Greetings everyone, welcome to "Dale's Tales"
for January 2017.
MOVING INTO THIS NEW YEAR is going to bring some
interesting challenges. First, ARRL will be considering the approach it will plan to use to re-introduce a bill to allow
residents of Homeowner association-managed properties to allow effective
antenna system. This bill known in 2016
as the Amateur Radio Parity Act was blocked in the Senate and therefore failed
passage. I am confident much of our
forthcoming January Board meeting will involve strategic development relating
to this important issue.
With National Parks on the Air all wrapped up, like you,
I am anxious to learn what exciting on-the-air challenge may face us next.
Sorry, I have not even heard a rumor.
What a great event NPOTA was with 1,040,000-plus contacts made and
virtually all of the Park units activated by more than 19,460 different
operations. This really exceeded most
everyone's expectations.
The following is the Great Lakes Division's Annual Report
as submitted to the ARRL Board of Directors.
It highlights most of the major activities in the Division during 2016.
Great Lakes Division - 2016
Political actions: Kentucky Section Manager Alan Morgan
KY1O was honored to appoint Jenean M. Hampton, K5EIB the Lieutenant Governor of
the Commonwealth of Kentucky as an ARRL State Government Liaison. The Lt Gov
speaks regularly across Kentucky wearing her official ARRL Name/Call badge and
actively promotes Amateur Radio. She has
directed the Kentucky Emergency Management agency to work closer with KY ARES
groups as well.
All three Great Lakes Division Section Managers were very
active at hamfests and club meetings throughout the year promoting the Amateur
Radio Parity Act.
Michigan ARPSC/Auxcomm personnel played a large role at
the annual Michigan Public Service Communication System Interoperability
Conference at Traverse City in February.
MI ARPSC/Auxcomm personnel made significant progress installing antennas
and setting up Auxcomm radio facilities at the new Michigan State Emergency
Operating Center in Lansing, MI
The Michigan SGL and SM met with Michigan State
Representative Howyrlak at his request, to assist with the wording of a
distracted driving bill to keep law from potentially making mobile amateur
radio operation illegal.
Ohio’s ARES group was directly involved with the
Republican National Convention and the NAACP National Convention. They provided vital voice and digital
communications links between the Cuyahoga County Emergency Operations Center,
the Cleveland Emergency Operations Center to the State of Ohio Emergency
Operations Center in Columbus, to the Regional Operations Center in Cincinnati
and the Red Cross Regional Operations Center in Akron.
Emergencies: # ARES Activations. During the week of
January 18, some 8,100 water customers in Sebring, Ohio, were notified
that they had problems with high lead content in their drinking water. On January 22, both Ohio and Mahoning County
Emergency Management Agencies began passing out bottled water in Sebring. Mahoning County ARES was activated to
help. And, they did just that! ARES
volunteers joined others in moving and distributing pallets of bottled water,
and another call went for weekend duty.
ARES members from neighboring counties also volunteered. All told, the
volunteers moved more than 166 pallets of water in 6 days. “This is a perfect example of being ready to
serve in whatever capacity we can, in order to help our communities.
Sometimes it doesn’t involve only operating a radio”
ARES members in the Kentucky Section carried out several
missions supporting communications including floods, other weather emergencies,
and a missing/downed plane and pilot.
They assisted CAP and SAR efforts where the plane was found in a heavily
wooded area. They also participated in
the Kentucky COMEX with improved participation this year.
Ohio ARES groups were active for assistance at the
Cleveland Cavaliers Championship Celebration in Cleveland and communications
for the Toledo Air Show. Ohio ARES group
was also activated several times this year to provide communications for Algae
Bloom situations for events taking place on Lake Erie and the Ohio River.
Ohio ARES also has contributed over 5,000 man-hours of
service this year to the National Weather Service for Skywarn duties. So far this year they have had 10 tornadoes
in Ohio, with numerous other weather related incidences effecting thousands of
citizens.
Major Events: Michigan hams organized and coordinated the
June 2016 “Light Up the Trail” weekend NPOTA event to activate the full length
of the North Country Trail that travels through seven states. During the course of 2016, the SM and/or Section Staff
attended 21 hamfests, 9 club meetings, a Section Staff meeting and a Section
Family Outing in the woods of Northern Michigan that featured the annual
Section EC meeting. Ohio held its annual Section Conference in August plus the
annual Ohio State Parks on the Air Contest and the Ohio ARES Statewide
Conference during September. The Ohio
Section Cabinet and SM attended 27 hamfests, including the Dayton Hamvention,
where they staffed the Ohio Section Booth within the ARRL EXPO. They also attended over 150 club meetings,
picnics/parties and special events this year.
The Ohio Section has gained nine new Affiliated Clubs this year and
grown with three Special Service Clubs.
Hamfests/Conventions: There were 70 ARRL Sanctioned
hamfests in the Great Lakes Division in 2016.
ARRL was represented at all by a SM, Director, Vice Director or
designee. State Conventions were held in
Ohio and Kentucky this year, and plans are now in process for the Great Lakes
Division Convention to be held in Michigan in 2017.
2016 ARRL Kentucky State Convention held in conjunction
with the Greater Louisville Hamfest in Shepherdsville, KY was a huge success
this year with attendance. Jenean M.
Hampton, K5EIB the Lieutenant Governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky was also
a special guest and gave the official Welcome speech at the 2016 ARRL Kentucky
State Convention.
Clubs: In
Kentucky, several clubs have sponsored Technician Classes and with the help of
a well-known guest, the Woodford County ARC actually had KY Lt Governor
Hampton, K5EIB participate and make a presentation to motivate the students to
get their licenses.
The Division recognized the 75th Anniversary of three
clubs during 2016: Dial Radio
Club, OH, Queen City Emergency Net, OH, and Monroe County Radio Communications
Assn., MI
Awards & Honors: Hiram Percy Maxim Award – At a
special presentation ceremony hosted by his local club, the Westchester Amateur
Radio Assn., Christopher Brault, KD8YVJ received the plaque honoring him with
ARRL's Hiram Percy Maxim Award. The
Allan Severson Memorial Award (Ohio Amateur of the Year) honored John Myers,
KD8MQ.
The Michigan Section Commendation
Certification was presented to Tim Crane, WM8A for his exceptional work
rebuilding and improving the ARES/RACES organization in Genesee County,
MI.
Ohio hosted its 24TH Annual
Newsletter Contest Awards: 1st Place The Mike & Key, 2nd Place: The
RADIOGRAM , 3rd Place, a two way tie: The Voice Coil and ATCO Newsletter.
Honorable Mentions went to: The CARA Communicator and The Spirit of '76 and
'88. Ohio extended Special Recognitions
to • David Sumner, K1ZZ – Honorary Ohio Section Life Member; • Norm Fusaro,
W3IZ and Sean Kutzko, KX9X – Special Recognition for their work with National
Parks On The Air (NOPTA); • Dial Radio Club – Special Recognition for 75 years
of ARRL Affiliation; • Arlin Bradford, KD8EVR and Tom Miller, N8TWM – Advancing
Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) in the Ohio Section; • Christopher Brault, KD8YVJ –
Outstanding Young Amateur in the Ohio Section; • Queen City Emergency Net –
Special Recognition for 75 years of ARRL Affiliation; • Portage County Amateur
Radio Service – Special Recognition for their more than 10 years of giving back
to their local charities with cash donations exceeding $3,000; • Bob Johnson,
K3RC and Kitty Hevener, W8TDA – Special Recognition for their past service with
the Ohio Section as Cabinet Members; • Nick Pittner, K8NAP – Special
Recognition of his past service with the Ohio Section as a Cabinet Member and
author of the Ohio Section Antenna Law.
Vice Director Delaney and I wish to extend an important
Thank You to our Section Managers for their wonderful efforts in promoting
amateur radio and ARRL in their respective Sections. Alan KY1O, Larry WB8R and Scott N8SY, you guys are the greatest!
Vice Director Tom Delaney W8WTD was appointed as Board
Liaison to the ARRL RF Safety Committee, and also serves on the Entry Level
License Committee. Dir. Williams was
re-elected to the ARRL Executive Committee, appointed to Chair the Ethics and
Elections Committee and serves as Chair of the Public Safety Enhancement
Working Group. Dir. Williams also assisted the re-drafting of guidelines for
the Card Checker program.
The Great Lakes Division ARRL membership has seen a
slight decline in aggregate membership over the past 11 months, from 12,767 to
12,478.
The figures are much in alignment with the 2016 rate
experienced by other Divisions and reflect expectations of reductions caused by
the dues increase.
73,
s/ Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes
Division
*******
TOM'S COMMENTS:
Comments from our Vice Director Tom Delany W8WTD
When you get to the end of December, you tend to look
back and forward.
So here goes –
looking back, it was a particularly good year for ham radio in terms of the
NPOTA event. Over a million QSOs. How many of those would NOT have taken place
if not for this great activity? Hard to
say. But probably a substantial number
of them. Hope you participated, and hope
you had fun. What’s next? I don’t know, but new activities along these
lines are being promised. We’ll see what
they come up with, but it should be more fun.
When I think of all the contacts I made, I know that I
spent more time on the radio because of the event. A friend and I used to kid about making our
“one contact” for the day, sort of like the “apple a day…” maxim. So for next year, I’d encourage everyone to
try that. Maybe you’ll end up with a lot
of once-a-day repeater contacts, but can that be so bad? Everyone complains that repeater use is in
decline. Let’s make sure we use that
resource. And there are other events,
contests, etc. Something for
everyone. What contacts will you make
during the coming year?
Looking to the new year, there are two activities I hope
we continue with very strongly. They’re
related—education and elmering. Both
bring new people into ham radio, either with licensing or by encouraging the
new licensees to get and remain active.
There are so many success stories throughout the division. There are nets for new people. There are informal get-togethers apart from
club meetings, and there are club meetings where new and useful topics are
discussed. Hams attend “Makers’ Faires”
and go to Scouting events, and all sorts of other events, all trying to recruit
new people to our hobby. So many clubs
in the division continue to offer classes for all license levels. Keep up the good work!
And that reminds me.
I do have a request for those of you who are in charge of your club’s
classes. Please make sure, as many of
you already do, that your class is registered with ARRL so that it can be put
on the website. Yes, you have your own
ways of recruiting prospective hams, and please keep doing that. But you never know when someone will be
looking around for information, and come across your listing. Let’s find every possible way to publicize
our work. And get your instructors
registered, so they can get all the latest information and material from ARRL.
As we look ahead, there are always new things and new
challenges. Hamvention®, for instance, will be completely new. And I’m sure there will many challenges
throughout the year. Let’s stay prepared
for emergencies, keep working on our technical skills, and enjoy being amateur
radio operators!
73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division
********
Here is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned
Hamfest Schedule covering the next few weeks.
These swaps have received their sanctioning approval from ARRL HQ at the
time of this publication. We have
approximately 65 ARRL hamfests each year in the Division. I do encourage each Hamfest Chair to register
early for ARRL Sanctioning.
Be sure to invite your ARRL Officials as soon as your
date is set. Tom and I are already
committed for several dates in 2017 as are our Section Managers Scott N8SY, Alan
KY1O and Larry WB8R.
Jan 15 - SCARF Hamfest - Nelsonville, OH
Jan 29 - TUSCO
Hamfest - Strausburg, OH
Jan 29 - Hazel Park - Hazel Park, MI
Feb 4 - HARA Swap - Negaunee, MI
Feb 11 -
Cherryland - Traverse City, MI
Feb 19 - Mansfield - Mansfield, OH
Feb 19 -
Livonia - Livonia, MI
Mar 4 - Cave City
- Cave City, KY
Mar 11 - Lowell - Lowell, Mi
Mar 18 - Crossroads - Kalamazoo,
MI
Mar 18 - MOVARC - Gallipolis, OH
Mar 19 - Toledo Mobile ARA - Perrysburg, OH
Be sure to check your Section's news pages for the latest
local happenings, club and net information.
73, Let's be radio-active!
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
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