HAGAL INTERNATIONAL

December 1998,

Vol. 12 No. 12

Israel Ham News

by

Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT and Ron Gang 4X1MK

THE 1998 HOLYLAND CONTEST CHAMPS

The results are in, tabulated, and published. All praise goes out to the illustrious IARC contest manager, Mark Stern 4Z4KX, for the colossal task of collecting and checking 509 logs (count them!!!) from 59 countries. This contest marked Israel’s 50th anniversary, and in spite of rather poor band conditions, aroused world hamdom to get on the air and make this contest one to remember. First of all, Mark virtually realised the prophet Ezekial’s vision of the dry bones... he managed to convince 97 (WOW!!!) Israeli stations to send him their contest logs. This is almost twice as many than those who sent logs in any previous contest. Other statistics: 64 logs were received from participants from Germany, 57 from Poland, Russia: 54, Romania 48, Ukraine 36, Lithuania 14, and diminishing returns from the rest of the countries. No doubt Eastern Europe was the keenest participant, but then again, they were the closest afield, and the bands had not yet shown the upswing of the new sunspot cycle. The top 5 single operator stations were HA8IB, RV1AC, LY1CX, FDýýDF2CK and HA8XX. UT7WZA, RZ5HYN, ON5CGB and 9A5P.The top 5 multi-ops were: LY3MR, UT7WZA, RZ5HYN, ON5CGB and 9A5P. From Israel, the top single-op SSBers were 4Z5GV, 4X6XJ and 4X0F. CW top singles were: 4X5FC, 4Z5DW and 4Z5JU. The top 3 mobilers were 4X50BX/SK, 4X50JU/M and 4X50FR/M. (Complete scores and statistics may be had in the November Hebrew HAGAL magazine, or on the IARC web site: www.iarc.org/hagal.html and chose the 1998 Holyland Contest Results from the menu. Your browser will download a .ZIP file which will bring you the relevant files written by 4Z4KX in EXCEL.)

4X4MS - SK

In the last two issues of our newsletter we brought some obituary contributions, remembering Ariel Roth, 4X1MR, who became a silent key. Never before we had two successive issues handling the same, allow me to say simply, news items. Through the years we had the unfortunate duty to report deaths of friends. Some, and I must apologise, we didn't mention at all, like 4X4MS Shalom Melzer, who passed away untimely and very suddenly one year ago and was a well known Old Timer. Just a few days ago a group of about 30 radio amateurs, members of the family and friends met at the cemetery to remember our friend at the first anniversary of his death. Many times during the last few weeks hams from all over the world have asked me about his whereabouts, and it was in sorrow that I had to report that he has passed away. Shalom spoke fluently the German and English language. For many years he was abroad in the Far East and in Africa. His last assignments were in Nigeria and Ghana with their interesting foreign calls. He had friends not only in Israel but all over the world. It is on of those things one would wish that they should never appear on our pages but at our, nowadays, ageing ham society these necrologies become more common than on could wish for. Yet, in this issue we can report, as you will see, some refreshing new as well. Let's hope that only optimistic, refreshing news should be solely in all our newsletters. (4X1AT)

4X4MIS

A new club has been born. It is the 4X4MIS Mikve Israel School Amateur Radio Club near Holon. It is just the beginning of the development plan of the IARC. In Mikve Israel, a very old and known agricultural school, will be, as restated at the last council meeting of our society, the first of the projects planned which in conclusion will also be the site of the 'home' of the IARC. We had been shown the already prepared drawings of how this home should look like when finished. Much time was lost due to the fact that we had here, a few days ago, municipal elections. During this period nobody could be approached. Everybody was terrible busy getting ready to be re- or newly elected as mayor or to the municipal council. No promises were made as not to give anybody the feeling of non fair play. But those elections are finally behind us and nothing dramatic had been achieved by anybody. The same mayor remained as well as most of the council members and the vaad, or council, of IARC could pick up the momentum again to finish the long yearned for project. But the club station is in full swing. The youngsters, about 25 of them, do attend classes to get aquatinted with the electronic and other parts of the hobby that constitute the basic knowledge of amateur radio. This includes also the 'hands on' of operating the station itself. The equipment was the donation of the wife and his children, as well as spouses and grandchildren of Felix Dvir 4Z4OX who became a Silent Key about a year ago. So the equipment is up to a modern standard. The instructor is the well known and experienced teacher of electronics and amateur radio Moshe Inger 4Z1PF. Probably, as suggested, Ahron Kirschner will be the CW teacher. The potential for a successful activity, with hundreds of kids learning and even part of them living at the school as well, is given. So let us hope that in the near future the radio amateur community will grow due to new licenses achieved from kids of 4X4MIS. The family came to the official opening, bringing a picture of Felix that was affixed to the wall immediately. Courtesy presents were exchanged by the family and the chairman of IARC Eli Stern 4Z5IS. So if you hear the voice of a youngster calling, in a trembling voice., CQ - just give him a shout and be a little patient. Every beginning is so very exiting and these boys and girls need all the encouragement from all of us.

IARC FORUM Shlomo 4X6LM has created an on-line forum on Delphi called "Israel Amateur Radio Club Forum". He says: "We'll be using this as our on-line meeting place. With the message board, you can view discussion topics quickly in the left-hand column and read up to 20 messages at a time. You can even attach files (such as pictures and programs) directly to messages -- just like e-mail. It's fast, easy, and efficient. "As the Forum "Host", I control the specific features of the forum. The other options include real-time Chat, announcements, and custom web pages. I can also choose to make it public or private. I've chosen to make this forum public so anyone on Delphi can participate, so feel free to tell your friends. "The best way into my forum is at the following URL: http://forums.delphi.com/m/main.asp?sigdir=HaGal&isp=if&pic=in-HAGAL3158 “I will put a link from HaGal site to our forum. In order to provide personalised services and access control, you'll need to go through a quick registration if you've never used Delphi before. It only takes a minute and it's free! “I'm eager to hear comments and suggestions. Let's get the conversation started!"

That’s it for this month. Until next time, 73 de Ahron and Ron