Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for March, 2023.
December and January are traditionally light months for hamfests, so the arrival of March means a return to swaps and more socializing - post Covid. Some clubs have experienced venue losses, location and date changes and outright swap cancellations. For many clubs, hamfests are major revenue generators, allowing these groups to continue their many services to members and their communities. Please, let's all step up to assisting wherever possible, by helping at the swap, or most importantly, by attending.
A note for ECs, ARRL Form 2 for EC reporting was planned for introduction at the end of February. The ARRL is in the process of updating its servers at HQ and in discussion with the Form 2 Developer and ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston KE5MHV, it was an easy decision to not implement these two items at the same time.
Once the server project is complete, ARRL HQ will roll out the on-line Form 2 for ECs to use in filing their monthly reports.
A word about nets.
Not an admonition, instead, sincere thanks. Truly we have a lot of nets operating these
days. Traffic nets, emergency nets,
weather nets, technical nets, social nets, mobile nets, club nets, DX nets,
scientific nets, and a hundred others that come to mind.
Please forgive me if I failed to mention your favorite. Each has a(n) NCS, most have a Net Manager, and all have you and me as net participants.
Perhaps ranking right up there with amateur radio clubs, nets insure camaraderie among ham operators. The true unsung heroes to honor here are the NM and NCS who manage to keep their nets energized with up-to-date schedules, ensuring the net is ready to roll on time with a net control station and fulfill its stated mission. At that same instant, the net is bringing together a wide range of interests from its participants, who can share for a brief moment, part of their operating experience. Our thanks go out to the gals and guys who work diligently in the background (and sometimes the foreground) to keep all of our nets operating.
By the way, I am sure we all can recall our first experience as an NCS, I certainly do (and to those of you who have not been an NCS or are about to give it a shot, remember we all went through it). I could not hold my pencil, the mike nearly dropped from my sweaty hand and my 21-year-old voice was cracking like I was 13 again. But I got through it and few knew my plight. Now today and few years later, I can't find the pencil, the mike weighs too much to hold and my voice cracks because of those few years.
So now, as a net regular, I encourage you to help your
net out a little, offer to take a time slot as net control and give your NCS a
day off.
Or volunteer to help your Net Manager do some
scheduling. Above all enjoy the various
nets we have, share some of the ideas, cross some of the barriers, steal the
best ideas and continue to improve what we have.
Give a really close listen to how the nets operate, see how an HF net may differ from a VHF net or how similar an ARES net may be to a NTS Traffic net. Check in to your local nets and don't miss out on State, Section and Regional HF nets as well.
Just don't miss dinner.
SCOTT'S STUFF: Comments from your ARRL Vice-Director Scott, N8SY.
Have you had enough of this crazy weather yet?? While the folks in Michigan were battling it out with ice, falling trees and power lines, we here in Ohio were having it just as rough breaking out the suntan lotion and shades and trying to find our summer shorts as that most of Ohio was in the middle to upper 70’s with huge amounts of sunshine! I have to say this winter has been really weird for sure.
Hey, it was really great to see so many of you at the
Livonia Hamfest the other week. I
couldn’t believe the turnout. It was a
packed house. At one point, folks were stacked up 4 and 5 deep at the tables.
I haven’t seen that in several years. Let’s hope that trend continues throughout the rest of the hamfest season!
Now, speaking of hamfests, have you gotten your tickets
and rooms reserved for the Dayton Hamvention yet? You know it’s only 79 days away, so you’d
better get on the stick quickly, as room reservations are going fast! Oh, if you haven’t noticed this yet, the
Hamvention is also going to be the ARRL Great Lakes Division Convention this
year as well!!! YES, we are in the
planning stages for some very special programs including the infamous Royal
Order of the Wouff Hong ceremony, as so many of you have requested. I’m working with the folks at Hamvention on
just where and when it will be held, so stay tuned for more details. We also traditionally have some very special
awards that are only given out during the Great Lakes Division Convention as
well.
Go to: http://arrl-greatlakes.org/awards_criteria.html for all the available awards that can be given out. But, for anyone to receive these awards we will need nominations for them. Please go and take a look at the details for all of these special awards and nominate a deserving person for one of them.
Ok, now I’m sure that some of you newer hams are asking "what’s this Wouff Hong stuff all about??" Here’s a little synopsis for you...
The Royal Order of the WOUFF HONG...
This event can be one of the highlights of a new ham’s
experiences.
The Wouff Hong initiation ceremony was written by
"The Ol' Man" himself and has been a ritual for over 100 years. It's performed by a cast of characters, and
boy, they usually are a cast of characters for sure!
The various roles will have little to no rehearsal and
there’s almost always some adlib thrown into it as well, just to make it even
more fun.
The performance takes about 30 minutes or so, so it won't take up much of your valuable Hamvention time. The requirements... Only licensed amateurs who are members of the ARRL may attend the ceremony and be initiated as members of the R.O.W.H. So, if you're not already a member of the ARRL, let this be an incentive for you to join now. Stay tuned, as there will be more information forthcoming.
Keeping with the Convention theme just a bit more... The Great Lakes Division will once again have a booth at Hamvention inside the ARRL area and just like last year, we are asking everyone to bring a QSL Card with them to post on the Division’s Brag Board. We were overwhelmed last year with the amount of great QSL Cards that we got and this year we are making sure that you know well in advance so that we can have even more cards on display!! We WILL have a much larger Brag Board to display all the great cards we get so be sure to stop by... and don’t forget to bring your QSL card with you to post!
Shifting gears... Have you found time to get on the air and work any of the stations for the Volunteers On The Air (VOTA) Contest? It’s been a blast the few times that I’ve had a chance to get on and just working a few here and there. The other night I got on and worked a few and the next thing I knew I was in the middle of a pileup. I guess someone put out on one of the reflectors that I was on and worth 200 points! That’s all it took. I felt like I was on some rare island or something. I wrapped up after working folks for several hours and finally went QRT. Wow... what an experience for sure. If you haven’t worked me, you can usually find me floating around on 75, 40 or the 10 meter bands.
Shifting gears to come into the pits... Clubs, have your meetings been hybrid (i.e. Zoom, Teams, Go-To-Meeting) as well as 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. What better way to see just what some of your dues go to! There are also many great recorded webinars out there from other folks too and they are just as informative and fun as well. Most of these webinars are around 30 minutes or so, which is just the right amount of time to be informative, yet not so long that they get overly boring or hard on the posterior.
That is going to do it from here this month. Stay safe and "Catch Me On The Air"!!!
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 April 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 indicated.
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 April 2023:
03/04/23 - Cave City Hamfest, Cave City, KY
03/11-23 - MOVARC Hamfest, Bidwell, OH
03/11/23 - Crossroads Hamfest, Kalamazoo, MI
03/12/23 - NOARS Winter Hamfest, Elyria, OH
03/19/23 - Toledo Mobile Radio Assn, Perrysburg, OH
03/26/23 - CANCELLED 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
05/06/23 - Wexaukee ARC Swap, Cadillac, MI
05/07/23 - Lucas County ARES Trunk Swap, Toledo, OH
05/13-17/23 - RV Radio Network Spring Rally (SP Event), Millersburg, OH
05/18-21/23 - ARCI Four Days in May, Fairborn, OH
05/19-21/23 - Dayton Hamvention, Xenia, OH
05/27/23 - Scioto Valley, Piketon, 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
wa8efk@arrl.org
