===================================================== ARRL Rocky Mountain Division update -- August 2015 Division website: www.rockymountaindivision.org ===================================================== (NOTE: Please feel free to forward this Division Update to your club email reflector or use content for your club newsletter.) ===== 2015 Rocky Mountain Division Convention a Success! ===== The 2015 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention, hosted by the Utah Section, took place July 31-August 2 at Ruby's Inn located a short distance away from gorgeous Bryce Canyon National Park. Hams from across the Division (and beyond) were treated to an enjoyable weekend of new/used ham equipment sales, manufacturers and vendors, outdoor tailgating, an great lineup of technical and non-technical forums, competitions, delicious meals, amateur radio license exams, numerous prizes, special event station W1AW/7, Rocky Mountain Division award presentations, and much more. A huge thank you to the leadership, staff, and volunteers of Utah Hamfest who hosted, planned, and executed this year's Division convention. Thank you to everyone who attended and enjoyed it as well! ===== 2016 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention Mark your Calendars ===== The 2016 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention will be hosted by our good friends in the Colorado Section on May 13-15, at an incredible new venue: Keystone Resort, located west of Denver, Colorado. Planning is underway; keep an eye on these spaces for more details as they become available, otherwise please mark your calendars to join many hams from across the Division in Colorado. ===== Congratulations to Anna Veal WØANT ===== Please join us in congratulating our Division's own Anna Veal WØANT for receiving two extraordinary awards: the ARRL Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Award and the Amateur Radio Newsline Young Ham of the Year Award. These are two of amateur radio's highest youth recognitions and Anna, just a few days from turning 15 years old, has earned every bit of
them. Anna, who hails from Littleton, Colorado, was first licensed at the age of 8 and over the years has participated and placed in numerous state, national, and international contests; has been invited to participate in at least one DXpedition; has conducted numerous presentations and provided instruction throughout the amateur radio community at local, state, Division, and national level amateur radio meetings and conventions; and set down the path of leadership at a young age as president of her school club at the time, the Acres Green Elementary Rabbit Ears Radio Club. Anna most recently co-founded and is the current president of our Division's most active science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) based amateur radio club, STEM School and Academy Spartan Amateur Radio Club (AB0BX). Many of you may also recall that Anna was also bestowed the 2011 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Young Ham of the Year award. For more information about Anna's impressive accomplishments and contributions to amateur radio, check out: http://www.arrl.org/news/hiram-percy-maxim-award-recipient-anna-veal-w0ant-sets-sights-onbiomedical-career as well as her QRZ profile at https://www.qrz.com/db/w0ant Thank you for making our Division proud, Anna! ===== Committee Seeks Feedback from UHF Operators ===== The ARRL Ad Hoc Subcommittee on VHF and Above Revitalization is exploring ways to expand participation in the August UHF contest. To that end they are asking for responses to the following questions: --- Are you now active on UHF? --- How often do you presently operate in the ARRL UHF contest never, occasional, or always? --- If you do not presently participate, why not? --- If you do not presently participate, what changes might compel you to participate in the future? --- What are your ideas for attracting more amateurs to UHF operation in general? Please submit your comments by October 1, 2015 to the following email address: vhf-input@arrl.org
The members of ARRL's Ad Hoc Subcommittee on VHF and Above Revitalization expressed its gratitude for the many comments they received concerning their initial round of VHF+ contest rule changes. ===== Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 -- Senate Companion Bill Introduced ===== The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 continues to gain steam, now with equivalent bills in both the US House as well as the US Senate. More than ever, ARRL members and all hams are needed to throw their support behind these bills by contacting their Representatives and Senators and requesting that they co-sponsor this legislation. As of this writing, the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 (H.R.1301) presently has 93 co-sponsors in the House, due in no small part to ARRL members across the nation writing and emailing their Representatives to request their support. Senate companion bill (S. 1685), recently introduced, has one co-sponsor. Now is the time to contact your Senators and request that they too co-sponsor the Act. For background, Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 (H.R.1301 and S. 1685), both bi-partisan bills, would require the FCC to amend its Part 97 Amateur Service rules to apply the three-part test of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy to include homeowners' association regulations and deed restrictions, often referred to as "covenants, conditions, and restrictions" (CC&Rs). At present, PRB-1 only applies to state and local zoning laws and ordinances. The FCC has been reluctant to extend the same legal protections to include such private land-use agreements without direction from Congress. These bills would accomplish that. This is a critical issue to the future health of Amateur Radio. While you personally may not be subject to CC&Rs, many amateur radio operators are -- not to mention a great number of people who aren't hams but one day will decide to get their licenses --, and the number of those affected is increasing significantly. In 1970, there were approximately 2.1 million residents affected by CC&Rs. By 2011, a mere four years ago, 62.3 million were affected. Whether or not you are currently affected by CC&R's, I ask that you to support this effort on behalf of all amateur radio operators in the United States. If you have not already written or emailed your Congressman or Senators, please spare a few minutes to do so.
ARRL staff, officers, Directors, and Vice-Directors have been busy personally visiting members of both Congress and their staff in Washington DC to convey the importance of this legislation and to seek their support as co-sponsors. An equally strong grassroots effort fueled by these Representatives' and Senators' constituents (that is, You and every ARRL member back at home) is the other crucial part of the equation needed for H.R. 1301 and S. 1685 to gain the visibility and support it needs and move through the political process on Capitol Hill. How can you help? By sending (1) a signed hard-copy letter to ARRL for personal delivery to your Representative and Senators, and (2) a follow-up email directly to your Representative and Senators. A suggested template is available on the Rocky Mountain Division website (www.rockymountaindivision.org), or you may certainly compose your own personal correspondence. (Note: Letters and emails do not need to be sent to Reps. Ed Perlmutter and Mike Coffman since they have already co-sponsored H.R. 1301.) Because it takes an extremely long time for snail-mail to be delivered to Congress due to security screening, and because ARRL officers, Directors, and staff who are making personal visits to Congressional offices in Washington DC can personally deliver packets of constituent letters directly, we recommend sending your hard-copy letter to: ARRL Attn: Amateur Radio Parity Act grassroots 225 Main Street Newington CT 06111 If you don't know your Representative or Senators, or to locate the web form for sending your follow-up email, please refer to these links: http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/ More information about these bills can be found on ARRL's website at http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act Thank you for doing your part to make this important amateur radio legislation a reality for our amateur radio community. ===== ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Net =====
Please join us for our next monthly ARRL Rocky Mountain Division amateur radio net. ARRL members and hams are invited to participate in this monthly interactive and roundtable-like net, accessible through both IRLP and Echolink to interact with Division and Section leadership, meet League members, and receive pertinent League-related information while at home or out and about. Here are the details: DATE: Second Wednesday evening of each month TIME: 7:30 PM mountain time IRLP NODE: 9871 ECHOLINK NODE (experimental): Conference *CANONCTY* (node 363976) To find an IRLP-capable repeater in your area, visit the "Node Info" page at http://www.irlp.net. Generally all you need to do to link an IRLP-capable repeater into the net's reflector is enter "9871" with your DTMF keypad and wait for the voice prompt indicating that the link is open. To unlink, enter "73". To find an Echolink-capable system in your area, visit http://www.echolink.org/ and http://www.echolink.org/links.jsp If you've never used IRLP or Echolink before, please experiment with linking/unlinking before the net. We hope you'll join us for the net. ===== Upcoming Hamfests, Tailgates and Conventions ===== Aug 16 Denver Radio Club Hamfest (Golden, CO) Sep 5 Alamogordo Hamfest (Alamogordo, NM) Sep 19 Pecos Valley ARC Tailgate (Roswell, NM) Sep 27 Boulder Amateur Radio Club BARCFest (Longmont, CO) Oct 3 Socorro Hamfest (Socorro, NM) Nov 7 285 TechConnect Radio Club Fall TechFest (Lakewood, CO) Feb 7 The Swapfest (Brighton, CO) Feb 27 2016 New Mexico TechFest (Albuquerque, NM) May 13 2016 ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention (Keystone, CO) Links to websites belonging to the above events are found on the Rocky Mountain Division site: www.rockymountaindivision.org
If you're organizing a Hamfest, convention, or tailgate we encourage you to apply for ARRL-sanctioning. Sanctioning provides many benefits (including your event being listed above), and details can be found at http://www.arrl.org/hamfest-convention-application ===== Upcoming On-Air Activities ===== In addition to chewing the rag with fellow hams, here are some additional on-air activities which await you on the airwaves. Upcoming special event stations: http://www.arrl.org/special-event-stations Upcoming contests: http://www.arrl.org/contest-calendar Upcoming state QSO parties: http://qsoparty.eqth.net Operating awards: http://www.arrl.org/awards ===== Final Note... ===== Please touch base with your Section Manager if he can be of assistance to you: Jack Ciaccia WMØG (Colorado): http://www.arrl.org/groups/view/colorado Ed James KA8JMW (New Mexico): http://www.arrl.org/groups/view/new-mexico Mel Parkes NM7P (Utah): http://www.arrl.org/groups/view/utah Jack Mitchell N7MJ (Wyoming): http://www.arrl.org/groups/view/wyoming Vice Director Dwayne Allen and I continue to welcome your concerns, questions and ideas regarding ARRL policies. We are grateful for your membership within ARRL, and look forward to working you on the air. 73, Brian Mileshosky N5ZGT, Rocky Mountain Division Director Dwayne Allen WY7FD, Rocky Mountain Division Vice-Director Division website: www.rockymountaindivision.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Director: Brian P Mileshosky, N5ZGT n5zgt@arrl.org --------------------------------------------------------------------
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