Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for April
1, 2019.
Division Changes Afoot?
Around this time of year, some suggestions arrive for
consideration. This time, a
recommendation arrived to look at equalizing the membership disparity that
exists among the various ARRL Sections.
This is not the first time this has been discussed. So let me explain how this may affect us in
the Great Lakes Division. Most everyone
knows that the Ohio Section has the largest population of hams in the
ARRL. The plan is to level out this
disparity, so everyone has equal representation, sort of like Gerrymandering
the U.S. House Districts.
The proposal looks like this: Ohio will be split into half, divided north
and south, roughly along a line a few miles north of Columbus.
The Southern half would merge with Kentucky and form the
new Commonwealth Section under the leadership of current KY SM Steve Morgan
W4NHO. The Northern half would be merged
with Michigan to form the new Erie Section under the leadership of Current MI
SM Jim Kvochick K8JK.
The current Ohio SM Scott Yonally, N8SY, who resides in
Mansfield (which is north of the dividing line and thus will be in the newly
created Erie Section) will of course lose his Section Manger
post. Steve and Jim have therefore
nominated Scott to become the de facto head of the new ARRL National Committee
for the Elimination of Sinusoidal Refleneration.
Scott's pre-retirement work with the development of the
Nofer trunnion will allow him to fit well with this new position. The effective date for these changes is, of
course, April 1.
SKYWARN. We are on the cusp of the spring storm
season. Your Section Managers have
issued reminders to everyone to step up to getting the latest Skywarn training
and I just want to reinforce that message.
The folks from the National Weather Service have taken advantage of
field-supplied videos of severe weather phenomena and included those examples
in their training sessions. We reap the
benefits of that effort in seeing a wider variety of storm effects and learning
how to more accurately discern what constitutes a danger to the general public.
If you have not taken advantage of receiving storm
spotter training recently, by all means attend a local session. Even if you were at a session just last year,
take it again, you will become a better Skywarn spotter. This is one of the most beneficial public
services amateur radio can offer, it takes only a few minutes to learn the
characteristics of severe storms and then just a casual afternoon drive from
work to home could prove to be a significant event for aiding the public. It did for me!
TOM'S COMMENTS: Changes.
The time changed. The season
changed, and now we’re in Spring. Hope I
didn’t put the snow blower away too soon.
Experts say that the time change is a good reminder to
check the batteries in our smoke alarms.
Batteries? There’s
a ham radio topic. When was the last
time you charged the batteries in your HT?
And following up on that, when was the last time you checked the
contents of your Go-Kit? Often, but not
always, the changing of the seasons at this time of year brings severe
weather. Are you prepared?
Now I realize that not every ham is deeply involved in
emergency response. Some of us have very
little time for ham radio, and others focus on the more social or fun aspects
of ham radio. If you belong to ARES, or
volunteer directly with one of the main agencies, like the American Red Cross,
the Salvation Army, or other agencies like that, you’re well aware of the need
to be prepared. But I hope all of us
remember that motto “When All Else Fails, Ham Radio is There.” You can protect your family, and help your
neighbors, just by having a working radio around, if it ever comes to
that. So, does your emergency radio
work?
You’ll find all sorts of articles on building a “Go Kit,”
and it’s a great idea to have one. But
if you don’t have the time or the budget to do that, do you have the
basics? Can you operate a VHF/UHF radio
from a battery source at home? Do you
have a stand-by antenna you can use if your regular one blows down? And do you have the basic supplies in your
household as recommended by FEMA in case of emergency?
I hope none of us has to go through some of the storms,
floods, and other disasters we have seen on the news lately. But we should be prepared. As ham radio operators, the least we can do
is to have the ability to operate in an emergency.
--73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division
HAMFESTING: Here
is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest Schedule covering
the next few months. These swaps have
received their sanctioning approval from ARRL HQ at the time of this
publication.
If you plan to request ARRL Sanctioning, please be sure
to do it well in advance of your Hamfest date, as this allows adequate time for
QST Listings. Be sure
to invite your ARRL Officials as soon as your date is set. With 52
weeks and 70+ hamfests, things do double up a little.
Plan ahead for requesting your ARRL Officials to attend.
4/6/19 Lincoln
Trail Elizabethtown, KY
4/7/19 GMARC
Technology EXPO Madison Hgts, MI
4/13/19 Letcher
County Whitesburg, KY
4/13/19 Cuyahoga
Falls Cuyahoga Falls,
OH
4/20/19 Portsmouth Portsmouth, OH
4/27/19 Ashland
Tailgate Ashland, KY
4/28/19 Chassell
Chassell, MI
4/28/19 Athens Athens, OH
5/4/19 Cadillac Cadillac, MI
5/17 to 19 Hamvention Xenia, OH
6/1/19 Luce
County Newberry, MI
6/1/19 Princeton Princeton, KY
6/1/19 IRA Hudsonville, MI
6/1/19 Fulton
County Wauseon, OH
6/2/19 Chelsea Chelsea, Mi
6/8/19 Union
County Marysville,
OH
6/15/19 Milford/SWODXA
Conv Milford, OH
6/16/19 Monroe Monroe, MI
OUR GREAT LAKES DIVISION web page does carry news from
some of the recent events in the Division, useful links and information as well
as some neat photos supplied from around the Division. Check it out:
Be sure to check your Section's news pages for the latest
local happenings, club and net information.
73, Let's go light up the bands!
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
