[QCWA] improving QCWA

[Jeffrey Angus]

"John Peters" <petersj007 at hawaii.rr.com> wrote:

> > Make them want to be a  member.  
> > The MAGAZINE is the biggest draw for many members.

And I think that is the problem. I don't mean with the Journal itself,
but with the content.

I qualified for membership in the QCWA in 1992, At the "tender"
age of 39.  A few years back I sent in my money for life membership.

The problem as I see it is if you look at the articles in the Journal,
it is almost excluesively people considerably older. Usually smiling
as they receive a plaque for surviving to the age of 80 or 90.

Now don't get me wrong, I want to last that long too. 

But where are people my age? World War II wasn't the only
conflict. There was Korea and Vietnam. President Reagan
quiped that the Soviet Union had been outlawed. And IBM
released the PC. Surely there were hams licensed during
that time that qualifed for the QCWA by now.

I really enjoyed reading about proximity fuses in WWII. But
what about the installtion of VHF FM repeaters on the hill
tops in Korea? Where are the articles about Senator Barry 
Goldwater and his  "phone patch to Vietnam"
network? Remember when trying to get a QSL card from
an RU station meant sending it to PO Box in Moscow? 
Or when RTTY was the "king of digital" and really high
tech was sending slow scan TV on a Robot with a 3"
green CRT.

But to the "new guys" the QCWA has all the appearances
of a "really old old timers" club. It's almost like Romper Room
for seniors. "I see Frank in New Jersey, he's 95 today..."
And God forbid we ever admit that there's other ways of
communication other than Morse Code.

Jeff-1.0
wa6fwi