HAGAL
INTERNATIONAL
Israel Ham News
by Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT
and Ron Gang 4X1MK
Israel Ham News
by Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT
and Ron Gang 4X1MK
_____________________________________________________________
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP ASSEMBLY
Thursday
April 4th at 7 PM saw the annual rites of the Israel Amateur Radio
Club membership assembly get underway.
A few hundred hams filled the seats of the Lev Auditorium in the Shenkar
building, the normal haunt for these proceedings.
Moshe
Inger 4Z1PF capably chaired the assembly, and turned the podium over to the
deputy general manager of the Ministry of Communications, Moshe Galili. Mr. Galili praised the IARC for its
activities, pointing out the good relationship between the Ministry and the
IARC.
He
reported that the Ministry is working towwards the expansion of the 40 metre
band to treble its spectrum span to equal that of the 7.0 to 7.3 MHz allocation
of North America, at the expense of the international broadcasters. Speaking at length about the subject of
PLC (Power Line Communications, see more later in this issue), he pointed out
that licensing of same has not yet been issued in Israel.
IARC chairman, Joe Obstfeld 4X6KJ, presented a report on the activities
of the IARC, the weekly Thursday meetings, membership services on Fridays at
the IARC HQ on 10 Meitav Street in Tel-Aviv.
Yoram 4Z1GY, chairman of the membership committee reported that (in his
estimation) one member shouts too much.
He thanked 4X1DF for his work in organising the Emergency Communications
network, ed Paul Gross 4X6UU in his excellent organisational work in the IARC
treasury, the IARC repeater committee for their maintenance and development of
the national repeater network (they even sent a repeater to Bulgaria), Eli
Stern 4Z5IS for his assistance in legal matters, Michael Barak 4X4KF for his
editting and publishing of this HaGAL magazine and Tuvia Gringroz 4X4GT for his
assistance. He cited Mark Stern
4Z4KX for his organisation of the IARC contests (Holyland and VHF-UHF). In
summing up he stated that all the IARC activities were done in accordance to
the constitution and law of the land.
Michael
Ben Tovim 4X6PZ thanked Motorola Israel, their manager Nathan Gidron and
secretary Tami for all their assistance to the IARC.
Mark Stern 4Z4KX presented over a score of trophies for the Independence
Day and Holyland contests (Leonid 4Z5FL/M won first place in both contests for
the mobile category).
The time came for elections, and a slate of candidates was proposed by
the assembled members which was voted on for the IARC Executive, Watchdog and
Membership committees. After this,
it was intermission and everyone emptied out of the auditorium down to the
cafeteria for liquid and solid refreshments.
The
second half of the evening was devoted to a free discussion where anyone
wishing to do so could take the podium and express her or his views on relevent
items:
Peleg 4X1GP expanded on the very burning issue of PLC,
urging the IARC take legal counsel on this burning issue.
Tsachi
4Z4TL called on the IARC Executive to become more efficient and work with
modern management methods. Miki,
4X4KK, took exception to 4Z4TL’s comments.
Amnon
4X1DF called upon the amateurs to act in a manner fitting with their
responsibilities, and weigh their words before making utterances on the air
that could be potentially harmful (read between the lines).
This
could well be the biggest threat to our HF frequencies ever. The idea is that all kinds of household
electrical appliances will communicate with each other, and in the future there
could well be ten appliances in each family apartment on the air as it were
passing operational data between each other via spread spectrum between 1.6 to
30 MHz.The real problem is that they would be using the unshielded electrical
power lines for this purpose.
Imagiine the noise level present in a 100 apartment unit bulding, and
how this RF energy would be radiated.
Anyone living in areas of population could kiss HF operation goodbye,
especially listening for weaker signals.
There is a lot of money to be
made by the proponents of PLC and they have reportedly deliberately misled the
authorities in order to gain authorisation of this operation. This is no joke, and if the amateur
community does not wake up, our HF stations will be renderrd unusable
Last year’s contest had good participation: 229 logs were received from
the world and another 85 from inside Israel.
AND THE WINNERS ARE..
Top WORLD single ops
(mixed mode):
1. OM4JD
38,316 points
2. UR4EWA 29,988
3.
HA7SQ 21,749
4. IK6XEJ
16,992
5. LZ4UU 16,380
6. LY3BH 16,044
7. DL5KUA 15,339
8. PA3AJW 15,272
9. OE8SPW 14,924
10.
DL3AAF 13,590
SSB: IK6XEJ
CW: LZ4UU
SP9KRT 31,075
RA3AD 25,351
YO8KGA 19,936
AFRICA CN2PM
ASIA EK6CC (single op)
RZ9AWK (multi-op)
EUROPE OM4JD (single op)
SP9KRT (multi-op)
N.AMERICA K1QS
S.AMERICA YV1DIG
OCEANIA VK8AV
ISRAELI TOP
SCORERS:
Mixed mode
single ops:
1. 4X4DZ 2.
4Z1GY 3. 4X4YM
2.
Multiop
stations:
1.4X0R (portable)
1. 4X2F 2.4X6HI
3. 4Z4YU
Mobile
stations:
1.4Z4FL 2.4X4KK
3.4X4JU
SSB Only:
1.4Z8GZ 2.4X0J
3.4Z5AD
CW Only:
1. 4Z5FC 2. 4Z0X
3. 4Z5KO
Saturday April 19th saw this year’s
contest from 0000 to 1400 UTC. In
spite of the poor HF conditions we are experiencing with solar flares and
coronal holes driving up the “A index”, the Power- Which-Is saw fit to allow
quite decent conditions on all the bands from 160 through 10 metres. Vadim 4X4FJ operating with just 100
watts into a multiband vertical in Beer Sheva found plenty of activity and made
1350 QSOs on CW and SSB from 80 to
10 metres. He thinks that he was
not the highest scorer, as there were other bigger guns racking up some really
big points. There was plenty of
activity from around the world seeking out Israeli stations, and all continents
were present and accounted for.
There were a few overseas stations that I worked whose QSO number
approached 300, evidence of an adequate number of Israeli stations on the
air. Stay tuned… we’ll have more
details when they become available.
THE WEATHER
Once in a while,
when there is not much to talk, or rather write, about, people talk about the
weather.
This is what happened to
me this month. Fortunately, Radio Amateurs are forbidden to talk about politics
or business matters. Even if, what
could I write about? Local politics?
It is disgusting! The
political situation in the Middle East?
I am not giving away any new information if I just say ‘it is
disgusting’ as well.. Or might be
I should write about our local economical situatio? It is just as bad as both of the 2 previous subjects. So how about writing on the weather?
Through many years
I could write about the heat in summer and the lack of sufficient rainfall in
the winter months. The waters of
theSea Of Galilee were receding steadily and we crossed the threshold, the ‘red
line’ so to speak, from where no
more water could be pumped out of the lake for drinking water of our
country. The water would, on some
instances reach the Negev Desert, hundreds of kilometers away. As the Lake is anyway more than 200
meters below Sea Level compared to the Mediterranean Sea, at the end of last
summer we were down by about six and a half meter below the critical point.
Now this winter, fortunately we had, up to now, a huge amount of rain,
way above the normal annual downpour of the heavenly ‘wet substance’. On mount Hermon, the snow reached also
unprecedented heights. While I am
writing these lines, the snow at the top reaches about 6 meters! In the long run this snow will melt and
will come down to the Sea of Galilee. Up to now the water in the lake has risen by about two
and a half meter. The Jordan
River, which flows through the lake, and normally is a very small river, is
overflowing and has at the delta, getting to the lake. A width of over a
hundred meters.
For us, the thirsty
Israeli, cannot see enough on television the way the Jordan is flowing, with its
waterfalls replenishing our water resource. We are learning, almost daily, by how much the lake has
risen.
One of the rivers flowing
into the Jordan is the Yarmuk has gates to prevent its waters to flow
southwards in the Jordan down to the Dead Sea. This year, the amount of water is so high that after many
years these gates were closed, had to be opened and a lot of water will,
eventually, at the end, flow into the Dead Sea.
So, do ask any
Israeli, what is the best thing that happened to us lately there would be only
one answer ‘we had plenty of rain’.
P.S. In the mean time there is heavy snow in Jerusalem, the roads to
Jerusalem are closed due to the snow, schoolchildren have a holiday and build
snowmen. In short, at the end of
this winter season I will give you, once more, an account on the “water
front”. Still, up to now,
everybody seems to be happy. What
a glorious feeling, you open the television and the main items of news are
neither local nor foreign politics nor the economical state of our nation –
every thing has been ‘watered down’!
de 4X1AT
9N7DX:
from Tel Aviv to Nepal: A wonderful experience.
(By Dov 4Z4DX, with an introduction by Sarla,VU2SWS)
SARLA: Dov Gavish is licenced since 1968 and is the second generation
of Hams in the family. His father
was was 4X4VB,an active SSTV operator in his days and son Matan is 4Z5DX!!
When I got the message that Dov would be passing
through Mumbai on his way to Nepal for an expedition, I was delighted. After all he did have so many aces up
his sleeve! Awards and diplomas like the 9 Band WAZ, 5 Band WAS, IOTA Honour
Roll with 950 islands confirmed, 6 mtr DXCC, RTTY DXCC to name a few. As I was just beginning to experience
contesting, I was eager to meet this person who holds 4 World records (as ZC4dx
in 1987, as 4z8dx in 1988, as 4z4dx in 1980 on 40 mtr and 1981 in 80mtr) in the
CQWW Contest. The icing is the fact that Dov was in
the expedition to Jordan after the Peace agreement in 1995 between Jordan and
Israel and he worked with King Hussein JY1, with a special callsign JY8WW. At the airport he was as delighted to
meet me as I was him, and this was his first visit to this part of the world. He had all his Ham stuff in his
backpack!! An Icom 706 MkII with all the filters, a Toshiba 8000 Laptop and a
6mtr antenna!! I took him for a
long drive all over Mumbai and had a chance to listen to all his activities on
the band. He visited my shack and
gave me lots of advice and encouragement.
I was sad to see him go in the evening and wished I could go to the
expedition with him!!
DOV:In 1999, I met Bill 9n7zk in the IARU convention in Tel Aviv. I had always wanted to operate from
Nepal in memory of Father Moran, 9n1mm, an old friend. I also wanted to be the
first to make a QSO in 6 mtr from Nepal and operate RTTY and SSTV. Plus of
course, have a vacation with the entire family. So I started working on the plan.
In February 2003 I applied for the call sign 9n7dx to the Ministry of
Commerce in Nepal and received the basic confirmation from Satish, 9n1aa. I
then contacted my friend IZ8 CCW from the MDXC Club in Italy of which I am a
member and asked him to help me design a Website which would represent my
activities and frequencies and 1 daily sched for everyone on 14.195 at 1500
GMT.
I finally left Tel Aviv for Kathmandu via Mumbai on the 21st
of April 2003. I met my good friend Sarla, VU2SWS in Mumbai and spent the day
with her, sightseeing and visiting her shack and family. On the 21st
evening I was finally in Kathmandu! Hugo,9n7yj and my son Mat,4z5dx received me
at the airport and we headed for the Hotel in Thamel where we put up a tower
with 4 different dipole antennas and we were all set for the action.
But the beginning was not that easy. The procurement of the licence was long and tedious. I had to go from one official to
another, from the bank to the ministry and it took a good 4 days for it all to
end. During this period I traveled
around the Kathmandu area.
Finally on the 26th of April 2003, I was on air!!! The
pileup was tremendous from all over the world. So much so, that I had to call by the numbers in the call
signs, to cope. I operated split
and worked SSB on 28.495, 21.295 and 14.195. Every one hour I worked RTTY after giving sufficient notice
and operated split, 2-10 up. Late
in the evening when conditions deteriorated, we operated CW at 40 wpm.We faced
the problem of electricity failures. Also, conditions in Nepal were limited
between 9.30z to 21.00z.
My first weekend, I spent with Bill, 9n7zk and his wife in their
palatial house in Kathmandu where I was given 5 star hospitality and I had the
opportunity to operate from his shack with a beam antenna. As soon as I put up the 6 mtr antenna
which I had bought with me, I had a contact with VK8MS, VR2XMT and lots of
Japanese!!! In fact my first QSO on SSTV was with JA0SC. After I clocked about 3000 QSOs, I took
a break .
My son Matan and I headed for the mountains. We trekked for 5 days
through the mountains after flying to a point 3000 ft up. I flew in a small aircraft with 9N as
its number!! The terrain was
breathtaking and we stopped for “chai” every hour and walked for a minimum of 8
hrs every day. On the last day we
had a good soak in the hot springs.
We then went river rafting in Pokhara before finally returning to
Kathmandu and working the radio.
After working for another 4000 QSOs , we decided to call it a day and
prepared to head for home.
Looking back, there are a few pointers for my ham
friends who may want to work dx from Nepal.
1)The price of a licence in Nepal is very high. Its around 50$ per band.2) The
licencing process is very slow and valuable time is lost.3)Kathmandu is not a
good location to operate on lower bands.
It is better to go closer to the Tibetian border in northern Nepal. But the conditions are open for only
short periods of time. And linears
have to be used.
On the positive side, I was so happy to meet many of my Ham friends
since the last 30 yrs on the air from this rare location and I was pleased that
I gave them a new RTTY country. I
had a fantastic time with Bill and Jennifer who were most cooperative and
perfect hosts. They are moving out
of Kathmandu soon as Bill’s tenure there is over. The Nepalese people are
helpful and polite and are happy in their own little world in the mountains,
where their basic needs are taken care of. It was great to
work the radio with my son who is a great CW operator. Even though conditions towards
N.America were not good, I managed to work some old friends like W3UR, K0BX and
worked many new countries on RTTY.
As I worked with the system of numbers, I was able to get through to QRP
stations and also stations without big antennas or linears. I know that many of them were working
9n7 after ages.
My total tally:
RTTY 1650 QSOs
6mtr SSB & CW 253 QSOs
SSB all bands 3200 QSOs
CW all bands 3500 QSOs
On my way back home, I had 2 full days in Mumbai. I had the opportunity
to meet VU2SWS Sarlaji and Prashant , VU2CBU. Though the weather was hot and humid, their hospitality made
me very comfortable. I hope to work dx from an island close to VU
someday!!
I am back home now and I carry very fond memories of this entire
expedition.
ELEVEN
PIRATE RADIO STATIONS CLOSED IN JERUSALEM
(translated freely from HAARETZ newspaper, March 12 2003)
by
Yehonatan Liss
Jerusalem Police raided yesterday 11
pirate radio stations that operated in the city and closed them down. Most of them transmitted from
Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, and some of them were affiliated with the “Holy Channels”
of the Shas political party. Three
broadcasters were arrersted along with the maintenance manager of the City
Tower building on whose roof a pirate transmitter was installed.
Jerusalem police pointed out that the
raids were carried out as the result of complaints of (legitimate) radio
stations and airports, since the pirate transmissions interfered with the
frequencies that they use, and denied that the motive was a political order
from high places. Detectives of
the Zion Region of the police, commanded by Inspector-General Doron Turjeman,
confiscated much equipment including transmitters, amplifiers, antennas and
computers.
Amongst the stations that were located:
“The Voice of Truth”, “The Voice of Peace” and “The Voice of Grace”, identified
with Shas, as well as stations broadcasting in Yiddish to the ultra-orthodox
community, and a station that broadcasted in Persian.
Editor’s note:
In the past years we have done a few small articles about the massive
number of pirate broadcasters between 88 to 108 MHz. It’s interesting to note that for the first time in many
years, the Shas poiltical party, which has their network of “Holy Channels”
around the country, is not part of the new coalition government. At any rate, it’s still hard to find a clear frequency in
the FM broadcast band in which one can stick a needle!
Tuvia 4X4GT’s lecture series at the IARC headquarters
has celebrated one year of interesting and varied talks. Attendence has been high, and the scope
of topics covered is most wide.
_ .
. . _
After what seems like a decade break, Naftali 4Z4RM of
Haifa has re-instated the Saturday morning (11AM) HaGAL-On-The-Air net,
originating on the Haifa repeater.
This is an interesting roundtable, including amateur radio news and
technical topics. Uzi 4X4CP is
Naftaly’s second-in-command and will be conducting the net from time to time.
_ .
. . _
Recent amateur licence examinations held at the IARC
HQ saw 2 examinees pass the Morse test, 8 pass the regulations, and two the
technical portion. As a result a
few new callsigns are being heard on the air.
The IARC has received a very tidy sum of 150,000
shekels from monies bequeathed to the State, with a very definite string
attached:
The funds are for the sole purpose of education… thus
the money may be used to pay instructors and take care of expenses setting up
radio club stations. Should we
take advantage properly of this windfall, we should see a serious strengthening
of amateur radio in Israel.
_ .
. . _
Nahum 4Z5KN will be co-ordinating the Russian language
pages of HaGAL magazine, appearing next to these pages. Godspeed, Nahum!
_ .
. . _
_ .
. . _
At
the time these words are being written, the outcome of the military tension in
the Iraqi region is still unknown.
Having gained experience from the 1991 Gulf War and the other violent
acts occurring here in the last few years, amateur radio has definitely a
contribution to make to the public here in Israel.
Many IARC members have volunteered their time and expertise in the
setting up of an emergency communications network which will work in
co-ordination with the authorities in charge of Civil Defense. A country-wide exercise has been
conducted by the Emergency Network volunteers recently, and lessons are being learned
in fine-tuning and improving the operation.
Although we hope that we need only to participate in exercises and be
spared from the real thing, readiness and preparedness are very important!
_ .
. . _
SIX METRES
(First callsign is the
station reporting, next comes frequency, then callsign heard or worked, and
then other comments.)
YO7VS 50112.5 4Z5FC CQ 599 inJ-pole
YO7VS 50162.0 4Z4TL KM72KE
9A6R 50080.4 4X4SIX 579 km72jb
I8JOQ 50160.0 4Z4TL 5/9
LZ5QD 50105.2 4Z4KX KM71JX 57
9A8A 50109.0 4Z4DX cq km72kd/
9H1AZ 50115.0 4X1GA 59 in JM75
S51ZO 50111.0 4Z4DZ km72 59
Yours truly (4X1MK) tried running 5 watts from his little FT-817 QRP transceiver into
the 24.9 MHz loop of his 5 band 2 element quad (two wavelengths in
circumference, decent SWR) and was able to make solid QSO’s with stations from
some ofthe above areas – amazing!
And the rest of the other HF bands had gone very stinko!
Some of the more serious 6 metre folks in Israel have
done DXCC on this band, and with so many of the new transceivers covering SIX
there is a lot of activity from here on the band.
By the
way, 4X4SIX is the six metre beacon from Tel-Aviv on 50.080 MHz, running low
power into a vertical, and if you hear it, the band is wide open into Israel.
_ . . . _
And don’t forget… keep an
ear open for 4X6TU, the Tel-Aviv University HF beacon operating on 14.100,
18.110, 21.150, 24.930 and 28.200 MHz on the SCDXF beacon net.
_ . . . _
CW Forever
You must have, at times, thought into the past,
Where some things go out, while others last,
What comes to my mind is the old morse code,
That has weathered the storms from any abode.
To talk with ones finger, is currently an art,
Of any info you care to impart,
In most conditions the signal gets thru,
While the same about phone is simply not true.
Those dits and dahs cut through the trash,
Of nearby noise or lightning’s crash,
To the sensitive ears of the ham receiver,
Who records this data with ardent fever.
He knows he is doing something unique,
(in such poor condition’s, that’s quite a feat!)
To roger the message that came of the air,
These brass pounders sure do have that flair.
They say morse operators are a dying breed,
But do not despair, there is always that need,
That when conditions get rough for the new automation,
Be rest assured, there will be need for your station.
CW is dying ? Blieve it never,
This mode will be around forever and ever,
But one thing is sure, what we really need,
Is to relay our knowledge to the younger breed.
To carry the torch, long after we are gone,
To send morse code through the air like a song,
When at last, Silent Key’s pull that final lever,
We can rest in peace. It is CW forever.
By Jim Hatherley WA1TBY 1985
(courtesy of H.S.C. Germany, passed on by Moshe
Winkler 4X6KF.)
_ . . . _
Well,
that sums up the past few months for the time being. As you can see a lot of
material accumulated as we awaited this issue to make it to the printing
press. All good things comes to
those who wait!
Wishing all our readers a very pleasant summer and happy hamming.
73 de Ahron 4X1AT
and
Ron 4X1MK