Section news

Tom Sly, WB8LCD

I’ve heard it said that “Amateur Radio is Dead.” My response to that can only be “Not if you’re one of the one’s who are doing it!” I’ve always thought that I was pretty connected and involved in all that IS Amateur Radio. Well, these past 90 days have been a HUGE wake-up call. I never really thought we were even near dead, but now I can say with certainty, Amateur Radio is alive and well, and one of the most fascinating hobbies in the world! Our numbers might be small, but our activity level is off the charts. If you hold an amateur radio license, but you’re not an active ham, I’ve got a couple words of advice for you: Turn off your TV! Way too many hours are wasted with the mostly drivel that pours out of that box. Get off the couch. It’s just a coffin for those who aren’t dead yet. Have you ever heard of anyone’s GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS made while sitting on a couch? Me neither. Get active and get involved. Even if it’s not Amateur Radio, be involved in something. And, as long as you’re going to be involved in something, Amateur Radio has an awful lot of positive attributes that ought to interest you. It’s a social activity, yet you can always be busy with some part of it on your own. It’s an educational activity, if you stopped learning when you got out of High School or College, then you really didn’t learn the most important lesson of our human experience – we live in a fascinating world and there’s always more to learn about it. As an Amateur Radio operator, you can study and learn about electronics, communications, geography, language, history, computers, space travel, just to name a few. The things you can do are almost limitless – contesting, dxing, dxpeditioning, building, restoring, coding, DFing, - I could go on, but you get it. Amateur Radio is the GREATEST HOBBY IN the WORLD! Last month I told you that I have three main areas that I will be working on for the duration of my term(s) as OH Section Manager. #1. Making sure that the Hams in the OH Section not only have but take advantage of all the opportunities that this hobby gives them to have FUN! #2. Increase the number of licensed hams, increase the number of active hams, and increase the number of ARRL member hams in the OH Section. #3. Increase and improve the public image of Amateur Radio to the general population of OH. I offered a $100 DXE gift card to the club that got the word out in a local publication that Amateur Radio still exists. I have a winner, the Highland Amateur Radio Association. Their press release announced their upcoming Tech class. https://highlandcountypress.com/Content/In-The- News/In-The-News/Article/Highland-Amateur- RadioAssociation-to-hold-entry-license-class- /2/20/65731 Take a look at their release. The interesting twist that I saw here was that they were inviting people to a “Informational Meeting About Amateur Radio” that would include information on licensing and their upcoming class. Nice touch. If you are a typical person who knows nothing about Amateur Radio – why would you be interested in taking their license class? You probably wouldn’t. But here this is an opportunity to learn about what Amateur Radio is all about before you commit to taking a class. And it was tied in to all the current events that involved weather emergencies, something everyone is aware of. Congratulations, nicely done. If you’ve read everything in this newsletter up to this point, you know that Sunday, April 18th is “World Amateur Radio Day”. That sounds to me like the kind of information that needs to get out so that the population begins to see that Amateur Radio IS NOT dead! Thanks to a new initiative at ARRL not only do we get this news, but, also included are press releases that you can modify to identify your club as the source of this information for the public! Please, go back and look at this information (page 25). Let’s make sure the population of the OH Section (aka the state of OHIO) knows about World Amateur Radio Day. The “heavy lifting” has been done for you. To provide feedback on this, please, after you submit your release(s), send me a copy of your release(s) along with the name and contact information of where it was sent. This is coming up soon – time is of the essence – get them in ASAP. Spring is in the air. Not only that, pandemic cases are going down and we’re finding new and creative ways to get back to doing the things we’ve always done. How about sending me some photo’s and a little bit about what you’re doing and how you’re coping? Everyone is dealing with the same Pent Up demand for Amateur Radio Fun and I’m sure that if you have some good ideas someone else will find them useful too. I’ll get the word out. In the February 22 edition of PostScript I had a link to an article from the MVARA Voice Coil. There will be two more additions to that article which will take you through the process of building a multi-band HF wire antenna system. For most of my years as a ham I’ve used wire antennas strung in the trees. I’ve made thousands of Q’s all over the world on the various wire antennas I’ve had up through the years. If you work 40, 80 or 160 it’s pretty much going to be on a wire due to the size. This is a fantastic way to “homebrew” a major component of your station. Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you. Over the next few months I’ll be concentrating on the FUN part of my 3 objectives and will be tossing out lots of projects and activities. That’s it for me this month. Get on the air, build something, try something new! Have fun and let me know what you’re doing.