HAGAL INTERNATIONAL March 2000, Vol

HAGAL INTERNATIONAL June 2000 Vol. 15 No.6

Israel Ham News by Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT and Ron Gang 4X1MK

SLIGHTLY EXAGGERATED AND MORE

Soon after the last issue went out, I received a few calls from our readers reminding me that we are in the 15^th year of writing the newsletter and not in the 16^th.Sorry, we are ashamed not noticing the mistake – now it has been rectified and this issue is June 2000 Vol. 15 No.6, but we hope to be still around next year, when we will write the real Volume 16 No.5, you will continue to be our readers.Still, we would appreciate to receive an annual donation to cover our expenses.Do have a thorough look at the address on the envelope bringing you this issue of the HaGal. The number after your callsign indicates the last year we received a donation from your side.In some cases you will note that payment has lapsed already a few years.

IARC AGAIN REPRESENTED AT THE HAM-RADIO

The Israel Amateur Radio Club will be, as for many years in the past, again this year represented at The Ham-Radio Fair in Friedrichshafen, in Germany, at Lake Constance.The fair will run from Friday the 29 of June `til the Sunday the 1^st of July.

Leading the Israeli team will be the well-known Mark Stern, 4Z4KX, our Award Manager and also the Contest Manager of the ‘Holyland Contest’.This is a change from previous years, when always the chairman of the society headed the team.It is the first time that a well known contester will head our delegation.Mark will be able to answer many of the questions about last years Holyland Contest, as well as final results.Mark will be around during the construction, and later for the disassembling of our stand.

But there are many others at aid the Israeli stand.Foremost is Tommy Grunfeld DL2FDP.Tommy is helping the IARC for many years in all connected with the fair.He is doing all the required logistics like ordering the equipment for the booth like chairs and counters as well as mains supply (at his own expense).There will be also our friends from the Netherlands and last not least 4X6OLShushi Kirschner and her husband Ahron 4X1AT.But we should not forget the many Israeli hams, visiting the fair and helping us out for a few hours or even some days.

CLASSES FOR RADIO AMATEURS

At the IARC office in Tel-Aviv there are, at the present time, running three different courses for amateurs. Three different instructors are teaching.

The first group of students are 15 members of a voluntary rescue organization called ‘FIRST’which are ready to operate, in concert with the Israeli police force, at any part of the country with the aim to help people in distress.This group counts about 600 members, fully trained for the porpuse of rescue, living in all parts of Israel and ready to help on a moments notice.Most of the people in need are travellers having had accidents like falling from cliffs in the desert etc. The main problem of the group is communication from places difficult for normal cellular telephone communication.It turned out to bethat our repeater network covers most all places in Israel.This group would like very much to use this network but – the repeaters are on amateur frequencies and may only be accessed by fully licensed hams.So it was obvious that part of the memebers of ‘FIRST’ will become radio amateurs and thus be able to use our repeater equipment and frequencies. The group had been allocated three simplex frequencies, namely 144.150, 144.175 and 144.200 MHz by the IARC for their blessed rescue work to be used while any emergency operation is in progress.All the Israeli amateurs will be instructed to keep clear ofthese channels in order not to interfere with the rescue activities.But it’s important to keep in mind that all who will operarate the communication equipment are fully licensed amateurs keeping, at the same time, all the rules of amateurs, and that only for non commercial use!The ‘FIRST’ sosceity invites Israeli hams to join their forces.

This group is being taught by ‘the’ teacher for electronics Moshe Inger 4Z1PF.Virtually hundreds of the present day licensed Radio Amateurs have learned in classes held by Moshe.He also developed the radio amateur radio courses for the Open University and these students, during the frontal educational phases, were guided by Moshe.

As could be expected, the IARC is very happy to participate in such a solely humanitarian project.

Next comes Sarit Inger, 4Z4PF, who is educating a class of 6, teaching the technical as well as procedural part for the ‘D’ (technician) class of our hobby, giving the holders the right to transmitt, in any mode, but only above 30 MHz. Sarit is already, teaching quite efficiently, for several years. Classes are held once a week for two hours. The Course last between 3 or four months.

Your scribe is teaching another group of 7 the morse code for the ‘B’ class. In Israel the, ‘B’ class, needs, as most of the European countries, a speed of only 5 words per minute. In some deliberations on this subject I will give my opinion on this 5 wpm ‘speed’. There are 10 lessons to learn all the required letters, numbers and punctuation marks. After these 10 lessons the students know the code at a letter speed of 5 wpm. and and overall speed of 3 wpm. For each lesson the students receives a recorded audio cassette for practice at home. In 2 additional lessons we are raising the speed from three to four and later to five word per minute. The last 3 or 4 lessons are actually only for getting rid of any remaining few mistakes. In those lesson I am administering a lot of different test exams. Only a student that passes at my lessons these tests with a third of the maximum allowed mistakes will be permitted to take part at the forthcomming official exams.

CW AT 5 WORD PER MINUTE(4X1AT)

Once again I have my thoughts about the code speed of 5 wpm.

For over 20 years I am teaching the code.My classes passed the morse code at a speed of 12 wpm, for the ‘B’ class license and also 16 wpm. for the ‘A’ class amateurs both of theses classes are parallel to the equivalent classes in the States.

Now we are down to 5 wpm.The students, even though instructed not to do so,are rather counting the dit’s and dah’s instead of listening to the ‘music’ or rhythm of each letter.While teaching for 12 wpm. my student were taught, from the very beginning, at a letter speed of even 14 wpm.There was no possibillity to count the various components of each letter.As it turns out, my students could have learned the code of 12 wpm easier than they are doing it right now at this new low speed.

Many amateurs will not agree with me but… -even though the morse code is anachronistic for the present day ‘State of the Art’ electronics and commuunication, there must be (in my opinion) a substitute, in case we decide finally to drop the requirement of code proficiency, to prove that a person really wants to become a radio amateur.It could be keyboard proficency or any other kind of knowledge – for instance knowing how to solder a coax cable to the required connector, or making ‘hombrew’ antennas.

Amateur radio is not only a hobby of solely‘talking’ but should be an educational hobby as well!Until the next time, 73 and Shalom from Ron and Ahron