Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for
December, 2019.
We open this edition of "Dale's Tales" to send
very best holiday wishes to everyone from Tom and Helen along with Judy and me
as we enter this wonderful season. We
all hope it brings joyous get-togethers with your family and friends.
Vice Director Tom W8WTD and I had the rare opportunity to
recognize the outstanding service of one of our own Great Lakes Division
amateurs and thereby present Ohio Section Manager Scott Yonally N8SY with a
prestigious award conferred by the ARRL Board of Directors. The honor is called the Knight Distinguished
Service Award and is presented to Section Managers who have exhibited
outstanding dedication to Amateur Radio.
The Board commented that "Scott is tireless in his efforts to be
present and visible all over the state, representing the ARRL and Amateur Radio
with a positive and forward-thinking attitude." The official plaque was presented to Scott at
the November meeting of the Portage County Amateur Radio Society.
We have some rather unhappy news, the Livonia Amateur Radio
Club reports that a venue conflict has caused the cancellation of the Livonia
Swap planned for Feb. 23, 2020. The LARC
Swap and Shop has traditionally been one of the well attended swaps in SE
Michigan and we hope that 2021 will bring even a bigger and better LARC swap to
that region.
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: http://arrl-greatlakes.org/
Be sure to check your ARRL Section's news pages for the
latest local happenings, club and net information.
TOM'S TOME
Comments from your ARRL Vice Director Tom W8WTD.
Holiday greetings to all!
With the Thanksgiving holiday just passed, the tendency is to look ahead
to the Christmas holiday season, and save the “look back” at 2019 and the “look
ahead” to 2020 until after the rest of the holidays. Here, though, I’d like to call attention to
some things coming up in 2020 to get your attention early on, so you can plan
for some good events.
First, I’d like to remind everyone that our Great Lakes
Division convention is coming up in March, the weekend of the 14th and 15th, to
be specific. It’s being held in Toledo,
Ohio, in conjunction with the Toledo Mobile Radio Association’s annual
hamfest. The folks up there have been
planning for this event since early summer.
They’ve pulled together a great line-up of speakers and topics and
activities. It’s all indoors, as is
appropriate for that time of year, at a nice facility. More details will be available soon, but it’s
time to start planning for March. It may
be a bit of a drive for some folks in the Division, but probably well worth the
effort to see and hear about projects and techniques that you need more help
with.
This next one is a bit farther out, but of special note
anyway. All of us old-timers know how
important it is to interest younger people in ham radio. So it’s a step in that direction that the
Youth on the Air camp will be held in West Chester, Ohio in June. The week-long camp will be held at the
National Voice of America Museum of Broadcasting. It’s in the Cincinnati area, just north of the I-275
circle route. According to the press release, “the camp will focus on
building peer and mentor relationships and taking amateur radio ‘to the next
level.’” There will be workshops in all
sort of STEM-related subjects. A
high-altitude balloon launch is being planned, and they will operate with the
special-event call sign of W8Y.
The camp director, Neil, WB9VPG, tells me that there are
several ways for amateurs to help. One
will be to take part in the on-air activities during the week, by providing
contacts for the young people. I’ll be
sure to let you know more about that as it gets closer. For those of you who have the means,
donations are another good way to help.
And finally, for local hams or those who might be a reasonably short
drive away, some hands-on help with set-up and clean-up might also be a way to
participate in June. No matter where you
live in the Division, please try to help in some way make this event a success.
Best wishes for a good holiday season.
--73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division
ARRL Hamfest Sanctioning offers hamfest sponsors the opportunity
to take advantage of some offerings from ARRL.
Your Division Director is pleased to make this Sanctioning available to
ARRL Affiliated Clubs who have a history of holding regular swaps. One successful swap normally qualifies! ARRL will provide prize certificates, QST
will publish the announcement for the swap, post it on-line at the ARRL web
site and supply requested hamfest handout material. The club, in exchange, shall provide ARRL a
table for "meet and greet" at the hamfest. Consult the hamfest pages on the ARRL web
site for the application form.
If you plan to request ARRL Hamfest Sanctioning, please
do so well in advance of your Hamfest date, as this allows adequate time for
QST Listings. QST requires a 3 month
lead time. It should be noted that there
has been a change in the way ARRL contributes to your hamfest efforts. Please carefully read the e-mail from ARRL
Headquarters confirming your sanctioning as IT CONTAINS IMPORTANT DETAILS
REGARDING PRIZES. Be sure to invite your
ARRL Officials as soon as your date is set.
With 52 weeks and 70+ hamfests in the Great Lakes Division, things do
requires some advanced planning.
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.
12/1/19 Lanse
Creuse Madison Hgts,
MI
12/7/19 Fulton
County Delta, OH
1/19/20 SCARF
Hamfest Nelsonville, OH
1/19-20 Hazel
Park Madison Hgts, MI
1/26/20 Tusco Strasburg, OH
2/1/20 HARA Negaunee, MI
2/16/20 Mansfield Mansfield, OH
2/23/20 Livonia CANCELLED for
2020
3/7/20 Cave
City Cave City, KY
3/14-15/20 Toledo / Great Lakes Toledo, OH
Division Convention
3/21/20 Gallipolis Gallipolis, OH
73, Were you on the air today??? Ham it up!
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
