Thursday, March 1, 2018

Dale's Tales for March 2018


Greetings everyone, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for March 2018.
 
"So close and yet so far" as the 3Y0Z effort to put Bouvet on the air again has been delayed.   The
other interesting news is that the 3Y0I team who also has plans to activate Bouvet is continuing that effort. 3Y0I had delayed their schedule to allow 3Y0Z the earlier opportunity to activate.  This may get very interesting as the 3Y0Y team turned down the offer from 3Y0I to collaborate for the effort.

A word about our QSL Bureaus.  Two Bureaus serve the Great Lakes division as we fall into two different call areas, 4-Land and 8-Land. Each bureau operates slightly differently, but each provided the same service, getting our foreign QLS delivered to us.   NO, it is not totally automatic; you must provide the bureaus with postage and/or envelopes to get your cards delivered.  Each group will let you know the method they prefer.  Still it all works very well and we owe a debt of gratitude to the many folks that work together to make this happen.

Basically, it typically works like this:  the incoming cards are received at a central point for the respective call areas and are then sorted and bulk shipped to "Letter Managers".  The Letter Manager completes the sorting process and stuffs the cards into individual envelopes we supply and mails them to us when enough cards have been accumulated.   Sounds simple but keep in mind that there is an individual letter manager for the first letter in the suffix of the recipient's call.  Mine is the "E" manager for example. 10 call areas times 26 letters means as many as 260 people sorting across the USA and each Letter Manager may have a couple hundred envelopes on hand.  They really do deserve some thanks, don't they?

To learn more about the QSL Bureau service in the Great Lakes Division check out the following URLs.  The 8th Bureau has its own web page and the 4th is linked to the ARRL page.

TOM'S COMMENTS:  Comments from our Vice Director Tom Delaney W8WTD

February saw me attending more club meetings than normal.  I was trying to get around and discuss some of the changes at ARRL.  Thank you all for your hospitality and your willingness to discuss issues of importance to you and the League. 

I was especially pleased to get your reactions on some of the work the various committees are doing on advancing education, both for our newest hams, and for all of us.

I’d say more, but for the past several days I have been working mostly full-time with the Red Cross on the Disaster Relief operation for the Ohio River flooding. 

So these brief remarks will have to do for this month.

A quick note on ham radio communications.  There has been no communication outage, so ham radio has not played a role in this effort. But I was impressed with the preparation and coordination of the ARES teams locally and at the state level to make sure they were ready to respond if necessary.  There will be communications needs in some future disaster.  We just don’t know where or when.  So keep your batteries charged.

--73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division

CONVENTIONS:  Hamvention® will host the ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention this year, by  Be sure to get it on your calendar.  Hamvention's new venue in Xenia worked well last year and another building has been added for vendor use.   Check out their special request, website for the latest information.  http://hamvention.org/   May 18-20.

In even numbered years, the Great Lakes Division's three Sections normally host their individual State Conventions.  Kentucky's ARRL State Convention will be hosted by the Greater Louisville Hamfest in Shepherdsville, KY on September 8, 2018.  See http://louisvillehamfest.com/   Michigan's State ARRL Convention will be held at HamCon Brooklyn, MI on October 6-7.  http://glhamcon.org/.

While not a state convention, Ohio will be holding the Ohio Section Conference in conjunction with the Columbus Hamfest on August 4, 2018.  See http://columbushamfest.com/


HAMFESTING:  Here is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest Schedule covering the next couple of months.  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. 


3/3/18                  Cave City Hamfest                Cave City, KY
3/4/18                  NOARS Hamfest                   Elyria, OH           
3/17/18                Crossroads Hamfest              Kalamazoo, MI
3/17/18                MOVARC Hamfest              Gallipolis, OH
3/18/18                Toledo Mobile R.A.              Perrysburg, OH
4/7/18                  Lincoln Trail                         Elizabethtown, KY
4/14/18                Cuyahoga Falls                    Cuyahoga Falls, OH
4/21/18                Portsmouth                          Portsmouth, OH
4/28/18                RCARA Tailgate                 Ashland, KY
4/28/18                Chassell Hamfest                Chassell, MI
4/29/18                GMARC Hamfest                Madison Hgts, MI
4/29/18                Athens Hamfest                   Athens, OH
              

Be sure to check your Section's news pages for the latest local happenings, club and net information.

73,

Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division