doing a LIVE webcast tour of W1AW on Sunday, Feb 12^th at 5pm Eastern Time to make that afternoon a little more interesting.  With the volunteer help of pro videographer Al Petrunti, KA1TCH, you can take the tour and watch what is going on in the ARRL flagship station.

I don’t have all of the particulars quite yet, but I will post them as I get things get hammered out.  In the meantime, please “pencil it in” on your calendars.

Allen Pitts, W1AGP

Media & PR Manager

ARRL – the national association for Amateur Radio

225 Main St.  Newington, CT 06111

(860) 594-0328

www.ARRL.org (http://www NULL.arrl NULL.org/)

Begin the New Year by getting your FCC Technician Class license.

The East Bay Section of the ARRL is putting on a four week long Technician Class in Alameda CA beginning in January 2012.

Each session will last about 2 ½ hours and cover different topics each week.

The classes are scheduled for Wednesday evening at 7:00pm – 9:30pm with the first class scheduled for January 18^th 2012.

The other three classes will be held on January 25^th, Feb 1^st and Feb 8^th.

All classes will be held at the Alameda Fire Department Training Building at 431 Stardust Place Alameda 94501 (intersection of W Midway and Rainbow).

The classes will prepare you for the FCC exam which is scheduled for Sunday 12^th February beginning at 9:00 am.

There is no fee for the classes, but there is a $15 fee for taking the exam. This fee includes filing costs for the exam.

There are no prerequisites and all are welcome to attend this popular class.

For more information or to register please contact David Haycock, KI6AWR by email ki6awr@arrl.net (http://us NULL.mc810 NULL.mail NULL.yahoo NULL.com/mc/compose?to=ki6awr null@null arrl NULL.net) or by phone at 510 846-0011.

SATERN Ham Radio Classes:

The entry-level Ham license is Technician. The 2nd license level is General. The highest level is Amateur Extra. Code is no longer required for an Amateur Radio License. The next General Class will start January 12, 2012.

The next entry level Tech class will start March 22, 2012.

The classes are held Thursday Evenings, 7-9pm in the Fireside Room, Salvation Army, 3950 Clayton Rd. Concord, 94521 – Cross street is West St.

We do not offer a one day Ham Cram class.

*For registration forms email:
HamRadioClass -at- gmail -dot- com

This is a free class with your only cost for class participation being the purchase of the text at a price of approximately $26 plus $5.00 materials fee = $31.

73′s to all

“We’re here to put a small dent in the universe.” – Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Richard E Lueck
K6REL & WQKS440
k6relk6rel -at- gmail -dot- com

A rumor has recently been circulating about a shut down of 440 in Northern California. This is NOT true. I received the following from Dan Henderson at ARRL:

Bill, Bob, Bob, Jim et al:

Not sure of how this rumor got started but we need to be very clear and firm. There is no current proposal to our knowledge (or to the FCC’s -yes I checked) to institute a quiet zone around Beale AFB, there is no proposal to stop 70-cm operations in Northern California. I suspect someone has elaborated on statements made at Bob Vallio’s Division Cabinet meeting from early December.

This kind of rumor hurts our position. It works people up about something that is frankly not on the table. Yes, the mitigation work to harmful interference to the Beale PAVE PAWS radar needs to continue and is going to continue. It is not a “ok we looked at everyone once and you can go back to old operations.” Yes, there is a lot of work still to be done by the Amateur community. Yes, the FCC is going to consider license modifications or other actions against specific individuals that continue to cause interference and refuse to seriously attempt to resolve the problem despite several requests. Those that insist on playing games refusing to meet their obligation to eliminate their harmful interference will eventually have to answer to the FCC’s inquiry.

But at this time to the ARRL’s knowledge, there is no proposal on the table to establish a quiet zone around Beale on the 70-cm band. Could this change? Absolutely, especially if the amateur community fails to meet its obligation as a secondary user on the band.

I respectfully ask that you as ARRL leadership in the affected area circulate these comments. And I ask that the person who posted this rumor to the NARCC reflector please immediately retract his post to that reflector. We need your help in stopping this rumor before it runs rampant, Thanks for your serious and immediate attention to this.

73

Dan Henderson, N1ND
Regulatory Information Manager
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio™
860-594-0236
dhenderson@arrl.org