DELARANEWS

Club Coordinator

Tom Sly, WB8LCD

Spring is finally here in NE Ohio! I’m going to switch it up just a bit for this month. I’ve always talked about the fact that Amateur Radio is a HOBBY. By definition we participate in a hobby because it’s interesting and enjoyable to us. The mission of a ham radio club should be to involve their members in activities that will help them to learn about and enjoy their hobby. Having FUN is what it’s all about! Club Meetings I won’t say too much here that hasn’t been said before. Please, make sure everyone is made to feel welcome at your club meetings. It’s not fun if you’re not included. This is every club members’ responsibility, not just your officers. Everyone should make a point of welcoming visitors and especially new hams. Try not to overburden your members with “club business” at the general club meetings. Instead of debating every little detail, empower people, or committees, to get stuff done – then let them do it! They can report to the club at the meeting knowing that they were given a task to accomplish and trusted to do it right. Sure, you might have done it different, but don’t criticize, thank them for doing a good job! You’ll be amazed at how just this will change the dynamics of your club meetings and relationships with other members. Have a presentation on an interesting topic. Ham Radio is filled with a bunch of really smart people – and so is your club. Read the newsletters of other clubs and see what they are presenting to their membership. You might get a good prospect to be a speaker by seeing what they are doing. One thing I can tell you from personal experience, most Hams are thrilled to share their experiences and knowledge about the hobby with you. Don’t be afraid to ask or intimidated by someone’s notoriety! Get involved with activities and events outside of your own club and meet people. When you can say to them “I saw your presentation at Hamvention (or whatever) and I think our club would really enjoy hearing you, they will be thrilled to do what they can for you. And remember, this is a “high-tech” hobby – look for ways to bring them to your meeting as conveniently as possible. SKYPE presentations are very easy to arrange. Operating Events Field Day is fast approaching! Your club should be participating. This is the premier ham radio operating event in North America. There are two classes: (1) those who are out there getting together with their friends, having a good time, making some Q’s and enjoying some good food and fellowship. (2) Those who are in it to win it! They say it’s not a contest, but they keep score. Sounds like “military intelligence”. If you’re in it as competitors, you have to take a whole different look at what you’re doing. Let me echo the words I heard from Tim Duffy the first time I got to visit at K3LR – keep meticulous records of everything you do. Examine what you did last year, what your results were and what you could change to make it better. Document everything, especially the changes. After the contest, have an “after action” review of your results. Did the changes you made make it better or worse? Document your findings along with suggestions for next years operations. The record keeping and strategy sessions is what will set you apart and keep you improving year over year. Sure, FD is the big one, but there are lots of other contests, special events and other things you can do and participate in. How about a DXpedition to one of the rarer counties or grid squares in OH? If promoted, you could get a lot of good DX just looking for that tough one in OH to help move them forward. Don’t forget about IOTA, OSPOTA, and, the new one, Ohio Courthouses on the Air. (KUDO’s to the Southern Ohio ARA and their PIO Mike Love WB8YKS not only for their activity, but for the fantastic job they are doing making Ham Radio visible to the public!) How about sponsoring a field event where you have to operate QRP? Only homebrew equipment? FT-8 or some other digital mode? Maybe get someone with a new ICOM 7300, someone with an Elecraft K3S and someone else with a Kenwood TS-590 or a Yaesu FTDX 101D, set them all up side by side and give everyone a chance to see how each of them works? Food and beverage could be a big part of this get together! Make some inroads with the local schools, scout troops, church groups, 4-H, anywhere where you can find a group of kids. Help them all build a crystal radio set or put them on the air and work some DX. Set up a Radio Fox Hunt for them. Teach them about and then show them how to do Broadcast Band DXing. Take lots of pictures! The local news will be much more to report on your activities when you’re doing something for the youth of their communities. The whole point here is getting together, get on the air and have some fun. Whether it’s only a couple of you, or maybe a large group, you’re going to have fun, probably learn a few things and have a good time with your friends! Other Ham Radio Activities All hams like to build things! Get creative here and “kit up” some projects. Try them out with the members of your club – who knows – you might just come up with something that others would want (check out some of the QRP Clubs, for instance the 4-states QRP group, who have been very successful at making and kitting up small projects that have been a big hit). Have a “build day” to bring your members together someplace to build their projects together and make sure everyone leaves with a working project. Simple projects might include a G5RV antenna, don’t let your club members tell you they’re not on the air because they don’t have an antenna! Once built, you might even plan a day to help them get it in the air at their home QTH. J-poles are easy to build projects and you can find lots of plans in the amateur literature. I’ve seen and built a roll-up J-pole made out of twin line, a Plumbers J-pole made out of copper that can be broken down for easy transport and a simple 2-band J-pole for permanent roof mount that is a simple project to make. Depending on your group, and how easy you want it to be, you can provide all parts cut to length, threaded where necessary so it’s just a “put the pieces together” kind of kit. Or, you can have each member do all the prep work for his own antenna, possibly giving them the chance to experience something they have never done before. Either way it’s all good! I mentioned crystal radios before, even adults can have fun building one. Now he’s got something to show his grandkids. What ham can’t use a power-pole distribution box? There are plenty of plans available and it’s an easy project. Whether for power or signal, building jumper cables is a good group project – by cable and connectors in bulk and give everyone a chance to make a couple power-pole cables and coax jumpers of different lengths. Want to learn Morse code? Start with a code practice oscillator – another simple project which has lots of schematics available to use. Take it to the next step – design and make printed circuit boards or try building it “Manhattan” style. These are all pretty simple projects. Want something more involved? There are literally dozens of kits available for a “group build”. Again, most of them are going to be in the QRP world, but there are some pretty neat and sophisticated kits available. Look at the micro-bitx transceiver kit. A multi- band transceiver with some pretty neat features that can be had for about $150 delivered to your door! It’ll never replace my K3S, but it’s still pretty neat to make Q’s on a radio you built yourself! As the Reverend Robert Schuller from the Crystal Cathedral in California used to say: “Don’t just sit there! Do something!” (I think I just invented Ham Radio Evangelism!) Hope to see you all at Hamvention. That’s it for now. Let me know what’s on your mind. tomsly29@gmail.com
DELARANews

Club Coordinator

Tom Sly, WB8LCD

Spring is finally here in NE Ohio! I’m going to switch it up just a bit for this month. I’ve always talked about the fact that Amateur Radio is a HOBBY. By definition we participate in a hobby because it’s interesting and enjoyable to us. The mission of a ham radio club should be to involve their members in activities that will help them to learn about and enjoy their hobby. Having FUN is what it’s all about! Club Meetings I won’t say too much here that hasn’t been said before. Please, make sure everyone is made to feel welcome at your club meetings. It’s not fun if you’re not included. This is every club members’ responsibility, not just your officers. Everyone should make a point of welcoming visitors and especially new hams. Try not to overburden your members with “club business” at the general club meetings. Instead of debating every little detail, empower people, or committees, to get stuff done – then let them do it! They can report to the club at the meeting knowing that they were given a task to accomplish and trusted to do it right. Sure, you might have done it different, but don’t criticize, thank them for doing a good job! You’ll be amazed at how just this will change the dynamics of your club meetings and relationships with other members. Have a presentation on an interesting topic. Ham Radio is filled with a bunch of really smart people – and so is your club. Read the newsletters of other clubs and see what they are presenting to their membership. You might get a good prospect to be a speaker by seeing what they are doing. One thing I can tell you from personal experience, most Hams are thrilled to share their experiences and knowledge about the hobby with you. Don’t be afraid to ask or intimidated by someone’s notoriety! Get involved with activities and events outside of your own club and meet people. When you can say to them “I saw your presentation at Hamvention (or whatever) and I think our club would really enjoy hearing you, they will be thrilled to do what they can for you. And remember, this is a “high-tech” hobby – look for ways to bring them to your meeting as conveniently as possible. SKYPE presentations are very easy to arrange. Operating Events Field Day is fast approaching! Your club should be participating. This is the premier ham radio operating event in North America. There are two classes: (1) those who are out there getting together with their friends, having a good time, making some Q’s and enjoying some good food and fellowship. (2) Those who are in it to win it! They say it’s not a contest, but they keep score. Sounds like “military intelligence”. If you’re in it as competitors, you have to take a whole different look at what you’re doing. Let me echo the words I heard from Tim Duffy the first time I got to visit at K3LR – keep meticulous records of everything you do. Examine what you did last year, what your results were and what you could change to make it better. Document everything, especially the changes. After the contest, have an “after action” review of your results. Did the changes you made make it better or worse? Document your findings along with suggestions for next years operations. The record keeping and strategy sessions is what will set you apart and keep you improving year over year. Sure, FD is the big one, but there are lots of other contests, special events and other things you can do and participate in. How about a DXpedition to one of the rarer counties or grid squares in OH? If promoted, you could get a lot of good DX just looking for that tough one in OH to help move them forward. Don’t forget about IOTA, OSPOTA, and, the new one, Ohio Courthouses on the Air. (KUDO’s to the Southern Ohio ARA and their PIO Mike Love WB8YKS not only for their activity, but for the fantastic job they are doing making Ham Radio visible to the public!) How about sponsoring a field event where you have to operate QRP? Only homebrew equipment? FT-8 or some other digital mode? Maybe get someone with a new ICOM 7300, someone with an Elecraft K3S and someone else with a Kenwood TS-590 or a Yaesu FTDX 101D, set them all up side by side and give everyone a chance to see how each of them works? Food and beverage could be a big part of this get together! Make some inroads with the local schools, scout troops, church groups, 4-H, anywhere where you can find a group of kids. Help them all build a crystal radio set or put them on the air and work some DX. Set up a Radio Fox Hunt for them. Teach them about and then show them how to do Broadcast Band DXing. Take lots of pictures! The local news will be much more to report on your activities when you’re doing something for the youth of their communities. The whole point here is getting together, get on the air and have some fun. Whether it’s only a couple of you, or maybe a large group, you’re going to have fun, probably learn a few things and have a good time with your friends! Other Ham Radio Activities All hams like to build things! Get creative here and “kit up” some projects. Try them out with the members of your club – who knows – you might just come up with something that others would want (check out some of the QRP Clubs, for instance the 4-states QRP group, who have been very successful at making and kitting up small projects that have been a big hit). Have a “build day” to bring your members together someplace to build their projects together and make sure everyone leaves with a working project. Simple projects might include a G5RV antenna, don’t let your club members tell you they’re not on the air because they don’t have an antenna! Once built, you might even plan a day to help them get it in the air at their home QTH. J-poles are easy to build projects and you can find lots of plans in the amateur literature. I’ve seen and built a roll-up J-pole made out of twin line, a Plumbers J-pole made out of copper that can be broken down for easy transport and a simple 2-band J-pole for permanent roof mount that is a simple project to make. Depending on your group, and how easy you want it to be, you can provide all parts cut to length, threaded where necessary so it’s just a “put the pieces together” kind of kit. Or, you can have each member do all the prep work for his own antenna, possibly giving them the chance to experience something they have never done before. Either way it’s all good! I mentioned crystal radios before, even adults can have fun building one. Now he’s got something to show his grandkids. What ham can’t use a power- pole distribution box? There are plenty of plans available and it’s an easy project. Whether for power or signal, building jumper cables is a good group project – by cable and connectors in bulk and give everyone a chance to make a couple power-pole cables and coax jumpers of different lengths. Want to learn Morse code? Start with a code practice oscillator – another simple project which has lots of schematics available to use. Take it to the next step – design and make printed circuit boards or try building it “Manhattan” style. These are all pretty simple projects. Want something more involved? There are literally dozens of kits available for a “group build”. Again, most of them are going to be in the QRP world, but there are some pretty neat and sophisticated kits available. Look at the micro- bitx transceiver kit. A multi-band transceiver with some pretty neat features that can be had for about $150 delivered to your door! It’ll never replace my K3S, but it’s still pretty neat to make Q’s on a radio you built yourself! As the Reverend Robert Schuller from the Crystal Cathedral in California used to say: “Don’t just sit there! Do something!” (I think I just invented Ham Radio Evangelism!) Hope to see you all at Hamvention. That’s it for now. Let me know what’s on your mind. tomsly29@gmail.com