HAGAL
INTERNATIONAL
Israel
Ham News
3
Israel
Ham News
3
by Ahron
Kirschner 4X1AT
and Ron Gang 4X1MK
THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
As
by what has become a tradition in the past years, on Thursday evening of May
the 18th, Tel Aviv University’s Lev Auditorium was the venue for this statutory
rite of our organization.
Sadly, at the outset of the evevning, we were informed of the passing of
our legal advisor, Motti Shorer 4X4JY.
He is greatly missed, and our hearts go out to the family.
Mr. Moshe
Galili, representing the Ministry of Communications, addressed the forum and
announced that the expansion of the 40 meter band in Israel has come into
effect, and as of his announcement, the band is open from 7.0 to 7.2 MHz,
its spectrum doubled. Full details
and the fine print will follow.
The BQ’s: Yossi 4X1BQ and
Irit 4Z1BQ
The
Ministry is involved with the Non-Ionized Radiation Law, and the Ministry is
working towards a classification for radio amateurs that will provide an
across-the-board exemption for our stations. The Ministry will continue to be of assistance to the
amateurs in all that is necessary.
He
cited the fact that over 50 new amateur radio licenses were issued this year, a
real encouraging accomplishment.
He thanked Miriam Shtessel 4X6KT for her dedicated work at the Ministry
co-ordinating the amateur licensing, wishing her continued good work in this
area.
4X6KJ granting a special
award to 4Z5FI
The
address of our chairman, Joe Obstfeld 4X6KJ, all being well, will be covered on
our last issue. As well,
chairpeople of the different committees presented their addresses, summarizing
the past year’s activities.
Malik 4X4JU presented Alex Goldberg 4Z5KJ with a special trophy in
recognition of his widespread mobile activities activating many rare Holyland squares. Malik said that there’s a shortage of
mobile operators to put the unpopulated squares on the air. There are 300 Holyland awards
around the world.
The
following are certificates of honor that were awarded by the outgoing council:
Amateur of the Year: Alex
4Z5KJ, for his great HF activity, Holyland award promotion and aiding other
amateurs; Outstanding Amateur:
Reuven Alon 4Z5FI for excellence in HF operation and support and aid to
various operating expeditions;
Lifetime Work: Shlomo Menuhin 4X1AS for advancing amateur radio in
Israel and satellite operations;
Lifetime Work: Amnon
Bar-Giora 4X1DF for establishing and supporting emergency communications and
for representing the IARC in overseas forums.
Tsachi 4Z4TL
Certificates of Appreciation went to Moshe Inger 4Z1PF for his years of teaching
amateur radio and his Tuesday evening lectures, Etzion Bar-Noi 4Z7ACI for his
upkeep and maintenance of the IARC
server and Tsachi Lindenbaum 4Z4TL for his organizing and running the 17th
Maccabiah operations.
Afterwards certificates and awards were given out by contest manager
Mark 4Z4KX for the winners of the Holyland and Independence Day contests.
After the intermission the podium was opened to the general membership
to air their views on topics close to their hearts. Then the raffle ticket prizes were drawn before closing the
assembly. A new council for the
term 2006-7 was elected: 4X6KJ,
4X6UU, 4Z4TL, 4Z4BS, 4Z4GT, 4Z4ZI, 4Z4JT, 4Z5RG, and 4Z5CA. The new Membership Committee is 4Z4UR,
4X1UH and 4Z1RG, the Watchdog
Committee consisting of 4X4KK, 4Z5FG and 4X4CP.
- . . . -
The 3rd Annual Spring Antenna Festival
Field-Day/Picnic was held two weeks
previously to AGM in the Ilanot Forest near Netanya.
Your
scribe was fortunate to be there, put a modest QRP station on the air, and most
important of all, enjoy the fine camaraderie of all the amateurs and their
families who came to the event.
Some QSO’s were made on the HF bands, though it was hard escaping the
front-end overload and QRM from other participants.
Some antennas of note that were erected there: an 8 meter fiberglass pole attached to the bumper of 4Z5NB’s
4X4 (vehicle – not callsign), 4Z4IZ’s remotely tuned magnetic loop, 4Z5AY’s
military mast that doubled as its own coaxial cable to feed inverted vees at
the top, and 4X1FC’s multi-radial ground plane vertical that got out “like a
bandit”. The
pictures tell more of the story:
Eli Shahaf 4Z5NB
Dani Yaari 4X1FC works some CW with his Icom 737
powered by a giant SLA battery
Mark
Stern 4Z4KX was there with his QLF left-foot Morse Key. A special certificate was made out to
anyone who could send legible code at 5 words per minute minimum.
It
isn’t as easy as you think. Irit
4Z1BQ really tapped out some great rhythm
Dubi 4Z5DZ’s world-traveled FT-817 and LDG auto-tuner
working into an adjustable screwdriver whip fastened to the radio.
If
you can’t read the caption in the photo: 4X1DX, 4Z5KJ, 4Z4DX and 4Z4RB.
NEWS
SCRAPINGS:
Attendance at the AGM was only
130. Joe 4X6KJ says that the
lesson learned was that a field-day picnic should not be held only two weeks
before. He reckons that many
didn’t come to the AGM since they’d already seen everybody only 2 weeks
earlier.
- . . . -
By
the time you’ve read this, the June 6th commencement of the CW
course at the IARC headquarters will have been. Since quite a few have already passed their grade “D”
Technical Class licence, this course is all they need to get the coveted grade
B General Class ticket and get on the HF bands. Don’t hold your breath for the CW test to be abolished in
our fair holy land… it looks like the Ministry of Communications is waiting to
see what the FCC in the good old USA decides to do with the Morse test before
coming to a decision, and that could take at least another year, so we are
told.
- . . . -
The
“Holyland Patrol”: Alex 4Z5KJ is
organizing an activation of rare Holyland squares on the first weekend of
June. He’s looking for many
operators to join him.
4X1MK/p
- . . . -
73 de Ahron and Ron