REPEATERS - WE WIN SOME AND WE LOSE SOME

After years of pure upward growth, we have temporarily lost an important repeater site: The building on Mount Canaan which houses the Safed VHF and UHF repeaters is undergoing renovation. This important location has been giving superb coverage of the Galilee and all of the North, being accessed regularly from as far south as the northern Negev, nearly 200 Km. away. The IARC Repeater Committee is on the lookout for any temporary replacement sites, and is open to any suggestions or proposals.

The linking system (of which the R14 Safed repeater was a part) has been improved, such that by pressing the touch-tones "*13" on the Jerusalem Mt. Giloh repeater, the traffic on this repeater will then be re-transmitted on the Southern System (R13 Yatir-Beersheba, R0 Mitzpe Ramon and R12 in Eilat).

In all situations the Southern System, which is all linked together, will always be retransmitted on R1, Mt. Giloh. When the weekly HaGAL nets are run either from Haifa or Tel-Aviv, they will be linked to R1, which at these times will be disconnected from the Southern System.

It's a safe bet that further refinements will be made, as the IARC repeater crew is incapable of just sitting around and twiddling their thumbs.

INCREDIBLE GALA IARC SOCIAL EVENT IN FEBRUARY .... NOT TO BE MISSED

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Israel Amateur Radio Club (and the State of Israel, too!), on February the 12th at the Golda Meir Centre for the Performing Arts ("the New Tel-Aviv Opera House") just down Shaul HaMelekh Boulevard from the Tel-Aviv Art Museum, the big social "do" will be held this year.

The event will commence at 7:00 P.M. with a catered cocktail party, complete with food, as befits our organisation. A programme brochure will be distributed with information about amateur radio in Israel which will in fact be a souvenir booklet, 50 pages, on glossy paper. At 8:15 P.M. the programme will get underway in the concert hall with an overture played by the Israel Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Eitan Haberman 4Z9EEE, who also happens to be the IARC legal counsel.

The stage will then be cleared for speeches by honourable guests: the mayor of Tel-Aviv, Minister of Communications, and dignitaries from abroad. Next, awards will be given to distinguished amateurs and veteran members who have contributed to the advancement of amateur radio in Israel. Then at 9:00 p.m. half-hour work of Mozart will be performed by the afore-mentioned artists and ham conductor. Next, an opera singer will perform some well-known arias. At the end of the evening, the winners of the door prizes (which are not to be sneezed at in the least) will be announced.

The number of places is limited, so tickets at 75 sheqels apiece must be ordered in advance on first-come first-serve basis. Thanks to Eli Stern 4Z5IS, IARC secretary general, for passing on this information. For those of you who won't be able to attend, you'll have to wait for our March edition of the newsletter to find out how it went.

POST SCRIPT TO LAST MONTH'S ARTICLE

Last month I wrote about my attitude towards my hobby - Amateur Radio. I asked you, our readers, to respond. Being for a fortnight on a treatment holiday, down at the Dead Sea, I haven't read your letters and E-mails. I am sure that some of you would like to know my thoughts about the requirements for the examinations the authorities ask us to pass to receive the hoped-for license.

It is a fact that the level of these exams has declined steadily through the years. Only the Morse code is still on its previous level. It is interesting that even the authorities will be ready to drop the proficiency of receiving and sending the Morse code at 12 w.p.m. for the 'B' class license, still the licensed radio amateur community, in its majority, would like to keep the Morse code as one of the criteria for receiving a license.

Israel suggested, at one of the forums that as a substitute for the code a proficiency at the keyboard. It is a fact that many of the candidates say: the code is anachronistic and we do not intend to work in the CW mode - we are in the age of digital communication and prefer RTTY, Amtor, Pactor or Packet Radio. True, but in most cases the amateurs have ready made sentences in the memory of the computer, but when you ask them for the name of their grandma it takes an awful long time until they find the required letters on their keyboard to type out the requested name. Thus Israel requested the keyboard proficiency as a substitute of one of the exams requirements.

We got a lot of protests from our Israeli fellow amateurs : How do you dare to make such foolish suggestions. By the way this 'foolish suggestion' was voted down at an IARU conference - it was decided to keep the Morse code as a essential requirement at the exams for becoming a full fledged radio amateur. My own opinion on this subject is only one : I wouldn't like amateur radio decline to become a version of CB communication.

On the Internet you can do many things amateurs can do - but over wire. We, the radio amateurs, like to do it over the air, at home, mobile or at places were the 'wire' hasn't arrived yet or even will never get to. What will the Internet man do when there is a power failure? They will pretty soon find out that he real thing for the hobby communication is still and will remain Amateur Radio!

(4X1AT)

HF CONDITIONS PICKING UP

Yup... the first signs of the upswing in the new sunspot cycle are manifesting themselves. The High Frequency bands are staying open longer, and the Maximum Useable Frequency is higher. Amateurs abroad are advised to look for 4X/4Z amateurs on the traditional "4X Net" frequencies of 14.343, 21.360 and 28.775 Megahertz.

DXPEDITION

Shlomo Mussali 4X6LM reports that Amnon Bar Giora 4X1DF is organising a Dxpedition to one of the most beautiful and "rarest" spots on Earth, Mauritius. The participants will include Swiss amateurs, an American, and our own Dov Gavish 4Z4DX.