HAGAL INTERNATIONAL
3
3
conducted by Ron Gang 4X1MK
We’re writing
this in late June, almost a month earlier than the deadline. Your scribe is going overseas for nearly a
month, so I want to get the table clear, probably a near-impossible task, as we
have been nominated by the XYL more than once for the messy ham shack
award. Yet knowing many of you, I think
that at one juncture in the space-time continuum we should submit photographs
of our shacks as they really are and not when they’re all spiffed up for a
photograph on a ham magazine. Hey… come
on now – do you really believe those photos in QST, Radcom,
CQDL and even HaGAL?
OK, mister editor (and I’ll settle accounts with you later on), yes I’m
rambling, and you want me to get to the real stuff…..
THE YATIR REPEATER IS REBORN
Hallelujah! Itzik
Merkado 4X6ZH and his trusty crew have accomplished a great job, and
after a looooooooooooong period of silence, 145.325
MHz is no longer silent, and the southern half of our great land is once again
covered by two meters. It is a long and
sad saga of the demise of R13, the details of which escape me, yet somehow my
flaky memory says to me that at one stage at the old site the coaxial cables
were stolen by the hardy souls who roam this fair land in search of metal
objects to me sent off as scrap metal to China in return for a fistful of
shekels. At an other
juncture, there were several commercial companies that offered accommodation on
their repeater and cellular sites yet for more shekels than our meager treasury
could afford.
We’re talking serious tower here!
The technical crew was 4X1WA David Shmueli,
4X1OM Israel Berko, 4X6PH Amos Ekshtein
and 4X6ZH Itzik Merkado.
Aiding in getting authorizations and the behind the scenes activities were
4X6KJ Joe Obstfeld, 4Z4UR Ehud
Zager, Dik, Nathan Gidron and Micah Pegork (sorry - our
source did not supply us with their call-signs).
The machine is a MSR2000 donated by Motorola and
renovated by 4X6ZH. It is in a different
site than its predecessor, such that the coverage is different and it can be
accessed from the Tel-Aviv area. Itzik is interested
in signal coverage reports, especially from the southern
At presently the repeater is linked to its sister
machine on 145.600 at Mitzpe Ramon on the edge of the
world’s largest crater, yes, the Ramon Crater.
In the works is linking all the repeaters in the country, so one can be
in contact with different regions without having to change frequencies.
4X6PH getting the scope of
it all
4X1WA,
4X6ZH, 4X1OM – Let’s Roll!
_ . . . _
THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD
In April the
Annual General Meeting of the IARC elected a new council for the next two
years. Most council and watchdog and
membership committees members are new, never having
served in these forums before.
4Z1PF
The new
chairman of the IARC council is Moshe Inger 4Z4PF,
whom your scribes especially recalls in the past years for his activities in
preparing new hams for the Ministry of Communications examinations and his
excellent technical and construction articles in the pages of this illustrious
magazine. We wish Moshe and the new IARC
officers great success in continuing the work of the previous
IARC “administrations” and furthering the state of amateur radio in
A CALL FOR
DONATIONS
As you have
probably read in these hallowed pages in past issues, we have survived the
specter of the radiation bogey man. Now threatening the wholeness of our ham
stations is the parliamentary committee dealing with national zoning
program. In the interest of keeping (?)
the country beautiful, the power-holding individuals want to eliminate
eyesores. For some strange reason they do not appreciate the sublime beauty of
the twenty meter high tower sporting stacked yagis
for the HF bands.
The IARC set
up a committee to deal with this two years ago. To translate what appeared in Hebrew in the
last issue of this journal:
“The members
and volunteers that joined the committee arrived at the conclusion that at
stage of wording of which this this legislation now stands,
the situation is bad for the amateurs and without the professional
accompaniment of a lawyer the chances of arriving at the hoped-for outcome for
the amateurs, or at least to soften the blow, are low.
“The council of the Israel Amateur Radio Club attempted
to find a solution for the legal fees.
Unfortunately the treasury of the Club cannot support such heavy
expenditures without seriously curtailing other activities of the IARC in the
years to come….
“…another
possibility is collecting donations from IARC members who can help out. Such donations will be directed only to this
cause and no transferred to any other matter.
It is understood that the legal fees will be of a certain minimum and we
hope to reach that figure. Of course we
can decide not to be aided by a paid lawyer.
The risks to the future of antennas and towers involved in such are
unclear.
“Members who
see this matter as important to the future of amateur radio activities and can
support this struggle are requested to make donations.
“The IARC
council and members thank in advance all those who will donate according to
their means. Donations should be sent to
the Israel Amateur Radio Club at P.O.B. 17600,
“The IARC Council
and The Towers and Antennas Committee.”
_ . . . _
IARC OFFICERS 2008-9
The following
is the list of officials of the Israel Amateur Radio Club as published in the
previous issue of HaGAL in Hebrew:
Council:
4Z1PF – Moshe Inger, chairman
4Z5CA – Tidhar Teucher – council secretary, spokesman and deputy chairman
4Z5LA – Roslan Boniat-Zada – treasurer
4Z4GT – Yaacov Kedmi – headquarters
4Z4JT – Israel Haramati –
external affairs 4Z4KX – Mark Stern – contests manager
4Z5NH – Moshe Bukris – clubs
4X1HJ – Isaac Halevi
4Z7DFA – Medar Ramko
4X1DF – Amnon Bar-Giora – emergency and overseas co-ordinator
Council Secretary:
4Z4BS – Shalom Barak
Watchdog Committee:
4Z5PB – Bernard Brandes
4X6XN – Simon Klein
4Z5AT – Gadi Chomesh
Membership Committee:
4Z5FG – Uri Nadir – chairman
4Z5PS – Siman-Tov Hamami
4Z1GY – Yoram Gottesman
Outgoing QSL Bureau:
4X6HT – Ami Rosenberg, POB 516, Ganei
Tikva 55900
Incoming QSL Bureau:
4X6OM – Kuti Shtessel, Shevet Menashe 46, Herzliya 46684
Legal Advisor:
4X4-2675 – Lawyer Daniel Hershko
Accountant:
4X4ND – Arieh Sharoni
Repeaters Committee:
4X6ZH - Itzik Merkado
4X1OM –
4X1WA – David Shmueli