Monthly Section News Summaries
Monthly Summary for October 2009
Hello, fellow hams: Here is the second monthly treatise of my administrative
year. And it has been a busy month. Let’s see why:
First off, there were 3 recent hamfests, all enjoyable. The Lagrange folk
picked a very foggy and rainy morning for their first ever hamfest. However,
all was indoors and all 75 had a good time. Several new hams occurred in the
testing sessions. Way to go, guys!
Next week was the regular ‘fest in Augusta. The ARCA folk had good weather
for the outdoor bone yard. I hope Charles, K4GK was able to enrich some
others with his possessions which he would part with. The club did have
significant door prizes. Nice to meet and talk radio with President Dave
KI4NFJ and VP MS Boots WX4BB. Sparky (from way back when sparks meant--you
know—brass pounding) gave me some valuable pointers.
Third was the first Hamfest for the Rome GA club. This old fashioned tailgate
event occurred in the very cool clime (this old south GA boy realized that it
was later in the year, higher in altitude and farther north!) A friendlier
bunch could not be found and looks like this will be a repeat for a while.
Biggest story around lately is the problem of “Commercialization of Amateur
Radio”. Those of you who got in to the Webinar Wednesday 10/28 learned two
things: 1. ARRL has demonstrated a fantastic method of getting information
out with this technique, and 2. the sky is not falling. Businesses and
government entities are looking at us. Commercial radios are very expensive
compared to ours, the spectrum is very limited for them. Access to it is
difficult, expensive and time-consuming. Further, we do what we do extremely
well and are attracting greedy attention. The FCC is not playing “gotcha”
with us, but wants us to regulate ourselves within the idea of a
noncommercial service and hobby. Look at what you are about to transmit. If
it benefits the public and not the agency, it probably is OK. Don’t demand a
list of do’s and don’ts from the FCC. They clearly do not want to do that,
and if we forced it, we probably would not like the result. Also, do not try
to make ARRL a regulatory agency—it is not.
Look forward to the annual ARES Meeting at Forsyth on January 23. SEC Mike,
KE4FGF tells us that the focus is going to be on the most important person in
EMCOMM: The EC and his crew. Much of the morning session will be an open
forum for EC’s and members to voice your concerns and questions. We need
these before the meeting to organize the presentation. Please, please send
in your questions and concerns to Mike Brown, at ke4fgf@arrl.net. These will
be studied and answered.
Secondly, do you know someone who ought to be recognized as Georgia ARES Ham
of the Year (HOTY)? Please send in your nominations to David AG4ZR
ag4zr@arrl.net. Include your reasons for the nomination and why this amateur
deserves the recognition at the Forsyth meeting in January.
KM4Z, Lowry, our ASEC for Operations has brought in K2HJ, Jan as DEC ARESMAT.
Jan has big plans to form a select group of hams with credentials available
for assistance when local hams request outside help for an emergency.
Our new OOC, Rich WB4A, has found much to work on. There is repeater jamming
in north greater Atlanta, bootlegging of a Georgia Ham’s call on 75 m,
hunters (poachers) with illegal 2 meter radios (even if licensed, they are
not identifying) who are hunting deer with dogs in southeast Georgia.
Finally an attempt by a municipality to outlaw outside antennas (specifically
mentioning amateur radio) will go nowhere, because our legal people (WA4PZD
Cooper, and N1ND Dan) have been effectively brought into play.
Barry, W4TGA our ASEC for Public Health is working on getting more radio
setups in regional hospitals. Money is scarce, but there is real hope for
help. My bet is that he will be quite successful, because it is so well
recognized as an important resource in times of disaster.
John, WB4QDX, our DEC for Georgia Public Broadcasting, tells me that money is
definitely available for DSTAR repeaters around the state. Did we mention
that ham radio is about always learning something new?
JOTA exercises were very successful in two notable parts of Georgia. KA4KOE
led the Savannah group along with AJ4MY, K4GTM, KF4MND and W4WTO working with
3 soldiers from Hunter Army Airfield and 68 scouts. As special event station
W4S they demonstrated several of the HF bands with some DX, and several modes
including some digital. Antenna raising and fox hunting was demonstrated and
scouting awards were achieved.
WA4ZXV Norm reports that the GARS in Lawrenceville had a great JOTA with 50
scouts getting merit badges as they demonstrated several of the HF bands and
of course ‘dogs and chips in a pavilion while weather was cool with rain.
Around the state:
Do look at the write-up on 94 year old Harvey, W4TG:
(http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=70064&catid=153).
Harvey was at Pearl Harbor when the bombs started dropping. A great story
about one of our “Greatest Generation”. Harvey got his commercial license at
age 16.
Laurens County has two new leaders: Marcus KF5TA is EC and John WA4FRI is
AEC. Laurens County has been moved into the Central District.
ARCA (Augusta) provided communications support for the Iron Man Competition
(cycling, running and swimming) on September 27, with 3300 athletes from
various countries competing.
GARC/Gateway ARC(Cleveland) provided a 4 week course and testing session
netting 6 new Generals and one new Tech.
The NGARC (Dahlonega) club provided sag drivers and communications for the
annual Six Gap Bike Ride with 2300 riders completing the 100 mile course.
Several VHF and UHF repeaters plus cross-banding were required to cover the
course in this mountainous area.
Dr. Wil NM4W, DEC Central announces that he now has an active EC in each of
his 24 counties. Central District has absorbed 3 counties in the past year.
Welcome to Clifford W4CDM EC of Dooly County.
All hams are invited to the North Fulton Amateur Radio League’s Meeting with
Joel Hallas, QST’s Technical Editor. See
http://nfarl.org/pdf/Joel_Hallas.pdf for details.
Lawrenceville: Look for your Division Director and Vice Director with the
S.E.C. in the ARES Forum as well as the ARRL Forum. Lots of hot topics.
Upcoming contests: 1) November 7/8 CW Sweepstakes. 2) November 21/22 Phone
Sweepstakes. 3) November 28/29 World Wide CW. Contesters and
Net/Rag-chewers: No one has special rights to any frequency or mode, so
let’s play nice.
73,
Gene, W4AYK, Section Manager Georgia
Page last modified: 11:54 PM, 01 Oct 2009 ET
Page author: w4ayk@arrl.org
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