As we go to press, the heat and stickiness of the summer is upon us. Yes indeed, the good old summer doldrums. (The only good thing is the nightly tropospheric bending of VHF signals, so it seems that the whole country is accessible on VHF simplex.) Fortunately, there have been enough goings-on to provide a few pages for your reading and edification….

5A7A

In last CQ World-Wide CW DX Contest. A team consisting of DJ7IK, DL1BDF, DL5EBE, DJ9CB, IT9ESZ. K3LP, DK1BT, DF2SS, DL5CW, DL9USA, DJ7EO, DJ8NK, DF6QV, PA0R, DK1II, HB9DTE, DJ2VO, DK2DO, DL8YHR, DK7PE, VE6OH, ON5GA, DK8FD, DL1EJA, K1LZ, JH1NBN, DK7YY and N2OW went to Libya to put a special DXpedition station 5A7A on the air. They obtained material sponsorship from many ham manufacturers and businesses as well as numerous DX associations from Europe and the USA. This major operation logged 112,232 contacts around the world on all bands from 1.8 to 440 MHz between November 16^th to 29^th 2006.

Yet with the multitude of calls from around the world to be found in 5A7A’s log, one country remains strangely absent – Israel! How could this be? Libya is one short hop off the ionosphere away from 4X/4Z, so contacts on almost any band should have been commonplace! There are hundreds of active Israeli hams on the bands… so what happened?

As we all know, politics remains out of bounds for amateur radio. Yet, unfortunately

for years, the Israeli radio amateur has been victimized by international political discrimination.

We are still on the “black list” of many Arab and Muslim countries whose radio amateurs are forbidden by law to contact 4Z/4Z. Until the 1990’s Soviet Union and Communist-bloc hams were forbidden to contact us.

Fortunately the times are somewhat more enlightened, and it has become possible to contact many of our Arabic and Muslim cousins, yet there are still a number of countries who consider a benign ham radio contact with Israel to be a criminal act.

I came across on the West Virginia DX Association web pages an article entitled “5A7A -- the Untold Story” by Hal Turley, W8HC. He says it much better than I can, so with his kind permission I have the honor of reproducing some of his words:

“… Actually, I have hesitated sharing this information for the past couple months but events in the past week have compelled me to speak my mind and at the very least, ensure that the DX world is aware of a situation that I find unbelievably depressing and depressingly unbelievable, given the fact our hobby is supposed to transcend this sort of thing….

“Let's rewind the tape to November 16, 2006. Excitement abounds as 5A7A hits the airwaves and DXers around the world celebrate this rare DX entity as they enter it into their logbooks. It's been a good while since a 5A was QRV and the seemingly relentless pileups bear witness to the need by the DX world. The operation, headed by a team of veteran German operators does a first-class job of making sure that it will be an even longer while before 5A hits any of the Top-10 lists of needed entities. DXers around the world are literally gorging themselves on 5A7A QSOs-- all bands and modes! The signals are great and everyone is having a blast enjoying this great hobby! "Hey, here comes another new band for me, by golly!" "Aren't they doing a great job operating the pileups?!!"

“Well folks it wasn't quite like that for all the DXers. Some of our Order didn't get to experience the joy of a 5A7A QSO. Why?? Simply because of who they are and where they live. You see, they are Israelis. Yes, that's right, these 4X ham radio operators, these Jews in Israel cannot be contacted. This was the restriction that the 5A7A operators accepted from the Libyan licensing authorities before they even made the first QSO with the rest of the world. They apparently signed some kind of blood oath that they would not make QSOs with 4X amateurs. And so, when an excited 4X DX operator called the 5A7A, he was simply told, "I cannot work you," "We are not allowed to make a QSO with you."

“From November 16 to November 29, 5A7A logged over 112,000 QSOs. You will not find a single 4X station in their on-line log. Oh, there was one up until last week. That was for an 80m contact that Burt Cohen W3GG made during the CQWW CW test with his 4X0G operation. That QSO has since been mysteriously purged from the on-line records. I am curious if it is still in the 5A7A Contest Entry submitted to CQWW authorities however.

“During the time that 5A7A was QRV, emails, phone calls and pleas from several interested sources were made to the ARRL, the Daily DX, CQ Contest advising of this discriminatory action. It was argued that the 5A7A should be DQ'd for breaching the "no-politics" code of conduct that most of us try to adhere to in the hobby. Amazingly, we were told that we, as opponents of this conduct, were crossing the political line. Therefore, all the movers and shakers of the DX and Contest world, in essence said, "No harm, no foul." Let the rest of the world enjoy this feeding frenzy. It is good for business, of course. Oh, it was suggested that this sort of thing had happened a long time ago and that one way the 4X ops might get around this was to give a modified prefix with their callsign. "This is what has been done before and perhaps they can contact the QSL manager after the DXpedition and provide their correct callsign and get their QSLs after everyone is safely out of the country." As an example, if my callsign is 4X0WV, I would use "UX0WV" or "VX0WV" to call the 5A7A.

“Hey great idea! Use a "modified" callsign.... but under the circumstances.... Why not! So yes, this is what some of the creative 4X boys did. You can find clever examples in the 5A7A on-line log if you want to spend the effort. And so now, I know that some of these 4X ops this past week have contacted the 5A7A QSL manager, DL9USA and have provided him with the information from these "unusual" QSOs with exact times, callsigns used and frequencies expecting cooperation in the spirit of the hobby so they can get their QSLs. Everyone can now be happy, right?

“Well, guess what? DL9USA says, "No QSO's, no QSL's to 4X." 5A7A Team Coordinator Andy DJ7IK was at least somewhat apologetic in his response, "I'm very sorry that we are not able to send QSL to 4X-stations, as we got our license with the restriction not to work with 4X. Because we like to keep in touch with our partners in 5A to support the growth of ham radio in Libya, we accepted this restriction, knowing that this is not hamlike!"

“Poor Andy even seems to recognize that this wasn't in the real spirit of the hobby.

“So this is where it stands folks. This is where I struggle. I wonder what would have happened if the 5A7A license held the restriction of "No USA QSOs permitted?" No, it isn't my battle. I should just bow out of this and say, "Big deal, it's just a stupid hobby. Hey who really cares about a handful of DXers over in this tiny Middle-Eastern country." But I just can't bring myself to take the easy way out. These guys are fellow ham radio operators, fellow DXers and Contester and although they would probably be too embarrassed to share this information themselves, I want people to know the truth. In this day and age where we should place ourselves above the daily BS of politics in our hobby, we shouldn't have discrimination of any sort. It doesn't matter if your a Jew, an Arab, a black, a white, a man, a woman, handicapped, an astronaut, a whatever.... we are all ham radio operators. We have a common bond in this hobby and it is 2007 for crying out loud! And so if we start licensing to exclude a nation, or a group or class of people or religion, then don't we have a problem? At that point it's time to rethink the priorities and take action….

“I think the 5A7A sponsors need to know about this too. I'm only one voice. Are there any others out there?”

-73, Hal W8HC

Indeed, your scribe here has become sick and tired of the hypocrisy in the DX world. If ham radio is really apolitical, then it behooves the DXCC and CQ magazine to disallow any contacts with stations who cannot or will not contact all participants in the competition (award or contest).

Those who complain about this discrimination have been considered by the head honchos in the above two organizations to be the ones responsible for putting the politics into radio. This is the same as blaming the victim of an attack rather than the attacker.

As mentioned in a previous issue, IARC president Joe 4X6KJ protested this affair at the ARRL when he was in the USA, yet they shrugged it off. Joe had the courage to speak up about this last June at Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen Germany, and as a result many visitors came by the IARC booth to voice their concern about this matter.

So simply put – let us petition all the radio organizations around the world to not honor those radio operations that are discriminatory in any way.

Pirates of the Airwaves hit Airlines

In early June your humble reporter was waiting for a flight at Toronto Pearson Airport on his way home to Israel. Then, just before boarding time, it was announced that the takeoff was being postponed until it would become known if the flight would be allowed to land in Tel-Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport.

A day before an FM broadcast pirate station somewhere in Israel had spurious transmissions from its unlicensed transmitter spewing over unto the airport’s air traffic control frequency, making serious QRM to communications between aircraft and the control tower. The air traffic controllers decided to close down the airport until the Ministry of Communications would get its act together and close down the clandestine broadcasters.

Veteran readers of this parchment know that this is an ongoing story, that we have touched on from time to time over the past decade or two. It is just too easy to get an FM broadcast station on the air with low chances of being caught and even lower chances of being prosecuted.

Furthermore, some of these stations are connected to a certain political party (which happens to be a small yet necessary part of the coalition government) whose spiritual leader airs his sermons and messages on these “holy channels”. In the present case, the offending station did not belong to this group.

It may be conjectured that if you want to run a pirated FM station unhampered, keep your signal clean and don’t make any enemies with your content. Then the understaffed authorities will probably not be bothered to deal with you. Only if your raunchy signals close down international air traffic, then the monitoring vans and radio inspectors will rush to the scene to make you QRT. Well, enough of this rant….

Our old friend, Naftali “Anatol” Balaban 4Z4RM has an interesting angle on this whole situation, and let us attempt a translation of his letter that was published in Israel’s authoritative “Haaretz” newspaper:

“As one working with communications with radio amateurs over more than 30 years and having great experience in the construction of wireless communications equipment, I wish to relate to the matter of interference to airplanes landing at Ben Gurion airport. In my opinion, the State has abandoned its frequencies. One should check what can be done on the receiving end, i.e. the airport. Has the airport’s communications taken all the steps to prevent

and filter the external interference?

“The civil aeronautical communications band is between 108 and 136 megahertz amplitude modulation (AM). The broadcast band is from 88 to 108 megahertz frequency modulation (FM). Entertainment radio does not transmit in the aeronautical band for the simple reason: no one will receive them there since civilians in their homes and cars can receive only in the 88-108 MHz band in FM. If there is interference, it comes from using faulty equipment.

“Years ago we received AM stations on the medium waves, and there was much interference – because of a neighbor who used an electric drill or mixer, turning on a kitchen light was the cause of noise in the radio. Thus, most of the radio stations in the world went over to FM transmission.

“Unbelievable, but civil aviation - as opposed to police, naval, civil (taxis and trucks) and cellular communications which went on to more advance methods – is using AM in the exact same way as they began transmitting 60-70 years ago. Taxis use much more sophisticated “MIRS”.

“Cellular phones that are not AM work excellently on board aircraft; their prohibition on board flights is from the suspicion that their use will interfere the airplanes’ primitive communications.

“The solution in the short run is to combat all sources of interference with the help of technical crews. In the long term – to recommend that civil aviation adopt a more modern communications method. In the immediate range: to equip aircraft with MIRS communications devices, as has done Israel Railways after the occurrence of accidents. Or alternatively, that each aircraft have a permanent cell phone, the cheapest and most simple device, that the pilots can use in the event of radio interference. Cellular communications are albeit short range, yet will work well between the airplanes and the control tower as they approach Israel’s shores.”

-Naftali Balaban-Oberhand, electronics man, and past chairman of the Israel Amateur Radio Club”

N E W S B R I E F S & S H O R T S

After a conspicuous absence last year, the IARC had a very successful booth at the Ham Radio fest in Friedrichshafen. There is a very full coverage of it on the IARC website, www.iarc.org .

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The IARC council has appointed a committee, headed by Ehud Zager 4Z4UR, to deal with the legislation and regulations affecting amateur radio antenna installations. As we reported in the past, after the hurdle of “radiation hazards” has been jumped over, we found a new one with municipalities deeming our beautiful towers as “eyesores”. The work of this committee is seen as being of utmost importance and has been budgeted 40,000 shekels (just under $10,000). It will take priority over many IARC activities, and HaGAL magazine may appear a touch less frequently if need be.

The antenna committee has met with the Ministry of the Interior in what appears to have been a fruitful exchange of ideas.

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A Nano-Satellite convention was held this past May in Herzliya. Amateur radio received special attention there, the chairman specifically pointing out that ham radio should be taken into account when speaking about ground stations.

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A new avenue of co-operation has opened with the Communications and Computers Branch of the Israel Defense Forces. Along with information exchanges, a special operation of 4X4HK and the Signal Corps training base will have been held by the time you’re reading this. This may result in mutual recruitment!

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Also by the time you have read this the Islands on the Air (IOTA) contest will have been held, and hopeful the Holyland Contesters’ Group will have had calm seas to have been ferried across to Akhziv Island to put it on the air for the event. They will have gotten more than their feet wet as a good part of this rock opposite Israel’s northern coast is under water at high tide!

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TO MORSE OR NOT TO MORSE

This question has yet to be resolved in the Holy Land after the return of the Children of Israel from their 2000 year-long exile. At the Annual General Membership assembly in June along with a very heated discussion a vote was taken to get the general feeling of the membership. The outcome – 59 in favor of deleting the Morse exam, 37 for retaining the test and 5 abstained. In the light of this, the committee of Moshe 4Z4RG will work out the IARC’s recommendation to the Ministry of Communications on the Morse exam issue.

We had thought that after the Americans had made their move we would follow suite, yet the die-hards have refused to see the demise of the Morse exam for HF access.

In the meantime, the ARRL reports that it turns out that doing away with the Morse exam was the best thing that has happened to ham radio since the great influx of former CBers in the seventies. There is a very significant influx of new hams, and the volunteer examiners have been working overtime. Maybe the same will happen here?

Yet, 4X6KJ reports that France has cancelled the cancellation of the Morse exams in the Republic – in other words the Morse exam is once again a requisite for an HF license there.

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Tidhar 4Z5CA will be giving lectures with an accent on amateur radio at the Youth Science Olympiad (our poor translation of Olimpiad`a). There will be a “fox hunt” using radio direction finding. The Haifa Science Museum has brought up the possibility of ham radio instruction at their summer camp.

HAGAL INTERNATIONAL

July - August 2007