August 2000 President's Message I hope you have been enjoying the summer weather and have had a chance to check out the band conditions. My radio time has been limited but for a very good reason - - we have been graced with a new addition to our family. I would like to thank all who participated in making WARC Field Day 2000 a success. We had 35 members participate, 11 visitors, and a total of 1379 QSO's. Special thanks goes out to co-chairs Doc Whitticar (W3GAD) and Stu Simon (K2QBU) who did a great job of organizing the event and pulling it all together. Field Day is not only fun, it is a good exercise in preparedness and give us an opportunity to demonstrate our abilities to the public. The publicity gained brings attention to the service and our club. Good work! I'm sure you have heard the club's 147.09 MHz repeater is about to undergo some major changes. Brian (N3EXA) and Mark (N3GNW) are working to get the new controller up and running. This controller will give us the capabilities for enhanced features such as announcements and phone patch. George (N3HBT) has been acting as liaison with Warminster Township regarding the change over to a new tower by the end of the year. This tower will put our antenna 120 feet in the air! The sum of changes should greatly improve the performance of the repeater. You must agree our Feedback editor, Rich Maialetti (N3HSV), has been doing an extraordinary job. Unfortunately, Rich has informed me he would like to step down from the editor position. Feedback is one of the main methods of informing the membership of club activities and information of interest to amateurs. This is an important position in our club. If you feel you might like the challenge of putting the newsletter together, please let me know. 73, Rocky, N3FKR Field Day 2000 Report. We had another good activity for the Club: The ARRL report has been submitted and it shows that 35 club members participated and we had 11 visitors to the site at the Shrine. In total we had 321 CW QSO's (109 on 40M; 158 on 20M; and 54 on 15M). We also had 1058 QSO's on SSB (175 on 80M; 474 on 40M; 255 on 15M; 129 on 10M; 24 on 6M and 1 on 2M). In addition, we operated a novice station under the call KA2VJO and made 3 contacts. Overall we claimed 3406 QSO points and many bonus points for: Media Publicity (thanks to Alan Ash, KA3YCG) Location in a Public place Message originated to SM (Thanks to NY3J) W1AW Field Day message (Ron Wenig, NY3J) Natural Power (Solar) thanks to Tom Ledoux KD3DI Non-traditional Demo of APRS to reporters from the Intelligencer We received very nice publicity with a substantial article from the Daily Intelligencer the following Monday. I would also like to thank Doc Whitticar, W3GAD and Don Schwarzkopf, N3OZO for all the cooking support and help they provided. On the less positive side, we had one casualty. A generator loaned to the club by Bob Phillips, KA3VKU was damaged during the operation and will have to be repaired. All in all it was another successful club event and we look forward to next year. For those that didn't participate try to get involved next year. Put it on your calendar now. The last full weekend in June. 73', Stu Simon, K2QBU FCC LAUNCHES CORES The FCC has begun implementing the Commission Registration System, to be known as CORES. While the action has few immediate implications for Amateur Radio licensees, CORES registration eventually will replace Universal Licensing System, or ULS, registration. Described as an agency-wide registration system for anyone filing applications with or making payments to the FCC, CORES will assign a unique 10-digit FCC Registration Number, or FRN to all registrants. Once the system is fully deployed, all Commission systems that handle financial, authorization of service, and enforcement activities will use the FRN. The FCC says use of the FRN will allow it to more rapidly verify fee payment. Amateurs mailing payments to the FCC--for example, as part of a vanity call sign application--would include their FRN--once assigned--on the revised FCC Form 159. The on-line filing system and further information on CORES is available by visiting the FCC Web site and clicking on the CORES registration link. For the time being, using an FRN is voluntary, although the Commission says it will consider making it mandatory in the future for anyone doing business with the FCC. That's not expected to happen until sometime next year, however. The FCC says it will modify its licensing and filing systems--including ULS--over the next several months to accept and use the FRN. The FCC's Steve Linn confirmed this week that while CORES registration will supplant ULS registration, the ULS itself will remain the licensing database system for Wireless Telecommunications Bureau licensees, including amateurs. For now, the ULS remains available to new registrants. Amateurs who registered in the ULS prior to June 22 automatically have been registered in CORES and will receive an FCC Registration Number in the mail. ULS registrants also may search for their FRN on-line at the FCC's CORES site. The FCC says ULS passwords will become CORES passwords in most cases. It's possible to register on CORES using a paper Form 160. As with the ULS, those registering with CORES must supply a Taxpayer Identification Number, or TIN. For individuals, this is usually a Social Security Number. Club stations must obtain an Assigned Taxpayer Identification Number (ATIN) before registering on CORES or ULS. Linn says anyone can register via CORES and obtain an FRN. "CORES/FRN is entity registration," he said. "You don't need a license to be registered." Linn says the FCC is making every attempt to minimize the impact of CORES/FRN on Amateur Radio licensees, and no action will be required on the part of amateur licensees already registered in ULS. A copy of the FCC Public Notice on CORES/FRN is available as a PDF file on the ARRL web. Courtesy The ARRL Newsletter SOLAR UPDATE Heliophile Tad Cook, K7VVV, Seattle, Washington, reports: This has been quite a week for solar activity, with blasts of solar wind dominating space weather news. July 15 was the big day for HF radio blackouts and aurora, with the planetary A index jumping to an incredible 152 and the mid-latitude A index at 148. The planetary K index, updated every three hours, was at nine for three readings on July 15. A K index reading of nine over a 24-hour period would be equivalent to an A index of 300. This is big--really big! These numbers are associated with an extreme geomagnetic storm that was nearly off the scale. On July 16, one of the most powerful solar flares of the current cycle triggered a storm of protons directed toward Earth. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded a full halo coronal mass ejection heading toward earth at greater than 1 million meters per second. Check out animations of this event on the web. There are only a few events of this magnitude in the average solar cycle. Another coronal mass ejection emerged on Wednesday, July 19, but the predicted effect is uncertain because the ejection may not be aimed squarely at Earth. On Thursday the planetary K index went up to six for several hours, but by the end of the UTC day it was three. The planetary A index for Thursday was 43, and the College A index, recorded in Alaska, was 57. The latest forecast shows the planetary A index rising to 50 on Friday, then dropping to 20 and 15 and then 10 on Saturday through Monday. Solar flux peaked for the recent short term at 252.9 on Thursday, and is expected to drop to 245, 235, 230 and 225 on Friday through Monday. The next short-term minimum is predicted around July 28 at 170, followed by another peak above 200 around August 6-9. Sunspot numbers for July 13 through 19 were 240, 243, 229, 268, 335, 343 and 342 with a mean of 285.7. The 10.7 cm flux was 231.9, 203.9, 213.1, 218.9, 228.3, 261.9 and 249.9, with a mean of 229.7. The estimated planetary A indices were 33, 35, 152, 46, 9, 13 and 15, with a mean of 43.3. Courtesy The ARRL Newsletter K2ORS To Become Hall Of Famer: The late radio storyteller and talker Jean Shepherd, K2ORS, is among those scheduled to be inducted posthumously into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame this fall. The ceremony is set for November 13 in New York City. Shepherd died last October at the age of 78. Many remember him best for his late-night talk program on New York's WOR, where he sometimes spoke of his Amateur Radio activities. After his death, some hams wrote the ARRL to say they'd been inspired by Shepherd's monologues to pursue their own radio activities. Shepherd also wrote and produced several programs for public television and once was the banquet speaker at the Dayton Hamvention.--Broadcasting & Cable; Shop Talk Courtesy The ARRL Newsletter