[ALHam] Press release from Alabama

[Courtney Judd]

Hi OM;

	I had noticed your call appearing in some of the printed results of =
ARRL/CQ contest in the past few years. Due to your participation in =
these contests I hope you find the rest of this note interesting.
	In light of a recent ARRL Contest Advisory Committee/ Board of =
Directors ruling regarding contest club area(175mi radius ruling) to let =
clubs(mainly contest/dx clubs) decide whether to use a 175 mile radius =
or ARRL section as their membership domain had stimulated me to think =
that a contest club encompassing the whole ARRL Section might be an =
interesting and rewarding undertaking.
	Here in North Alabama, Lauderdale and Colbert counties there is little =
contest activity. Jeff, N4YQ has been getting involved and I have =
started building a small multi-operator station which is 66% complete =
antenna wise. I had started to participate with the Tennessee Contest =
Group(TCG) out of the Nashville, Tn. area when the above mentioned =
ruling from the ARRL CAC came about.  The TCG sentiment is that they =
will be changing their club geographical area to encompass the TN =
section which to me only seem right but puts me out of the group. This =
leaves me out in the cold as I am also 25 mile outside the 175 radius of =
the South East Contest Club(SECC). Since I have always enjoyed =
contesting(circa 1963) and belonging to a group of like interest =
amateurs .
	I had contacted K4WI, Courtney Judd of Uniontown  whom I have know for =
many years and discussed this idea with him. He jumped on board with =
some reservations which soon melted away as we discussed the =
possibilities of an organization solely to promote and sustain the =
interest/activity of contesting(competition) within the AL section. The =
discussion resulted in the following issues a club of this nature should =
address:

. 		Promote all forms of contesting
						HF/VHF/UHF
						CW,  SSB, RTTY, PSK31 etc.

. 		Sharing of Technical expertise and experience
. 		Exchange Operating techniques
. 		Mentoring of interested amateurs(educate/train)
. 		Intra-club competition
. 		Regional/national Club competition (aggregate scores)
. 		Comradery and fellowship on and off the air
	Currently with the efforts of Jeff, N4YQ there is a website which will =
allow any interested party to sign-up if interested. Jeff, Court and I =
are looking for ideas and suggestions in regards to all facets of the =
organization. There is currently no time frame to accomplish the =
finalization of the organization. We feel it will be driven by the =
interest of the amateur community within the section. We have discussed =
getting together at the three major hamfest in the section (Montgomery, =
Birmingham, Huntsville) in order to have some face-face meetings.=20
		Please pass this information along to other active or interested =
amateurs. You can visit the start-up website, www.59al.org  ,where there =
is contact information for either one of us.
	73's es gud contesting=20
	   Tim K4XDX, Rogersville

			=09
			=09
			=09


--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---
multipart/alternative
  text/plain (text body -- kept)
  text/html
---