November 24, 1985

New Year's Eve began at Kinnick Stadium when the clock ticked under one minute. When the clock reached zero, and the Hawkeyes were alone atop the Big Ten for the first time in 27 years, the band played - what else? - ''California, Here We Come.'' The plans for the Harmon family reunion, however, had already been made. The Hawkeyes defeated Minnesota, 31-9, for Iowa's fourth trip to the Rose Bowl and its first outright conference championship since 1958. The Gophers (6-5) will play in the Independence Bowl against Clemson. For the Hawkeyes, ranked as high as third in the latest polls, the victory was the 10th in 11 games, the first 10-victory season in Iowa history.

SPROUTING like high-tech mushrooms on the lawns and roofs of suburban homes, satellite-dish television antennas are beginning to raise some serious issues for homeowners, their neighbors and those who regulate the environment. The dish antennas are most often installed in outlying regions of the metropolitan area, such as northern Westchester or rural Connecticut, where homes are spread so widely that it does not pay cable companies to set up service. They are proliferating because the price has dropped sufficiently in the last year or so to make them relatively affordable; they now average around $3,000. At issue among residents of many of these areas is the best way to regulate the placement of the dishes to minimize their impact on the character of the countryside. Also of concern is whether they emit radiation, creating a health danger for the owners' families or their neighbors.

The House Ways and Means Committee early today finished drafting the most sweeping changes in the Federal income tax system approved by a Congressional committee since World War II. The measure differed in a number of ways from President Reagan's tax proposal, but committee members said the Administration supported the committee version. The measure would affect the tax liability of almost every household and corporation in the nation. It would sharply lower tax rates, abolish many tax preferences, apply a stiff minimum tax to wealthy people and profitable companies, remove the poor from the tax rolls altogether and shift part of the tax burden from individuals to corporations. Differences With Reagan Plan The committee's plan would be more favorable to lower- and middle-income taxpayers and less advantageous to the wealthy than the proposals Mr. Reagan sent Congress last May. It would differ from the President's plan in many other important respects, retaining, for instance, deductions for state and local taxes that Mr. Reagan wanted to disallow and setting a top individual tax rate of 38 percent instead of the 35 percent Mr. Reagan sought.

Kevin McHale says the Boston Celtics have been together so long that they take their skills for granted. It took Bill Walton, one of the newest members of the team, to make him understand just how difficult it was to play against the towering Celtic front line. ''He told me that just when you get by one guy, there's another one there to block your shot,'' McHale said. ''And when you think you've got position for a rebound, someone else reaches over you. It's tough. But it takes someone from the outside to come in and tell you before you realize it.''

A retired analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency was charged today with selling American secrets to China for more than 30 years. Federal law-enforcement officials said the analyst, Larry Wu-Tai Chin, worked for the C.I.A. for nearly three decades and continued providing documents to China after his retirement in 1981. In the Korean War, prosecutors said, Mr. Chin supplied the Chinese with information about Chinese prisoners of war held by American forces. Mr. Chin, 63 years old, is one of only a handful of C.I.A. officials ever arrested on espionage charges. He was charged with espionage and conspiracy, which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.