I have made a new addition to the webpage. I am trying to keep events and contests updated 3 or 4 months in advance. http://www.semoarc.org/events.html

I am considering that since some of the articles I come across are rather time sensitive, What I probably will start doing is as I get the newsletter articles I will go ahead and e-mail them out right then and for the newsletter I will offer them all together in one lump sum, so to speak.

AN ERA COMES TO A CLOSE AS RILEY HOLLINGSWORTH, K4ZDH, RETIRES

On Thursday, July 3, Special Counsel for the Spectrum Enforcement Division of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH -- the man who has come to embody Amateur Radio Enforcement -- said goodbye to the FCC as he retired and began his life as a private citizen. In May, Hollingsworth announced he would definitely retire; he had contemplated retiring in January 2008, but cited "several issues on the table that I want[ed] to continue to work through with the amateur community." While his successor has not yet been named, he was quick to point out that the FCC's Amateur Radio enforcement program will continue.

Hollingsworth said that he has "loved" working for the FCC and has "always had great jobs, but this one involving the Amateur Radio Service has been the most fun and I have enjoyed every day of it. I've worked with the best group of licensees on earth, enjoyed your support and tremendous FCC support and looked forward every day to coming to work. The Amateur Radio Enforcement program will continue without missing a beat, and after retirement I look forward to being involved with Amateur Radio every way I can. I thank all of you for being so dedicated and conscientious, and for the encouragement you give us every day."

Saying it has been a "privilege to work with and for the Amateur Radio licensees and the land mobile frequency coordinators," Hollingsworth said that he is "extremely fortunate to work for two wonderful groups of people: Those at headquarters in the Enforcement Bureau, and for the Amateur Radio operators."

Before joining the FCC, Hollingsworth, a South Carolina native, graduated from the University of South Carolina and Wake Forest University School of Law. While in high school, he worked as a disc jockey for WRHI, an AM station in Rock Hill, South Carolina. "It's a funny thing," Hollingsworth said. "They once held a beauty pageant in Rock Hill and nobody won!" In the mid-1970s, he was a "Nader's Raider" and worked on brown lung disease in the North and South Carolina textile mills.

"Basically I'm just an ordinary guy caught in the cross-hairs of radio history," Hollingsworth said. "But I am proud of the fact that the digital clock on my VCR has been blinking for 4 years."

Hollingsworth told the ARRL he was "so very impressed" with the young people who are involved with Amateur Radio: "To the very young Amateur Radio operators I have met who have dreams of being scientists and astronauts and communications engineers, we will be pulling for you; I have a strong feeling we won't be disappointed.

Calling the Amateur Radio Service a part of the American heritage, Hollingsworth explained that he is "going to stay as actively involved in it as I possibly can. Thank you all for working tirelessly to provide the only fail safe communications system on Earth and for helping this country keep its lead in science and technology. What an incredible gift it has been to work with you every day, and how fortunate we are to love the magic of radio! Every gift of lasting value comes with responsibility. We must never forget what we owe for our spectrum privileges. I will continue working with you in every way I can to ensure that Amateur Radio lasts a thousand years. "

PHILADELPHIA AREA HAMS NAIL ROGUE RADIO SIGNALS

When residents of a Philadelphia suburb complained <http://www.nbc10.com/investigators/16701097/detail.html?dl=mainclick> to an area television station about how their remote car door entry devices wouldn't work in the parking lot of a local department store, an investigative reporter for NBC-10 (WCAU) called everyone she could to help her discover why. No one knew anything -- until she called on some local ham radio operators.

"Many people lock and unlock a car by remote and don't even give it a second thought unless it doesn't work," said NBC10 reporter Lu Ann Cahn. "The mystery problem repeatedly occurs outside the Kohl's store in Royersford. When I went into Kohl's [to ask about this], they told me they had no idea [about this]."

Cahn said that shoppers told her that this has been going on for more than a year, and that some shoppers don't realize they might have to manually lock their doors: "One woman reported her laptop was stolen from her car after she thought she had locked it."

Shoppers theorized that it was the local power plant causing the interference, but Cahn said that officials at the plant said it wasn't them. Others thought that cellular telephone towers might be the culprit, but there are no cell towers in the area. "Police tell us that they can't figure it out either," Cahn said.

So after calling numerous places to help her out with this mystery, Cahn happened upon Reggie Leister, N3KAS, and Bob Rex, K3DBD, of the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio Club <http://www.paarc.net/>; Rex is Vice President of the club and Leister is the club's Public Information Officer (PIO). And as hams do, they were quick to volunteer to help out.

Leister and Rex accompanied Cahn to the parking lot in question. Rex built an antenna out of aluminum tubing and hooked it up to a spectrum analyzer. "Somewhere in the vicinity of this parking lot," Leister said, "there is a big source of radiation, some sort of signal." When Leister aimed the antenna in the direction of the Kohl's store, he hit pay dirt. "There are actually two signals there. It looks like [they're] coming from the building," Rex said when he read the analyzer.

Leister and Rex moved in closer to the building and pinpointed that one signal was coming from one set of doors, while the other signal emitted from another set of doors. Rex, an engineer, said that the thing that bothers him about this is that the signals "are running constantly." When Cahn approached Kohl's management with their findings, she was told that "they will look into it."

"The FCC licenses radio signals and these ham radio operators say the fact that some signal is interfering with remote locks isn't good," Cahn said in her report. Rex concurred, saying, "The FCC rules are pretty clear on that. It might be something that's broken." Leister and Rex agreed that the store security sensors located at each set of doors might be the culprit.

Three days after Leister and Rex located the source of the interference, remote car door lockers worked again. "Kohl's will only say that they're working on it," Cahn said. "The FCC says it does sound like something malfunctioned and they have had reports of similar incidents in New York City and Tampa, Florida."

A few days after they found the signals, Leister explained that he and Rex did not think the anti-shoplifting detectors were the problem: "What we are guessing here is that they are probably connected to some kind of device that triggers a security camera to come on if there is a breach. Except instead of just sending out a quick 2-5 second (Part 15) blip, these seem to be on continuously and exceeding the permissible signal levels."

Cahn was quick to give on-air credit to the local hams who stepped up to the plate and helped crack this mystery: "We here at NBC10 were so curious as to why these remote car locks would just stop working, so we thought we should really try to solve this mystery. I have to give kudos to Reggie Leister and Bob Rex with the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio Club. They were so great and so excited. You don't know how many people we called -- police, Triple A, car dealerships -- we called so many people trying to figure this out and nobody knew anything until we talked to these ham radio operators. They were so wonderful and they knew all about radio signals. They created their own gadgets to help us figure this out. We really want to thank them for their help with this."

Trained spotters serve as eyes of Weather Service

by Diana Balazs - Jul. 22, 2008 11:32 AM
The Arizona Republic

NORTHEAST VALLEY - Hundreds of trained volunteers help the National Weather Service in Phoenix keep an eye on the sky, especially during the monsoon.

Their mission is to report on-scene weather conditions so meteorologists can better track storms and predict what could happen next.

The spotter program teaches volunteers how to identify the development stages of severe thunderstorms, as well as downbursts, desert flash flooding and tornadoes, and to report severe or unusual weather.

There are about 525 spotters for Maricopa County, said meteorologist Austin Jamison, who is one of the program's instructors.

Free weather spotter training classes are typically held in the spring in preparation for the summer monsoon, the period of most severe weather in the Valley, Jamison said.

Last year's monsoon was relatively quiet in the Northeast Valley, but this week two years ago was not.

On July 25, 2006, a microburst damaged several homes, downed power lines and trees and disrupted power and closed roads in an area of south Scottsdale from 68th to 64th streets and from Thomas Road south to McDowell Road.

On Aug. 24 of that year, a hurricane-fed storm poured 4,000 cubic feet of water per second into the Indian Bend Wash, stranding drivers and forcing the closure not only of unbridged crossings, but several with bridges.

Weather spotters do not have to have their own weather measuring equipment although many do. All they need is a trained eye and an interest in paying attention to the weather.

After taking the two-hour class, each spotter is assigned an ID number. Spotters call a designated phone hotline to report their observations to the Weather Service. In addition, spotters who are amateur radio operators also can submit their storm reports by short wave radio, Jamison said.

"It's very important to us because we really need to have what we call ground truth information. What's actually happening on the ground," he said.

Jamison said the Weather Service does not have weather stations everywhere so people fill in the gaps, supplementing information that comes from radar and satellite images.

"All it takes is the human eye to be able to detect some things that machines can't, even if they are located on the ground such as a funnel cloud. How big is the hail? Is there storm damage and what kind of storm damage? Is it twigs or full trees that have been blown over?" he said.

The meteorologists use that information to decide whether to issue severe weather warnings or statements to the public so they can take protective action.

Roger Cahoon, 50, is a Northeast Valley weather spotter. The Phoenix resident has been a spotter for about a decade.

"I've always been interested in the weather," Cahoon said.

Cahoon also is a ham radio operator and is a member of the Scottsdale Amateur Radio Club.

He has relayed in observations about hail, wind and rain.

Cahoon said as a spotter he can verify what is happening and help other people avoid problems.

He has weather instruments that measure rainfall, wind direction and speed, temperature, humidity and other conditions.

On July 15, 2001, Cahoon was out of town when a microburst hit Scottsdale.

The storm killed a 37-year-old Scottsdale man when a power pole fell on his vehicle at Indian Bend and Scottsdale roads.

Cahoon was still able to provide important details. The Weather Service called him the day after the storm to verify what was recorded on his instruments.

For more information on the weather spotter program, go to the National Weather Service Phoenix Web site at www.wrh.noaa.gov/psr.

Lightning Safety

L Kendall (K5END) on July 22, 2008

Lightning-human encounters cause burns, trauma and electrical interference with physiological processes, often with fatal results. This article addresses personal safety concerns with lightning. Antenna and grounding practices are covered quite well in recent QST articles as well as ARRL and other literature and are therefore not iterated here. Lightning protection for backpacking and blue-water sailing are not covered comprehensively in this article.

The following three points are important.

Big Point 1: The first strike of lightning in a thunderstorm is just as deadly as the last. For some reason, people tend to dismiss the danger of lightning for at least the first few strikes. Electrical storms don't have to "warm up" to be deadly. If you can hear thunder, you are vulnerable immediately. Seek shelter.

Big Point 2: A tree is a poor choice for shelter. Lightning striking the tree will flashover in a deadly penumbral shape around the tree as it seeks paths to ground. Secondly, the tree sap will boil and turn to steam rapidly, exploding the trunk of the tree. This is a bad place to be when it happens.

Big Point 3: Lightning is second only to floods in terms of "natural" fatalities. Fear lightning more than earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires or volcanoes. In the United States, Florida has the highest frequency of lightning events; lightning in Alaska is rare.

LIGHTNING BASICS

Lightning is the plasma path that allows charge equalization between the atmosphere and the ground or between regions of the atmosphere. This process is nearly continuous worldwide. The process of lightning path generation as a plasma wave forges its way through the air is both fascinating and esoteric. Air does break down under electric fields and lightning occurs. That is what matters.

A lightning strike is a "current source" and is effectively independent of load impedance. Call it an electrical Tsunami. You can neither stop it nor out run it. Protect yourself as you would from a Tsunami: stay out of its path!

A lightning strike is composed of several strokes as various charged regions are equalized. Stroke "leaders" may originate and extend from cloud to ground, ground to cloud or cloud to cloud. You can observe the individual strokes in the duration of a single strike especially well if at a distance when wind across the ground is significant where the strike occurs. The paths shift slightly with the wind during the series, giving the appearance (to human visual perception) of "ribbon lightning." Strokes often fork into diverse paths as the charge finds the most efficient routes toward equalization.

Yes, Virginia, lightning can strike the ground where the sky overhead is clear and blue; thus the expression, "out of the blue." Lightning can travel horizontally for miles before striking the ground. If you can hear thunder, you are within range of a strike.

Cloud-to-ground voltages range from 100 million to 1 billion Volts.
Typical peak current is 30,000 Amperes. This means that only 0.0000033 of the electrical current in a routine lightning strike is lethal.
Typical length of a lightning path is 5 kilometers.
The short time domain of a lightning stroke means that a large bandwidth is conducted and radiated as energy. This is why lightning static noise is present everywhere across the radio bands. It is less noticeable on FM modes, but it is still there on the bands (lightning is noticeable on FM broadcast mostly as "dead air" when their transmitter/antenna takes a strike!) What does this mean to us? It means that the protective grounding configuration must account for and have minimum impedance for all frequencies from DC to UHF.

Power of a single lightning strike:

Visible light 1-3%

Sound >10%

Heat <50%

Radio waves <50%

Duration ranges from 0.001 to 0.5 seconds.

The region around a ground strike will cause a voltage gradient in the top two feet or so of the soil until the current is dissipated. Persons standing with feet spread or laying on the ground are at increased risk. (Anecdotally, it is claimed that cattle die when the poor heifer's axis is aligned with this gradient. Who knows?)

Shrapnel from objects disintegrating near a ground strike is another common source of injury, especially in rocky areas.

LIGHTNING PROTECTION

The best defense to lightning is to seek safe shelter within an ENCLOSED structure, which means you need to be aware of the weather and have a plan beforehand. For example, any boater who finds himself in peril on a lake when a thunderstorm emerges needs to work on his situational awareness, if not consider another form of recreation. Think ahead and plan. The human species supposedly became more intelligent as a result of the last ice age. Those who were able to plan ahead were the ones who survived!

Buildings which are NOT SAFE are those with exposed openings. These include beach shacks, picnic shelters, pavilions, carports, and baseball dugouts. Porches are especially dangerous.

Once inside a suitable building, stay away from electrical appliances and plumbing fixtures. Lightning can travel great distances through power lines, especially in rural areas. This means a distant storm poses a risk inside your home, especially in the absence of proper grounding. Electrical appliances pose a risk to the user, ESPECIALLY corded telephones. Computers are also dangerous as they usually are connected to an ISP facility and the house AC. It should be obvious this is not the time for a shower, bath or a hot tub party.

An enclosed metal vehicle makes a good shelter. When lightning strikes a metal car, it is conducted through the car's metal structure and then arcs to the ground, at the easiest point and usually from the axle to ground. Aftermarket (ham) antennas may compromise the safety within a vehicle. Roll the windows up (glass is a pretty good inhibitor to plasma) and avoid contact with any conducting paths leading to the outside of the vehicle. Keep in mind that tornadoes often coincide with thunderstorms, and a car is not adequate shelter from a tornado.

Don't fall prey to the urban legend: the myth of tires. The tires have nothing to do with lightning safety. A car is safer because you are surrounded by a conductor, and Gauss's law, #1 in Maxwell's 4 famous collective equations is a good source to find an explanation of why this matters. In short, the voltage drop from the top of the car where the lightning hits to the floorboard where your behind is planted is enough protection to keep the air inside the vehicle from ionizing and providing a path for the lightning. BUT, I wouldn't go raising my hands to the headliner to test the protection factor! The "myth of tires" is pointed out here because of the following unsafe vehicles. Convertible (or fiberglass) vehicles offer little safety from lightning, even if the top is "up". Other vehicles, which are NOT SAFE during lightning storms, are those, which have open cabs, such as golf carts, tractors, and construction equipment. Motorcycles do not offer adequate protection from lightning.

Water or material on the surface of windows may heat with rapid steam generation or flashover conduction and cause the glass to shatter. Be aware of this possibility. This author is not aware of documented examples of this, but includes it as a possibility and recommends facing the interior of the car or building during shelter from an intense electrical storm.

Use the "30/30 rule." If the interval between the light flash and the thunder is less than 30 seconds, seek shelter and remain sheltered for 30 minutes after the last strike of the storm. "Counting seconds" is not an accurate method to estimate lightning distance! The speed of sound is dependent on air density and other factors, and there is no accounting for triangulation. Note that thunder may be a rumble rather than a sharp report. This is because the observer would be hearing various regions of the lightning path, all of which travel varied distances at the speed of sound, which also varies. A sharp thunder report implies the site of the ground strike is nearby, nothing more.

For outdoor activities:
The first outdoor procedure is to get indoors. Recreational pilots have a saying about weather. "It's better to be on the ground wishing you were flying than to be flying and later wish you were on the ground." The same logic applies to lightning. Know the weather forecast before you venture outside.

HAVE A PLAN and make sure the responsible party members understand the plan. Designate individuals to monitor the weather.

Know safety shelters in advance.
Designate individuals to organize and lead evacuation.

This practice will save softball, little league and soccer players. Better to forfeit the game or skip the practice than to die for no reason at all. If the coach is not compliant, don't let him reduce your life expectancy or that of your child. Write him off to Darwin. Few will remember the outcome of the game for very long. The death will be remembered for much longer.

Golfers, listen up! Think about this. You're standing in wide open spaces, you are the tallest objects in the vicinity, you installed metal electrodes on your shoes (damp leather against your feet) pressed into the damp earth, and you're swinging a pretty fair "lightning rod" (carbon graphite can conduct too!) several feet above your head, if not holding an umbrella constructed with "pointy-ended" (perfect for coronal discharge initiation of a ground leader!) metal ribs extending a couple of feet in all directions. Call it a day, go inside, have a "beverage" and tell war stories (which is probably the important part of the outing anyway. Am I right?)

Backpacking and hiking require special instruction beyond the scope of this article. But in short, get off the ridges, spread the group out and stay away from the trees. Minimize your footprint on the ground; it would be better to squat with feet together, rather than lie flat. The group members should spread out considerably so that a strike would affect fewer members and the other members would still be able to apply first aid and begin medical evacuation.

Bicyclists, head for the nearest shelter or take cover. Stay aware of the weather and have a plan. If thunderstorms are predicted, consider whether you should ride another day.

Remember:

1. Lightning is an everyday killer across most of the United States.

2. The best protection from lightning is to stay out its path by seeking shelter.

3. Become informed and have a plan.

Ernie Chiles, WØRMS	President	chiles@showme.net
John Frye, WJØU	1st VP	jgfrye@showme.net
Phil Nash, ACØIB	2nd VP	ldnash@hotmail.com
Stephanie Fallin	Secretary
Irma Frye, NØJPJ	Treasurer	jgfrye@showme.net
Joe Lorberg, WAØZNI	Trustee	lorbergco@sbcglobal.net

August 2008
10-10 Int. Summer Contest, SSB	0001Z, Aug 2 to 2359Z, Aug 3
ARRL UHF Contest	1800Z, Aug 2 to 1800Z, Aug 3
North American QSO Party, CW	1800Z, Aug 2 to 0600Z, Aug 3
SARL HF Phone Contest	1300Z-1630Z, Aug 3
North American QSO Party, SSB	1800Z, Aug 16 to 0600Z, Aug 17
Run for the Bacon QRP Contest	0100Z-0300Z, Aug 18
September 2008
MI QRP Labor Day CW Sprint	2300Z, Sep 1 to 0300Z, Sep 2
Wake-Up! QRP Sprint	0400Z-0600Z, Sep 6
AGCW Straight Key Party	1300Z-1600Z, Sep 6
North American Sprint, CW	0000Z-0400Z, Sep 7
Tennessee QSO Party	1800Z, Sep 7 to 0300Z, Sep 8
North American Sprint, SSB	0000Z-0400Z, Sep 14
SARL VHF/UHF Contest	1600Z, Sep 19 to 1000Z, Sep 21
QRP Homebrewer Sprint	0000Z-0400Z, Sep 22
Run for the Bacon QRP Contest	0100Z-0300Z, Sep 22
CQ Worldwide DX Contest, RTTY	0000Z, Sep 27 to 2400Z, Sep 28