HAGAL INTERNATIONAL
May 1997 - Vol.11 No.5

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


Items of this month:

Back to IARC home page


(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.)

SPRING HAS SPRUNG,

antenna-raising parties are going on all over the northern hemisphere, and with the first signs of increased solar activity, a hams thoughts turn to DX! By the time you're reading this, the annual Holyland-DX contest will have come and gone. The launch on the super ham satellite, AMSAT Phase III-D has been posponed to September, with great expectations world-wide and many crossed fingers for this one. And here in 4X-4Z land there are many positive trends with promises for the immediate and not-far-off future....

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


.

IARC GETS ITS VERY OWN HOME

The cat is out of the bag, and it can now be told (datails will follow next month). The historic water tower on Mazeh Street in Tel-Aviv will become the headquarters of the Israel Amateur Radio Club. This is a very exciting development with behind-the-scenes contacts between the IARC and the Committee for the Preservation of Historical Sites.

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


PACKET RADIO UPSWING

At the time of writing, the national Packet network is showing signs of recovery and re-birth. Corrinne 4X6VT has got the HF-VHF gateway underway with an Hungarian forwarding partner and many scores of bulletins and mail items coming in from abroad and filling the BBS's.

4Z7ACF, 4X1MJ, 4X4FD and 4Z5FH have successfully set up the up the KAMA VHF Packet node on the water tower of Kibbutz Bet-Kama, about 30 Km. north of Beer Sheva. This link overcomes the problem of a reliable relay to the south, and now the traffic is streaming unhampered southward. The crew reports that the location is superb, and with a handie-talkie on the top of the tower at the time of the antenna-raising they were able to open all repeaters in the country.

The Israel Amateur Radio Club's executive has voted $3300 to update equipment and implement repairs to get the Packet Network going full-swing.

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


FREE E-MAIL FOR ALL IARC MEMBERS

Now there's another inducement to pay dues to the national amateur radio society. 4X6BG and 4Z4VH have put in a Pentium computer in Netvision (one of Israel's major Internet providers) to take care of E-Mail for all Israel Amateur Radio Club members. Access will be (probably already by the time you're reading this) by telephone line and modem, and the domain address will be: hamradio.iarc.org. There are further plans for hooking this into the Packet system, and it will be interesting to see what other goodies will be made available to us. Now nobody should have a reason for griping about paying the yearly 200 shekel mebership dues (which already provide QSL bureau services, VHF-UHF repeaters, Packet network, a bi-monthly magazine, representation to the Ministry of Communications plus other membership services). In fact, we won't be surprised if people start knocking on our doors to join just for this latest benefit.

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


FURTHER REPEATER LINKING

At least on a time-limited basis. With the weekly HaGal nets, one from Tel-Aviv on Tuesday evenings and the other from the north, on Saturday mornings, there has been a need for wider coverage. So Itzik 4Z4ZH has set things up so the Tuesday net will automatically be relayed from R7 (Tel-Aviv repeater) to R14 and R0, and the Saturday morning net will be heard on, in addition to R0, R3 and R14. At this juncture in the time-space continuum, transmit access will be only on the originating repeater, the relay being one-way only. (For further details on repeater nomenclature, locations and coverage areas, please see the table attached to this newsletter.

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS TO FARM OUT HAM EXAMINATIONS

?

There would appear to be some truth in the rumour that the Ministry of Communications wants to get out of the amateur radio examinations business. There is talk that the Open University, that has been instrumental in its highly successful ham radio courses, will take on the task of administering the tests. Stay tuned on this frequency for updates as the dust settles with regard to this one...

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


NEW ISRAELI CALLBOOK IN THE WORKS

Michael Ben-Tovim 4X6PZ has been busy at work to get out the new addition of the IARC callbook. This will be the first time that there will be a listing of all licenced Israeli hams relying on the data-base of the Ministry of Communications. In the past we had listed only Israel Amateur Radio Club members. However, thinking has changed on this matter. Of course the IARC callbook will be free-of-charge to all members. Non-members will able to purchase the book for a reasonable sum.

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


SILENT KEYS' FOREST

Over a decade ago, a grove of a few thousand trees was was established by the IARC and the Keren Kayemet Le'Israel in the Ben Shemen forest, in the foothills of the Jerusalem hills, just east of the Ben Gurion airport. This on-going project is for the memorial of radio amateurs who have passed on beyond the ionosphere as it were. Trees may be purchased and dedicated in their names through the Keren Kayemet. Shlomo Friedman 4Z5JO has recently taken this project under his wing, and is establishing an Internet home page explaining the project. As well, a page in the next Hebrew HaGal magazine will be devoted to the Silent Keys' Forest. A special callsign, 4X4SKF, has been allocated for authorised stations working from the site, and Shlomo is organising a field day to operate there in the near future.

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


APRIL CAPER

This time one of your trusty scribes got taken in! On the weekly Tel-Aviv Gal (wave) information net, it was announced that Cellcomm, one of the cellular telephone companies, had donated advertising QSL cards, and that hams wishing a package of thousand cards, with their callsign printed on, were invited to contact Ziv 4X1UK after the net. It was pointed out that there was a place for filling in the date, time, call of station contacted and signal report, but the frequency was already printed in as 800 Mhz (the band on which the cell-phones operate). Nonetheless, you could cross this out and enter in the proper frequency of the QSO. At the end of the net, with regard to this attractive offer, it became clear.... APRIL FOOL!

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


UPDATED REPEATER LIST

Attached to this issue of ISRAEL HAM NEWS is a page with the latest information on all the VHF and UHF FM repeaters in our fair land. It's a good idea to take it with you when visiting here, and keep it handy for use with your handie. Hi.

FM REPEATERS IN ISRAEL updated April 20th 1997 
Name Location Coverage Output
Freq
Input
Freq
CTCSS
(PL Tone)
R 12

Simplex

Eilat simplex link to Yatir Negev, Arava Links to R 13 rptr via 433.300 link (no squelch tail) 145.300 145.300 91.5 Hz (to use as a repeater in Eilat, listen on 433.300 Mhz)
R 12 Migdal HaEmeq Lower Galilee 145.300 144.700 91.5, 192.8 Hz
R 13 Yatir Negev and South-Central area 145.325 144.725 91.5, 192.8 Hz
R 14 Mt. Canaan (Safed) Galilee LINKED automatically to R0 Mt. Giloh repeater 145.350 145.750 91.5, 192.8 Hz local signals override those
coming via link
R 15 Tel-Aviv young generation Tel-Aviv area 145.375 144.775 91.5 Hz
R 16 Natanya Natanya and north-central coastal area 145.400 144.800 91.5, 192.8 Hz
R 0 Mt. Giloh, Jerusalem Jerusalem and Central Israel LINKED automatically to R 14 Mt. Canaan repeater 145.600 145.000 1.5 Hz (local signals override those coming through link)
R 1 Jerusalem Jerusalem 145.625 145.025 91.5, 192.8Hz
R 3 Haifa Haifa Region 145.675 145.075 91.5, 192.8Hz
R 5.5 Haifa Haifa 145.7125 145.1125 91.5 Hz
R 6 Beersheva Beersheva City 145.750 145.150 91.5 Hz
R 7 Tel-Aviv Tel-Aviv region 145.775 145.175 91.5 Hz
R 7 UHF auxillliary receiver 145.775 431.825 107.2 Hz, to be used when VHF uplink unaccessible
RU 70 Tel-Aviv Tel-Aviv 438.650 431.050 91.5 Hz
RU 71 Haifa Haifa 438.675 431.075 91.5 Hz
RU 72 Jerusalem Jerusalem 438.700 431.100 91.5 Hz
RU 73 Safed Galilee 438.725 431.125 91.5 Hz
LINK between R12 Eilat and R13 Yatir Southern Arava valley, north of Eilat 433.000 Simplex 433.000 91.5 Hz (transmit only when frequency clear)


73 de Ron, Joe and Ahron

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


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.)

Back to items list
Back to IARC home page


This page was edited by Yossi Sharon 4X1BQ, Nov 1996.

Thanks to Ron Gang 4X1MK who helped with this page.