HAGAL ýINTERNATIONAL November 1997, Vol. 11 No. 11

This month – 4Z5IS steps down as IARC chairman – Pleas for instructors to teach youth go unanswered for lack of volunteers, but not funds – The Ministry of Communications supports deleting the Morse requirement for a ham license in principle .... Interested – well, what are you waiting for? Read on….

On Thursday evening, February 24^th, we gathered at the cultural centre of the Mikve Israel agricultural school in south Tel-Aviv. This venue is the home of the 4X4MIS club which is nurturing the new generation of amateur radio enthusiasts.

Daniel Rosenne 4X1DK, executive manager of the Ministry of Communications opened the meeting, taking the podium. Mr. Rosenne spoke of the revolution taking place in telecommunications today with bandwiths of 10 Gigabits being spoken of. The World Admistratice Radio Conference (WARC) in 2003 will determine the fate of amateur radio. What are radio amateurs doing with the valuable resource (spectrum) they possess and how many youngsters are joining our ranks? The numbers are not encouraging – once amateur radio was the only form of long-range communications available. We must turn ham radio into something more interesting. The Ministry of Communications wants to reduce and even do away with the Morse requirement. We MUST lower the obstacles to youths. The Ministry is co-operating with the I.A.R.C. in these matters. We need more instructors and good people to join the institutions of the I.A.R.C., in order to work better with youth.

Miki Minzari 4X4KK then was elected to chair the assembly. The next to speak, Joe Obstfeld 4X6KJ, IARC honourary president, said there must be changes and we need team-work. He thanked the outgoing committee and especially IARC chairman Eli Stern 4Z5IS for moving the IARC a huge step ahead. It’s a pity that there are people who wish to resign from the committee.

Eli Stern 4Z5IS then spoke. He said that after three years of leading the IARC, he had “run out of gas”, or in more literal translation, his horse was finished, and his decision to step down was final.

He thanked Mikve Israel for hosting the assembly and all their co-operation: There is a building in the school campus which we have “put an eye on” for the future home of the IARC. There is a club here (4X4MIS) which Yaacov Sela 4X6WP is nurturing. Thanks to Motorola Israel and its president Mr. Natan Gidron that has been covering almost half of the IARC’s contributed budget, and thanks to Israel Kass 4X1IK for his generous contribution to the IARC’s coffers.

We have new clubs in Petah Tivah, Mikve Israel, Re`ut and Netanya and we have been barely able to scrape up but 17 instructors to run the clubs. There are budgets and monies available for whoever is ready to instruct (2000 sheqels a month, just under $500, for three evenings weekly). And thanks to Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT who is willing to teach Morse wherever he’s called.

There are many, many youths wanting to learn amateur radio. We have received requests from many schools, BUT we don’t have the instructors! Please come forward and aid in teaching ham radio. The money is available.

Vis a vis a home for the IARC, the Tel-Aviv City Hall let the matter drop after promises from the previous administration, and we are now trying to locate in Mikve Israel.

The Rapid Packet Radio network has fallen in Haifa, as we failed to get a free internet connection there, but it is working in Tel-Aviv. Eli wants to see a nation-wide Rapid Packet net.

Eli thanked those unsung heroes continuing in their work – Kuti 4X6OM and Ami 4Z9GCB, running the respective incoming and outgoing QSL bureaus – Itzik 4X6ZH and Israel 4X1OM who give their Fridays freely running everywhere to miantain and upgrade our repeaters – Tidhar 4Z5CA and Ronen 4Z4ZQ working on our digital communications network…. and many many more.

Now Eli said he had run out of air after three years. (And indeed our thanks to Eli Stern 4Z5IS for his excellent leadership and advancement of the IARC.)

Tuvia Gringross spoke on behalf of the membership committee: Thanks to the widespread activity of the Sela family (Yaacov 4X6WP and Orli 4X6WM) and Mikve Israel we have many new members. Thanks to the other instructors who had come forward, we added 46 new members to our ranks (49 last year). The latest SWL number that has been issued is 4X4-3196.

The Watchdog Committee reported that we had an 11% decrease in membership dues this years.

Joe Obstfeld 4X6KJ, IARC president, and acting treasurer, took the stand: The Holyland Award has become a big success worldwide, with many casual contacts now asking. “What’s your square?” Membership dues seem to be our poorest source of income – many people are willing to receive but won’t pay up.

Alon Bar-Sela 4X1AB of the Ministry of Communications, who will be retiring this year, spoke: The new licence will be for five years and will cost 70 sheqels (about $18). The Ministry recognises the importance of amateur radio. The problem of spectrum availablity is becoming acute, and in the case of natural disasters we are hearing less and less of ham radio activity, as there is now satellite telephone. If there will be many amateurs, we can hold on to our frequencies. The Ministry is ready to do all in its power to encourage amateur radio activity.

The family of the late Eyal Shapira 4Z4NL donated the trophies for the Holyland and Indepence Day contests, and along with Mark Stern 4Z4KX, contest manager, presented them to the winners. Malkiel Webman 4X4JU, Holyland award manager: There are now 580 members of the Holyland Award program worldwide, in 70 countries. 200 certificates have been awarded in all the continents excluding Antarctica. More Israeli stations are requested to get on the air and give out their squares.

Next, special awards were given out to outstanding members: Member of Honour – Shlomo Menuhin 4X1AS, Outstanding Amateur – Plum Zakhar 4Z5AX, Outstanding Club – Mikve Israel 4X4MIS and Amateur of the Year – Jan Misgav 4X4VF.

Leading up the grand finale of the evening, nominations were requested for the executive and other committees of the IARC. At first, very few names came forward, and Miki 4X4KK who chaired the assembly said he feared that if this was the case, we had gone bankrupt. But with many admonitions and arm-twisting names were put forward and the new commitees were elected: Executive committee – 4X1AT, 4X1YM, 4X6KJ, 4X6UU, 4X6WP, 4X6ZI, 4Z4WU, 4Z5BU, 4Z5CA, 4Z5FG, 4Z7FCC and 4Z9ZA. Watchdog committee – 4Z4BS, 4Z1RG, 4X4KK and 4X1UK. Membership committee - 4Z4LX, 4Z1GY, 4X6MI and 4X4OA.

With that, the annual rites of the IARC membership assembly drew to a close and all stood to sing “Hatikva”, the national anthem.

The general meeting of IARC is behind us. I am giving here my personal thoughts about this meeting.

If in previous years those meeting were held in one of the auditoriums at the Tel-Aviv University with a capacity of 350 was full to its brim, and hams were sitting even on the stairs. In contrast, at Mikve Israel, the site of this year’s, meeting, with a capacity of only 250 seats – there were still some places vacant! So there is certainly a decline in attendance, not nessecarrly in decline in members. Simply our hams do not show much interest in these meetings anymore.

Most of our hams knew well in advance that the old council was about to relinquish their posts. Many of them knew that there will be difficulties in electing a new council and decided that it would be worthwhile not to attend, as not to be asked to become one of its members

The result can be seen clearly. Personally, I am a little pessimistic about the forthcoming activity of this council. If the outgoing council was one with vision, the new council can’t boast, that their members will be able to pull the ‘cart’ successfully!

True there are some members who had (like me) hold various offices in the past, but they only joined because they saw it as their duty and thus not to drop everything like a hot potato. Time will show if the new council will be up to their tasks. Let’s hope for the best.

Don’t forget!!!! April 15^th and 16^th, 2000 UTC through 2000 UTC – rules the same as last year. CQ Contest……..