[NvHam] ARRL Club News for February 2007

Fri Feb 23 02:53:21 EST 2007

ARRL Club Newsletter
February 23, 2007
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Special Edition
____________________________________________________________________

Norm Fusaro, W3IZ, Editor

IN THIS ISSUE:

+Batter Up!
+Welcome New HF Operators
+Elmer's Corner -- Observing Band Edges
+VE Test Sessions
+Greetings
+The Actual Radio Club -- Guest Article

Batter Up!

As spring training begins for baseball teams I am reminded of warmer
weather and outdoor activity.  One of my favorite outdoor activities
is ARRL Field Day.  What makes Field day so exciting to me is that it
combines radio operating and antenna building with a cookout and
backyard party.

A successful Field Day or any other club activity involves
leadership, planning and teamwork. In any club there is always going
to be a core group of players that ignite the spark and get things
started.  These people are leaders.  But it is the participation of
all of the individual members that makes any event a success.  The
best home run hitter cannot hit a grand slam unless other batters did
their part to load the bases.  It takes teamwork.

Being a member of a club is more than sending in your dues money.
Every member of a club has to step up to the plate and swing the bat.
  Healthy and active clubs have many positions that need to be filled.
  In addition to the offices like club president, vice president,
secretary and treasurer, successful clubs often have committees that
oversee specific areas of club business and activities.  Active club
members are those who volunteer to help out and make things happen.
Active members don't wait to be asked to get involved.	Active
members are involved for the good of the club.

Good leaders know how to delegate.  Just like a team manager assigns
players to positions on the baseball team, a club president will
delegate projects and duties to members of the club.  A club
president is not expected to do all the work alone.  Tips and
suggestions for club leaders can be found on the ARRL website.
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/club/cc-stories/2005/0919a/

Incidentally, this article was recently translated, with permission,
to be used on the website of Romania's IARU society, the Romanian
Amateur Radio Federation.
http://www.radioamator.ro/articole/view.php?id=399"

Whether your club is large or small, everyone is a member of the team
and every member of the team is counting on you to do your part.
Active and involved members combined with strong leadership are a
solid combination for a championship club.

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Welcome New HF Operators

Be sure to visit the HF Welcome website for news and tips for new HF
operators.
http://www.arrl.org/HFWelcome/

Several clubs have reported that they will be holding HF basics type
programs at their next club meetings.  These programs are intended to
welcome the radio operator who will be gaining some new privileges on
our high frequency bands.  We mentioned in our previous edition of
the Club Newsletter that ARRL has several programs that can be used
for these types of informational meetings.  Some of the programs have
been updated to reflect the new operating privileges.  Please take a
look at www.arrl.org/multimedia

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Elmer's Corner -- Observing Band Edges

There is sure to be a lot of new HF activity when the new regulations
take effect on February 23.  Please remember that operators are
required to keep their entire transmitted signal within the band
limits.  This means that if you are operating SSB mode your signal is
typically 2.8 kHz wide so a rule of thumb is to stay 3 kHz from the
edge of the band.  For example if a Technician class operator wants
to operate SSB on the 10 meter band then the operator should not
operate any lower than 28.303 MHz or any higher than 28.497 MHz in
order to stay within the band limits.

Band edges also need to be observed when operating CW, RTTY, Data and
all modes permitted in the Amateur service.

Overdriving a SSB transmitter make your signal unreadable and it will
cause splatter that can be outside of the band.  It is not just good
amateur practice to produce clean transmitted signals--it's also the
law, part 97.303.

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VE Test Sessions

We have been getting notices from clubs that will be sponsoring
Volunteer Examination sessions across the weekend of February 23 to
accommodate the large number of hams wishing to upgrade their
licenses.  The ARRL VEC is prepared to handle this increase in
applications and will be doing everything possible to maintain steady
and accurate processing of documents.

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Greetings

The Kent County ARC in Delaware is doing something to make newcomers
feel welcomed at club meetings.  The club has an official greeter at
every meeting to say hello to everyone, especially any new faces that
show up looking to find out more about the club or ham radio.  A
greeter should be friendly and prepared to answer questions in a
plain and straight forward manner without a lot of jargon or "shop
talk."
Club officials say that having a greeter helps break the ice and
makes visitors feel comfortable in a friendly environment.

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The Actual Radio Club

Guest article by Dave Patton, NN1N

Here in 2007, it feels like we Hams are participating in numerous
"virtual clubs" online. There are hundreds--maybe thousands of email
lists devoted to each and every topic within the vast boundaries of
Amateur Radio. There are many thousands of websites devoted to all of
the same radio topics too. We can easily spend more time surfing and
typing than actually playing with our radio equipment.

I have spent quite a bit of time lately filing and sorting my QSL
card collection, and ran across some great old cards from the days of
the Soviet Union. The wonderful memories came back to me in a
flood--there was nothing better as a teenager to fire up on 20 meter
CW late at night and fill the log with pages of Russian stations.
Back then in the 70s it seemed like every third or fourth contact
with Russians were with club stations--most used UK callsigns. I
found my cards from UK2GKW, UK9AAN, UK7BAL, UK2BBB, UK5UDX and on and
on. If you had the good fortune to be active when these stations were
on, you understand my sentiment. While there are still many club
stations active today (although far fewer) in Russia and everywhere,
I think the "nature" of these club stations has changed. These clubs
in the old Eastern European countries were frequently supported by
the government, both with finances and physical space. These clubs
are where the up-and-coming Hams could get their feet wet, and they
also were instrumental places where the older and more experienced
Hams could build stations that were not possible from their homes.

These old club stations were also the place where mentoring took
place--I am writing about real mentoring, where any new ham could be
slowly and comfortably introduced to whatever sort of Ham Radio was
going on in that particular club station. These clubs must have been
terrific and natural gathering places for all the Hams in the area,
and certainly great fun was had competing with the other clubs around
their countries. The collective power of these clubs produced some of
the biggest signals and best operators of their time, and those
youngsters have grown up and are the leaders of the more modern
version of Amateur Radio that we all enjoy today.

We are greatly concerned with mentoring today. There are so many
"new" issues that make one-on-one mentoring difficult, and trying to
teach, learn, lead, or motivate via online methods is challenging new
territory for all of us. The opening of the HF bands to more and more
Hams is an interesting time, and is a time that just cries out for
mentoring like must have been available from those great old
collective stations.

The concept of collective club stations in the U.S. seems to not be
very commonly achieved. There certainly are groups and clubs here
that enjoy a permanent station and accessible meeting space, but just
how many of these are there? With the enormous increase in controlled
living communities across every urban area in America, that concept
of a collective station makes more and more sense. How many "real"
club stations are there today?	We want to know more about this, so
look for a future issue of the ARRL CLub News to contain a link to an
online survey that will give us a start toward learning more.

For sure there are still hotbeds of club activities at permanent
stations located on many college campuses throughout the U.S. We hear
these stations on the air frequently in contests if there are active
members on campus. But all too frequently the clubs fall inactive as
students graduate and move on. Perhaps it is time for more of us to
find ways to cooperate with and support college and university clubs
and stations. In my opinion there is no better way to find people who
are interested in Amateur Radio than by promoting a university radio
club. The people who are attracted to find out more about these
clubs, on their own initiative, and with today's incredibly busy
schedules for young people, are the people we are looking for. If
someone makes a commitment of that very valuable time to participate
in Ham Radio, that person will likely continue in this wonderful
avocation for a lifetime.  And the local clubs will benefit in many
ways through this symbiotic relationship.

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======================================================================
The ARRL CLUB NEWS is published on the first Wednesday of each month by
the American Radio Relay League--The National Association For Amateur
Radio--225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax
860-594-0259; www.arrl.org. Joel Harrison, W5ZN, President.

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--
Dick Flanagan K7VC NV SM
k7vc at arrl.org