THE
ANNUAL MEMBERSHIP ASSEMBLY
We
concluded last month with a “stop-the-press” from the assembly.Here
are some of the main points… Yankele
Yitzhaki, 4X1AH, one of the real old-timers was elected to chair the assembly
and indeed did so in his special energetic style, no doubt contributing
to the success of the evening. Dani
Rosenne 4X1SK, director of the Ministry of Communications (who announced
he’ll be stepping down from this post), spoke of the changes in the office
with Alon Bar-Sela 4X1AB retiring as head of the spectrum branch being
replaced by Mr. Shaul Katz who is now signing our new licences.The
World Aministrative Radio Conference (WARC) in Caracas Venezuela in 2003
will have far-reaching effects on our hobby/service; our band allocations
will see changes – maybe 40 metres will expand yet there may be inroads
from the new HF digital broadcasting services. Will there be an end to
the erosion of our VHF-UHF-SHF allocations by the satellite services, and
will Morse Code cease to be a requisite to an HF amateur licence?Dani
invites the amateurs to take part in these deliberations. Looking
over the past year, we saw the Morse requirement for a Grade B (General)
licence drop to 5 words-per-minute and 70 new licences – less than in the
past, with many granted to immigrant hams, and just a few youngsters.More
has to be done to bring young people into the hobby.We
are beginning to see that the Internet is not sustaining its initial thrills,
so the time is ripe to make a new offensive on youth as it were… this is
a diffcult challenge.More public
service should also be seen on the part of the hams to increase their visibility
and make the hobby attractive and justifiable. Alon
Bar-Sela 4X1AB was presented with the first plastic credit card size amateur
licence bearing his photograph plus an honourary life-membership in the
IARC.Alon said he sometimes had
to walk on a “thin rope” so as not to have a conflict of interests between
amateur radio and his official position.Even
though retiring from the Communications Ministry, he will still aid the
IARC and is willing to help with the general effort at Caracas. Amnon
Bar-Giora 4X1DF spoke, telling of the DXpedition in which he is participating,
embarking to 3B8, Aga Liga, 1000 Km. north of Mauritius.It
will be a super effort with 16 stations in 4 tents, 22 antennas, operating
8 weeks on all the bands including 6 metres. Joe
Obstfeld 4X6KJ, IARC chairman, whose opening speech was reported last month,
succeeded in making sure a new IARC executive committee was elected before
the intermission was called.Yankele
4X1AH stated that no-one would leave the hall until “white smoke” would
come out.And the results followed….see
the attached table of the IARC officers who should keep things moving smoothly
in this new year. Yoram
4Z1GY, Membership Committee chairman, said 56 new members were admitted
to the IARC in the past year, most of them recent immigrants already hams,
yet still a most welcome addition to our ranks. Miki
4X4KK spoke for the Watchdog Committee and praised the book-keeping of
treasurer Paul 4X6UU, Itzik 4X6ZH for his advancement of the repeater network
and Yossi 4X6KJ for contributing not only his efforts but also his own
funds for the advancement of the IARC.Miki
said that in the future the chairman should be reimbursed at least for
his gasoline and telephone expenses. Before
the intermission the trophies were presented to those placing highly in
the Holyland DX and Independence Day VHF-UHF contests.As
in the last year, the cups and award booklets were sponsored by the family
of the late Eyal Shapira 4Z4NL in his memory. After
the intermission, the podium was opened for all wishing to speak their
views and make proposals. In
summing up, the Annual Assembly was a success, with a the IARC coming out
of it with a new lease on life. Yet there were only 170 estimated participants,
an all-time-low for recent times.Although
there were a few young people present, more and more grey hairs and bald
heads were in evidence, underlining the fact that amateur radio in Israel
is in serious trouble. CQ
CONTEST…. This
year our two contests took place with less than a week inbetween
each other…On April 21 and 22nd we saw the 24-hour Holyland
DX contest, and on the 26th the Israel VHF-UHF contest. Although
the dust has hardly settled,it seems
that there was no shortage of activity in the Holyland contest…a few DX
stations were worked by your scribe 2 hours before the contest’s ending
who had 250 QSO’s with
TEL-AVIV REPEATER
In the last
number of issues Ahron has been chronicalling the history of our repeaters.
Indeed