HAGAL INTERNATIONAL  December 2001 Vol. 15 No.12

Today we live in a rapidly changing World.

Not always, unfortunately are the changes for the better. 

Take for example one of the repercussions of the after effects of the September 11^th tragedy.

The after effects are plentiful,just take one example, “ mail “

In the good old days, amateurs, after having made a QSO and specially with a rare DX station, at once used to fill out a QSL card and “ mail “ it direct.

Today, one is asking himself, do I want to receive this mail, with all the “inserts” of un- identifiable powders in envelopes ?? Do I know the source ??

So even ifnobody thought about it, it affects us amateurs as well.

I even went so far as to fantasize about a clear, ‘look through’ envelope, than before opening, I can inspect its contents. 

Or, as othersare doing now, electronic QSL cards.

Are they worth the screen they are printed on ?

Is that really the same as in the good old days ?

I still enjoy to receive QSL cards from all kind of countries, DX stations and persons, each one with his specialty, ofpaper, color, design some more exotic than others etc.

Can a computer generated graphics (card) replace the old nostalgia ?

And what happens to the “ human “ element, in exchanging QSL’s.The old cards, is some kind of presentation of yourself as a person. It represents something are we going to lose that as well ?

Will those that volunteer for QSL bureau duty, remain on their jobs ? 

Not be sure as to where and with what the package has been in contact ?

Or are we going to guarantee in our QSO’s, 

“ QSL, 100% via the buro, without additives “Sounds ridiculous isn’t it.

But as I said, we live in a rapidly changing World, and it will not surprise me, if this unfortunately, in the future will become reality.(4X6KJ)

AND THE WINNERS ARE…

The results of the 2001 Holyland DX contest are final, courtesy of 4Z4KX.Here are the main points :

WORLD TROPHY WINNERS 

   

Top single op DF2CK contacted 283 Israeli stations,LY2PX following with 270 QSOs.

The top 3 Israeli single ops in the mixed mode category were 4X4YM, 4X2K (4X1GY op) and 4X4JU with 1467, 1385 and 1423 QSO’s respectively.In SSB, top three were 4X4FJ, 4Z5AD and 4Z8GZ with 1350,1106 and 1004 QSO’s each, and in CW only we had 4Z5AX, 4X3A (4X4NJ op) and 4Z5KO with 1407, 1359 and 1051 QSOs.

All in all 312 logs were received from outside of Israel and another 100 from Israel.

Complete results in Microsoft Excel format may be downloaded from the IARC website.

In our last issue we reported about the five hundredth edition of Mark 4Z4KX’s newsletter for our hams formerly from the USSR, Mark being very much involved in their integration into the Israeli ham community.For a celebration Mark was invited by Mikhail to Upper Nazareth.A big banner welcommed him to the CulturalCommunity Centre of the town. 

This gave Mark the idea to arrange a very big field-day on November 10 at the ‘Ganei Yehoshua’, a park in the northern part of Tel-Aviv.In addition the 80 baseball-hats Mark had already ordered with the special commemorative emblem he designed, he ordered 60 tee shirts to distribute to his guests.The crowd that gathered astonished even Mark.More than 180 attended!55 callsigns of his protegees from the former Soviet Union and 40 other Israeli callsign holders.Luckily 4Z5KJ, Alex, works in this park and helped Mark to organise the entire event.It included three contests: A trivia contest, a challenge to jot down callsigns which were sent together like in a pile-up with the addition of some noise in SSB and later also in CW. 

Of course there was also an HF stationactive, operating in CW as well as in SSB.

Summing it all up – Mark made this field day an event that will be remembered, by all who attended, for years to come.Pictures can be seen on the IARC’s internet site at www.iarc.org.

THE REAL HOBBY

Nowadays, many Radio Amateurs are, more or less, as our German friends say in German ‘Steckdosen Amateure’.Translated it means that many new Amateurs, even though they passed their obligatory examination and do hold a valid license, are actually hams who know how to plug in their equipment into a mains socket.Many of these guys do not know to hold a soldering iron to connect a coaxial cable to its appropriate plug. On the other hand, there are many that have the constant urge to build something for their shack.

A hot item these days is the building, with the aid of an IC SSM2160 ‘Mikemaster’, a new type of microphone amplifier who has a lot of advantages.Noise canceling, audio compression and automatic gain control are some of the virtues of this 14-leg integrated circuit. 

The IARC had ordered a quantity of these ICs and our hams are building them on as very small piece of Veroboard. These little gadgets will work satisfactorily in our cars as and also in our base stations at homes that have a great amount of background noise.

Personally, more than 50 years ago, all of us built our entire transmitting equipment.At that time, with only discrete components, we were on good terms with each and every condenser or resistor in our projects – but then it was many years back, when in Israel parts were rare and hard to get by, we mostly cannibalized any ex-army equipment you could buy.(de 4X1AT)

NEWS SNIPPETS

+++The IARC social evening is planned for December 20^th in Natanya at the Park Hotel after a two year hiatus in which we sadly had no events of this kind.Dinner, dancing and a raffle of equipment (including transceivers) is on the programme.Those wishing to attend should contact 4X6KJ, 4X4YM or 4X6UU.The IARC couincil has authorised the charter of minubusses to bring in hams from far south and north. 

+++The Old-Timers continue to meet in Tel-Aviv on certain Sundays at Café Jean-Dame.Contact 4X4GT for details.

+++The new Israel Callbook should be out soon.Much thanks to Itzik 4X6HJ from Beersheba for the work done on this.

+++ The government has made 20,000 shekels available to the IARC treasury from funds bequeathed to the State.The catch is that the money may be used only for specifically designated projects like the financing of ham radio courses to young people.Well worth it!