Welcome to the Western Massachusetts ARRL Web. The WMA ARRL field organization serves ARRL members in the western part of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, comprised of Worcester, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire and Berkshire counties.

The American Radio Relay League is the principal representative of the Amateur Radio Service in the USA, serving members by protecting and enhancing spectrum access and providing a natural resource to the public. If you haven't already, be sure to visit ARRL Headquarters' World Wide Web.

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The Boxboro / ARRL New England Convention committee has announced that tickets for the Boxboro Convention on August 26 through 29 are now available online at the website:

http://www.boxboro.org

You can purchase general admission tickets and flea market spaces, as well as tickets for the Friday night DXCC and Saturday night banquets.

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The following is an update from State Government Liaison Shawn O'Donnell-K3HI on the Cell Phone Bill Legislation:

Everyone--

The representatives from the House on the conference committee, as confirmed in the House Journal for Monday, are

Joseph Wagner of Chicopee
Michael Costello of Newburyport
Donald Humason of Westfield

The Senate representatives, if Senator's aide has it right, are

Steven Baddour of Methuen
Stephen Brewer of Barre
Robert Hedlund of Weymouth

Wagner and Baddour are the co-chairs of the Joint Committee on Transportation. Hedlund was co-sponsor of one of the amendments that granted amateur radio an exemption in the Senate version of the bill. So we have a friend on the committee.

As for your right to petition the government...

I don't get the sense that direct communications with these conference committee members, even from their constituents, will have much effect. These guys get their marching orders from the House/Senate leadership. It would perhaps be more effective for us to contact our own representative and senator, and ask them to urge their chamber to support the two amendments in S2290 that recognize the important contributions of amateur radio. If the leadership hears from enough representatives & senators, we'll be in good shape.

--Shawn

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The following is an update from State Government Liaison Shawn O'Donnell-K3HI on the Cell Phone Bill Legislation:

Last Thursday, I was told by a Senate Ways & Means staffer that there was no schedule for hearing the bill; by Friday, they had edited & published an amended version of the bill.

The Senate's version of H4475 is called S2290. It removes the requirement for hands-free cell phones for the over-18 crowd. It still bans all cell phone use for junior drivers, and it still prohibits text messaging for everyone, but the hand-held phone/radio rule is gone from this version of the bill.

Full text is available at
http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/186/st02pdf/st02290.pdf

The Senate is expected to debate & vote on this tomorrow, 2 March. If they approve this altered version of the bill, then the House & Senate will have to go to a conference committee to hammer out a mutually agreeable version that they can both approve. Once a bill makes it out of conference, it moves rapidly.

It's impossible to say what S2290 will look like if it makes it through the Senate. There could be numerous amendments introduced from the floor during debate. At this point, however, it looks like the part of the bill that was most threatening to us has been removed. Whether it will stay removed after debate, or after conference committee--who knows. So it might still be nice for a ham radio exemption to make it in there. If it doesn't, we'll just have to hope that the Senate version prevails.

Phone calls to Senators' offices today, Monday the 1st, or early tomorrow, the 2nd, could be helpful. Please pass the word. For today & tomorrow, we need calls to Senators, not Representatives. We can call the Representatives once we learn what happens in the Senate.

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This just in from ARRL HQ, sent to all Section Managers...

FEMA is excited to announce the next webinar in the Community Preparedness Webinar Series. This webinar series provides up-to-date information on community preparedness topics and resources available to citizens, community organizations, and Citizen Corps Councils. This LIVE webinar is scheduled for Thursday, February 18th at 2:00-3:00pm EST and will provide information on Earthquake Preparedness: Lessons Learned from Haiti and California hosted by FEMA. It will feature a presentation followed by a question and answer period.

LIVE Webinar: Earthquake Preparedness - Lessons Learned from Haiti and California - Feb 18 @ 2pm ET

The Community Preparedness Webinar Series focuses on bringing together government and community leaders to involve citizens in all-hazards preparedness and resilience. The recent 7.0 earthquake that shook Haiti less than 800 miles from Miami, FL, has raised awareness that such an event could occur in America. Presenting on the topics of education, preparedness, training, and community involvement will be Mark Benthien, Director for Communication, Education and Outreach (CEO) for the Southern California Earthquake Center and Executive Director of the Earthquake Country Alliance, and Steve Willey, a member of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team (Virginia Task Force 1) and a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) instructor for Fairfax County, VA.

The Community Preparedness Webinar Series features new community preparedness topics several times each month and is free to the public. Registration is not required to attend. Each webinar will accommodate the first 500 visitors that enter the website at the time of the webinar. In addition to airing live, the webinar will be recorded and viewable after it completes at your convenience.

If you need special accommodations or require additional assistance to view or listen to this webinar, please email us at -email- no later than 5pm EST on Tuesday, February 16th and we will provide you with additional resources so you may participate.

"FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capacity to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards."

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This just in from State Government Liaison Shown O'Donnell K3HI:

A bill that could restrict amateur radio mobile operations has been passed by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. It is hard to say whether the proposed law would cause practical difficulties for amateur mobile operations and emergency preparedness exercises. Just to be safe, however, we should take action now to minimize the potential harm.

The full text of the bill, as adopted by the House, is available on the Commonwealth's website.

The following are some questions and answers I have compiled regarding this bill.

• What would H-4475 do if it becomes law?
  Among the goals of H-4475 are the following: (a) prohibit the use of cell phones by any driver under the age of 18, (b) require hands-free cell phones for all other drivers, and (c) ban the use of a broad range of handheld communications devices while operating a motor vehicle (for such activities as text- or instant-messaging, email, web-surfing, etc.)
  
  
• What does the proposed law say about amateur radio?
  Nothing. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. On the one hand, it doesn't say, "Hams can't do X." On the other hand, it doesn't say, "This law does not apply to hams."
  
  
• So what should we do about this?
  If you would like to oppose or seek amendment of H-4475, your best bet is to contact your state senator on Beacon Hill. If the prospects for the bill remain good, it will be in our best interest to try to get the bill amended, rather than simply trying to defeat it.
  
  
• What makes for an effective communication with a senator or Beacon Hill staffer on this topic?
  
  1. Speak to the right person. Call YOUR senator, not someone else's. Unless you're calling to donate to the campaign chest, elected officials don't care much about you if you're from outside their district. See below on how to find out who is your senator--if you don't know.
     
  2. Have a clear message. Informed citizens are more inclined to vote, so if you call your senator and sound like an informed citizen, they'll expect you're a likely voter. If you want to sound informed, a good place to start is knowing the number of the bill you're calling about. It's H-4475. (The H is for the House, where the bill originated.)
     
  3. Have something to say about the substance of the bill. Have an argument for why your position is more justified than the opinion of someone who calls and urges the opposite. Make our side look smart.
     
  4. Avoid the following: shouting, swearing, threatening, use of Q-signals, quotes from FCC rules, etc. Be reasonable. Go ahead and mention the emergency & public service contributions of amateur radio, but don't exaggerate. It will undermine your credibility.
  
  Here's a template for a call or email to a senator regarding H-4475:
  
  "Hello, my name is Elmer Q. Ham, and I am a constituent of the Senator's in [your town here.] I am calling/writing to ask that the Senator oppose passage of H-4475 unless it is amended to protect amateur radio. In particular, I am concerned that the law might be interpreted so as to make mobile amateur radio operations illegal. An exemption for FCC-licensed amateurs in the law would allow us to continue training for & providing emergency & public service communications to our communities. [Here's where you can tell a story or two of hams in your town providing communications for the marathon or bike-a-thon or the Memorial Day Parade or SKYWARN, etc.] ...And we couldn't do that if amateur radio operators weren't allowed to communicate while on the road."
  
  Close by repeating your request. Then thank the senator (or more likely, staff member) for his/her time. Offer contact information about yourself; it will help them tell if you really are a constituent. And who knows--maybe they'll call back to ask for more details.
  
  If you really want to make a concrete suggestion, you might "propose that the passage in Chapter 90, Section 13 which exempts Citizen Band radio also include an exemption for amateur radio operators."
  
  
• I don't know who my state senator is. How do I find out?
  The best way to get the name of your state senator is to call your city or town election board. In some parts of the state, senators cover large areas. There, knowing the town you live in is enough. If you live in a more densely populated part of the Commonwealth, your city or town may have multiple senators. Unless you know what ward & precinct you're in, the State Senate's web site will not be able to help you. But your city/town election board will definitely know. Town hall may also have the senator's phone number or email address; if they don't, check out the Massachusetts legislature's web site, or you can find your state senate districts & senator names are listed here and your state senate phone numbers & email addresses here.

Make that call/send that email ASAP!

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This just in from the Boxboro hamfest planning committee. For more news on Boxboro, visit their website or join their Google group.

Greetings!
Tickets for the 2010 ARRL New England Convention - "Boxboro!"
are now available at the convention website:

http://www.boxboro.org

We are working on a convention schedule full of interesting
speakers as well as bringing in leading vendors from across
the country. Best of all, we are holding all ticket prices
at 2008 levels. I hope you will plan to attend!

73,
Mike - K1TWF
Boxboro Convention Committee Chairman

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This just in from the Massachusetts RACES/ARES/Skywarn email reflector:

Hello to all..

The International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) and the Salvation Army Team Emergency Response Network (SATERN) are both active supporting Haiti Earthquake Operations. Indirect contact has been established via email and second hand reporting and info as relayed by SATERN to IRESC and by IRESC operators. Direct contact to the affected area is being attempted by both groups.

The *WX_TALK* Echolink conference node: 7203/IRLP 9219 reflector system has been connected directly to the *IRESC* echolink conference node: 278173 for listen only purposes. It will remain connected for as long as IRESC is active. Anyone with emergency/priority traffic or health and welfare traffic should connect directly to *IRESC* echolink conference node: 278173. Information on IRESC can be seen via the following link:

http://www.iresc.org/

SATERN is active on HF and has performed liaison with IRESC. Per the SATERN web site, SATERN activities are active on 14.235 MHz Primary for daytime operations and 7265 and 3977.7 kHz for evening and night time operations. Information on SATERN can be seen via the following link:

http://www.satern.org/

Any net controls and individuals that either have direct contact with Haiti or have relays into Haiti are strongly encouraged to support SATERN and IRESC with their operations. This would benefit those with Health and Welfare traffic into Haiti. Stations that have Health and Welfare traffic to Haiti can provide the info to these groups but it may be several days before the messages will be delivered and relayed back so those that can help with direct contact with Haiti or contact through relays could help speed up the Health and welfare traffic flow.

We wish the best for the victims of this serious earthquake that has affected Haiti.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator

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