Bible
Verse
Acts 5:25-32 --- Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.
The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”
Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
President's Report
Hello all,
I write this shortly after seeing my friend for the last time here on Earth. I look forward to seeing him again in the here after as I do all my friends and family. Frank Buckley (KF5ETN ) was a dear friend and will be missed by many. I admired his passion for his fellow HAM. I remember when Ted Valentine (KG5IAX) first got his license. Frank told me at one of the coffee drinking meetings on Saturday morning that he was going out to Ted's house to take him a radio, power supply and antenna so that he could get on the air. We both knew that the sooner one gets on the radio, the better the chance that they would continue the hobby. I will miss this just like many others will.
I would like for this meeting to be held at the Checkerboard on Saturday morning. Be there shortly after 9am and meeting to start at 10am. We will start having the Saturday coffee sessions again if all goes well. I'm still at a lose for words, so much more to say about Frank and we will observe a moment of silence Saturday morning then a moment of prayer.
I would have rather been able to post better photos but these will have to do. To see all the photos, check out his Facebook page.
See you at the meeting
Charles Grisham KB5SZJ
*** Next MARC Business Meeting ***
The next business meeting will be held at the Checker Board Restaurant on Saturday, June 5th beginning at 10 A.M. Come join us around 9 A.M. for breakfast, coffee and fellowship.
Hurricane season
For those of us who experienced hurricane Katrina first-hand each hurricane season is a time for recalling memories and preparation for the "next big one".
Browsing the internet, searching for "Katrina", I found a statistic that I was not previously aware of. Within the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, there were 2,631,250 customers without power. (Mississippi-909,173)
Here in Meridian, 150 miles north of the gulf coast, after Katrina, I was without power for 7 days. No electricity, no cell service, only one quick stop in Meridian with gasoline for sale.
Seems to me, if we have another "Katrina", the situation will be similar.
The communications capability for emergency management has greatly improved. But for the private citizen, if the internet goes down and there is no cell service, they have no way to communicate with their relatives outside the area who would like to know their status.
Larry, WB5AKR, has formed a neighborhood watch group in his area, using the family radio service (FRS) radios. Included in his com-plan for this group is the ability to send "health and welfare" messages via ham radio.
To support this effort, Larry has a WINMOR ARDOP P2P station on the air 24/7. Outgoing H&W from his group is placed on the P2P station for me to pick up and send out of the area using the radio relay international (RRI) NTS network.
This P2P station and the h&w service is available to all. Simply connect to the station with your H&W message and it will be placed on the NTS.
Station call: wb5akr (or if no contact - wb5bnv) frequency: 3545kcs sideband: usb mode: winmor ardop p2p
As I type this, invest 91l is moving into Texas and the NWS is issuing advisories on sub-tropical ana in the Atlantic.
Hurricane season is here.
Regards
Fred WB5BNV
Are you ready for the new RF exposure evaluation regulations?
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
On Tuesday, April 27, Dan, W1DAN, ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Section Technical Coordinator, gave a Zoom presentation on the latest FCC regulations on RF exposure evaluation. These are spelled out in FCC-1926A1 (https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-maintains-current-rf-exposure-safety-standards), "Proposed Changes in the Commission's Rules Regarding Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields; Reassessment of Federal Communications Commission Radio Frequency Exposure Limits and Policies." The document is as long as the title might suggest—159 pages—but W1DAN boiled it down, focusing on what these changes mean for radio amateurs.
A recording of the presentation can be viewed by going to https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_qIGZhHyMrha-axJt87Dcu0UZuJO0t8F.
After explaining how RF exposure can be harmful, Dan explained how the rules are changing: The biggest change, he notes, is that amateur radio's categorical exclusion has been eliminated. What this means is that now every radio amateur will have to perform an RF exposure evaluation of their stations. This now includes mobile and portable stations, including HTs, SOTA/POTA stations, and Field Day and special event stations.
He noted that you must be able to prove that your station is safe. This includes not only performing the evaluation, but also documenting these evaluations, should this data be requested by FCC personnel.
One thing that's not changing are the maximum permissible exposure (MPE) limits. These are spelled out in FCC OET Bulletin 65 (https://transition.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents/bulletins/oet65/oet65.pdf), "Evaluating Compliance with FCC Guidelines for Human Exposure to Radio Frequency Electromagnetic Fields." The FCC published this document in August 1997, but it's still the Bible when it comes to RF exposure. If you don't have a copy, or have never taken a look at it, you really should do so.
Be careful, though, when reading it. It contains a table (Table 1 on p. 21) that contains a list of output powers at various frequencies. If your station exceeded those limits, then you were required to perform an RF evaluation. Now, however, all amateurs (and other radio services, for that matter) must perform RF exposure evaluations if their output power exceeds 1 mW. We are no longer categorically excluded from performing these evaluations.
OET Bulletin 65 goes on to give guidance on how to calculate or measure exposure levels. Explaining how to do this is outside the scope of this article, but again, you'll want to refer to the bulletin for more information.
Besides the elimination of the categorical exclusion for amateur radio stations, what else is new is the dates on which amateur radio stations must perform evaluations. They are:
- May 3, 2021(!!) for new and modified stations
- May 3, 2023 for stations that complied under the old rules.
Having said all that, the ARRL's RF Exposure page (http://www.arrl.org/rf-exposure) has a lot of resources to help you understand this topic and perform your own RF exposure evaluations:
There are also links to FCC web pages with information on RF exposure.
I'm sure we'll all be hearing more about this in the days ahead. Hopefully, someone will come out with a simple way to do the modeling or make the calculations. As always, play safe.
=============================
Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, is the author of the KB6NU amateur radio blog (KB6NU.Com), the "No Nonsense" amateur radio license study guides (https://KB6NU.Com/study-guides/), and often appears on the ICQPodcast (https://icqpodcast.com). When he's not RF exposure evaluations, he teaches online ham radio classes and operates CW on the low end of the HF bands.
Deep Dixie CC members and guests
I am pleased to report that I have just finished uploading to YouTube the recording of tonight’s excellent presentation — N1MM+: Setup Choices & Configuration Lessons Learned — by Kevan Nason N4XL. Thanks to Kevan for doing his usual amazing job of presenting! Click this link to go directly to the recording:
Please share this information with all the hams in your sphere of influence….and PLEASE plan to join us on June 3 for Part 2. (2359z)
President, Deep Dixie Contest Club
visit our Deep Dixie Contest Club web site
Quote of the Month
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