שנה טובה תשס"ה

Happy New Year

We wish all our readers a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year 5765.

May this year bring a return to worldwide sanity; the human race seeing the true reasons for living. We shall devote ourselves to making our earthly sojourn most pleasant and enjoyable for all concerned. Amen.

From 4X6KJ:

ARRL DXCC cards checking:

For those of us who appear on the HF bands and do exchange QSL cards, it is now possible to have your DXCC cards checked at home, that is you do not have to send the cards to the ARRL Headquarters in the USA.

As of August 2004, you can contact Joseph 4X6KJ and make an appointment.

Membership cards:

For those amateurs that have paid their I.A.R.C. membership fee for the year 2004, have received the new membership card, a joint effort of our valued sponsor, Motorola Israel and IARC.

A brand new design has evolved, and the card authorizes entrance to the "Guzman" building where IARC Headquarters, radio station, and lecture room is located.

Many of the cards still have a dark blue, almost black square in the upper left corner. That is the place where the amateur's picture is supposed to be.

Many pictures are still missing from our members.

A digital picture of good resolution can be Emailed.

Licenses:

All amateur radio licenses as well as other communication licenses expire at 31 December 2004, the end of this year.

A new more efficient paper license has been produced. The Ministry will in month December mail the payment demands for the new licenses which will be valid for the next five years.

The Membership Committee (Va'adat Chaverim):

Has drawn up new criteria. The issue of Honorable Member, and "dues-exempt" status, has been taken under the magnifying glass. The final parameters have been brought to a Council meeting, and have been approved.

It was understood by Honorable Members that they are exempt from paying the annual fee. This contrary to the IARC’s regulations, in which there is no mention of any exempt status.

New Ham License Course:

Registration has been started for a new course, scheduled to start on or about the first of November.

At the same time a course in CW will commence.

To CW or not to CW:

The proposition has been raised lately by the Ministry to drop the Morse (CW) requirement for HF access. Many European Countries have been dropping the requirement. Resulting in a revised CEPT agreement; Israel accepts the updated CEPT T/R 61-01 and T/R 61-02 agreements.

It is expected that a heated discussion will develop on the air waves once the debate opens for discussion.

At the moment Israel maintains 5 words a minute requirement for High Frequency access.

Call Book 2004/5:

A new, modern CD-Rom has come out and distributed among the IARC members. We thank Tsachy 4Z4TL, for his enormous patience, and for his skill in producing the data for this CD.

It is multilingual, English & Hebrew.

_ . . . _

Ron Roden G4GKO / 4X8RR Silent Key

Ron’s passing is a great loss to us all. Many of us remember him as our representative to the IARU conferences, doing this on his own expense for many years.

I met him first in Tel-Aviv in 1987 in the company of 4X6KJ, when we discussed the possibility of an Israeli DX contest to commemorate Israel’s 40^th anniversary.

Over the years our paths crossed, both here in Israel and on the air. Our last QSO was on 17 meters SSB this past spring, and very regrettably it had to cut short because of a TVI problem on my side.

As you can see in the obituary reproduced below, Ron had a very illustrious life, and his devotion to amateur radio was great. He was a true friend to us all. He is greatly missed. May his memory remain with us and be a guiding light. (de 4X1MK)

From Radcom, the RSGB magazine

Ron Roden G4GKO, died on 28 March 2004 at the age of 80. Ron was the IARU Region I Monitoring System Coordinator for 12 years from 1990 to 2002. He was born in Cardiff on 27 January 1924 and had a long and successful career as a telecommunications engineer. During WW II he worked on cable ships, positioning and repairing deep-sea cables. During this period he met Ines, a Brazilian student, and married her in 1948. Later, Ron worked for Cable and Wireless with assignments in Canada, Malaysia, Gibraltar, Singapore, Fiji, New Zealand, Cameroon, USA and Antarctica, working his way up to Chief Engineer and eventually Manager of Cable & Wireless.

Ron held many overseas callsigns, including VP8OA, VP9IR,and ZB2DN. He represented the Israel Amateur Radio Club at international amateur radio conventions and was awarded the callsign 4X8RR.

After his retirement in 1990 he was appointed Coordinator for region 1 of the IARU Monitoring System, cajoling monitoring reports out of national societies across the breadth of Region 1 and introducing a monthly Monitoring System newsletter. A major success was his action against the Swiss watch manufacturer Swatch, which wanted to launch an advertising satellite with a downlink on the amateur radio frequencies.

Ron was presented with an IARU medal of honor as a token of appreciation for his work in defending the amateur bands. Our condolences go to Ron’s wife Ines, his children and grandchildren.

4Z5NB mobile in Croatia

One fine August afternoon, my CQ on 15 meters was answered by 9A/4Z5NB. Eli Shahaf was vacationing in Croatia , and was putting in a very respectable signal from his campgrounds. Eli is already a veteran HF mobiler having been activating rare Hoyland squares from his four-wheel drive vehicle. It was a surprise to hear him from abroad!

Thanks for the pictures, Eli!

The ICOM 706 transceiver panel on the 9A/4Z5NM/m dashboard.

4Z4DX in Europe

4Z4DX operating this past summer from picturesque Lichtenstein as HB0 / M0DOV.

Below we see 9A6AA (left) awarding Dov 4Z4DX a plaque, at the DL convention, for working 150 Croatian islsands.

NEWS SHORTS

The July Council meeting was held in the Museum of Science in Haifa following the inauguration ceremony of station 4X4NSM. The equipment for this club station was donated in memory of Yehuda Kleinman 4X6UK by his mother, Sarah.

_ . . . _

The matter of the proposed club station in Holon now rests with the general manager of the city with ball squarely in his court., We await his advancing the issue.

_ . . . _

Membership services have been suspended for all those who have not paid their dues as of the first of July this year.

_ . . . _

The latest Israeli Callbook has gone out in CD ROM form to all members as of early September. There are a many other goodies in the disc such as ham software, articles, contest info, repeater listings, certificate info, DXCC country listings, antenna headings, construction plans, and still more. The CD itself alone is worth the price of IARC membership!

_ . . . _

The Science Channel (Cable Channel 8) is working on a program about amateur radio. Moshe Inger, 4Z1PF, veteran “elmer” of new hams, has been assigned to the project.

_ . . . _

Club Station 4X6QQ in Ashdod will be receiving assistance from the IARC , under the supervision of Mark 4Z4KX.

תיבת טקסט: We mourn the passing of Ernst Yunger 4Z5JE, and send condolences to his family.

The IARC Lecture Series (thanks to 4Z1PF)

What have we been missing? It turns out that those fortunate to be within easy traveling distance of the IARC HQ have been able to hear these lectures and presentations:

May 3^rd: Israel Berko 4X1OM on Computer Networking integrated on wire and RF, clarifiying the concepts of WI-FI, 802.11, 2.4 GHz and more.

May 13^th: Emil Kapon 4Z7ACE on “Interpersonal Communication on Another Level.” This was definitely an lecture on another level! Without slides or other audio-visual aids, as per the lecturer’s request, Emil fascinated us all showing how we can improve our communication with our surroundings. Another lecture is promised!

May 10^th: Arieh Seter 4X4OA on “The First Days of Radio”. Some of the old-timers on hand were able to recall the exact dates of some of the events cited.

May 27^th: Shalom Cohen 4X1UN on “How to Buy A Computer”. This time, not on a technical level, but rather as an investment for the working environment.

June 10^th: Nati Baratz 4Z4RF began on computers and software, yet moved on to issues of security, viruses, and methods of defense. An online computer accompanied the talk to demonstrate the issues at hand.

June 17^th: Rami Avni 4X1II recounting his visit to the peninsula where the holy mountain (Mount Athos?) is located. Only 120 daily visitors are allowed, and there are no females there at all.

June 24^th: Avraham Ariel 4Z5II on his research of the 200 most common family names in Israel. The lecture followed Avraham’s book on the topic.

July 1^st: Tzuri Reinstein 4X1RZ on cellular telephones, different modulation methods, their relative advantages and disadvantages, how to duplicate deices, etc.

July 7^th: Moshe Inger 4Z1PF on the different types of video coonections and their relevant concepts like RGB, S-Video, Composite Video. The anatomy of the video camera circuit encoded in PAL was explained.

As you can see, plenty of mind-stimulation is available at least fortnightly at the IARC HQ. Just be sure to bring your valid IARC membership card, or you can’t be let into the building. No tickee no admitee!

_ . . . _

That winds it up for the time being.

Stick around for the next issue of this newsletter.

In the meantime, once again our wishes for everything good in the New Year.

73 de Ahron and Ron

HAGAL INTERNATIONAL

AUTUMN/ October 2004