HAGAL INTERNATIONAL
JANUARY 1997 - Vol.11 No.1
ISRAEL HAM NEWS
by
Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT and Ron Gang 4X1MK
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(The material herein may freely be reproduced by all Amateur Radio
publications on the condition that we are credited as the source of the
information. We would appreciate receiving a copy of your publication
quoting us.)
The Ministry of Communications has instituted some changes in the
amateur radio licencing procedures, making things easier and simpler.
The Novice Class benefits first by getting expanded frequency range.
Ten metres has been added, becoming the novices' third HF band, 28.000
through 28.225 MHz the permitted transmitting spectrum. Fifteen metres
has been expanded to 21.000 through 21.200 MHz, another 150 KHz on the
bottom end of the band added. Forty metres remains 7.000 through 7.050
MHz. As well as Morse transmission on these frequencied, digital modes
are now permitted. The exam structure has been changed to be in two
parts: Morse and an integrated theory and regulations portion. The
examinee can take one or both of the parts of the exams, and only the
incompleted or failed part need be taken at a future examination date.
(In the past, if one part was failed, the entire examination had to be re-
taken.)
With regards to the Grade B licence ("General", all bands and modes,
medium power) and Grade D ticket ("Technical", VHF-UHF code-free licence),
the theory and regulations examinations have been integrated to be the
same for both licence classes. Thus if one now passes the "Technical"
class exams and at a later date takes the 12 word-per-minute code test, he
will receive the Grade B license. Old Grade D's wishing to become Grade
B's, in addition to the code test, will be required to answer 3 questions
in theory and 3 in regulations to complete the new requirements.
Incidentally, you can identify licence classes by their callsigns:
- 4X1** and 4Z1** are Grade A's - full priveleges including high power.
- 4X4**, 4X6**, 4Z4** and 4Z5** - Grade B.
- 4Z9*** - Grade C "Novice" class.
- 4Z7*** - Grade D "Technical" class.
(** designates a 2-letter suffix and *** a 3-letter suffix to the call.)
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Having gained the status of a government recognized non-profit
organization, the Israel Amateur Radio Club is now in an improved
position. First of all, anyone desiring to discharge excess monies, can
donate them, TAX-FREE, to our society. Secondly, funds willed to the
State of Israel can be made available to us.
The first windfall coming to us is not without "strings" attached,
however. Fifty thousand sheqels, equivalent to just over $15,000, has
been placed at our disposal for the establishment of radio clubs in
"depressed areas". This can be put towards the purchase of equipment and
the payment of instructors for these new clubs. Feelers have been put out
to see if there are hams willing to pick up the gauntlet as it were, and
establish a ham radio presence in these areas.
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It seems as if a month can't go by without some new work being done by
the IARC's repeater committee. The latest development is some further
refinements in R7, the Tel-Aviv repeater. A new southern-end receiver has
been added on the top of a high-rise in Ashdod. This compliments
receivers in Natanya and Tel-Aviv. In the past you had to use different
PL tones in order to trigger the different receivers, to get the best
signal into the repeater's receiver for your location. Now, all PL tones
have been standardized to 91.5 Hz for all receivers, and a system of
automated "voting" has been adopted, for the receiver with the strongest
signal in its input to operate the machine's transmitter.
In a recent IARC executive meeting in Beer Sheva, with massive
attendance of hams from the capital of the Negev and surrounding area, the
chairman of the repeater committee stated that there is no shortage of
equipment in the organization. All that is needed for enhancing and
adding local repeaters are active hams themselves from the different areas
to take the initiative, get the gear from the IARC, and set it up and
provide maintenance.
4X6ZH and 4X1OM, the most active repeater committee members, have
spread themselves thin. They do their repeater work in their own spare
time, without recompense, of course. Thus, those who think they can help
out in their own locations (ZH lives in the Tel-Aviv area, and OM in
Natanya), are most welcome to get in touch with them and expand repeater
activities in other localities.
(Eli Fazuzo 4Z5ZF says that ham organiztions are composed of three
groups: A large silent, passive crowd that simply pays it dues, and goes
along with whatever happens; a small active group that gives much of its
time and energy in keeping the club alive and functioning and thirdly a
small vocal minority that does nothing at all for the club other than
voice loud criticism and complaints!)
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For the second year running, the IARC social evening took place on a
Saturday evening in the Channukah week at Kibbutz Maabarot, just north of
Natanya. Participants were asked to mail their cheques ahead of time to
the IARC, to insure their places at the event. All-in-all 270 hams from
the Negev to the Galilee were on hand for the festivities. Israel's
famous Goldstar beer freely flowed from the barrel, spirits were high, and
those on hand enjoyed a tasty buffet and a band and singer on hand
enhancing the evening. Of course, an IARC evening is not complete without
a few speeches, but most of the time was spent naturally socializing with
those generally only talked to on the air and not seen face-to-face! And
as always, the evening was topped off with the traditional raffle. The
big prizes this year were two round-trip flights to London with scores of
other prizes ranging from station peripherals, test equipment, mobile
antennas, power supplies, etc., etc., all donated for the cause. It was
just a great get-together, and judging from the smiles, all present
enjoyed themselves.
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St the onset of1997 the time has come to take stock of the highs and
lows of the 1996 activities of the IARC.
For sure the absolute highlight was the IARU Region I conference in
Tel-Aviv, reported here extensively. The low in this respect - are the
(by us) promised pictures, which didn't materialized as yet. The color
picture page would have cost us a little fortune so we decided to drop the
idea and about to produce a black & white page instead.
The activity of the Repeater Group with its `fanatic' Itzik 4X6ZH did
wonders. True, there was a co-incident that the IARC received, from our
benefactor, Motorola Israel, a lot of first class, used, Motorola
repeaters. The group volunteered most every Friday to drive around the
country to improve or replace the old repeaters, to install new
controllers and additional receivers. A completely new site at Gilo, near
Jerusalem, was set up operating on R0-145.600 Mhz. This will be probably
the most versatile repeater we have up to now. It will cover most of the
country. You can even open the machine, with a handy, from Tel-Aviv!! This
doesn't mean the end of this group's activity. They have still a lot up
their sleeves.
A low of this year was the Packet Radio. True, the group encountered a
lot of problems, they tried hard to straighten things out but - `No Time'
was the main reason given. We, your scribes, do believe: A year is a lot
of time and with some more willpower, things could have been certainly
much better by now. During the year some 18,000 sheqels were invested with
absolutely no results. The Packet Radio system is down way too long and
often and has pushed a lot of us, real radio amateurs, to the Internet.
As the next elections to the council of the IARC will be held in
February the members of our society should make up its mind about the
future. We need new and energetic council members. The entire present
council is retiring, a huge problem for the club.
Don't worry the IARC will survive so the HaGal International. Still it
would be nice if we would receive your subscription fees. You can see your
status on the address labels which show always the last year for which
your subscription is paid up.
73 de Ron and Ahron
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Note to Internet Readers:
If you have any comments, feedback, or just want to let us know that you've
been reading our newsletter, we'd love to hear from you.
E-Mail addresses:
rongang@inter.net.il
4x1mk@4z4aaa.ampr.org
(The first address is generally the most reliable as long as I continue to pay
the server, the second works through the 4X Packet-Internet Gateway,
which is back up and running at this time, but is not guaranteed as 100%
reliable, due to the fallabilty of the national Packet system.)
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This page was edited by
Yossi Sharon 4X1BQ, Nov 1996.
Thanks to
Ron Gang 4X1MK
who
helped with this page.