ARRL NEWS - Continued Timely ARRL news items for all members -  from sources as noted at end of each article,
Page 7 Previous     Return Pg 4                                    A NOTE FROM RICK PALM, K1CE, ARES E-LETTER EDITOR

...I bought a Peet Brothers Ultimeter 100 weather instrument set "for my wife" for Christmas.  It features an anemometer and vane, thermometer and as a holiday bonus, a free rain gauge ($90 value), and is APRS-ready. Be able to put "measured" in your wx reports to your local SKYWARN net or WXSpots program. < http://www.peetbros.com > These guys are frequent exhibitors at hamfests, like the Orlando Hamcation, and advertise in QST. (Excerpt from the ARES E-Letter, dated December 19, 2007)                    PETER F. DAHL COMPANY GOING OUT OF BUSINESS

Peter W. Dahl Company, Manufacturers of Custom Transformers, is going out of business: They will be closing its doors as of December 31, 2007, according to Peter Dahl, K0BIT, owner and founder of the company that has made custom transformers for more than 40 years. Dahl, 67, has Parkinson's Disease. The company manufactured a wide variety of transformers and reactors for Amateur Radio and commercial radio and television applications. According to Dahl, many are direct replacements for original equipment components that are no longer available from the manufacturer, while others have general-purpose applications in any number of different transmitters. He said that they had more than 4000 individual transformer designs on file. QST columnist John Dilks, K2TQN ("Old Radio"), said the closing of the Dahl Company was "sad news for those of us who restore the big iron." Dahl told the ARRL, "I want to thank everyone for their business throughout the years. I have enjoyed making each Amateur Radio transformer."     (Excerpt from the ARRL Letter, Vol 26, No 49, dated December 14,  2007).             NIMS Five Year Plan Means ARES Needs ICS/NIMS Certifications

For those amateurs who are still on the fence about the importance of advanced training and ICS/NIMS requirements, the draft release of the Five Year NIMS Training Plan makes for interesting reading. One point that is made very clearly is that "access to future national incidents will be restricted to those who have met the mandatory requirements." Within the next few years, you simply won't be able to obtain credentials for access without proof of completion of required instruction.  Also, having volunteers who have not completed ICS/NIMS training may already be adversely affecting your served agencies ability to obtain grant money. And, as one of my instructors pointed out to us, "The Incident Command System wasn't developed by a bunch of egg-heads in Washington. It was developed on the ground by wilderness firefighters in California. It actually works!"  ARES leadership also needs to get comfortable with resource typing, and to start integrating that into their databases. We need to be prepared to help our served agencies easily fit amateur radio into their planning and funding requests, and the easiest way to do that is to resource type our operators and equipment. The draft report is at:
< http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2962 >  -- Les Rayburn, N1LF, Shelby County, Alabama EC    (REPEAT of Excerpt from the"Letters Section" of the ARRL E-Letter, dated November 29, 2007) Back Next