[Qcwa] QCWA STANDARDS AND MEMBERSHIP

[N2RQ]

The following comments address several of the ideas expressed this weekend.
I have been pretty busy recently and did not pay attention to the start of
this thread. Please excuse me if I repeat previous comments that I missed.

I have been N2RQ since 1978 and was first licensed in 1959. I upgraded from
general in 1977 because the kids in the Brooklyn Technical High School ARC
(W2CXN) did not seem to respect me even though I held a 1st class
commercial. A number of them had advanced and extra class licenses.  I have
been faculty advisor there for more than 25 years.  Although we have a
somewhat select student population, our club went through a long dry spell
with few licensees. The code-free technician class made a big change. Last
year we had 5 new licensees.  They are highly motivated and studied on their
own.  Most are looking to upgrade. (Perhaps they have. I won't see them
until next week.)

Every member of our radio club has a computer and e-mail. Our club has a
reflector similar to this one. Last week I sent a message suggesting that
they mark their calendars for the November 3, NYC Marathon, I got two
immediate replies asking how and where to sign up.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, while students were being moved away
from windows that faced the WTC, club members came running to my classroom
to ask "what are we going to do?" on the radio.

When our 2M portable packet station was missing an antenna, one of the kids
made a ground plane from copper pipe, wire, coax and pvc pipe.

If you want amateur radio to flourish, try getting involved with young
people. Look at the September 2002 issue of QST, page 101.

Standards have changed. They always have and always will. I find myself
criticizing my own children, who are now adults, with the same terms that my
father used on me.  I tell my students that many of them are as smart or
smarter than I. ( I did not pass the entrance exam and had to attend my
neighborhood school). The only advantage I can be sure of is that I have
more experience than they do.  My Principal told us that change is good.  I
disagree. Change is necessary, but most change is either neutral or
negative. Rarely are changes positive.

As for the poor performance of kids behind the counter at a fast food or
other retail store, you can blame the schools if you like, but this is
nothing new. My father, who died two years ago at age 95, frequently told
stories about the incompetence of kids who wanted to work in his grocery
store in the 1930's.  They could not read or make change or find an address
for a delivery in their own neighborhood.

While planning for my aunt's 100th birthday party, we recently looked up the
June 25, 1902 issue of the New York Times.  Except for the fact that it was
1 cent, 2 cents out of town and only 16 pages, the news could have been
written today.  There was a story about a man who shot his wife of two
weeks, who had run away from home, in front of thousands in the crowd at
Coney Island. There was a nurse on trial for murdering many patients with
injections.

I doubt that things will ever be the same as they were, but I have faith in
a good future.  Look for the positives and help build on them.

73,

Lew
n2rq@arrl.net
qcwa member 20800