Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for February, 2023.
The Annual ARRL Board meeting was held from Jan 18
through the 22nd.
Both Vice Director Scott N8SY and I attended. The meeting's official minutes are currently being prepared for approval and they will then be published. But here are some of the meeting highlights:
Among the items decided include some changes offered by the Programs & Services Committee to the Field Day rules. They are giving more emphasis to the "Get on the Air" stations by allowing a single op to make more than 20 contacts and evening out the points for various modes.
The Board gave approval of minor changes to the structure for how our 71 ARRL Sections are administered. The Board also reaffirmed the established guidelines for recognizing anniversaries of ARRL Affiliated clubs at 25 year intervals and established a Special Board Meeting to nationally acknowledge those clubs and their anniversaries by an open video broadcast to be called the "Annual Awards Recognition Day".
ARRL National Conventions are held every two years, so looking ahead, we selected the next two events to host our upcoming National Conventions in 2024 and 2026. The Board authorized Headquarters staff to begin negotiations with the Dayton Amateur Radio Association to host the 2024 ARRL National Convention in conjunction with the 2024 Dayton Hamvention and to start similar negotiations with the Huntsville Amateur Radio Club to host the 2026 Convention at the Huntsville Hamfest.
In consideration of the value and benefits of Logbook of the World and the age of the current program, the ARRL Administration & Finance Committee provided a motion to begin the upgrade process for Logbook of the World through a new Radiosport Platform Committee.
The Ethics & Elections Committee submitted a number of proposals, the key of which is to insure that Board Members are familiar with their fiduciary responsibilities under Connecticut Law for non-profits, such as ARRL.
We elected new officers for the ARRL Foundation, and the
ARRL Executive Committee. There was a
proposal put forth to evaluate why many newly licensed hams do not become
active on the air, and the Board formed a Survey Development Working Group to
evaluate those underlying causes.
From those and other actions will come an "Amateur Radio Bootcamp" with live interactive on-line video. This package is proposed to include skill development, license training with exams and continuing education programs.
The long-awaited solar cycle 25 with the expected improvement in propagation on 10 and 6 meters, provides the opportunity to promote activity of Technician licensees on those bands. To that end we will offer a series of articles on QST, On the Air and other ARRL publications introducing new hams to DXing, contesting, and propagation on those bands.
Appointments to the four ARRL Standing committees are being made at this writing and will be announced soon. Those committees are Administrations and Finance, Programs and Services, Ethics & Elections and the Emergency Communications & Field Services Committee.
SCOTT'S STUFF: Comments from your ARRL Vice-Director Scott, N8SY.
What a wild week that Dale and I had in Newington at the annual Board of Directors meeting recently! We both were locked in on the EC-FS Committee meeting that lasted into Thursday afternoon. The Board meeting started bright and early on Friday morning and it came to an end around noon on Saturday. We got a lot accomplished, and you’ll be hearing about those accomplishments soon. Many of the items that we passed will benefit the membership and your club. Stay tuned for more information about the Board meeting.
I’m assuming that you are reading this column on
Wednesday, February 1st, and as such, I just want to say that tomorrow is
Groundhog Day...
Yes, Groundhog Day! You know, the day we all get up before the crack of dawn and grab a little worthless varmint that does nothing but make a mess out of our garbage cans, yet we celebrate whether he can see his shadow when the sun rises. Here in Ohio, we have Buckeye Chuck doing the forecasting. He’s been right only slightly more than wrong, but what the heck, it’s fun just to see if that little critter really does predict it accurately or not. Personally, I think he’s no better than a coin toss. But, what the heck it’s something fun to do in the middle of winter. February is also known as the month for lovers, as that it’s Valentine’s Day on Tuesday, February 14th. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve found the best way to keep my YL happy is to take her out for that special dinner, if not on Valentine’s Day, somewhere close to it, especially if you want to drop the news that you’ve just purchased a very expensive, but absolutely necessary piece of ham equipment that you just couldn’t live without. So, do yourself a favor, make dinner plans now for that special day!
Switching gears for a bit... We have a couple of great ARRL contests coming up this month, School Roundup on February 13th - 17th, and International DX / CW contest on February 18th - 19th. Hey if you’re not a contester I get it, but you still can have some fun and make a kids’ eyes light up if you do decide to participate in the School Roundup. Oh, and don’t forget that we now have VOTA as well. You know, Volunteers On The Air! Just look around on the airwaves, you’ll find them I’m sure, and if you catch Dale on, he’s worth 225 points and I’m worth 200. That ain’t hay guys, it’s a lot of points and they’ll add up quickly for sure, especially if you catch more than just Dale or I on.
Switching gears again...
Do you have all of your NIMS courses completed yet? You know those troublesome little Incident
Command courses that everyone has been nagging you about for several years now
to get. The weather outside is
frightful, and theirs nothing good on TV to watch and the bands aren’t
cooperating for you to play radio much.
So, isn’t this the perfect time to get that training in before the
weather and the bands start turning nice again?
Trust me on this, take advantage of the spare time that you now have and
get that all important training in now!
All the classes that are suggested in the ARES Plan, including ICS-300 and 400 can be found on-line. Yes, you may have to look around a bit to find an open on-line class for ICS-300 and 400, but they are out there and just ready for you to get started on!
Oh, and don’t forget your first aid, CPR and AED as well as those all-important "Stop the Bleed" classes too. They are sometimes the ones that we forget about the easiest and become the most important classes we could ever do. Don’t be one of those folks that say, "I don’t need this training because nothing ever happens here!" It does - and it will! The better that we are prepared, the better we will be at assisting our served agencies and even possibly our own families when that time comes, and like I said, it will come!
Clubs, have your meetings been hybrid (ie... Zoom, Teams,
Go-To-Meeting and in-person) so that everyone gets to partake? Have you been searching for a good program to
present to your club? You might consider
one of the great recorded webinars that are listed in the ARRL Learning Center
or even a live presentation from one of the ARRL staff.
I’ve sat in on many of the live presentations from the staff and they are the best. It’s really fantastic to be a part of a live presentation from ARRL Headquarters while being able to sit in your comfy easy chair at home! What better way to see just what some of your dues go to! They have many great recorded webinars that are really good and informative. Most of these are around 20 - 25 minutes long. Just the right amount of time to be informative, yet not so long that they get overly boring.
That is going to do it from here this month. Stay safe
and "Catch Me On The Air"!!! Remember, I’m worth 200 points in for
the Volunteers On The Air event...
73,
Scott, N8SY@ARRL.ORG
Vice Director
Great Lakes Division
HAMFEST LISTING:
Here is the current listing of Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned hamfests through March of 2023. It has been truly unfortunate that some clubs have been forced to cancel their swaps. The swaps on this list are confirmed as planned.
Please post this listing in your club's newsletter and announce the swaps on your local nets. Talk them up. Let's fully support all of our hamfests in every way possible. It means success for everyone.
Be sure to invite your ARRL Officials as soon as your date is set.
ARRL Sanctioned Hamfests through March 2023:
02/11/23 - Cherryland, Traverse City, MI
02/18/23 - Livonia Swap, Livonia, MI
03/05/23 - Cave City Hamfest, Cave City, KY
03/11-23 - MOVARC Hamfest, Bidwell, OH
03/11/23 - Crossroads Hamfest, Kalamazoo, MI
03/19/23 - Toledo Mobile Radio Assn, Perrysburg, OH
03/26/23 - USECA Hamfest, Troy, MI
04/15/23 - Cuyahoga Falls, Cuyahoga Falls, OH
04/22/23 - Tusco, Dover, OH
04/22/23 - St Joseph, Centreville, MI
04/30/23 - Athens, Athens, OH
If your ARRL Affiliated club plans to request Hamfest Sanctioning, you should make that request well in advance of the scheduled Hamfest date, as this allows adequate time for QST Listings. QST announcements require a 3 month lead time. To be fair to our Division's clubs, the Great Lakes Division policy is to offer a club ARRL Sanctioning for a limit of two hamfests/swaps in any given calendar year, and they must be four months apart. If your swap is cancelled or the date is going to change, please notify ARRL HQ.
For the latest detail on regional hamfests, check the
ARRL web page at:
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar
73,
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
