At the meeting on June 18^th, we will be doing the last minute preparations for Field Day.  Anyone not present may be appointed to something.  There may be a speaker. 

It has been almost a year and Field Day is upon us again.  Mark your calendars now for the weekend of June 25-27.  And now for a word (actually, many, many words) from our President:

Field Day is upon us and there will be a few changes this year.  Walt Read who for many years has headed up the CW station and provided his trailer and radio equipment will not be doing so this year.  We owe Walt a big thank you for his many years of doing this for the club.  Kitty WB8TDA will head up the CW station this year.  If you can work CW please contact Kitty and let her know you will help.  Paul AA6PZ will head up the HF station, Omri AA6TA will be doing RTTY, Mikel KN6QI will be doing VHF, and Dennis KC6PUN will be at the Novice/Tech station.  With a club of 120 members we should not have a problem getting operators but we do so we need many of you to sign up to help with the operation.  Please call any of the captains if you can help.  Remember that we have a club picnic at 5 PM on Saturday and all are invited.  Peter Griffith WA6VAQ will head up the picnic.  The club furnishes the meat and drinks and the members each bring a dish.  If you are going to attend the picnic and have not signed up please let Peter know what you are going to bring.  Dick N6ATD will be the safety officer on the field and if he says something is wrong please listen to him we do not want any repeats of last year..  I HOPE EVERY ONE WILL PITCH IN AND MAKE THIS A GREAT FIELD DAY.  I want to say a special welcome to all the newcommers to FARS and I hope that you will find our group one to your liking.  If you have any questions about the club please contact me via e-mail at jackh@ihot.com. We have a very fine club station and I encourage you to get check out and operate the station.  If you want to get checked out please contact the Radio Officer Mikel KN6QI at mikel@netcom.com. Our NEXT meeting is one week early this month on Friday, June 18, because of Field Day being on the last weekend.

Livermore Swap Meet - 1st Sunday of each month at Las Positas College in Livermore, 7:00 AM to noon, all year.  Talk in 147.045 from the west, 145.35 from the east.  Contact Noel Anklam, KC6QZK, (510) 447-3857 eves. 

Foothill Flea Market - 2nd Saturday of each month from March to October at Foothill College, Los Altos Hills.  FARS NET on 145.23 repeater Thursday nights at 8 PM.

Jim, WE6V is running W1AW code practice sessions on the 145.23 repeater every Tuesday evening 8:00 to 8:30. 

Andy, VE3FZK, will be getting his citizenship papers in the near future. Will he be able to get a "Friendly Zoo Keeper" callsign? We are waiting to hear, Andy 

You can speculate why Andy was there.  Don said the best part was finding the pie shop at Gizdich Ranch.  You see, the lunch stop is at Gizdich and the other people go over there to see what a Gizdich is and they end up buying pies -yummy pies. 

President:  Jack Eddy, WA6YJR
Vice President:  Howard Califf KE6PWH
Treasurer:  Shel Edelman, N6RD
Secretary:  Martin Liberman
Training Officer:  Paul Zander, AA6PZ
Radio Officer:  Mikel Lechner, KN6QI
Newsletter:  David Wilkes, KD6WRG (See address below) 
Board members: Dirk Thiele KE6ZUY, Dick Baldwinson N6ATD; Hans Neumann KE6TGA; Martin Libeman KD6WJW; Herb KF6BKL, Arv Hamer WA6UUT, Larry Moore KM6IU.

K6YA Station Trustee: Stan Kuhl, K6MA

FARS Web Page: www.fars.k6ya.org

FARS announcement mailing list is moderated, so you cannot reply directly to the list.  To subscribe, send the word "subscribe" to: emarc-request@ham.yak.net; For help, send the word "help" to majordomo@ham.yak.net; For human assistance, email to: human@ham.yak.net. 

The FARS Relay is the official monthly newsletter of the Foothills Amateur Radio Society Meetings are held at 7 PM on the fourth Friday of each month except January (Winter Banquet); and 3rd Friday in June, Nov. & Dec. Annual membership $20; family $25.  Visitors are always welcome!  Directions on the back page.   Talk-in: W6APZ (145.23-, 100Hz) or W6ASH repeater (145.27 or 224.36).  Contributions to the newsletter from members, family, and guests are earnestly solicited! Contributions subject to editing and/or compression. ASCII files via packet, Internet or diskettes preferred; but all readable forms welcome.  Here are the various ways to reach the editor: 

Packet: KD6WRG@N0ARY.#NOCAL.CA
Internet: dwilkes@svpal.org, davewilkes@aol.com
VHF voice: KD6WRG on W6APZ, 145.23- (100Hz PL) FARS net Thursdays 8 PM; Various other times.  Mail: 1093 Kelly Drive San Jose CA 95129-3222
Eyeball: at FARS meetings.
 
 

By LEE GOMES Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, gave a good explanation of the situation and the dispute.  The article is available on the Journal's website.  Here is Omri's summary:

There is an interesting article in (of all places!) today's Wall Street Journal front page describing the code/no code dispute in amateur radio.  Nothing new in terms of information, but just to have WSJ pay attention to ham radio is a kick.  The reporter is Lee Gomes.  People mentioned include the FCC's William T.  Cross; Bruce Perens, founder of No-Code International; and Nancy Kott and Oscar Hollander, both of FISTS (pro-code group).  Callsigns were not given. Perens and Hollander are Bay area residents. 

VEC MEETING ON HOLD BECAUSE OF NO US RESTRUCTURING

The restructuring of the United States Amateur Radio Service appears to be on indefinite hold as the FCC tackles other matters deemed more important. And now the National Conference of Volunteer Examination Coordinators says that it's putting its annual meeting with the FCC on hold as well. The primary reason -- the FCC has not yet completed work on restructuring. Newsline's Don Wilbanks, KC5MFA reports:

The letter to the VEC's is from Winford Guin, W2GLJ. Guin, NCVEC Chairman, spells out what is taking place at the FCC. It says -- and we quote-- "The meeting was postponed because Universal Licensing System and Amateur Radio Restructuring activities by the FCC have not yet reached a level of final decision making sufficient for the VECs to take definitive action in our areas of responsibility". -- end quote

Guiní's letter appears to confirm the rumors that Newsline has been hearing out of Washington. Information that says that restructuring of the Amateur Radio Service is on hold until the FCC completes its move to its new headquarters at the Portals Office Complex and then finishes up other telecommunications rule making work that congress wants expedited.

Guiní's letter goes on to say that the NCVEC hopes the developments in the restructuring of the Amateur Radio Service will mature to the point where the group can plan its annual meeting for later in the year.  But other sources close to the FCC believe that it will be late in the year or early in 2000 before any action on restructuring takes place.

Meanwhile, an FCC source familiar with the license restructuring proceeding has told CQ VHF magazine it's unlikely that there will be any action by the Commission until after Labor Day.  The source says the draft decision is waiting for review by Public Safety and Private Wireless Division Chief D'Wana Terry, but there are a few equally-important matters ahead of it in line.  And even after Terry signs off on it, the draft must still be approved by Wireless Telecommunications Bureau Chief Thomas Sugrue before being sent to the full Commission for final action.  Because of summer vacations, the source says that if it hasn't made it out of the bureau by Memorial Day, it probably won't happen over the summer. 

FCC ON Y2K

The FCC recently released the Y-2-K Communications Sector Report.  The report is an assessments of Broadcast Television and Radio, and says the public should continue to have access to critical news, emergency information and entertainment services on January 1, 2000. 

The report goes on to say that individual Y-2-K related disruptions should be isolated.  That Y-2-K problems are not likely to cripple cable system operations and it appears the vast majority of the nation's cable subscribers will continue to receive cable television service on January 1, 2000. 

Y2K problems are unlikely to affect satellites now in orbit.  But the report does indicate that isolated high frequency channel outages and some other limited problems may be encountered.

Copies of the Report can be obtained on the FCC's website www.fcc.gov. The FCC's Year 2000 Task Force can be found at www.fcc.gov/year2000 (FCC) 

DX 

In D-X, Alan Clark, N5PA tells Newslne that he will be operating fromMalawi as 7Q7PA from July 3rd until the 13th. Alan says that he plans tooperate most days from 4:00 to 6:00 U-T-C but will also be on for about12 hours of the IARU Contest on the 10th and 11th of July. QSL direct toN5PA. 

How to get to meetings:

(Visitors always welcome)

FARS meets at the Covington School District building, 201 Covington Road, Los Altos. Take the El Monte exit (The same exit as for the Foothill Fleamarket) off of I-280 and go East on El Monte. Cross Foothill Expressway and turn right at the next light on to Covington (Note Saint William church on corner). Stay to your left as the road forks. Just past the fork, turn left into the school parking lot. Walk through the center hallway and turn right. The meeting room is the first door on the left. Talk in on 145.23 or 145.27, negative offset, 100 PL.