SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB, INC.

There was a great turnout for the Many Hamfest. One of the highlights was Bill Garvey WB5LYB taking a pie in the face for club donations. If memory serves me he collected $119 and a cherry pie. See it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eHlDF-Qtog. Bill took it like a man!

CENTRAL LOUISIANA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB: Chuck Standlee (AC5PW), club member and EC of Grant parish scheduled a basic and advanced Skywarn class. Eleven CLARC members attended and successfully completed the training. Earl Morrow (W5ELM) club member and EC of Allen parish coordinated support for the Louisiana Dirt Riders Enduro in Kisatchie National Forest. Six Ham Radio Operators participated.

LOUISIANA TECH ARC: Club President Nathan Wallace (KE5WAJ) reported ten club members. Faculty Advisor is Dr. Mickey Cox (K5MC) with Christopher Barber (WX5CW) as Student Advisor.

ACADIANA ARA: AARA and the Children's Museum of Acadiana completed its third Technician Class. Five new Technician Class licensees passed: Kyle X. Castille (KF5BES), Srinivas Pyla (KF5BEX), Avinash P Pyla (KF5BEU), Shelby R Riedel (KF5BEV), and Abbigail A Wilson (KF5BEW). At the May VE Test Session prior to the general meeting Samuel P Richard (KF5BCP) and Thomas M Sheppard (KF5BCQ) passed the Technician test.

ARC OF SHREVEPORT (ARCOS): -- The Eighth Annual ARCOS Cookout & Swapmeet on May 2, 2009, had a great turnout this year. Great fellowship and food along with lots of bought and sold treasures.

THANKS TO THE SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA AMATEUR RADIO CLUB (SELARC) and ham radio operators for their splendid communications assistance during the Louisiana Special Olympics Summer Games. The games were held the week of May 22-24 on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond. Eleven hams, under the guidance of the Games Communications Director Harris Miller KB5BFK, manned the communications center and strategic locations at the various game venues and provided 157 "people-power" hours over the 3 days of games.
In addition to handling the amateur radio traffic, hams in the Operations Center also monitored the medical, public safety and commercial frequencies, as well as telephones around the clock for 24 hours each day. Messages handled included traffic control, logistics for the various games, medical EMT and ambulance dispatching, and insuring that supplies such as ice and water necessary for the safety and well-being of the athletes were available at the appropriate time and location. The eleven hams who participated were Harris Miller KB5BFK, Susie Rachinskas KE5KMP, Robert Priez WB5FBS, Ralph Shaw K5CAV, Harvey Manning KD5WWJ, Fred Mayer K5FMM, Peter Mustaiche KC5WIP, Carol Redmond KE5GOC, James Redmond K5QNT, John Guthans AA5UY and Judy Guthans AA5UZ.

Silent Keys: I am sad to report that Ron Whitecotton AC5VN became a SK. Our condolences go to Mac Redmond (KA5JNL) of Farmerville, LA, and James Redmond, Jr. (K5QNT) of Tickfaw, LA, on their recent family loss.

==> 4TH OF JULY SPECIAL EVENT (13 Colonies "On the Air") - Look for special event stations from all the thirteen 1776 original colonies to be on the air between 1300z, from July 1st to 0400z July 5th. A full color certificate printed on heavy card stock or parchment paper (with a map and the state flags of all the 1776 colony states) will be available to each station who works one or more or ALL of the special event stations. The thirteen 1776 original colonies (their special event callsign) are: CT (K2D), DE (K2E), GA (K2G), MA (K2H), MD (K2F), NC (K2J), NJ (K2I), NH (K2K), NY (K2A), RI (K2C), PA (K2M), SC (K2L) and VA (K2C .Activity will be on all bands (except 60m and the 30/17/12m). The Colony stations will be operating on or near the "13" of each band (eg.14213, 14313, 7213, et.). Also, 2 meters and 6 meters simplex frequencies are encouraged. For this event 2 meter repeater contacts WILL be allowed. For more details and picture of the certificate, please visit their Web page at: http://home.comcast.net/~dzabawa/ThirteenColonies.htm

==> PRESIDENT OBAMA MAKES HIS MARK ON FCC WITH FOUR NOMINEES - Just barely five months into his first term as President of the United States, Barack Obama has put his personal stamp on the Federal Communications Commission: On June 25, the US Senate confirmed Julius Genachowski as FCC Chairman and reconfirmed current FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell for his first full term as Commissioner. Earlier the same day, he nominated South Carolina Democrat Mignon Clyburn and Republican Meredith Attwell Baker for the two vacant Commissioner seats. If confirmed by the Senate, Clyburn and Baker would bring the FCC to its full complement of five Commissioners.

==> ARRL SEEKS COURT ACTION TO COMPEL FCC TO COMPLY WITH RULING -On June 24, 2009, the ARRL filed a petition with the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit asking the Court to order the Federal Communications Commission to comply with the Court's 2008 decision that remanded the FCC's ruling on Access BPL for further action. The ARRL is asking that the Court order the Commission to comply with the Court's order within 60 days. The petition states: "Given the simplicity of the Commission's compliance with the two components of the Court's Mandate on remand and the amount of time that the Commission has already taken following the issuance of the Mandate, the Court need not be concerned with the question of how much more time is needed for the Commission to complete its tasks. Sixty days is more than enough to solicit public comment on the unredacted studies and to justify, if it can, the extrapolation factor, or to reopen the rulemaking proceeding in order to determine a different, appropriate extrapolation factor."

==> CHANGES COMING FOR ARRL NOVEMBER SWEEPSTAKES CONTEST LOG SUBMISSIONS - ARRL Sweepstakes Contest Manager Ken Adams, K5KA, said he and the ARRL Contest Branch intend to "dramatically reduce the timeframe for producing results that are available to all ARRL Sweepstakes participants." According to Adams, the contesting community has requested that results be made available more quickly. Currently, Sweepstakes results are published six months after the contest has taken place. To meet this aggressive schedule, Adams said that the log submission deadline will be reduced from 30 days to 15 days. For the 2009 Sweepstakes, the deadline for CW Sweepstakes logs will be 0300 UTC on Monday, November 23, 2009. The deadline for the Phone Sweepstakes will be 0300 UTC on Monday, December 7, 2009. While the ARRL will never turn away a paper log, Adams said that the advantages of electronic log submission are critical to the success of the accelerated presentation of the Sweepstakes results; he said that there are plans to contact as many paper log submitters as possible and point out resources they can use to generate Cabrillo logs.

==> NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER PREDICTS "NEAR-NORMAL" HURRICANE SEASON - Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) are calling for a "near-normal" Atlantic hurricane season this year. In its initial outlook for the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season -- which runs from June 1-November 30 -- the National Weather Service's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) is calling for a 50 percent probability of a near-normal season, a 25 percent probability of an above-normal season and a 25 percent probability of a below-normal season. According to the CPC, global weather patterns are imposing a greater uncertainty in the 2009 hurricane season outlook than in recent years. Forecasters say there is a 70 percent chance of having nine to 14 named storms, of which four to seven could become hurricanes, including one to three major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5).

==>IN BRIEF: