Life After NPOTA

This post stems from a presentation which I gave to the Silvercreek ARA in March, of 2017.

The premise is "NPOTA (National Parks On The Air) was awesome, but now that it's over, what do I do now?

Well, you could give up and complain that Ham Radio is no fun anymore, or you could take all your new found skills and. . . . "Wait a minute" you say, "What new skills?" Yes, it's not possible to have been involved in an event like NPOTA without learning something.

From how to set up a portable station outdoors, to effectively managing a pileup, to breaking a pileup, you learned something.

Now, take that knowledge and pass it on to others.

• Be an Elmer
• Volunteer to organize your club Field Day Effort.
• Do a talk to your local radio club

Here's some suggestions on things to do for fun now that NPOTA is over. 

• Summits On The Air
• US Islands
• WWFF (Parks On The Air)
• Lighthouses
• World Castles Award
• Special Event Stations
• State Parks On The Air
• Ohio (OSPOTA)
• Indiana (INPOTA)
• Texas (TPOTA)
• Florida (FLSPOTA)
• Michigan ( MSPOTA - Not a contest, but a 3 year On The Air celebration of the Michigan state parks)

Feel free to reply with your ideas on how to have "life After NPOTA".

Silvercreek ARA receives SSC Certificate

On November 17th, I attended the Silvercreek ARA meeting, in Wadsworth. The special event that night was that the ARRL 8th region Director, Dale, WA8EFK was coming to speak. 

While there, he would be presenting the clubs Special Service Club Certificate. Pictured at right is Dale, (r) presenting the certificate to Zeke, AB8OU (r). 

The ARRL Ohio Section is one of the largest of the ARRL sections, with over 28,000 Amateur operators in our section, alone. Also, we have 108 ARRL affiliated clubs in the Ohio Section. Only 27 of them are Special Service clubs. 

Is your club thinking about becoming a Special Service Club? get in touch with myself, or your Section Manager, Scott, N8SY. We'll be happy to discuss it with you. 

I've found that most clubs already qualify for Special Service Club status. The only thing stopping them is the paperwork. The paperwork isn't complicated. in fact it can be done inside of an hour. 

So, if you'd like more information, I can be reached via e-mail at kd8mq1@gmail.comkd8mq1@gmail.com. Hope to talk to you soon! DE KD8MQ

Anyone Doing Group Builds?

Hi,

My local club is planning for a group build sometime this winter. In case anyone is wondering a group build is just what the name implies. a group of us get together, and build a common project.

It seems like a great way to get together with other Hams and do some socializing. We also have some new Hams who have expressed interest.

Here's some of the ideas we've tossed around both on our Facebook group, and in person.

• Potato gun
• Roll up J-Pole
• 40 Meter QRP transceiver
• HF Dipole

If any of you are doing group builds, please leave a comment, and share your experiences for all to read. I may also use this in an upcoming ACC column in the Ohio section Journal. Thanks & 73 DE KD8MQ

"I'm The Person"

The following came across "Larry's List" a few weeks ago. While we've all seen various versions of this over the years, the message is a good one. It is infinitely easier to retain current members than to continually recruit new ones.

How do we keep members? Sometimes, you can't. But, sometimes it's as simple as acknowledging a new member, and making it a point to introduce yourself.

I'll be referring to this letter in my column in the April edition of the Ohio Section Journal.
 ________

“I’m the Person”

I’m the person who was asked to join your organization. I’m the person who paid dues to join. I’m the person who came to your meetings and no one paid any attention to me. I tried several times to be friendly to some of the members, but they all had their own friends to talk to and to sit next to. I sat down alone several times, but no one paid any attention to me. I hoped very much that somebody would have asked me to take part in a fund raising project or something, but no one saw my efforts when I volunteered.

I missed a few meetings after joining, because I was sick and couldn’t be there. No one asked me at the next meeting where I had been. I guess it did not matter very much whether I was there or not. The next meeting I decided to stay home and watch TV. I attended the following meeting and no one asked me where I was when the last meeting was held.

You might say I’m OK, a good family person who holds a responsible job, loves the community and the country. You know who else I am? I’m the person who never came back.

It amuses me when I think back on how the heads of the organization were discussing why the organization was losing members. It amuses me now that you spent so much time looking for new members, when I was there all the time. All you had to do was make me feel needed, wanted and welcome.

Regretfully yours,

A Member You Lost

"Taken from a publication of the Ararat Shrine, Kansas City, Missouri. A search of the internet has turned up nothing, so author is unknown.”

_________________

By the Way, Larry's List is a e-mail list based out of the Kansas City area. Administered by Larry Staples, W0AIB, it boasts over 1600 subscribers.
While a lot of the content pertains to the Kansas City area, there's also a lot of good general interest postings.
You can read more about it at http://larryslist.info/.

73 DE John, KD8MQ

Club Event Idea

As this is being written, it is pretty miserable outside. but, we're already making plans for warm weather.
On April 25th from 10 AM to 2 PM, Ohio ARES will be holding their NVIS Antenna Day.
Stan, N8BHL is planning for all 88 counties to be on the air in this 4 hour antenna test.
Additional equipment required includes Hot dogs, Hamburgers, and side dishes.
So in other words, get your club members out there and do some socializing outside of club meetings, and on the air nets. You won't regret it.
Here's the full text from the December issue of the Ohio Section Journal:

FROM THE SECTION EMERGENCY COORDINATOR
By Stan Broadway, N8BHL
broadways@standi.com 

OHIO ARES NVIS Antenna Day – April 25..

Get your antenna books out, get together with some friends and come up with a winner! The Ohio ARES NVIS Antenna day has been scheduled for April 25, 2015. Operating hours 10AM – 2PM. Frequency: around the Ohio ARES 40 meter frequency of 7.240 plus or minus, and around 3.850-3.870 plus or minus.

We have all been through several presentations of NVIS (Near vertical sky wave, or “Cloud burner”) antennas. Sure, the concept is cool and it ought to work. But it’s time to put away the antenna modelers, the calculators and theory and get down with some wire and some coax! Have you actually ~tried~ one of these? If there was a wide-scale disaster requiring you to communicate with nearby counties and Columbus (or other state capitals) do you have confidence you could actually make this work? The best way to find out is to try!

We’re taking the lead from Ashtabula, who has had several annual antenna days that were a great success. The idea here is to actually ~build~ different NVIS antennas and try them out against each other. Come up with different concepts: vertical, horizontal, semi-something, and try different elevations from ground level all the way up to the towering height of, say, 20 feet. See which antenna does the best at working nearby counties, Columbus, and neighboring locations as if we were in a large-scale disaster.

This isn’t really a contest, in the sense that we’re not looking so much at lots-o-q so’s as we are at comparing our various antennas. So it will be more beneficial to keep track of HONEST signal reports from the same station using our various antennas. We will want to have reports (including pictures?) of your various antennas and how they stood up to each other. From a simple grid or ranking of your best three or four performers, we can compare these across the state and come up with overall suggestions as the most desirable NVIS setup to have in your tool box.  This information may come in very handy for your spring Field Day efforts! But we all know that Field Day, or any other similar contest, is NOT the time or place to be testing antennas- we are in it for QSO numbers and rates! So this is a great day to get some honest experimenting done!

And there’s MORE!..We are strongly suggesting additional equipment for your field tests: a good grill, some hamburgers and side dishes! This should be far enough into spring that it will be nice to be outside (even with a jacket on) and it’s an excellent time to have a picnic, get some fellowship in, and generally relax! So in your planning, include proximity to somewhere to eat! Use a park, someone’s property, or be creative! Remember we’re testing antennas, so next to a power plant might not be the best idea. The food and fellowship makes this great fun! And, we’re not limited strictly to “ARES People”. If your local radio club has some experts, draft ‘em! It’s all about the fellowship, the fun, and the feuding antennas!

More information will follow- but I would love to activate as many (or all!) Ohio counties as possible to make this a benchmark test!

ARRL Library Opens for business

On January 13th, “The ARRL Library” opened for business. You can read about this in depth at  http://www.arrl.org/news/the-arrl-library-goes-live.

So, what ]is the ARRL Library? It's a free repository of educational presentations and oral histories pertaining to Amateur Radio. It is aimed at helping to preserve Amateur Radio’s history and to educate clubs and individuals. It's divided up into three sections, PDFs, PowerPoints, and Oral Histories. 

While you can download PowerPoints, and PDFs to use for club programs, You are also able to upload your material to the library. Full details are on the League’s website.

They'll also be accepting oral histories for the library. How's this for a club project? Interview some of your older members about the state of Amateur Radio "back in the day",  and submit the recordings to the library.  

Welcome back Conneaut Hamfest!

No it wasn't huge, but boy was it a friendly local Hamfest

Recently I attended the Conneaut Hamfest. Once I heard the mobile check-in station, I knew this was not just your everyday hamfest.

"This is W8BHZ, check in station for the Conneaut Hamfest; BACK IN TOWN" 

Yes, the Conneaut Hamfest is back after a twenty year absence. 

KD8OSJ handling the front door

The crowd wasn't huge, but I had a great time! KD8OSJ, and his crew went to great lengths to ensure that everyone had a good time. 

They even had free coffee! I challenge you to find that at any hamfest today.

Conneaut is the home of Astatic; the folks responsible for the D-104 mic, as well as pickups for phonographs, as well as for sonar receivers in WW2. 

You can find out more about the Conneaut ARA at http://qsl.net/w8bhz/. 

There's a couple Astatic historical sites on the web, but I liked this one: http://www.astatic.org/