The Open Nordic VHF-manager meeting.

Norway, Gavelstad 7. June 2003

Minutes of the meeting

Participants

Nordic VHF-managers:

EDR: OZ7IS, Ivan.
SSA: SM2ECL, Anders.
IRA: TF3TNT, Benedikt.
NRRL: LA8KV, Kjetil.
SRAL: OH5LK, Jussi, could not attend.

And approximately 35 devoted VUSHF radio amateurs.

Kjetil, LA8KV was chairing the meeting.

It was a pleasure for Kjetil to welcome all the attendees to the 25th annual meeting. Especially pleasant to have Benedikt, tf3tnt, from Iceland here.

First Ivan, oz7is, held an orientation from the IARU Region 1 conference 2002 in San Marino. In addition to the already published official minutes from that meeting it was interesting to hear about the discussions outside the meetings that lead to the conclusions. Ivan also noted that it may be necessary to prepare some cases from NRAU for the next IARU interim meeting, probably early 2004.

Matters to discuss received for this meeting are:

a) EDR: On Square bonuses in NRAU contests.
EDR proposes to have equal bonus pr. square in all sections - 500 points. This to simplify rules and to give the same recognition of the entries for all bands.

Agreement: All applied to the idea and there will be same square bonus, 500 points, for all bands in the NRAU contests starting from year 2004.

b) EDR: On "the split on 1296 / Microwaves"
EDR wonders how the split of microwave in 1296 MHz and 2G3 & up works. Experiences so far? Was this a good idea? Is 6m suffering? Are 2G3 & up suffering?

Discussion of these matters concludes with:
So far the split seems to be a good idea. It is more activity on 1296 and it is not possible to say that this has resulted in less activity either on 6m and 2G3&up. Unfortunately there has in general been a little less activity on 6m.

Furthermore there were raised a question to have separate listings per GHz band. This should be discussed in the vhf committees and may at the earliest be implemented in the rules for 2004.

Please use the microwave talkback frequency on 144 MHz! This makes it easier for those without skeds to "drop in" on the GHz bands.

The vushf mail reflector at fro.se (a majordomo list) may also be subscribed to in order to find which stations that may be active. To become a member of the reflector send a mail to majordomo@fro.se with no subject and the words "subscribe vushf" in the body. Use the mail address you want to send mails from and receive mails to! Mails are entered when sent to vushf@fro.se. A list of commands can be found at http://eleccomm.ieee.org/demo1/userdoc.shtml

c) EDR: NRAU vhf and up contest calendar
Ivan, oz7is, presented the current situation and a couple of suggestions in a memo called " NEW NRAU Contest calendar?"

1) To have a NRAU contest at the same time as the IARU Reg.1 50 MHz IRA is asked to consider arranging such a contest on the 3. weekend of June. Earliest contest will be in 2004 and with a trial for 3 years.
- Representative from IRA will rise this question at home and give a response later.

Since Tommy, sm7nzb, is responsible for the IARU R.1 50 MHz contest this year he is willing to assemble a list of results as it would have been for a NRAU contest.

2) SRAL is asked to add a FD category to the NRAU July contest arranged by SRAL.
- Representatives from SRAL was not too eager to accept this proposal at the meeting and will need to discuss this in the OH vhf committee and give a response later.

3) Proposal to establish a NRAU CW contest in parallel with the IARU Marconi contest (1. weekend of November) organised by SRAL.
- Discussion: Have to make something new now and then…. Good idea, but more touts to it….

4) The "Christmas contest" previously arranged by the DAVUS organisation (DAVUS does not longer exist…) is proposed to be organised by SSA.
- SSA accepts to organise this contest.

5) EDR will continue to organise the "Open class" of the NAC on a monthly basis.

Also during the 'contests discussion' the question of the possibility to have a PC programme for preparation of the results in NRAU contests was raised. May be it would be easier to accept the work needed to be done in arranging a NRAU contest if suitable software existed. The vhf contest managers have a lot of work with NAC results, and few other people seems to be willing to take part in the job. This would also assure that the rules in NRAU contests are co-ordinated well. It is worth while to look more thoroughly at this idea.

d) NRRL: New 70 cm Beacon freq. allocation
The new list of Scandinavian 70 cm beacons as from 01.01.2004 was presented by Stefan, la0by. This is due to the new 432 MHz bandplan. Some changes in frequencies needs to be done so that all beacons are in accordance with the bandplan.

e) NRRL: Using RX recording equipment. in contests.
The question regarding use of recording equipment in contests is raised due to the some new digital modes (common name: MGM - machine generated mode) which are some form of recording in PC programmes. This is not in accordance with "the old way" of contesting, and the vhf contest managers are uncertain if there will be a need for a new class like CA (Computer Assisted) which have been common in HF contests the last couple of years.

Discussion concludes with:
We want to encourage use of new modes and operations and have as few restrictions as possible in the rules. If a kind of problem arises regarding automation we will need to handle it then! No changes are regarded necessary at this time.
The national vhf committees must have this in mind and keep an eye on the pattern of activity in contests.

f) NRRL: Freq. allocation of EchoLink / IRLP
Regarding use of connections via Internet for instance from a computer anywhere on the planet earth to a local repeater.

Please bring this back to your country and make a policy! This is coming very fast, especially on the 432 MHz band

g) NRRL: Follow up on NRAU decisions from Island
References are to the "Minutes of NRAU Group B on VHF/UHF matters" from the NRAU meeting on Island in 2002..

Pt. 11. Bilateral agreements from "Below CEPT class 1 & 2" licenses.
- This is about the bandplan for 432 MHz and the ISM band. We do have serious problems with repeater traffic in NRAU - and in south of Europe there are no problems! Especially is this the case for repeater input.
The IARU meeting rejected the proposal but followed our intentions! As a start there are changes of beacon frequencies. As an experiment we will probably be allowed to change repeater input frequencies to avoid problems with the ISM band.

Pt. 16. Implementation of contest rules.
The question was forwarded to the present vhf contest managers.
- The basic co-ordinations of contest rules are good as always, such as scoring, dates, sections and judging. But the NAC rules will not have the same text in NRAU as long as there are national handling of the results! Due to the differences in number of participants, club contests and so on, the rules will have specific text for each country.
The change of legal modes (MGM) in NAC is done in SM and OZ for 2003.
On the other hand, the rules for the NRAU March, May, July, September and October contests (and possibly a June/50 MHz and November/cw) should have the same text - except for contest date, which bands active and address for logs. This is not the case for contests in 2003. A common text for the NRAU contests could be made.

Pt. 19. A Nordic locator award?
Still no interest for a common Nordic locator award….
LA award have about 60 diplomas handed out, OZ about 14 and OH have also some.
It is not made any effort to make these awards better known as far as the audience is aware of.

More from IARU meeting:
Issues regarding band planning, and an applications for use of 70 MHz band.
SM is now allowed to set up a beacon and on Faroe Island it is possible to work 70 MHz.
For all people : Use Primary segments on Microwave!

h) 2004?

IARU interim meeting: Any issues should be raised through the national vhf manager. Meeting is anticipated to be held in February 2004.

The 26^th Nordic VUSHF Meeting in 2004?
This may be held on Aland Island, anyway there will be a meeting arranged by Finland next year!