Don Rickerd, W8BQD was recently honored at PACIFICON 2008 for 50 years as an ARRL member. Don was presented a certificate from ARRL by East Bay Section Manager Jim Latham, AF6AQ.

Don was born in 1925 and grew up in rural Michigan during the Great Depression. He always had an interest in radio, and built many crystal radio sets during his teenage years. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and spent many months at Pearl Harbor at the close of World War II, installing radars on board the ships.

Don’s technical career kept him busy at a variety of jobs until he joined the staff of WKAR-TV at Michigan State University as a video engineer, where he worked until his retirement in 1987.

Licensed briefly as a Novice in the early 50’s, Don studied for and passed the Technician test in 1957.

Members of the Central Michigan Amateur Radio Club remember Don as an active member from the start, home-brewing most of his early equipment, including his first 6 meter rig, SWR bridge, and various other projects from QST magazine. He regularly spent Saturdays climbing towers for the local hams.

In the early 60’s Don worked with two others to build the first 2-meter repeaters in and around Lansing. John Hackman remembers Don’s major contribution as the settler of squabbles between him and Al Van Dyke, the third member of that technical trio. Don was a founding member of the Lansing Civil Defense Repeater Association and served on its board for many years.

Other Central Michigan hams remember Don as a true gentleman, ready to take on any task in the club that needed doing. To this day, younger members recall Don as an elder statesman of the group, and they miss him greatly since he relocated to California in 2004.

Don currently resides in Concord with his daughter and stays active on 20 meters, keeping a daily schedule with friends from Michigan to Arizona.

I noticed a number of bulletins have passed around this link http://www.dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/dl208_03cell_phone.pdf as proof positive that the hands-free driving law that will go into effect July 1st does not apply to amateur radio.  And in fact, when this page first went up on the DMV site, I recall passing it on to you as an indication that the matter was settled.  Unfortunately, there has been a turn of events that gives me pause.

At the time the page cited above was put up by the DMV, it was linked from this page http://www.dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/ (the link was named something on the order of “FAQs about the new hands-free laws” and if you searched on the DMV site you would find both pages.  Sometime subsequent to that, the FAQs were placed directly on page http://www.dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/ and the link to the old page (http://www.dmv.ca.gov/cellularphonelaws/dl208_03cell_phone.pdf) was removed.  The text now on the main page says nothing about an exclusion for two-way radio use except for specific exclusion “for those operating a commercial motor truck or truck tractor (excluding pickups), implements of husbandry, farm vehicle or tow truck, to use a two-way radio operated by a “push-to-talk” feature”.  The page we have seen passed around is ***not*** linked to or from any other page on the DMV site and it does not show up when you search the DMV site (there is a search tool anchored in the upper right corner of every DMV page).  And the text on the published page reads to me like anything with a push-to-talk switch cannot be operated by the driver of a vehicle except for the exclusions for emergency workers, tow truck drivers, commercial truckers, and so forth.

So what happened?
*  Did a web developer at the DMV attempt to merge the two pages and inadvertently put the old text on the main page, and leave the old pdf out there for us to find (assuming we know the exact URL)?
                                                          — OR —
*  Was there an official change of interpretation and the result is this republication of the FAQs on the main page with the example that excluded two-way radios deliberately removed?

We don’t know!  And so far our attempts to find out have not yielded an answer.

The root of the problem is the law uses the term “wireless telephone” without defining it.  This leaves the definition up to the DMV and CHP and eventually to the courts when someone gets cited and starts the process of challenging it.  Changing the law is a 2 to 3 year process, so that’s not an immediate remedy.  Asking legal authorities such as the State Attorney General for a definition of “wireless telephone” is risky because there is no assurance we would get a favorable definition, and thus might get stuck with the unfavorable one.

We’re working the issue with our contacts in Sacramento.  In the meantime, I strongly advise against making any statements that the issue is resolved or pointing people to what amounts to an orphan document on the DMV web site.  It’s too bad, because this was so promising — now we just don’t know.  Bob and I will update you the minute we hear anything official.  And if you happen upon any developments, please share them with all of us.
 
73,
Andy Oppel, N6AJO
Vice Director, Pacific Division
American Radio Relay League (ARRL)
The National Association for Amateur Radio

On KQED’s recent episode of  QUEST, SETI: The New Search for ET, featured Jill Tarter, this year’s PACIFICON Banquet Speaker. Check out the video:

This year, for the first time, the ARRL has put together a Station Locator to help amateurs or those interested in Amateur Radio find a Field Day site near them. According to ARRL Field Day Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, many amateurs have been asking for something like this for many years: “So far, 287 groups in 45 states and 3 Canadian provinces had registered their Field Day site with the Station Locator.” If your group would like to be a part of the Station Locator Service, it’s easy to get started. Just go to the Field Day Station Locator Web site and follow the instructions.
Link to this item

Saturday April 12th, 2008… M2 Antenna Systems, Inc
Annual Open House and Bar-B-QueBring your swap tables and a empty stomach !! It’s time for our annual Open House and Bar-B-Que. Gates open for swapers at 7:30 am, M2 Shop will open at 8:00 am for tours, rag chewing and great deals on M2 products. We will raffle off great M2 products and stuff for the XYL and Non-Hams from 10:30 am to 11:30 am. And new this year, we will install an HF beam so our friend Dennis Motsenbacher from Yaesu, can demonstrate their latest radio technology. And of course we will have our famous HAM-Burgers and goodies at 11:30 am. Come on out, we would love to see Ya !!

http://www.m2inc. com/openhouse2a. html