Jim Weaver, K8JE, our ARRL Great Lakes Divsion Director, will be our featured presenter at our February 8th meeting.

Jim will talk about:

“The changes I will discuss relate to shuffling the Field and Educational Services Department, and the Membership Services Department to form essentially one department while splitting the regulatory services area into another department. These changes should greatly facilitate getting things in Field Services, Education, DXCC, LoTW, contesting and the like into a much more supportive and facilitative role for our members. The same is true of shifting the Regulators Affairs group so it reports directly to Dave Sumner. For example, if people are wondering who will take on the role previously filled by Wane Mills as our DXCC guru, folks will find out and, I believe, be pleased.”

Morse Code Requirement Ends

The FCC has modified the Amateur Radio Service rules, eliminating Morse code exam requirements. The new rules become effective at 12:01 AM Eastern Time Friday February 23, 2007.

The rule changes will grant limited HF operating privileges to Technician licensees on 80, 40, 15, and 10 meters.

Once the new rules take effect, Technicians can upgrade to General by passing a single written exam (Element 3) and to Amateur Extra by also passing the Element 4 written exam. No Morse code test will be required.

For more information, please visit the ARRL web site at www.arrl.org/FCC/Morse.