A number of different approaches were made to get the machine working again. I went out and purchased the latest version of virus detection software and it was then that I found out that my computer had picked up a virus that attacked the boot sector and FAT of any disks present including unprotected floppy disks. It meant going back to a factory level formatting of both hard disks and reloading all the program software that I needed. I did lose some of the generated data, but did have a backup as of September. I finally got the machine back on line on Monday night and started to catch up on my backlog including putting together this newsletter.

If there is any advice I can pass on from this event, it is:

1. Update your virus detection software often and keep it on line continuously even if it does slow down your boot and your downloads a little.
   
2. Backup your generated data and necessary program information files often. If possible schedule a daily backup if you can.
   
3. Include your registry files, personal address book and browser bookmark files in your backup.

If there was a virus out there programmed to attack on January 1, 2000, I did not get it because I paid my price earlier. Oh well, I can say I’m starting the new year with a clean slate.

Bob, N7KTP

It’s time for the changing of the guard. The nomination and election of club officers took place at the December dinner meeting. It must be sadly reported that the nominations disclosed a very serious problem within the club. The meeting ended without a single person not being nominated or not stepping forward for the offices of president, vice president or board member.

The success of a club depends a great deal on the leaders and their ability to develop programs and keep the membership interested in participating. Most of the officers from last year had been in their position for at least two years or more. There is a danger in having a group stay in office too long. The introduction of new ideas and projects start to drop off and the club becomes stagnant.

The club by-laws state that the president shall call to order and preside at all regular business meetings, to announce the business at hand in its proper order, to appoint all committees and set forth their duties.

The vice-president shall assume all duties of the President in the event of his/her absence; will serve as Program Chairman.

A Board Member shall provide guidance and direction for the club.

These offices must be filled by members who can lead the club into the new millennium. The amateur radio world here in the United States will be undergoing major changes starting next year and new ideas are needed to keep up with these changes. If you want to recommend somebody for one of the offices, talk it over with the individual. Urge him or her to consider the post and offer your support and assistance. Come to the meeting on January 26^th and participate. Come forward and submit your name or nominate somebody you feel will fill the office and then vote. Remember experience is not necessary. The members and former officers will be there to help in the various projects the club will be running.

The following article is an excerpt of the ARRL bulletin announcing the amateur radio licensing restructuring. Note the section on specific requirements for automatic upgrading of those with a current Technician Plus license and the ways to upgrade your general or advanced license to become effective on April 15, 2000.

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NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 30, 1999--Amateur Radio will get a new look in the new millennium. The FCC today issued its long-awaited Report and Order in the 1998 Biennial Regulatory Review of Part 97--more commonly known as "license restructuring." The bottom line is that starting April 15, 2000, there will be three license classes--Technician, General, and Amateur Extra--and a single Morse code requirement--5 WPM.

"We believe that an individual's ability to demonstrate increased Morse code proficiency is not necessarily indicative of that individual's ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art," the FCC said.

Although no new Novice and Advanced licenses will be issued after the effective date of the Report and Order, the FCC does not plan to automatically upgrade any existing license privileges. The ARRL had proposed a one-time across-the-board upgrading of current Novice and Tech Plus licensees to General class, but the FCC declined to adopt the idea. This means that current licensees will retain their current operating privileges, including access to various modes and sub-bands, and will be able to renew their licenses indefinitely.

Starting April 15, 2000, individuals who qualified for the Technician class license prior to March 21, 1987, will be able to upgrade to General class by providing documentary proof to a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator, paying an application fee, and completing FCC Form 605.

The FCC's decision not to automatically upgrade Novice and Tech Plus licensees means the current Novice/Tech Plus HF subbands will remain and not be "refarmed" to higher class licensees as the ARRL had proposed. The FCC said it did not refarm these subbands because there was "no consensus" within the amateur community as to what to do with them.

As it had proposed earlier, the FCC decided to lump Technician and Tech Plus licensees into a single licensee database, all designated as "Technician" licensees. Those who can document having passed the 5 WPM Morse code examination will continue to have the current Tech Plus HF privileges. "If documentation is needed to verify whether a licensee has passed a telegraphy examination, we may request the documentation from that licensee or the VECs," the FCC said.

In addition to reducing the number of license classes from six to three and eliminating the 20 and 13 WPM code tests, the FCC also will reduce the number of written examination elements from five to three, authorize Advanced Class hams to prepare and administer General class examinations, and eliminate Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) station licenses. RACES will remain, however.

Under the new licensing scheme, there will be four examination elements. Element 1 will be the 5 WPM Morse code exam. Element 2 will be a 35-question written test to obtain a Technician license; Element 3 will be a 35-question written test to obtain a General license, and Element 4 will be a 50-question written test for the Amateur Extra license. The FCC has left it in the hands of the National Conference of VECs Question Pool Committee to determine the specific mix and makeup of written examination questions. Current Amateur Radio study materials remain valid at least until the new rules become effective in April.

The FCC's new licensing plan means someone will be able to become a ham by passing a single 35-question written examination. The plan also simplifies and shortens the upgrade path from the ground floor through Amateur Extra--especially since amateurs will only have to pass one Morse code test.

Elimination of the 13 and 20 WPM Morse requirements also means an end to physician certification waivers for applicants claiming an inability to pass the Morse code examination due to physical handicap. The effective date provides a window of upgrade opportunity for current Advanced licensees. Between now and April 15, current Advanced holders may take the existing Element 4B, a 40-question test, giving them credit for having passed the current Extra written examination. Likewise, holders of a Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) for Elements 3B or 4B dated on or after April 17, 1999, will be able to qualify for General or Amateur Extra respectively when the new rules go into effect on April 15, 2000.

A copy of the entire Report and Order (FCC 99-412) is available at

My departure from the Pacific Northwest happened on such short notice that I was not able to contact everyone I should have before I left. Please accept my apologies if you are among the many I did not contact before our move.

Karen and I enjoyed our 10-year stint in the Seattle area, but the wet weather and being so far away from family eventually made us long for the warm, sunny, Southeast. When a choice job opportunity suddenly opened up in North Carolina, we went for it. Now I do my foxhunting near the town of Chapel Hill.

The Puget Sound Radio Direction Finding web site has been moved to a server in my new home state, so please update your bookmarks accordingly:

Visit the NKARC Web Page at the URL : http://www.silverlink.net/nkarc.

There is a wealth of information and capabilities to anybody that checks in. After you get connected, you can get the latest copy of the club newsletter -- "SOLID COPY"..

Click on the handi-talkie graphic and you’ll get a list of links to other web pages giving you an opportunity to connect to the ARRL, FCC, Packet Radio Home Page, AMSAT and many others. Need the QTH of the station you just had a contact with? The QRZ call sign look-up form is available. The links also give the link to the information on the Evergreen Intertie.

The page master is John Stilwell, KB7VS

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Want your newsletter as soon as it comes out of the word processor? Send your e-mail address to : bobtomas@sprintmail.com, and it will be mailed out right after the proof reading. Be sure to tell if you are using an Internet browser or an e-mail only account in order to get the right format. Most e-mail only accounts only accept ASCII text format and we oblige with a text only format for them.

As an incentive to come to the next meeting (Jan. 23rd) the club is offering free coax. Some local cable TV workers were replacing coax (probably with fiber optics) and thought it would be a great idea if the scrap 50 to 100 ft. cable lengths they had laying around, would just go away. The cable is about the size of RG-8 and is probably low loss 75ohm. Foam dielectric. It has a 1/8 inch steel support wire molded adjacent to the actual coax. (Free guy wire?) The stuff has a very tough jacket and this makes it rather stiff. But given the price, an enterprising ham should be able to put this to good use. About 5 lengths available.

Ron, N7EM

At first, it appeared that the bureaucrats were correct. Before the Radio Act, there were an estimated 10,000 stations. Now, there were only 1200 licenses issued by the end of 1912. Amateurs were finding it difficult to get their spark stations going on 200 meters, and, when they did, they discovered their maximum range was 25-50 miles, instead of the 250-500 mile range they had on the longer wavelengths. Amateur radio was slowly heading for oblivion.

The big stumbling block to effective communications on 200 meters (or ndeed any wavelength) was the spark transmitter and unamplified detector, both of which were extremely inefficient. On the transmitting end, no method, other than spark, was known. As for the receiver, there had been two developments in the vacuum tube area. J.A. Fleming had developed the diode detector in 1904. It cost a lot of money, provided no amplification, and used expensive batteries. It was not practical at the time, but it was covered by a patent. In 1906, Lee de Forest took leming's valve, added a third element, called a grid, and named the result the Audion. In the right circuit, the Audion could amplify by a factor of 5x. Still, because of the cost, battery requirement, and the ever popular patent fights of the time, it went unnoticed and unused until 1912, when a 22 year old amateur made an important discovery.

Edwin H. Armstrong was an experimenter and almost militant individualist. He had obtained an Audion for use in his station. Dissatisfied with the poor amplification, he tried different circuits. At one point, he "fed back" a portion of the output back to the input to be re-amplified. Instead of just a 5x amplification, the output was now 100x stronger than the input. He also discovered that if too much feedback was used, the tube began to oscillate. This regenerative circuit was the most important discovery in radio in years. One tube could amplify more than 100x, two tubes in series could give a gain of 2000+. In addition, an alternative to spark was now available. Instead of a raspy, broad, inefficient signal that took up hundreds of kHz, the Audion could be made to oscillate a stable, pure signal on one frequency. In fact, that's where the abbreviation "C.W." comes from, (a Continuous Wave on one frequency rather than a broad, intermittent wave on many). Although it would take 10+ years to develop the stability in transmitters and receivers to fully utilize C.W., King Spark was doomed.

Realizing the importance of his regenerative design in both transmitting and receiving, but lacking the money to develop it, in January 1913 Armstrong had the diagrams of his circuit notarized. This was only the first of many spectacular inventions Armstrong would come up with. Within 10 years, he would also develop the superheterodyne (now used in ALL receivers), and the superregenerative (the basis of all VHF and UHF receivers from the 20's to the 50's, and still used today in children's walkie-talkies). Even his first design, the regenerative circuit, is used by Ten-Tec and MFJ in their receiver kits. The crowning achievement in Armstrong's career came in the 30's, when he developed Frequency Modulation. With all due respect for those who flock to Loomis, Tesla, or Marconi as the father of radio, my vote goes to Armstrong, for without him, wireless would be stuck at the 1912 level. Armstrong had a tempestuous life, full of public and private battles, advancements, setbacks, and lawsuits, before his tragic death in 1954. The final legal battles didn't end until 1967. ("The Wayback Machine" will devote an entire column to Armstrong in a future edition.)

Meanwhile, back in 1913, word of the regenerative circuit spread quickly throughout the amateur world. Experimenters who added the Audion to their receivers discovered that distances of up to 350 miles were now possible on 200 meters. The Audion, already scarce and expensive, became even more so under the laws of supply and demand. The search for an Audion to the amateur was like the Quest for the Holy Grail. In fact, it was this search which led to the second pivotal event in amateur radio history.

Hiram Percy Maxim was a 44 year old engineer and inventor who had a 1 kW amateur station in Hartford, Connecticut. He wanted an Audion for his receiver and was unable to locate one. Finally, he heard of an amateur in Springfield, MA, who had one for sale. Hartford was (and still is!) only 30 miles from Springfield, yet Maxim's station could not cover the distance. He found a station midway between the two cities that was willing to relay his purchase offer. Maxim thought about this and eventually realized that a national organization was needed to coordinate and standardize message relay procedures, as well as act as a national lobby for amateur radio interests. On April 6, 1914, Maxim proposed the formation of the American Radio Relay League. With the backing of the Radio Club of Hartford, who appropriated $50, and some volunteers, Maxim developed an application form explaining the purpose of the ARRL and inviting membership. These were sent out to every known major station in the country.

Maxim, like Armstrong, was a prolific inventor. Unlike Armstrong, however, Maxim was also an expert in publicity and public relations. By July, national magazines such as Popular Mechanics were writing favorable reports about the ARRL. Maxim also traveled to Washington, D.C., to explain the ARRL to the Department of Commerce and the Commissioner of Navigation.

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This article may not be reprinted without the express permission
of the author -- Bill Continelli, W2XOY

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