HAGAL INTERNATIONAL
March 1997 - Vol.11 No.3

ISRAEL HAM NEWS
by
Ahron Kirschner 4X1AT, Joseph Obstfeld 4X6KJ and Ron Gang 4X1MK


Items of this month:

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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.)
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THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the I.A.R.C. as usual was held at the Tel Aviv University on the 27th of February. At 17.30 on a sunny afternoon the members started to arrive at the Lev Auditorium, rented and specially prepared for the occasion. The essential persons arrived early and the variety of activities went into full motion. The treasurer Ricardo 4Z5BR, collected the membership dues, Israel 4X1OM, gave out the newly designed membership cards for those that have paid their dues in time. The new card, gold coloured, has a plastic clip for attaching onto almost everything, and is designed in such a way that next year we will be able to attach a photo to it. Doing the photography was Shlomo 4Z5JO who, with the help of some volunteers, managed to get many hams into the special pose necessary for a successful picture.

Some members took the option of the coffee shop downstairs, which supplied the essential calories in order to have eyeball QSO's. A few minutes after 19.00 hours, our energetic chairman appeared with a whistle, whose ear splitting noise caused the members to look for shelter in the auditorium and shortly thereafter the meeting got underway.

Eli 4X6VR, was then chosen to chair the assembly. A minute silence was observed in honour of the "Silent Keys". The various committees gave their annual report and our outgoing IARC chairman (4X6KJ) addressed the assembled with a farewell speech.

The various awards were handed out, those for the "Holyland" contest as well as the ones for the VHF/UHF "Independence Day" contest. Malik 4X4JU, presented 3 contesters with the much coveted Holyland Award.

A block of names, candidates for the executive, were written on the blackboard with other lists of candidates for the Membership and Watchdog Committees being added. Voting took place and after the results were announced, everyone retreated to the coffee shop downstairs.

The following were elected to serve the IARC.

Va'ad (Council):
Eli Stern 4Z5IS (President)
Michael Ben Tovim 4X6PZ (Vice President)
Yehiel Amir 4X6YA (Secretary)
Orli Sela 4X6WM (Assistant Secretary)
Ricardo Boscoboinik 4Z5BR (Treasurer)
Israel Berko 4X1OM (Repeaters)
Yitzhak Merkado 4X6ZH (Repeaters)
Yacov Sela 4X6WP (Liaison to the Ministry of Communications)
Paul Gross 4X6UU (Inventory and Events)
Nimrod Schwartz 4X6BG
Doron Lindner 4Z4PE
Tidhar Teucher 4Z5CA (Digital [Packet] Communications)

Membership Committee:
Tuvia Gringroz 4X4GT
Paul Azulai 4Z5AW
Uri Nadir 4Z5FG

Watchdog Committee:
Michael Michaeli 4Z1RG
Mickey Minzari 4X4KK and
Dany Roth 4X1YM

After the intermission and many eyeball QSO's, the whistle appeared again and the ear-deafening noise signalled the start of the second half. The distinguished Honourable President Yankele Yitzhaki 4X1AH, who for many years served in this post, decided it was time to resign, leaving a vacuum, so the assembly brought forward the names of a number of candidates and a vote was taken.

After proposals and free discussion of different subjects, the "Hatikva" national anthem closed the evening. It goes without saying, that we wish the new committee all the best wishes and the best of luck in their endeavours to lead the IARC into the next century.

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4X6KJ'S SPEECH

There is a time of coming and there is a time of going, and the time of going is coming.

For me, the past 8 years has been an experience, it has been interesting, at times exciting and also difficult. It has given me the opportunity to meet people of different walks of life and nationalities, It has allowed me to represent the I.A.R.C. and Israel on the local and the world stage.

I feel that the time has come to take a back seat, and let others continue the course that has been charted. I will not stand for re- election to the Va'ad, but of course will always be available to assist and to guide those that follow in my path.

Over the years, our Club has made much progress, thanks to all the Chaverim [members] that have been involved in one area or another, we ave developed an organisation to be proud of, but the work is not finished as yet, in years to come to challenge to maintain the present, will not be less demanding.

There is no need to sum up a long list of all the accomplishments and failures, of the past years, we all know what they are, so allow me once more, from this place to thank all the friends, all members of the different Va'adim, for the help, for the support and for the opportunity that has been given me. To all I say, "Thank you".

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NEW HONOURARY PRESIDENT

Joseph "Yossi" Obstfeld 4X6KJ was elected to fill this honorary "figurehead" post for the IARC. (Many thanks to Yankele 4X1AH who held this position for so many years and whose speeches at our various functions in the past gave pleasure to many of us. Yankele's history in radio goes back to the pre-State days of Israel and deserves to be chronicled in our newsletter. 4X1AH is a very special person who your scribe at this particular place on the page, 4X1MK, holds in dear regard.)

Yossi was initially elected to the IARC executive council in 1983 and I recall first meeting him along with his better half, Ruthie 4X4CM, at the hardware store they then ran at the Ramat Aviv shopping plaza. The stockroom housed the IARC membership services, lending library (both initiated by Yossi) and Tel-Aviv area QSL bureau.

Later in 1987-8 Yossi and I collaborated on the production of the Israel 40th Anniversary International Contest, the forerunner of the annual Holyland Contest, and learned to appreciate the work-horse in him. Not long after, Yossi became the IARC secretary-general, a post he held for 8 years, working tirelessly. The crowning achievement (of many!) was the hosting of the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region I conference in Tel-Aviv last autumn. I can truly say that under 4X6KJ's leadership the IARC came to true international stature in the world hamdom.

On the personal level, I can say that Yossi was accessible to all, turning no one away, giving counsel to new hams and IARC members. His enthusiasm and energy seemingly were boundless, and ham radio and the IARC seemed to receive his total devotion.

The bestowing of the position of Honorary IARC President on Yossi is most fitting. And even though 4X6KJ has stepped down from the helm of the IARC, I know he still has plenty of tricks up his sleeve as it were, and will still be giving of his abilities to the Israeli Amateur Radio scene. And, oh yes, even though by chance Yossi has voluntarily helped out in writing this issue of his newsletter, I'm writing this tribute at my own initiative, which will no doubt surprise him. (de 4X1MK)

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THE HOLYLAND INTERNATIONAL-DX CONTEST

The contest will be held this year from 18:00 UTC on the 19th of April, running to 18:00 UTC on April 20th. With categories for both single and multi-operator single transmitter stations on all bands, as well as Short- Wave Listeners, the contest will be conducted in SSB and CW on the 1.8, 3.5, 7, 14, 21, and 28 MHz bands.

World-wide stations send RS(T) and QSO serial number and work Israeli stations who give out RS(T) and their Holyland Square code. The same station may be contacted both in CW and SSB on each band. Neither cross-mode nor cross-band contacts are permitted. 2 points are scored for each QSO on 1.8, 3.5 and 7 MHz with 1 point for QSO's on 14, 21 and 28 Mhz. One multiplier is awarded for each `Square' worked per band. Logs may be sent to the Contest Manager, Israel Amateur Radio Club, Box 17600, Tel Aviv 61176. Complete contest rules may be obtained from the same address.

The contest also affords an opportunity for Holyland Award hunters to up their square count. As it is said, "Good Luck in the Contest." While driving through the country to give out `squares' there is always quite a pile-up giving the Net-Control great difficulties to handle. The Holyland Award net is on 14.265 Mhz and will of course be active at contest time too. Here's a good opportunity for you, while taking part in the contest, to work some new areas for the award..

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CANADA JOINS THE CEPT

Congratulations to Canada which is the first country in the Americas to join the CEPT. This means that Canadian amateurs visiting any of the CEPT countries (including Israel of course!) no longer need to apply for reciprocal operating privileges, but need only bring their valid licence in order to operate on the air. And of course all Israeli and other CEPT- country amateurs will now enjoy these same privileges in VE/VO land as in Europe. The ARRL, wishing not to be left behind, is working on the FCC to have the USA join the CEPT. Thus we are slowly but surely approaching the goal of having the amateur radio licence become an international permit.

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MORE REPEATER NEWS

There's just no holding them back! The IARC Repeater crew have now linked the R0 (145.600) Mount Giloh (Jerusalem) machine to the Mount Canaan (Safed) R14 (145.350) repeater so anyone triggering one of these two relays will be heard on the other one. This effectively joins central and northern Israel together using the 433.300 UHF backbone frequency for these repeaters talk to each other. If someone on one of these two repeaters does want to have a more local contact when a QSO from its sister machine is being relayed, the local signal will override that of the link.

A note of interest is that the same UHF frequency links the Yatir (Negev) repeater on R13 (145.325) with Eilat on 145.300, and a week prior to this writing during uncommonly good VHF propagation, R0 and R14 were also being heard on Yatir making a country-wide hook-up. Of course, this is the exception rather than the rule at this juncture in the space-time continuum, yet it is a sign of things to come. The IARC Repeater Committee has vowed to achieve its goal of tying the far-south to the far north of the country together by means of repeater linking, and there is little doubt that they will achieve their goaon and Ahron

73 de Ron, Joe 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.