THE 1998 Annual General Membership Assembly

After the big 50th Anniversary IARC celebration just over a month before, one would have felt that attendance would be low at the assembly. But everyone must have wanted a taste for more, as the Lev Auditorium at the Tel-Aviv University was quite full. The date: Thursday evening, March 19, 1998.

Yankele Yitzhaki 4X1AH, dubbed by some as the IARC's elder statesman, opened the evening, praising the organisation of our 50th anniversary celebration and the outgoing IARC executive. Noting the competition we're getting from the Internet, he quipped, "If you can't beat them, join them." He said that he still felt that a contact on 20 metres is much more enjoyable than what the "Net" has to offer.

Yossi Sharon 4X1BQ was elected as assembly chairman.

Speaking for the Ministry of Communications, Mr. Galili (a new IARC member!), MOC Spectrum Department Manager, congratulated the IARC on its latest achievements. He said that the Ministry would be working closely with the Israel Amateur Radio Club in crystallising the position of the Israeli delegation to the World Radio Administration Conference in 1999 (WARC 99) in matters including the future of Morse Code in Amateur licence examinations and frequency allocations.

The Membership and Watchdog Committees and Treasurer presented their reports. 89 new members had joined us in the past year, and the 3100th IARC member over the past 50 years had just been registered. Nonetheless, active membership has dropped off somewhat and we're about 650 members at present. Revenues from membership dues have thus fallen, but we have been blessed with generous donations from our sponsors (Motorola Israel, headed by Mr. Gidron headed the list) and anonymous donors. 30,000 Shekels (about U$ 8000) had come our way from moneys bequeathed to the State, but earmarked for only special uses such as amateur radio classes in underprivileged areas and expanding the Packet network. The Ministry of Communications has recommended more than tripling that figure for the upcoming year.

Eli Stern 4Z5IS, IARC outgoing chairman, was praised by the Watchdog Committee for its accomplishments, especially producing the 50th Anniversary Event. Paul 4X6UU was commended for keeping close tabs on the IARC equipment inventory. Shlomo 4X6LM was cited for the high level of our "HaGAL" magazine that he produces.

Next, an amendment establishing and defining the position of the IARC honorary president was unanimously ratified by the membership. He or she may be elected for up to 2 four-year terms, and will represent the IARC at official functions here and abroad.

4Z5IS gave the report of the outgoing IARC executive council, which has already appeared in the Hebrew "HaGAL" magazine. He said that we are lobbying the Ministry of Communications to increase the term of our licences to 5 years, for which we have just been charged 180 Shekels (more than 250% increase over the previous rate) for officially 2 years. Ziv 4X1UK had skilfully seen to the proper allocation of the State bequeathed moneys we received.

The home for the IARC project slowly moves forward. New youth clubs and courses are being established. Nonetheless, fewer youths are coming our way, since the Internet is an easier alternative. The present licensing requirements are a deterrent to youth, and if we wish to survive as a viable hobby, we should consider modifying them.

Malik 4X4JU, Holyland Award manager, said that there are 415 amateurs around the world, including some pretty rare DX spots, actively pursuing the Award. 175 certificates have been already awarded.

Mark 4Z4KX presented trophies, plaques and certificates to the winners of the 1997 Holyland and IARC VHF-UHF contests. Eli 4Z5IS presented awards of recognition to amateurs who had given service to the IARC: 4X6OM Kuti for running the incoming QSL bureau; Corinne 4X6VT for the outgoing QSL bureau; Shalom 4Z4UT for managing the IARC contests over the previous years; Ariel 4X1MR for services to members; Mr. Nathan Gidron for the generous sponsorship from Motorola Israel; and Miki Gurdos 4X4-1660 (the Voice of Israel's renown spectrum monitor) for aiding others.

Vladmir Gershman 4Z9AGH was awarded the "Outstanding Amateur of the Year" plaque. 4Z5IN and 4Z6PH were granted plaques for their aiding the Repeater Committee, 4Z4ZQ Ronen Pinchuk for connecting the Israeli Packet Radio System to the Internet, 4X6SJ Judy Shomer for her contributions, and 4Z4XE for his contribution to the 50th Anniversary event. Recipients of "The President's Plaque" were 4X1OM and 4X6ZH for their ongoing work in setting up and maintaining the IARC repeaters and links covering the entire country and 4X6LM for his professional production of the IARC's "HaGAL" Magazine.

Speaking on behalf of AMSAT, Shlomo Menuhin 4X1AS announced that at long last (keeping our fingers crossed) the Israeli Amateur Radio TECHSAT II produced at the Technion University in Haifa will be launched in late April-early May. It will sport a Packet Radio store and forward mailbox operating at 9600 baud. The launch will take place in Kazakhstan, and Shlomo will be on hand to represent us. Shlomo also briefly described AMSAT Phase III D satellite which is destined to revolutionise amateur radio. It is awaiting launch by an Arienne missile, and its maintenance is costing $29,000 a month just to keep it ready. The hat was passed around, and a modest 700 shekels were donated on the spot towards Phase III D.

Elections were held for the IARC governing bodies, and these are the results: Executive Council - 4X1AT, 4Z7ACF, 4Z5BA, 4Z5BR, 4Z5CA, 4Z7CAD, 4Z5IS, 4X1OM, 4X6PZ, 4X6UU, 4X6WM, 4X6WP, 4X6YA and 4X6ZH. Watchdog Committee - 4X4KK, 4Z1RG and 4X1YM. Membership Committee - 4X4GT, 4X6SJ and 4Z5AW.

A little past 10 PM the assembly closed with the singing of HaTikva, the national anthem. All in all it was one of the most peaceful and harmonious annual membership assemblies we have ever seen, and it is safe to say that all of us went home with a good feeling. Of course there is much to be done for the good of our hobby, and we are left with the challenge of bringing young recruits into the fold in this time when the Internet is attracting those who would in the past have become hams.

70 Centimetres Being GIVEN Away?

A firm is importing Alinco 430 MHz 1/3 watt handy-talkies (the DJ-S41C) and selling them to the general public for "jeep excursions, bicycling, hiking, skiing in Israel and Europe...." and touting them as having a 3 Km. range. Their ads (full page in the popular "Ha'Ir" Tel-Aviv weekly as well as in the "Globe's" financial newspaper) inform the readers that there are no air charges or service fees [as compared to cellular phones], and the LCD display of the rig pictured in the ad shows the frequency 433.150 MHz. CLICK HERE TO SEE A REPRODUCTION OF THE AD

And as if to add insult to injury, at the bottom of the page we see a "4X4" printed which is actually not a reference to amateur radio, but a come-on to the effect that if you buy 4 radios you will receive 4 batteries and chargers "free". By the way the price for each rig is 1200 shekels before tax ($330 U.S.). There's little doubt that these ads have already sold a lot of radios.

There are many questions raised. Like how did the Ministry of Communications authorise these radios to be sold as not requiring a license, and on what frequencies are they operational? Has the damage already been done, and will our 70 centimetre band be overrun by thousands of UHF CB'ers? The IARC executive officers are checking this out with the hope to stop the sale of these. But there is a fear that it may be already to late.

4X50 - 4Z50

The 50th anniversary on-the-air festivities continue. The response world-wide for the 50th Israel Amateur Radio Club 50th Anniversary award is great, and it's almost impossible to get on the air from this side without getting embroiled in a pile-up. From May 2nd until the end of 1998, all Israeli stations who will notify 4X6KJ (who has been entrusted to pass the information on to the Communications Ministry), will be able to operate with the suffix /50.

The 1998 Holyland DX Contest will be held from 1800 UTC on April 18th through 1800 UTC April 19th. The bands: 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21 and 28 MHz on the frequencies recommended by IARU region I for contest operation. Stations outside of Israel work Israeli stations only. Modes permitted are CW and SSB.

Categories of operation are Single Operator SSB only, CW only, or mixed, and Multi-operator station single transmitter. Israeli stations give RS (T) plus Holyland Square and overseas stations RS (T) and QSO serial number (001, etc.).

Each station can contact another station TWICE on each band- once on SSB and once on CW, such that a maximum of 12 contacts may be had between the same two stations if they work each other on both modes on all six bands. Two points are scored for each contact on 1.8, 3.5 and 7 MHz, and one point for each contact on 14, 21 and 28 Mhz. Overseas stations get a multiplier for each Holyland Square worked and Israeli stations get a multiplier for each DXCC country.

The final score is the sum of all contact points multiplied by the total of multipliers earned. Logs should be divided into separate pages for each band, include time, callsign, RST sent and received and the serial number or Holyland Square received.

A summation page should give the number of multipliers and the number of contacts per each band. There must be a declaration of having operated in accordance to the local licence regulations and the contest rules.

Logs must be sent (postmarked) not later than May 31 1998 to: 4Z4KX Contest Manager, P.O.B. 17600, Tel-Aviv 61176, Israel. Of course all contacts are good for the Holyland Award as well as for the Israel 50th Anniversary Award.

THE ISRAELI PACKET NETWORK is back on its feet again. The 4Z4AAA BBS at the hub of the station is functioning (touch wood - with the superstitious hope that the writing of these words does not cast an evil eye!), and messages bulletins are flowing rapidly and freely to and fro.

Purists may wince, but the vast majority of mail is coming to 4Z4HF from PP5BLU in Brazil (!) via the Packet-Internet Gateway. Yes, it's not 100% radio, but we're getting more traffic through and faster and more reliably than we have for years, at least since the glorious days of Jim 4X1RU's amazing HF forwarding. The bulletins and mail arrive via radio links to PP5BLU and then over the "Net" they're flashed to 4X4HF. It's working fine.

The operation of 4X stations on the Packet Network is just a fraction of what it once was, for better or for worse. Thus congestion on the Packet frequencies is at present way down. This is no doubt due to all the long periods of the Packet Network not functioning and many people leaving it.

Now, with the UHF 9600 baud back-bone handling the forwarding of mail between BBS's on the system, and the tendency of the local BBS's to move to their own frequencies, there's no need for congestion even with much more activity.

And with the use of advanced Packet terminal programs like TPK or WinPak, there's no need to have to wait on the frequency and work the BBS is real-time. The terminal programs can take care of that work automatically, so all the exasperation of working Packet is gone.

With the cost and poor throughput of the Israeli Internet providers during peak hours (they've done a better job of selling Internet subscriptions than they have in expanding their resources), Packet should still be a viable resource for the licensed radio amateur in search of up-to-date information and mail forwarding.

SOUTHERN RENAISSANCE

The sleepy Negev seems to have come to life! For both the IARC 50th Anniversary Event and the Annual Membership Assembly, a bus was chartered bringing hams from Beer Sheva and the South to Tel-Aviv.

Every Wednesday night at 9:00 PM on the Yatir Repeater (and relayed all over the country via the IARC repeater linking system), the Southern Round-Table Information Net now takes place, 12 sessions already behind us.

The 4Z4YU BBS keeps the southerners linked via Packet, and UHF 9600 baud equipment has just been supplied to get the traffic flowing even faster via the node at Kibbutz Bet Kama.

The Beer Sheva VHF repeater on R6 will soon be revamped, and a southern field day is in the works.

Itzik Halevy 4Z7ACF is the South's representative on the newly elected IARC executive council, and is doing an excellent job co-ordinating amateur radio activities in the Negev.