Greetings everyone, welcome to "Dale's Tales"
for October 2015.
SPECIAL EVENT:
Radio Amateur Satellite Corp. (AMSAT-NA) will hold their 33rd AMSAT
The Symposium is a wonderful opportunity to learn about
amateur radio’s newest satellites! Get helpful tips and techniques of working
the “birds”. Hear about the future satellites. Banquet Prizes! Rub shoulders
with some of your fellow hams and satellite enthusiasts.
Additional information about Symposium and options to
register for the Symposium as well as the banquet can be found
online:http://www.amsat.org/?page_id=3667.
Check directly with the Crowne Point Plaza Hotel for room availability
as the deadline for the AMSAT block of rooms has expired. Call 1-800-689-5586 for hotel reservations.
CLUB PROGRAM OPPORTUNITIES: You would be surprised to discover all the
things that your League is involved with these days. Here is an opportunity to learn more about
how your being an ARRL member truly helps Amateur Radio. Your locally elected leadership, consisting
of your ARRL Director, Vice Director and Section Managers are available to
visit radio clubs and talk with you about ARRL and what is happening in your
Section or your Division or nationwide.
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.
COMMENTS: from our
Vice Director, Tom W8WTD It was another busy month with travel to
hamfests. I always enjoy meeting and
talking to fellow hams, and finding out what is on your mind.
This may sound like a broken record, but we can't stress
enough how important it is to put some pressure on Congress to get our
legislation passed. You can check out
the ARRL website for all the details on the two bills, one in the Senate, and
one in the House. It's hard to
overestimate how important these bills may prove to be for the future of ham
radio. Each ham should do his or her
part.
While we're generating letters at hamfests, it's also
important to note where things stand with individual Congressmen. We don't want to appear ignorant of who is
supporting us already. While we want to
gain more support by way of co-sponsors, it's equally important to thank those
who are already on board. So I did a
search on the current list of Congressmen, looking for those from the Great
Lakes Division who are signed on as co-sponsors.
Here's the list:
Michigan: Rep.
Benishek, whose 1st district includes a lot of northern Michigan and all of the
U.P. ; Rep. Huizenga, whose 2nd district
includes a portion of the western part of the state; and Rep. Bishop, whose 8th district includes
a smaller portion of the center of the state.
Kentucky: Rep.
Guthrie, whose 2nd district includes a lot of the center of Kentucky, from
south of Louisville and Lexington down to Bowling Green.
Ohio: Rep.
Wenstrup, whose 2nd district includes much of southern Ohio, from just east of
Cincinnati over to Chillicothe and south to the Ohio River; Rep. Johnson, whose
6th district takes in much of eastern Ohio, running along the Ohio River from
Youngstown south and west near to, but not including Portsmouth; and Rep.
Joyce, whose 14th district is generally east of Cleveland.
These are people we need to thank! Please send an e-mail, or phone your local
office with a message of thanks and encouragement. If you're not sure of just who your
representative is, you can find out by checking
the listing "Who is my representative in the US House?" under
the Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015 on the ARRL website. If your Congressman is a co-sponsor, please
thank him. If not, then ask for his or
her support, either by signing a letter at one of the hamfests, or getting
details on how you can write a letter from home, also on the ARRL website. Please, do something this week. It only takes a few minutes, and it is so
important to you and to all your fellow hams!
Here's another way that a few of you can help. Not everyone will be able to do this. But in conversations at hamfests, I came
across a few people who could say, "You know, I went to school with Rep.
___" Or, "I know Rep. __ from
business connections, back when he was doing ___." If you have any connections like that, what
would it take for you to call and make an appointment and discuss the issue
with your friend?
Personal connections are so important. And while most of us don't have those, all of
our representatives went to school somewhere, and have friends in the
community. If you have that kind of
connection, please make use of it!
Thanks for listening.
I hope to see many more of you at hamfests and meetings coming up next
month and beyond, and also talking with you on the air.
73, Tom W8WTD
FIELD CARD CHECKERS:
Well, the facts are simply this: we need more and we need more to visit
our hamfests. The ARRL Programs and
Services Committee has established a sub-committee to examine the current Field
Checker guidelines, the appointment requirements and many of the details of the
program. It has been a while since a
thorough review has been conducted of the Field Checker rules so that is
happening now.
Your Director has
been asked to assist, and I have been actively discussing Field Card Checking
with both active Checkers and aspiring ones plus the DX Community in general. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and I will see to it they are considered by the
committee.
Today, Card Checkers can be nominated by the following
methods: One by each recognized "DX
Club", one by the Section Manager in his Section and one by the Division
Director in his Division. These
requirements impose some serious limits.
For example, a Section with 2 DX clubs can have 3
Field Checkers, (possibly 4, if the Director's
appointment was made in that geographic area).
A change of Section Manager or Director has no bearing on appointing
additional Field Checkers. As you can
see, geography and population density can affect where the Field Checkers are
located and even how far they need to travel.
Further, the rules are silent on how to replace non-active
Checkers. Suffice it to say, we have a
list of things to consider, but hopefully, some improvements can be implemented
within the next few months. In the
meantime, our Division's diligent Field Card Checkers are taking every
opportunity to be at swaps to check our cards. They travel on their dime and truly deserve our sincere thanks for serving the DX Community.
UPDATE for AMATEUR RADIO PARITY ACT: We now have 100
Co-sponsors for HB 1301 in the U.S. House of Representatives. The new ARRL Web Page http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-parity-act
contains the complete text of both the House and Senate bills.
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.
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. 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 invite them to attend
the activity. This will allow time to
prepare for alternate representation in the event of time conflicts.
Oct 3 - ARRL
Executive Committee Meeting
Oct 3 -
GRAHamfest - Grand Rapids, MI
Oct 3 - Vette
City - Bowling Green, KY
Oct 10 - TBARC
Swap - Alpena, MI
Oct 17 - Muskegon
Color Tour Hamfest - Muskegon, MI
Oct 18
- Conneaut - Conneaut, OH
Oct 18 -
Kalamazoo Hamfest, Kalamazoo, MI
Oct 25
- Massillon - Massillon, OH
Oct 25 -
USECA - Madison Hgts, MI
Oct 31 - Hazard
- Hazard, KY
Nov 7 - Grant
County - Georgetown, OH
Dec 5 - Fulton
County Winterfest - Delta, OH
Dec 6 - L'Anse
Creuse - Harrison Twp., MI
HAMFEST OFFICIALS:
When you receive your "Hamfest Package" from ARRL, please open
it immediately. Read it over and check
out all of the material you received. There
is a form included to order additional material if you deem it appropriate.
73, see you on the bands.
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
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ARRL Great Lakes Division
Director: Dale R Williams, WA8EFK
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