NORTH AMERICAN RADIO ALLIANCE GROUP

DECEMber 26, 2011

T h e  L i s t e n i n g  P o s t

NEW PROGRAMS & OLD BUSINESS:

A: PROJECT 88: (Senior Communications Clubs in retirement Communities)

We are pleased to report that NARAG has been engaged in an exciting new program involving the establishment of a nationwide network of COMMUNICATIONS CLUBS located on Continuing Care Retirement Communities throughout the USA and North America!

The Planning and Design phases are completed and the Operation's Group is ready to begin several Test or Pilot Projects. The first challenge is to find 2-3 CCRCs where the Management will cooperate in setting up a Club Project to demonstrate the Concept. This Phase will provide valuable exposure (i.e. PR) for CCRCs as they move forward to provide enhanced "Quality of Life" and other improvements that will make CCRCs more attractive as a retirement option. Male residents have very few activities, a problem that will be solved by setting up Radio-Internet oriented Communications Clubs! 

Since Ham operators have not been able to take their equipment into retirement facilities, the Project calls for establishing Club rooms with a conventional Radio Communications room plus an Internet setup where Residents with the help of volunteer Monitors can talk over the Cormac Technologies CQ100 network with Seniors living on other Continuing Care Retirement Campuses plus many other locations. Operating under a Club license issued by the FCC, certified Ham Operators who are Residents manage the station. This means that each Continuing Care facility will have its own "dedicated" radio communication facility as well as a mobile operation that will be ready to handle Health & Welfare messages during a major communications "blackout", breakdown or a major disaster such as an earthquake, hurricane or civil riot. NARAG's surveys indicate that most Elder Care operations today do not have their own emergency communications system. (More on this later!)

OPERATION MANAGER'S NOTES:

A. Please note that our name -- originally, American Radio Alliance Group (ARAG) has been changed to NORTH AMERICAN RADIO ALLIANCE GROUP (NARAG), effective January 1, 2012.

B. It is not necessary that we wait to hear from persons interested in this Concept and the Project 88 itself. I am available anytime to discuss by E-mail, letter or via phone this important activity that will impact the Quality of Life of roughly SEVERAL MILLION SENIORS who live in Elder Care facilities -- especially those providing multiple levels of Care, called Continuing Care Retirement Communities (CCRCs).

Thus far, after three years of effort in North Carolina, we have learned that Management Executive Directors and other Resident Association officials are non-committal to the point of utter disinterest in this Concept which seems to us be strange. These Clubs would add a new activity in which Residents could  participate! It would attract men whose interests and activities have been given the least amount of attention. CCRC's -- in fact, ALL ELDER CARE OPERATIONS HAVE 15-20 TIMES MORE WOMEN RESIDENTS THAN MEN, ALL OF WHICH HAS LED TO ACTIVITY DIRECTORS PROVIDING ACTIVITIES THAT ARE OF GREATER INTEREST TO WOMAN. The greatest problem in moving into Retirement Communities is adjusting to the new environment.  

I urge those of you who are reaching retirement age and who are dedicated Amateur Radio Operators, to visit a CCRC facilitiy in your area, schedule a visit with their Marketing Director and try to meet the Executive Director. Then acquaint them with this SENIOR COMMUNICATORS CLUB CONCEPT. Call their attention to our NARAG Website that is accessible via www.baldeaglejournal.com/index.htm

To get to me with the least amount of effort, first send an E-mail to csfranklyn@hotmail.com, we will set you up with a telephone number or a postal address so we can add you to our list of Interested Parties. If you are already on CQ-100, we will set up a QSO for a chat. Our NET is in process of forming around 14.240 MHz. Wednesday and Saturday at 7:00 p.m. EST. Remember it is on CQ-100, an Internet operation, not the regular ionospheric Ham Band!! --- cfs/W3OHV

1.) PROJECT 88 RE: PILOT PROJECT:  We hope to find three Continuing Care operations where we can test the feasibility of this project from both the Human and Technology standpoints! In the near term --- one year -- this Program will be looking for Amateurs to assist in this activity as SENIOR ASSOCIATES. Hopefully, CCRC Marketing Directors will join this effort in attracting the attention of retirement age people who are licensed Radio Operators. Currently, people involved in Radio Hobbies and Services avoid retirement communities UNTIL THEY REACH THEIR 80s!

Another reminder: Project 88 is a copyright protected communications system supported by published Guidelines & associated materials that will be used to determine whether a CCRC Senior Communicator Club complies with the standards set under the Project 88 Criteria. The NARAG Certificate of Compliance will provide assurance to the CCRC Management and the FCC that the Radio Equipment and the Trustee Operators are meeting the regulations and safety requirements applicable to such operations. This kind of assurance is equal to but does not exceed the assurance provided by the LISTING procedure used for many years by the Underwriter's Laboratories (UL) and the Canadian Standards (CSA).   

B: PROJECT QRN REPORTS:  by-City/State/County and Township (New Concept)

When an Ham retires, he thinks a lot about that new place on a hill where he can put up an "antenna farm" and "put out a Really BIG signal"! Assuming the XYL hasn't already put the kibosh on that kind of thinking, NARAG will soon offer a service that provides direct-to-you or via Real Estate offices an analysis of how much noise exists in a particular neighborhood, area or town! Such a report identifies five of the most irritating sources of man-made-RF noise typically found today in  U.S.A. areas where you are hoping to build or buy a new home! Don't assume it is a noise-free area!

When it comes to retiring into a nice looking community or area, even a visit to the local Ham Club may not help much to get the real dope on local RFI conditions! If you have a portable receiver, take it with you when you visit the area! Even that will have its limitations as our system strives to capture a "picture" of noise over a period of time, not just a "snapshot"!   

The investment you put into a retirement home, plus the cost of all that new gear and the much-dreamed-about new transceiver, towers, antennas, etc is too large to take a chance that the new location is RADIO-FRIENDLY! Today, QRN is unbelievable as it is no longer monitored or controlled by anyone least of all the FCC.

Depending on how long you have been a Ham Operator, you will have a feel for this problem only after you call the power company and get the brush-off by folks who dislike Hams. They MIGHT come out to check the "noise" but power companies are no longer friendly toward Hams. Same is true of local AM and FM radio stations who no longer have a licensed Engineer on-duty 24/7! No matter where you go in the USA today, the "electromagnetic environment" is downright dirty and most of it is deliberate because the FCC, like most every Federal Agency, no longer tries to control such problems! (By far, the worst state, of the eight I have lived in, is North Carolina!)

(More later on this new service as it comes on-line!)

C: MEMBERSHIP IN THE NARA Group, an all-volunteer activity, created to promote the evolution of traditional Amateur Radio PLUS the new Virtual Ionosphere called the Internet or the World Wide Web, is available for Hams 55 or older who are willing to be an active Local Representative of the programs sponsored by ARAG. These Reps are named to the PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATES ADVISORY COUNCIL WHICH FORMS THE CORE GROUP OF SEASONED, EXPERIENCED LICENSED AMATEURS.

AS NOTED EARLIER, Our PROJECT 88 is planning to test the feasibility of SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS CLUBS LOCATED IN CONTINUING CARE RETIREMENT COMMUNITIES. This is a joint effort currently in Start-Up Phase with a nationally recognized sponsor, announcement pending! If you have interest, skills and Time to help NARAG carry out this program that will eventually cover several hundred facilities, send an E-mail to us at franklyn1991@gmail.com/  Please show "PROJECT 88" as the Subject of your e-mail, otherwise, my Spam Filter will throw it into the Junk category! An alternate e-mail address is: csfranklyn@hotmail.com

Charley/W3OHV, Op Mgr

OLD BUSINESS (2010)

HISTORY                                                         

In 1990 through 1993. the ARA Group conducted a three year survey of the Ham Bands  and produced a sixty page report regarding the damage done to the Amateur Radio Service by Federal "deregulation" from the 1970s through 1987. ARA Reports on this investigation were distributed widely to all organizations and leaders of the ARS in the USA and in Europe. Seven recommendations were made in the FINAL REPORT, some of which were acted upon near the close of the Clinton Administration (1998-2000). Copies of all of this work and "findings" are available at :  A R A G   A R C H I V E S   P L U S    

We are returning THE LISTENING POST to active duty because in the past ten years the INTERNET has tremendously impacted the Amateur Radio Service as well as Shortwave Listening. We have remained quite active in following these developments since we believed that some of the problems incurred by efforts to "democratize" HAM RADIO would be resolved once the INTERNET had changed WHO participated in this activity and HOW HAM RADIO and SWLing (i.e. shortwave listening) merged with the INTERNET! 

Our fundamental interest is to see Amateur Radio  return to the status of a family-oriented Hobby & Public Service that captures the attention of young people and begins their journey into their Life's work. Communications is both art and science, and it is the foundation of ALL Human ACHIEVEMENT & SUCCESS! 

Today, we see those changes becoming more mature! For example, we now use CORMAC's CQ100 software to contact amateurs throughout the world in a simulation that has eliminated QRM. A contact with a station in Australia or Japan is just as trouble-free as if you are talking with a local station across town!

There are many new possibilities when you use the Internet for both Audio and Video. You can be receiving pictures while talking. Picture files take only seconds, compared to long 2-4 minutes of audio tones for the analog Hi-Color photos (SSTV) of the Past. Now, more than ever, the challenge is to get operators to understand how to prepare good readable/legible text messages, learn lighting techniques so the photos are nice to look at, learn to edit photos for good contrast, brightness etc.

During the early 1990s, we opened the first Video Magazine using SSTV. We also published newsletters and wrote articles to help newcomers operate the SSTV Modes.  If you also have CQ100, you will be in full contact with the other fellows on the frequency in a way that you have never before enjoyed. (In 2008, CQ100 added hi-color, hi-resolution still pictures which simulate SSTV quite well although, as noted above, the time to send or receive the pictures is very short and silent! You can be talking to a whole group and pictures can be incoming all the time. They are saved sequentially which permits a Net control to let the fellows inquire about the photos. Many former pilots find airplane photos to be a lot of fun!

CQ100 offers a number of very unique improvements over the old-fashioned ANALOG method of sending SSTV pictures! Malicious interference is almost non-existent. Troublemakers are  easily removed from the system when they violate the rules! 

For example, it is impossible to have two stations talk at the same time! If someone tries to grab the channel to interfere, their identity is shown to everyone. CQ100 is for licensed Hams only. CQ100 has been a great help to Hams who were forced to move into Retirement Communities where antennas are not permitted. I should note that restricting the use of antennas is understandable where many people reside in small apartments. However, that does not mean that a Radio Club room could not be setup with just one relatively unobtrusive antenna like a flagpole vertical could be used!

NARAG's new PROJECT 88 may change things slightly, however. When completed, Ham couples will find many CCRC's have Senior Communicators Clubs which means they will have access and/or be part of the volunteers who manage a local Ham Station inside the CCRC facility! The CQ-100 system will also be available to Residents to participate in the nation-wide Net on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Depending upon whether the station is fully equipped, Hams will no longer have to sell or give their equipment away when they go to a Retirement Community. A place -- the Communications Club -- will be there: an all-mode, one kilowatt, all band station, available to handle Health & Welfare traffic when an emergency occurs!

OTHER THOUGHTS

Frankly, there is no absolute reason why the CQ100 bands must correspond to the bands in a conventional HF Ham Radio transceiver. It's a nice "touch", BUT there are other ways to provide Sections, Regions or Areas defined for specific uses. Examples: experimenting with a new Video program could meet up at 29 MHz band rather than in the five lower bands. Nets could be authorized only in that same Server/Section! Today, traffic is so light that not many would object. But the time to establish protocol and discipline is before the system becomes loaded! 

December 2010-11

PROPAGATION NEWS

Solar Cycle 24 is taking a lot of time to come back to previous propagation levels. SSTV signals on 14.230 MHz occasionally are heard but its nothing like the opening in 1993 when I retired and got serious about SSTV. If you are new to SSTV and you feel that the YAHOO Groups are not helping you to the degree you would like, I would be glad to make available all our old HOW TO GET STARTED ON SSTV articles! Some of them are available in our ARCHIVES now. ( A R A G   A R C H I V E S   P L U S ) 

The latest VIDEO technology that you might try is CQ100 which has a slick Video system that takes about 4 seconds to transmit as you are talking back and forth. The audio quality of CQ100 is outstanding and the pictures are flawless. Pictures with written messages add a new dimension to communicating in ways that you will find enjoyable. For an example of how such a Net can operate, go to 14.222Mhz at 2:00 pm, weekdays where THE FRIENDLY NET meets. It is international in character and its a great bunch of men and women who have interests that might surprise you -- like reading their own poetry!! This is how REAL Amateur Radio should be operating in a true "social environment" rather than the "hit-and-run" contacts that we hear most of the time! Nets are another peculiar phenomenon: typically a Net Control operator calls the net and a group of guys merely call in, say nothing and then leave. At a time that our Homeland is threatened with major geopolitical, cultural, societal, economic and religious issues, SURELY we should be able to justify the maintenance of our privileges in Amateur Radio better than what goes on on the Bands today!

OTHER SOFTWARE OPTIONS

There is a DIGITAL VIDEO (called EASYPAL) that you probably have heard on 14.233 MHz. It is worth trying to find out what you will like best. MMSSTV is still the place to start in analog Slow Scan TV if propagation finally comes back! You will hear it on 14.230 MHz when the band is open! The software called MSCAN also is a good starter system.  Cycle 24 is hopping, folks, -- it is not quite there yet but it is getting close! Unfortunately, experts predict that we will not see the high Sunspot Numbers that many of us have experienced in the Past! Darn! 

csfranklyn@hotmail.com/    

Best 73, Charley/ W3OHV 

EDITOR'S NOTES: (reserved)

THIS 'N THAT:

FOR ARCHIVES AND NEW ARTICLES WITH UP-TO-DATE INFO ON SOFTWARE ETC GO TO:  A R A G   A R C H I V E S   P L U S  

Issues we face with CORMAC's CQ-100 System & HAMSPHERE are discussed here in standard large print so our elder Hams may keep up with the exciting new developments in this great Hobby!!  We hope that our efforts to standardize messaging practices will be acceptable so that everyone will be able to truly BELONG to such common interest gatherings. -- CSF/Editor

            ISSTV versus SIDESADDLE - a CRITIQUE   (available)

If interest is shown in our articles, we will write them! Feedback helps us know what you want to read! If this material is of little value to you, we will not spend much time on it! Please -- remember many of us have failing vision so always us Fonts or Letters that are at least point #10 size and be sure to BOLD them. For ever better readability go to HIGH CONTRAST Scheme which means BLACK BACKGROUND with WHITE LETTERS!! Okay, mates! 73, 4 Now!

Contact me at:  csfranklyn@hotmail.com