News and Views

The cyclone which caused the loss of up to 100,000 lives, and made 1 million people homeless in Myanmar (Burma) in the first few days of May was caused, in the main, by ignorance of the oncoming tropical storm. We are lucky in DU that we have dedicated people such as Michael Padua, in Naga City, who runs the Typhoon2000 website. This valuable resource, run purely voluntarily, has been instrumental in saving lives in this country. When typhoons threaten our country, PARA will relay the information from that website, as well as news from PAG-ASA. The typhoon season this year may bring around 20 typhoons to the country, that's around one per week during the season. We were fortunate that the first Super Typhoon of the season, "Butchoy" with top wind speeds of 250km/h, did not pass over the Philippines. Are you ready to cope with disaster? At least we will be informed of incoming bad weather. Stay tuned to Typhoon 2000 and PARA for the latest storm information.

Cavite ACE are planning a Ham Seminar, June 7th,
Anabu 1 Elementary School, in front of Makro Imus, along Aguinaldo Highway

For more details please contact
Elmer DU1EG 0915-5051052
Calling frequency 144.72 MHz (evening net Mon-Fri 8PM)

Propagation bad? Is your antenna down or your rig broken? No problem, there are lots of ways to listen on the bands without having a radio - you just need an internet connection.

Click HERE to fine out more.....

A Summer Camp-Out was held at Brgy Anibong, Pagsanjan Laguna, from April 15th to 18th by the BSP Laguna Council. This Scouts Advancement Activity was assisted by Makiling Amateur Radio Society, MARS. Click on the picture for more....

CARL, Cebuano Amateur Radio League Inc., held an Orientation Seminar on 19th April. Pictured below are some of the students with their hosts and lecturers. A special examination is slated to be held at the Convention on May 31st.


Students listening attentively to the Element 3 lecture given by CARL club President Dondon, DV7FDM.		Ramon, Panny and Thelma with the hosts of the Seminar, RJ DV7RJA, Dondon DV7FDM CARL club President, and Jett 4F7MHZ PARA District 7 Director.

An Orientation Seminar was held on 13th April at the PARA HQ. The seminar was organized by FLARE and PARL. 17 students attended and are pictured here with their lecturers. Click on the above picture to see more.....

Group picture of the Orientation Seminar for PARCOM sponsored by PARL on April 6 2008, at Barangay Don Bosco, Parañaque City. Shown in the picture are some of the 45 attendees together with lecturers and ham friends. PARCOM is a 10-year old Parañaque-based communications club who took it upon themselves to organize and focus their energies to transform their existence into a legitimate amateur radio club. PARL responded in kind by assisting PARCOM in making their first ever orientation seminar and facilitating a special NTC licensure examination scheduled on May 10, 2008.

The regular District 1 meeting was held at the PARA office on 30th March. The minutes of the meeting will be published shortly.

A while back, PARA District 1 Director Ed Ilagan, DU1DPE, announced the Orientation Seminar in District 1 scheduled for April 13 2008. Allow me to add that the District 1 schedule is one of those seminars slated to last thru the summer.

The first one was on January 26, 2008 with DX1MMM as the sponsoring club. Due to the good attendance, we were able to request for a special examinations last March 1, 2008 in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Then, on March 08, 2008, another orientation seminar was held in Baguio City under the auspices of TARCI. The regular NTC examinations will be held in Baguio on April 24, 2008.

On March 15, 2008, a seminar was held in Naga City sponsored by DX4CAR. The participants in the Naga seminar are encouraged to take the examinations in Legaspi on April 19th.

For the April 19 DU7 seminar, participants will be able to take special NTC exams which will be organized to take place during the summer Hamvention in May.

The other scheduled seminars are:

• DU1 - June 7 (CAVITE ACE)

There have been changes in the orientation seminar such as:

1. The review manual "So You Want To Be A Ham" has been reprinted courtesy of Willy Soong, DU1CC. The manual has been updated and is now serialized for distribution control and copyright protection. We are in the process of registering it with the National Library and the Library of Congress to obtain its ISBN. It is selling for PhP150 per copy.

2. The Certificate of Attendance is also numbered by PARA and issued to the sponsoring club. The names and the corresponding Certificates of Appearance are furnished to NTC for reference purposes. The reason is to avoid spurious certificates of attendance and ensure the integrity of the seminars, including its standards. Local clubs who are sponsoring the seminars are given PowerPoint presentations and other modules for standardization purposes.

3. In cases where the turn-out of the orientation seminar is good, we extend assistance further by requesting a special examination in the locality of the sponsoring club.

There are other matters which can only be discussed between the PARA Secretariat and the sponsoring club, but rest assured that everything possible has been done to ensure that the entry level examinations are easily hurdled by a would be ham.

If you know somebody who would like to participate in the orientation seminar, please refer them to the PARA Secretariat and/or the sponsoring local club.

We are also requesting the different local clubs to please activate your membership committees and start seriously considering sponsoring an orientation seminar. They would not like to be left behind of course.

Good luck and God Bless!

73 RAMON J. ANQUILAN, DU1UGZ
Secretary General, PARA

A successful Orientation Seminar for Amateurs was held by DX4CAR on March 15, 2008. Pictured here are some of those who attended. The lectures were presented by Thelma DU1IVT, Panny DV1VEQ, Nomer DU4VX and Ramon DU1UGZ.

The Baguio Orientation Seminar was held on March 8th at the Texas Instruments Gym. The Orientation was made possible by TARCI in cooperation with PARA and was graced by members of the PARA Board. A feature of the event was the formal affiliation of BARCADA to PARA. Click on the above to see more pictures.

With special thanks and gratitude to Mylvin Dalao, DU2BMD

BARCADA—The newest kid on the block.

The Barkada Amateur Radio Club and DXers Association (BARCADA), Inc. became the newest affiliate club of PARA with the issuance of Certificate of Affiliation No. 0190-08 dated March 8, 2008. To mark the event, BARCADA, fellow DU2 club TARCI, some members of the PARA Board celebrated with a steak dinner and a round of drinks at the Sizzling Plate Baguio City. Seen on the picture are DU1UGZ, DU2JAK and DU2XXA with DU1IVT, who was one of the lecturers at the Texas Instruments Phil. orientation-seminar the same day.

Welcome to the PARA family!

Regular Seminar Schedule

Seminars for aspiring amateurs are conducted at the office of the Philippine Amateur Radio Association, Inc every last Saturday of the month from 9am to 4pm. Those who are interested in attending please register with the PARA secretariat. Please contact the PARA office for more details and confirmation, noting the new telephone and fax numbers. Local clubs are also encouraged to conduct their own seminars to encourage their members to upgrade as well as introducing new members to the hobby. Help will be given so please contact Dolores at PARA HQ for more details.

Some clubs which have already proposed holding seminars are as follows, please contact the appropriate club secretary if you would like to attend.

•DU1 - June 7 (CAVITE ACE) Click Here

The NTC Provincial Examination Schedule for 2008 can be viewed by clicking here....

February 23, 2008 meeting of Associazione Radioamatori Italiani (ARI), Treviso Section, shows chamber President Giuliani, I3NGL, receiving the PARA Diamond Anniversary watch from Paolo, IZ3LCE, who recently visited the Philippines. Pictures from his visit may be seen on the PARL website Events page, http://dx1l.qsl.nu/events.htm

Giorgio, IZ3KVD, and A.R.I. Treviso are working together for a future twinning between A.R.I. Treviso and PARA.

For more pictures from INFEX 2008, please click on the above...

Special NTC Examinations for Class C and upgrades were held March 1, 2008 in Cabuyao, Laguna, hosted by DX1MMM.

If your Club would like to organize something similar, please contact PARA for more details.

PARA Diamond Anniversary call signs are now available on a first come first served basis. The callsigns are of the form 4D75x, where x is the letter of your choice. The fee for each callsign is P1,000. There are a limited number of course, B, D, G, J, N, S, U and X suffixes are already taken, so reserve your callsign by contacting the PARA secretariat. Joey, DU1BP is the Awards Manager and will present a handsome certificate after December 2008 to those able to contact more than 15 different 4D75x stations throughout the year.

For more information please contact the PARA secretariat, or DU1BP.

Pictured here is a gathering held last January 7th in Quezon City. This was by invitation of PARAA, Pinoy Amateur Radio Association of Alberta, who will be hosting the 15th International Grand Eyeball from July 11th to 13th 2008. Pictured are Tony, VE6TNY, and Ernie, VE6EGZ with his XYL Babes, VE6BBY, all from PARAA. Also pictured are some notorious local hams! For more information of the Grand Eyeball please click on the picture to go to their website.

Place your orders with the PARA secretariat, only P1,500 each! So hurry and get your PARA Diamond Anniversary watches while supplies last.

The para.org.ph domain and server cost extra each year to provide a service to members and non-members alike. If you feel you can contribute to the running costs of the website, please contact the Secretariat. The cost of the domain name is $70 for 2 years. All contributions will be gratefully accepted and you will be mentioned on our donors page.

Maraming Salamat po.

Please make arrangements to collect your QSL cards from the PARA bureau. Unclaimed cards which have been left for a long period will be disposed of. Please click HERE to find out if you have any cards waiting to be claimed.

Do you know there are new ones now available and the old ones you may have are already expired?

Click HERE to read more....