The SELARC "Hamster"

*Serving Amateur Radio Since 1974*

Published Monthly by the Southeast Louisiana Amateur Radio Club Inc.
P.O. Box 1324, Hammond LA 70404
Visit our website: www.selarc.org

*Happy New Year!!*
Club Meeting
Tuesday, Jan. 9th 7:00pm
Ponchatoula Community Center
300 North 5th Street

If you would like to become a member of SELARC or renew your membership, please print out and complete the application/renewal form and return it with your check to: P.O. Box 1324, Hammond LA 70404. Thanks!

*** HAMMOND HAMFEST 2018 ***

FREE ADMISSION & FREE PARKING

37th ANNUAL HAMFEST

8:00am - 2:00pm

Saturday, January 20 – Pennington Student Activity Center

1350 North General Pershing Street

(Take I-55 Exit 32 and Go 1 & 1/4miles East On University Avenue)

Prizes - Forums - VE Testing

Grand Prize:   Yaesu FT-891 Transceiver
Second Prize:   MFJ-266C Antenna Analyzer
Third Prize:  Shark RF Open Hotspot
Fourth Prize:  Yaesu FT-3200DR Fusion Radio

* Also 4 MFJ-844 V/UHF Wattmeters will be Given Away as Hourly Prizes *

More details at www.selarc.org/selarchamfest.htm

Hammond VE Group - ARRL/W5YI tests are scheduled for the last Sunday of each month [with the exception of holiday conflicts] in Room "B" of the North Oaks Medical System Diagnostic Center at 2pm with $15 testing fee. Bring photo ID and any appropriate CSCE. For more information contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Find an Amateur Radio License Exam in Your Area.

Yaesu G-450a antenna rotator -- will over-rotate 90 deg. past the 360 deg. north indicator. Comes with m metric mounting hardware to fit a Rohn rotor plate, no cable! Connectors are attached plus will include an extra molex style connector for control box. $150.00
Channel Master 3-wire antenna rotator and controller with infrared remote and some cable - $60.00
Tyrone BurnsThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

==> ARRL International Grid Chase - January 1 is the start of a new year long 'operating event' the ARRL International Grid Chase. The object of the game is to make as many contacts with as many different grid squares as possible on a monthly and yearly basis. Contests or modes that exchange grid information are a natural for this challenge, but any valid contact uploaded to LOTW is eligible, and it's not even necessary to exchange the grid square as part of the contact, as long as the uploaded contact information has valid station grid square information. See the ARRL IGC web page for more information.

==> W1AW active on 6 meters for all its scheduled transmissions- W1AW is now QRV on 50350 kHz for all its regular CW code practice and CW, digital, and phone bulletin transmissions. In addition to providing regularly scheduled transmissions on 6 meters, another goal is to act as a beacon on 6 meters, especially from the Northeast US. Signal reports are welcome via an online page at http://www.arrl.org/w1aw_6m_srp. Reports may also be emailed to W1AW at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

==> FCC Penalizes Marketer of Ham-Band Drone Audio-Visual Transmitters - The FCC has imposed a $180,000 civil penalty on a Sarasota, Florida, company that had been marketing noncompliant audio-visual transmitters intended for use on drones in violation of the Commission's Amateur Service and marketing rules. In an Order released on December 19, the FCC explained that Lumenier Holdco LLC (formerly known as FPV Manuals LLC) was advertising and marketing uncertified AV transmitters capable of operating on both amateur and non-amateur frequencies, including bands reserved for federal government use. Some of the transmitters also exceeded the 1 W power limit for Amateur Radio transmitters used on model craft, the FCC said.

==> FCC Proposes $25,000 Fine for Breaking Now-Voluntary Labeling Rules - The FCC has proposed fining Acuity Brands Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, $25,000 for apparently marketing radio frequency devices that were not labeled in accordance with Commission Part 18 rules in place at the time. The FCC issued a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) on November 21. Compliance with the particular rule at issue now is voluntary. In January 2016, the Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) conducted tests on Acuity's AccuPro Model AP-RC-432IP-120-1 fluorescent lighting ballast after receiving complaints of interference said to have been caused by the ballasts. The matter was referred to the FCC Enforcement Bureau, to determine whether Acuity marketed the model at issue before receiving equipment authorization. A footnote in the NAL points out that the use of the FCC logo became voluntary on November 2, but Accuity's alleged violations occurred before that.

==> KQV in Pittsburgh will go silent - One of the few US broadcast stations east of the Mississippi that sport K-prefix call letters will go silent at midnight on January 1 after nearly 1 century on the air. "It's a sad day for broadcasting and for the news business," KQV Station Manager Bob Dickey Jr. told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. The family-owned news-talk station operates on 1410 kHz with 5,000 W into a five-tower array that provides separate day and night patterns. Unofficial accounts indicate that KQV started out as "special amateur station" 8ZAE, to be used by the Doubleday-Hill Electric Company primarily for two-way communication with another station in Washington, DC. (Doubleday-Hill also sold radios.) In October 1921, the Federal Radio Commission issued the station a "limited commercial license," randomly assigning the KQV call letters.

==> New Digital Modes Changing Complexion of Bands and Perhaps of Ham Radio - The wave of software-based digital modes over the past several years has altered the atmosphere of the HF bands. Some suggest the popularity of modes that make it possible to contact stations neither operator can even hear has resulted in fewer CW and SSB signals on bands like 6 meters and 160 meters. Traditional modes require far more interaction and effort on the part of the operator; the newer digital modes, not so much. The recent advent of the still-beta "quick" FT8 mode, developed by Steve Franke, K9AN, and Joe Taylor, K1JT -- the "F" and the "T" in the mode's moniker -- has brought this to a head. Some now wonder if FT8 marks the end of an era and the start of a new, more minimalist age. FT8 and the other modes in WSJT-X are special-purpose modes. They are designed for making reliable, error-free contacts using very weak signals -- in particular, signals that may be too weak for the more traditional modes to be usable, or even too weak to hear.

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Stay Radio active -- See you at the January 9th Meeting and Hamfest on January 20th!

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