Dale's Tales for September

Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for September, 2019.

At several recent hamfests, I have had the opportunity to seriously discuss the status of our Great Lakes Division radio clubs with some of their members.  The range of comments was extraordinary, from "very healthy and growing" to "desperate and dying".  The latter of course was very disappointing news.  Why the differences?  We did discuss them and also talked about what possible changes had affected the dying clubs.

[This is where this message gets tenuous.]  The members' comments seemed often to relate to the effectiveness of the current slate of officers and/or their immediate predecessors.  This is of course reported from the members' personal perspective and may have no basis in fact.

However, for most of us, perception is pretty close to reality, so the comments included items such as these:  Some leaders had grown weary of the job and could not recruit replacements, others seemed unaware of their plight, others seemed to have no plans for the club while other leaders pointed their fingers at the "other guy" being at fault, not facing the reality of their own situation.

In the meantime, the really successful clubs are reported to have truly active and involved leadership, programs at their meetings, guest speakers, club projects, special interest groups, active local nets, club field activities, club parties, and importantly a PLAN to make themselves a success.

Perhaps it is time for the less than successful clubs to take a self-examination and ask themselves "Where do we want to go and how do we want to get there?"  Frankly folks, if your club Board of Directors does not occasionally meet and plan for the club's future, you may want to consider urging them to move in that direction.  Strong words I am sure, but today, one has a choice to do the things necessary to succeed, adapt to change, and CREATE excitement and growth, or face the unfortunate alternative: a slow and certain demise.  From some of the members from those clubs on that slippery slope, I have heard the stories of "power struggles", "club empires" "entrenched officers" and a host of other reasons alleging change is not possible.  Really?

Club members need to stand up and take action.  Don't allow a continuing stagnant condition to exist in your club, empower yourselves to make change.  Set some goals to make your club the success it needs to be.

It only takes two or three to create a "wake up call" and encourage the

needed changes.   Plans and goals are critical to a club's future, have

at it!  

To those clubs on the successful part: congratulations!  Keep it rolling!  To those ready to make the paradigm shift to a new adventure, best wishes for your renewed success.

TOM'S TOME  Comments from your ARRL Vice Director Tom W8WTD.

Of the many ways that ham radio has changed over the years, one of them has to be in the operating habits of many of us. It used to be that you could find contacts on the HF bands easily, whenever they were open. (As an operator who prefers SSB, I wish we were at a different point in the sunspot cycle. Oh well....) Of course, there are still some contacts to be made. But not as easily. Maybe our schedules provide us with so many more things to do that we allocate less time to radio.

So “events” become more important. Probably the biggest event to bring out lots of activity of HF was the National Parks on the Air several years ago. It was the right combination of contesting, contacting, portable operating, etc., to really make a hit with hams and get a lot of radio waves stirred up.

There are still lots of operating events to take advantage of. For example, the state QSO parties usually do well for participation. So if you’re looking for an “event,” you can probably find something to operate in most weekends.

A short-term “event” sponsored by ARRL is coming up right now. The Hiram Percy Maxim Birthday Celebration starts on August 31st and runs through September 8th. Full details are on the ARRL website or in the September issue of QST.

Some of us need an “excuse” to get on the air, or at least an assurance that we’ll find stations to work. This is a good one. Hope we take advantage of it.

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

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.

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 Hamfest 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.  Plan ahead and request your ARRL Officials to attend.

With 52 weeks and 70+ hamfests in the Great Lakes Division, things do double up a little and we need to share duties. 

9/7/19             GRAHamfest                        Wyoming, MI

9/7/19             CMARC Hamfest                 Okemos, MI

9/7/19             Greater Louisville                 Shepherdsville, KY

9/8/19             Findlay Hamfest                    Findlay, OH

9/14/19           Central Kentucky                  Richmond, KY

9/15/19           Adrian Hamfest                     Adrian, MI

9/21/19           GMARC Trunk Swap           Shelby Twp, MI

9/21/19           OHKYIN ARS Hamfest       Cincinnati, OH

9/22/19           Cleveland Hamfest                Berea, OH

9/22/19           Flying Beers Int'l                   Ferndale, MI

9/28/19           Paintsville Hamfest               Paintsville, KY

10/5/19           Alpena Swap                         Alpena, MI

10/5/19           Scioto Valley                         Chillicothe, OH

10/12/19         Northwest Ohio ARC            Lima, OH

10/19/19         Muskegon Color Tour           Muskegon, MI

10/20/19         Kalamazoo                            Kalamazoo, MI

10/26/19         Hazard Hamfest                    Hazard, KY

           

73, Were you on the air today???   Ham it up!

Dale Williams WA8EFK

Director

Great Lakes Division

wa8efk@arrl.org

ARRL bestows honor to Great Lakes Division ham.

Each year, the ARRL offers an award to recognize someone who has served admirably as an ARRL Section Manager.  

The Knight Distinguished Service Award recognizes exceptionally notable contributions by a Section Manager to the health and vitality of the League.  The first such award was presented to Joe T. Knight, W5PDY (now SK) in 2003 -- for whom the award was named -- in recognition of his exemplary service not only as the ARRL Section New Mexico Section Manager for more than a quarter century, but also for his willingness to share his knowledge and skills.

The Knight Distinguished Service Award may be awarded to an ARRL Section Manager who has distinguished himself or herself in accordance with the following ideals:

Exceptionally notable contributions over an extended period of time within his or her Section and beyond.

Demonstrated efforts that have contributed to the health and vitality of the ARRL and its Field Organization.

Displayed actions that are in the spirit of the unselfish contributions of Joe T. Knight, W5PDY.

Nominations may be made by any ARRL member and accompanied by a narrative of the accomplishments of the nominee identifying the long term contributions of the nominee to ARRL and its Field Organization.

The nominations are reviewed by the ARRL Programs and Service Committee, which makes the formal recommendation to the ARRL Board of Directors. 

With that background, I am truly pleased to announce to all, at its July meeting, the ARRL Board of Directors honored Ohio Section Manager Scott Yonally N8SY with the Knight Distinguished Service Award.  Scott easily met all of the required criteria and most certainly has shown exemplary service to the members of the ARRL Ohio Section, Great Lakes Division and the entire ARRL Field Organization.

Please join Vice Director Tom Delaney W8WTD and me in congratulating Scott on this very special occasion. 

73,

Dale Williams WA8EFK

Director

Great Lakes Division

ARRL

Dale's Tales for August

Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for August, 2019.

In visits to hamfests and meeting with everyone, I am often asked "What is ARRL doing to promote ham radio in the news media?"  As a matter of fact, we actually do a great deal in promoting our hobby, but rarely is it enough in the eyes of our members.  National events and amateur radio's participation get good coverage, more of course in the region where the event occurred, but there seems to be little reporting when a local public service event occurs.

Yet, as we all know, most of the local more or less routine activities, such as parades, runs, walkathons, races, and the like, rarely get mentioned in the news much to our chagrin.  So how do we fix this?  We fix it by insisting upon more activity on the part of our many Public Information Officers (PIO). We have about 50 PIOS in the Great Lakes Division.  These are the folks closest to the events and closest to the local news media.  Many of our PIOs are on a first name basis with local reporters and media people.  They are the "Go-To People" when questions about ham radio arise.  And it is the PIO who is best positioned to keep the media advised of our day-to-day amateur radio activities.

To assist our PIOS in this effort, ARRL has created through our Lifelong Learning project a complete course in Public Relations called PR-101.

The goal is to provide our PIOS with the tools necessary to help them do an outstanding job in reporting what is happening in ham radio and how ham radio benefits our communities.   All PIOs and those interested in becoming one should check out http://www.arrl.org/pr-courses and

register for the program.   It is a lot about relationship building and as we all know that is the key to success in virtually everything we do these days.

Oh, and I just checked, today there are just eleven slots open for students in the forthcoming online course.   So don't delay.  The cost:  ZERO.  The benefits: UNLIMITED.

TOM'S TOME  Comments from your ARRL Vice Director Tom W8WTD.

The future of ham radio is: more hams!  Younger hams.  And older hams. Tech-savvy hams.  Experimenters.  Public service hams.

My wording, but that was the essential message at the recent Board of Directors meeting.  Rick Roderick, K5UR, the ARRL President, keeps talking about it.  Howard Michel, WB2ITX, writes about it in his editorial columns.  The ARRL staff is working on ways to improve our communications with those who get licensed.

And throughout the Great Lakes Division, many clubs are stepping up with classes.  We’ve had some good numbers recently.  Sadly, the overall number of licensees is down this year nationwide from a year ago.  We all know that the ham population is aging.  If we want the hobby/service to continue, we need to recruit more people.

There are two problems as I see it.  One is getting people interested to begin with.  And the second is giving them something they like to do once they are licensed.  Again, some clubs are finding new ways to engage new hams, making sure they understand how to get on the air, providing challenges, and helping them with applications that might have never thought of.

We all tend to do what we know best, and most of us realize that for us, ham radio is based on what we did and still do.  There are many aspects of the hobby that don’t appeal to everyone equally.  We need to ask ourselves what things interest Makers?  They may know about the Raspberry Pi, but do they know how it can be used in ham radio?  What forms of say, Mesh networks or data transfers will draw the interest of our EmComm and Public Service contingent, and will encourage further experimentation?  Which group might find weak-signal propagation most interesting?

Here are two questions.  Club leaders, is your club growing or shrinking?  If your membership numbers are down, maybe you need to expand your horizon of what your club can do.  And for everyone –what things are most likely to cause that spark of interest that will result in new challenges, new scientific breakthroughs in radio, and more enjoyment of the hobby?

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

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.

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 Hamfest 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.  Plan ahead and request your ARRL Officials to attend. With 52 weeks and 70+ hamfests in the Great Lakes Division, things do double up a little and we need to share duties. 

8/3/19             Columbus Hamfest              Columbus, OH

8/3/19             U. P. Hamfest                       Escanaba, MI

8/10/19           DX Engineering Hamfest    Tallmadge, OH

8/10/19           Central Kentucky                 Lexington, KY

8/11/19           Seaway Trunk Swap            Port Huron, MI

8/17/19           GARS Germantown            Germantown, OH

9/7/19             GRAHamfest                      Wyoming, MI

9/7/19             CMARC Hamfest                Okemos, MI

9/7/19             Greater Louisville                Shepherdsville, KY

9/8/19             Findlay Hamfest                  Findlay, OH

9/14/19           Central Kentucky                Richmond, KY

9/15/19           Adrian Hamfest                   Adrian, MI

9/21/19           GMARC Trunk Swap          Shelby Twp, MI

9/21/19           OHKYIN ARS Hamfest      Cincinnati, OH

9/22/19           Cleveland Hamfest              Berea, OH

9/22/19           Flying Beers Int'l                 Ferndale, MI

9/28/19           Paintsville Hamfest             Paintsville, KY

           

73, Were you on the air today???   Ham it up!

Dale Williams WA8EFK

Director

Great Lakes Division

wa8efk@arrl.org