RAC Bulletin 2015-07-04

RAC Ontario Sections Bulletin for July 4, 2015

This is V__3____, Official Bulletin Station for Radio Amateurs of
Canada, with this week's bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

1. Defense of Amateur Radio Fund Donation.

The Defence of Amateur Radio Fund (DARF) is pleased to announce a
$10,000 donation from an anonymous ham.
The donor noted that he based the amount on the projected costs to
support the travel and living expenses
of the RAC respresentative for the upcoming World Radio Conference in
Geneva in November 2015.

International Telecommunications Union World Radio Conferences are held
every three or four years.
Participation is very expensive, requiring almost a month’s stay in
Geneva, one of the world’s most expensive cities.
Canada is one of a small number of countries where a radio amateur is
part of the official delegation.
While Industry Canada (IC) is very supportive of having a RAC
representative as part of Canada’s WRC delegation
it does not provide any funding.

The DARF Trust was established in 1992 to support travel expenses
associated with a RAC representative at
World Radio Conferences and related preparatory meetings to defend
existing bands
and work toward new amateur frequency allocations.

-- George Gorsline VE3YV, RAC International Affairs Officer

ONTARIO SECTIONS NEWS

ITEMS OF INTEREST

2. 140,000 Thai amateur licenses invalidated

The Thai National Broadcasting & Telecommunications Commission (NBTC)
has invalidated a total of 140,000
amateur radio licences which had been expired for more than two years

Prior to the NBTC's action there had been over 248,000 amateur radio
licenses in Thailand of which some
247,000 were for the Basic Entry Level licence.

A reason for so few upgrading is because of the lack of exam sessions.
No exams were held to upgrade
to Intermediate between 2004 and 2012.

-- http://www.qsl.net/rast/

3. US NAVY-MARINE CORPS MARS PROGRAM TO END

The US Department of Defense is phasing out the US Navy-Marine Corps
Military Auxiliary Radio System or MARS program.
Its operational mission will transition to the other MARS service
branches (Army and Air Force) by the end of September.

The Navy-Marine Corps MARS program also supports the US Coast Guard as
well as the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
the US Department of Homeland Security, and local emergency management
agencies.

(US NAVY-MARINE CORPS, ARRL)

4. Pattern of Contact Padding Prompts Disqualifications,

The CQ World Wide Contest Committee said this week that it plans to
review all past contest logs,
after its investigation revealed a pattern of routine QSO padding on the
part of one top-scoring
CQ World Wide Contest operator. This follows in the wake of the
disqualifications of some two dozen
2014 CQ WW SSB contest operators in April, and another 30 contestants in
the 2014 CQ WW CW event.

"Radiosport competition is built on a simple foundation — the
expectation that all contacts are
made over the air and correctly logged,” the committee said. “Since
operations are performed
from the privacy of our stations and without supervision, we all trust
that everyone is playing by the same rules.”

As a result, CQ has disqualified UT5UGR’s entries in which they detected
log padding and removed
them from the official score database. In addition, any entry into a
CQ-sponsored contest until
July 2020 in which UT5UGR is the operator or listed as a participant
will be reclassified as a check log.

The CQ WW Contest Committee has announced that new log checking
processes are being developed to improve
the detection of log padding. “We intend to test these methods against
all submitted logs from 2011-2014.
If other entries are found to have added unverifiable QSOs, we will
address them on a case by case basis,” CQ said.

-- CQ Contest Committee.

This concludes this week's bulletin. Does anyone require repeats or
clarifications?
Hearing none, This is V__3____ returning the frequency to net control.