Greetings everyone, welcome to "Dale's Tales"
for April 2015.
The Michigan QSO Party arrives at 1600Z on April18. It runs until 0400Z on April 19.
Sponsored by the Mad River Radio Club, the MiQSO party is an annual event that offers Single op, Multi op,
Mobile and Portable operators a chance to compete for the honors. This year
introduces a special award for working the "Michigan Cabinet
Counties". Full details are
on the MiQP web page at http://www.miqp.org/index.html.
The Parma Radio Club will celebrate its 3rd annual Earth
Day this April 25th with a special event station. W8PRC, will be on SSB within 20 kHz of 7.195
and 14.245 kHz from historic Stearns Farm in the heart of the city. Our operation will be entirely on solar power
in recognition of Earth Day. A beautiful QSL card will be available. For more information, see www.parmaradioclub.webs.com .
The Southeastern VHF Society is proud to announce the
upcoming 2015 Spring Technical Conference will be held at the Space Science
Center of Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky on April 24th and
25th.
In addition, this conference has just been upgraded to an
Operating Specialty Convention by the ARRL.
Two days of various VHF-UHF-Microwave technical presentations covering
weak signal work, VHF-UHF-Micro contesting, construction technique, demos, antenna
testing, preamp testing, vendor displays, flea market, and a Saturday evening
banquet with its history of valuable door prizes. The SVHFS website and links to the conference
registration, program, and hotel info are at http://svhfs.org/wp/.
As you are aware, HB 1301 has been introduced in the
House of Representatives. This bill is
to allow ham radio operators living in areas controlled by homeowners
associations and on deed-restricted properties, to reasonably install antennas;
not unlike the FCC ruling that today allows those very same people living in
such areas to install outdoor broadcast TV receive antennas. Hence the name "Amateur Radio Parity Act". This just calls for fairness. While a person living in a deed-restricted area today can legally
install a 2 foot diameter TV receive-only dish on his roof, he cannot install a
4 inch UHF ¼ wave ham radio antenna on his rain gutter. Our bill asks that, just like the case of
PRB-1, ham antennas should be reasonably accommodated.
So today, I ask you: "Has your Congressman signed up
to support HB-1301?" Have
you contacted him/her to gain support?
Please examine the ARRL Web Page http://www.arrl.org/hr-1301
for contact information and the complete text of the bill. There you will find some excellent
suggestions for formatting your letter to your congressperson, along with
supporting documentation and a listing of Congressmen. We currently have support from the following
in our Division: Dan Benishek MI-01, David Joyce OH-14, and Tim Walberg MI-07. Please take some time to thank them and be
sure to implore your Congressperson to support HB 1301.
As a further opportunity to assist you, we will have a
booth in the ARRL EXPO at the Dayton Hamvention to allow you to send an
appropriate letter to your congressman in support of HB 1301.
Here are the monthly comments from our Great Lakes Div.
Vice Director, Tom W8WTD:
One of my goals as Vice Director is to keep in touch with
what's going on throughout the Division, so
At the beginning of March, I traveled down to Cave City,
KY, for their hamfest. I was fortunate
to talk to a number of hams around Elizabethtown who had just been through an
emergency response a few days before.
All those people stranded in the snowstorm on I-65 needed help, and the
hams were there to assist local responders.
Well done, everyone!
You know, we prepare and plan, and time goes on and we
think all is fine. Then, in a matter of
hours, we're in the thick of things. We
can't tell the situation to hold off while we get ready. It's just a matter of grabbing the radios and
other stuff, and responding. If we
prepared well, it shows. Even if we
haven't, we can do a good job, but it could always be better with more
prep. You never know when the next
disaster will happen. Spring is almost
here, and the storms will be following.
Are your batteries charged?
When we think of trends, it's usually about what a lot of
individuals are doing or have discovered.
Trends or patterns with clubs are usually harder to spot. But right now I sense that there is a trend
going on with a number of clubs, and it is that they are acquiring new digital
voice repeaters. The discount offered by
one manufacturer (ending this month) has attracted many clubs, and soon we'll
have a lot of these repeaters on the air across the Great Lakes Division.
I look forward to hearing how things go. It's one more step in the on-going
advancement of amateur radio. Some
people don't like the trend towards digital.
Others have embraced it in its various competing forms. Some are waiting on the sidelines for the
formats to settle out. What will
happen? How will a repeater built to
handle either digital or analog input perform for its users? Will a lot of people invest in the new
digital format? Will a particular
repeater stay mostly analog, even if it's capable of digital? Will one type prevail?
On the larger subject of digital voice modes, we hope to
have a forum on that subject at our Division Convention in August. If you've never heard of P25, DMR, D-Star, or
C4FM, you can find out more from those who use those modes. If you're really involved in any of those
modes, you can meet other folks who are as well, and share knowledge. Either way, we hope it will be a topic of
much interest.
See you at Dayton!
73,
Tom W8WTD
Vice Director
Great Lakes Division
Hamfesting: Here
is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest Schedule for the
next few weeks. These swaps have
received their sanctioning approval from ARRL HQ at the time of this
publication.
April 4 - Lincoln Trail, Elizabethtown, KY - KY1O
April 4
- Portsmouth, Portsmouth, OH - N8SY
April 11 - Letcher County, Whitesburg - KY
- KY1O
April 25 - Jackson County, Jackson, OH - N8SY
April 26 - Athens, Athens,
OH - N8SY
May 2 - Cadillac, Cadillac, MI - WB8R
May 9 - Big Sandy, Louisa, KY -
KY1O
May 9 - CCRA-KCRA - Chassell, MI - WB8R
May 15, 16, 17 - Hamvention® - Dayton, OH - Everyone!!
May 30 - Ashland - Ashland, KY - KY1O
Hamfest officials:
When you receive your "Hamfest Package" from ARRL, open it
immediately. Read it over and look at
all of the material you received. There
is a form included to order additional if you deem it appropriate.
Your Division and Section officials want to be at your
events and we strive for insuring that the ARRL is properly represented at
every ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest. Conflicts
can arise, such as hamfests which might occur on the same day. It is always a good idea for your hamfest
chair to contact the Section Manager, Vice-Director or Director early in the
planning stages to insure his attendance at the activity. This will allow time to prepare for alternate
representation in the event of time conflicts.
The ARRL Director, Vice Director and Section Managers are
available to visit local radio clubs and give presentations about ARRL and what
is happening in the Section or Division.
Please feel free to invite any of us for an "ARRL Night" at
your club. Most of the talks are
prepared in a video presentation format and can include a Q&A session as
well.
Advance scheduling really helps and gives you an
opportunity to publicize the event. See
pages 15 & 16 of a recent QST for contact information.
73, see you on the bands.
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
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