WPC issues clarification on new Amateur rules effective 1st April 2010

At last WPC has issued detailed written clarification with regards to amendments made to the Amateur Radio rules in 2009, which came into effect from 1st April 2010.

Key Changes:

From the existing 4 Categories of licence : There shall be two categories of licences, namely:
(i) Amateur Wireless Telegraph Station Licence (General) - Grade I & Advanced merged
(ii) Amateur Wireless Telegraph Station Licence (Restricted) - Grade II & Restricted merge

New fee structure as below.

Period of Validity - A licence granted under these rules shall be issued for a period of 20 years or lifelong as the case may be commencing on the date of issue of the licence and expiring on the last day of the month preceding the month of issue. For the purposes of this rule, the expression “life long” means till the licence holder attains the age of 80 years. Validity of lifelong licence may be extended on specific request of the licence holder for 10 years at a time without any additional payment.”

Another key development which will be happy news for budding HAMS is that the restricted + Grade II combined "Restricted" license exam there would be no morse code test . New band spectrum allocation as below.

For full official memorandum with full details , pls click on files download section as below.

http://groups.google.com/group/chennaihamsblogspotcom/files?report=1

ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team

Chennai VHF Repeaters Connected on Echolink

Chennai hams have now managed to go wi-fi/Hi-Tech with an Echolink connectivity via VU2 PUM-R link on the web . The node number is 492650.

Echolink was developed by HAM Jonathan Taylor K1RFD and is a computer based Amateur Radio system that allows radio amateurs to communicate with one another using Voice over IP (VoIP) technology on the Internet for at least part of the path between them. The system allows reliable worldwide connections to be made between radio amateurs, greatly enhancing Amateur Radio's communications capabilities.

In essence it is the same as other VoIP applications (such as Skype), but with the unique addition of the ability to link to an amateur radio station's transceiver worldwide thereby enhancing VHF radio coverage substancially. With this Global Hams can get in touch with any HAM in most parts of South India using link which connect two repeaters in Chennai & one repeater in Yercaud.

With a home brew interface developed by VU2 WIN the node is connected in the morning with the VU2MRR repeater (145.775(-600 Khz) for the morning net and in evenings with the VU3MVR 145.675 MHZ(-600 Khz) repeater for the evening net. After our local net it is linked during the nets with the VU2 TCD Yercaud repeater also, thus giving a very wide coverage.

Even though the interface looks simple it has taken nearly a month time to get the link become smooth and transparent. Thanks to all the stations for the excellent on the air support. The objective is to develop more user friendly options for the RF users like Time, weather etc on the air with simple DTMF code access.