RV Service Net International

The International Amateur Radio Region 2 (IARU R2) conference — held later this year in El Salvador — brings together delegations from the national Amateur Radio Societies in the Western Hemisphere.  One of the topics on the agenda will be the Region 2 HF band plan.  This band plan is “harmonized with” — spectrum management-speak for “very similar to” — the IARU Region 1 and Region 3 band plans.

According to ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN, many hams in the USA probably did not know there was such as thing as a Region 2 band plan until recently. Now, however, many more American hams have heard of it, but may not know how — if at all — this band plan affects them.

Here are important facts for American hams to keep in mind:

* IARU band plans are voluntary guidelines. They do not have the force of FCC regulations.

* It would be inappropriate to incorporate Region 2 band plans into the FCC rules, and the ARRL has no plan to petition the FCC to do so.

* Most other countries do not have the detailed sub-band regulations that are in Part 97 of the FCC Rules; for amateurs in those countries, IARU band plans offer the only guidance on frequency use.

* The recognition of a calling frequency or band segment for a particular purpose or mode in the IARU band plan does not convey any special rights or exclusivity of use.

A new, more transparent procedure will be followed this year for considering possible changes to the Region 2 band plan. The ARRL is cooperating with this procedure by inviting input to be sent to the ARRL Board of Directors’ Band Planning Committee. The committee will review the existing Region 2 band plan, consider input from the amateur community and make recommendations to the ARRL Board for submission to IARU Region 2.

The inadvertent omission of the AM center of activity frequency (calling frequency) — 3.885 MHz on 80 meters — has already been noted, and this will be one of the recommended revisions.
The deadline line set by Region 2 for gathering input and formulating recommendations is rather short.

Amateurs who would like to submit input should take the following steps:

* First, study the existing IARU Region 2 band plan posted on the Region 2 Web site at http://www.iaru-r2.org/band-plan. The Region 1 and Region 3 band plans are also posted there, so be sure you are looking at the band plan for Region 2.

* Next, formulate a clear statement of any change you propose. Include a brief explanation of why you think the change would be beneficial. Please include your name and call sign in your input.

* Finally, send your input via e-mail to bandplan2010@arrl.org no later than April 5, 2010. Messages will be automatically acknowledged.

If you live in another country in Region 2, please contact your national Amateur Radio Society for information on how to submit input for the band plan process.
NNNN
/EX

added Mar 18, 2010
from ARRL website, http://www.arrl.org/w1aw/2010-arlb010.html
Copyright © 2010, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

This was a great rally for the RV Service Net members in Orlando, FL, at Hamcation 2010.  Previously, for many years, our group met the week before for Ham-a-rally.  The RV Service Net met at a nearby RV park and enjoyed fellowship, food, and games.  We realized over the past year we wouldn’t be able to have the Ham-a-rally event and would instead focus on our group’s experience at Hamcation.

A great group of talkers — what else do you expect from Hams?

We didn’t know we would have the biggest group we’ve had in some years, with 49 rigs parked in the very nice Central Florida Fairgrounds.  Orlando Amateur Radio Club again operated a very fine hamfest with a large crowd and almost a full complement of vendors.  The nationwide wintry weather conspired against one or two vendors, but most of the many were showing and hoping to sell a lot of radios, amps, antennae, and accessories.

The wet and cool weather also dampened the activity some.  The tailgaters and other outdoor flea market sellers seemed most affected by the heavy rains on Friday — they essentially lost the whole day to drenching and cold rain.  Even if vendors could have kept all their wares displayed dry, the attendees spent much of Friday sheltering from the driving rain.

Never too cold to catch some Vitamin D for these snowbirds, Jean W2JHM and Joan

Except for rainy Friday the Hamcation days were dry and bright.  The hamfest had many indoor display areas so attendees found plenty to do without having to brave the coldest parts of each day.  Outdoor temperatures  were never very warm, but sitting in the sunshine apparently was warm enough for some, eh?

  A great collection of first-time RV SVC Net Hamcation attendees

The RV Service Net folks had a fabulous social, our largest for the weekend, Saturday afternoon and this despite some folks already having departed for various obligations.  Three special photos featured the first-time RV SVC Net attendees, many of the Net Controllers, and our snowbirds sheltering in Miami.

Largest collection of Net Controllers in the southeast?

Our snowbirds up from Miami

Our first Hamcation without the preceding Ham-a-rally has been a great success. The spontaneous potluck attracted most of our members and no one left hungry. The socials drew many for spirited fellowship, renewing friendships, and story swapping.  Everyone agreed this has been a very memorable gathering, and we’re all looking forward to next year’s Hamcation in Orlando, Florida.

Until then we’ll look for you down the log,

N5RTG  Jim

Revised this morning the website’s Net Sked page here to reflect changes made over the past months.  Changes made include Pacific Coast Net manager change to Bill Jones W6NBC, addition of Tab Williams KR4RR as co-mgr on Noon 20m Net, and deletion of Evening 20m Net.

Thanks to the watchers who keep us straight on this web site.

Jim N5RTG

Orlando has 49 degrees this morning, 100% chance of rain, a high of 55, and snow in Medder, Ga today.  Weather has been in our favor so far although a little cool.

Debbie N4RTG, Susan KI4NSS, and Jamie KJ4JK are braving the cool weather

Gloria KD8KOT, Herman K8KOT, Elliot Wk3G, and Janet KD8CHD are socializing at the potluck

W4CYJ Mike ran our group’s net this morning.  By 8:05 eastern time, Mike had 40 check-ins.  What a great group we have at Hamcation from RV SVC Net, with over 45 rigs so far.  Will Mike be able to get everyone in before the Bell Ringers take over the frequency at 9:00 (hi hi)?

Herb W0HM setting up his chair for the potluck

Yesterday we had a wonderful potluck luncheon, saw almost everyone here and shared great food and fellowship.  Great thanks to KD8KOT Gloria for suggesting the potluck and for her delicious dishes she shared.   And thanks to everyone who attended and brought so many different and tasty foods.

A special benefit of having this group is the Net Controls amongst us.  Tab KR4RR ran yesterday’s net for 56 check-ins, and Mike W4CYJ did well today with 52 check-ins.  Don’t know what happened to the other 4, they must have slept in and missed this early net.

We’re looking forward to our annual Skycraft Surplus visit this morning.  We’ll walk around and fill our bags with all the things our xyls wish we weren’t bringing home.  This promises to be a good morning for Skycraft, but they’re going to be pretty crowded with our group descending upon them.  My budget is $10, should be enough to fill at least one bag.

Jim  N5RTG

37 RVs showed up yesterday and are in the RV SVC NET section of this year’s Hamcation, hosted by Orlando Area Radio Club.  Yesterday we had a big opening social beside KC2RAR’s rig, followed by some groups heading out for dinner at local eateries.

Today we’re looking forward to a nice noon potluck, and we’ll have to run around to burn enough calories to prepare for this afternoon’s social at 4:00 p.m. eastern time.  Today and tomorrow we may start seeing tailgaters displaying their goods and they’ll be out in full force Saturday.  The vendors start showing at noon Friday and will show through Sunday at 2:00 p.m. eastern.

In between, we’ll make a trip to Skycraft to shop for all those great, hard to find little electronics things as well as wire and other stuff.  You know it’s not so much what you need as what you should have on hand in case a need arises — right?

We’re looking forward to a great Hamcation and our first Ham-a-rally in this new format.

Jim
n5rtg

There’s still time to get your reservation in for this year’s Hamcation in sunny Orlando, Florida (reservation form at bottom of this article).  We’ll plan on our annual trip to Skycraft Parts and Surplus, the supermarket of electronics and deals.  We’ll have great afternoon socials, and the wonderful Florida weather we’re wishing we already had.  And, if anyone brings a ping pong table, we’ll have singles and doubles ping pong.  What else could you want?  There’s more.

This is the premiere Amateur Radio event in the Southeast, according to the Hamcation 2010 website.  We all know, firsthand, Hamcation is the best hamfest setting in the south.  Our RV Service Net group camps together on a grassy level site beside the lake at the Central Florida Fairgrounds.  Bring finger food to share for our socials every afternoon.

We’ll see and be able to visit over 100 vendors under roof.  The Hamcation organizers have arranged sixteen forums on a wide variety of topics.  OARC is conducting two exams sessions on Saturday for all classes of licenses.  We can browse extensive tailgate sales all over the fairgrounds.  And we’ll enjoy the suspense each day wondering if we’ve get one of the many door prizes.

Gates open on Wednesday, the 10th.  Hamfest starts Friday, 12 Feb and ends Sunday, 14 February.  The hamfest street address is 4603 West Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL 32808.

You can see a copy of the registration form here:  hamcation 2010 reservation

For more information regarding tickets, email Mort (WA2ARS) & Roberta Cohen using the email link

To reduce interference with other users, we will move the RV Service Net’s frequency down 1 KHz

The new frequency will be 7191 KHz.

We will begin on the new frequency Wednesday November 4.

Write down the new frequency and to remember that starting Wednesday morning we will be on 7191 KHz.

Jim N5RTG,

relaying an announcement made by Dr Leon on afternoon 20M net Thursday, Oct 29.

To move the RV Service Net’s frequency to get away from foreign broadcasting,

The new frequency will be 7192 KHz.

We will begin on the new frequency this Saturday, October 24.

Write down the new frequency and to remember that starting Saturday we will be on 7192 KHz and will no longer be on 7230.

Here are some things you will find (hopefully) about our new frequency’s neighborhood.  There is a County Hunter’s net on 7188 which is far enough below us that we should not cause each other trouble.  The NorthCars net operates at 7197.  And a religious group holds an informal net at 7194, but they start up at 9 a.m. eastern, just as we are ending.

Otherwise all the ham activities that we seem to have heard in a couple of weeks of listening are ragchew QSOs, none of which have started before our early net goes on.

We have also had reports of a relatively weak heterodyne on or near our new frequency.  One net controller reported some local noises around our new frequency, which were not anything comparable to the foreign broadcast din that we live with on our old frequency.  At my QTH I have heard none of these noises.

This move may cause some confusion.  Hopefully we will hear many more compliments as our check-in stations experience a frequency much freer of interference.

Garry, W8OI

A great event is just around the corner and, if you act now, you MIGHT still get in on it.  We’re talking about the Pacific RV Service Net’s Rally in King City, Ca on October 5,6,7, 2009.  Walk-ins welcome, too, but be sure to ask Don if they still have capacity.

I wish Debbie and I could make it but we will be in Idaho visiting W7IRY and K7IRY then caravanning with them to Phoenix.  Or we would talk to W6KAT Don  and beg our way into this great deal of a rally.

Full information and registration form is on their rally web page ,or http://pacificrvservicenet.com/emailregister.html

Check it out — if you are in the area, this might be the best thing anywhere!

posted by n5rtg  Jim  2009-09-17

On the evening 20m Eastern/Central Net on July 7, KR4RR Tab mentioned K0DOJ Dick passed away July 2, 2009.  Dick was a past evening mgr of the 20m net, resided in Ft Lauderdale, FL.  Please provide to KE4TIL Frank any information on Dick’s history with the Club and hobby.  Frank is our Club’s new SK Manager, taking over for W1VYI Woody.

We’ll provide more details as available and appropriate.

N5RTG  Jim