[QCWA Hotlist] A New Area on the QCWA Website

[Richard Rucker]

On Jun 4, 2006, at 8:50 AM, B Roske wrote:

> I'm proposing a new area for the QCWA Website and I need your  
> help.  So I can keep up, I'd like you to interview and gather  
> pictures (high school or collage graduation and current would be  
> nice) of QCWA members that have membership numbers lower than 3500,  
> are over 90 or are in failing health. You may also include QSL  
> cards, pictures of their stations, almost anything that pertains to  
> their Ham experience.

Great idea!

> I don't expect you to do this yourself, but I hope you will see  
> that it gets done.
> In the future, we'll seek out the next set of younger members.
>
> Submit everything to me at broske at hutchtel.net

Bob,

Vic Clark Chapter 91 does not currently have any members in the range  
below 3500.  A sort of our current list reveals these below 10,000:

William E.Leavitt            W3AZ           Extra              04875
Charles A.Stay               W4HE          Extra               04890
Wendell R.Dunning       K4YG           Extra              05157
John H.Swafford             W4HU         Extra              05851
Elmer D.Jones                K4EUX        Extra              09108
David L.Wiesen              K2VX           Extra              09130
Howard B.Bullock          W4LBM      Advanced      09992

In 2002, Chuck Stay, W4HE, received QCWA's 80-year award in 2002.   
For the occasion, I spent a morning with Chuck and recorded his  
recollections on a tape recorder. The result was a 2-page article  
published in the Fall 2002 Journal.  I still have the masters of both  
the article and the photo used if you'd like to publish them on the  
website.

Of those above, only Dave Wiesen, K2VX, is still an actively- 
participating member.  I agree that we should make an effort to get  
the stories of the others written down while they are still with us.


FYI, in the past I've used a tape recorder* to capture recollections  
and convert them to "as told to" bios for the following SKs:
     Bill Miller, K4MM
     Chas. "Con" Cocannon, K4RQ
     Emerson Merhling, W4NH
    Jack Kelleher, W4ZC

          *More recently, an iPod + iTalk has replaced my tape  
recorder, and they work great together.

I relied on the memories and records of widows, children, and friends  
to prepare similar bios for:
   Harry Kaklikian, W4ACN
  John Nagley, K4AHS

If I recall correctly, the bios for K4MM, K4RQ, and W4ZC were  
serialized and published in the QCWA Journal.  I have the masters and  
JPG files of photos if you would want to take on the job of posting  
them on your website as well.

-----------------------
We periodically encourage our members to write their own stories, and  
to include photos of their shacks, QSL cards, etc., for inclusion in  
a folder I've been maintaining since 1998.  As hard-copy, it exists  
as a fat 3-ring notebook titled "Biography Book of Members & Silent  
Keys, Vic Clark Chapter 91, QCWA."

As you might expect, some have done so, others have not.

Of those with QCWA member #'s < 10,000 listed above, and excluding  
W4HE whose bio is in hand, none have submitted anything to our "bio  
book."  I did find and include a short bio written by Dave Wiesen  
that he posted to qrz.com.  He included a photo of himself in his ham  
shack.

In the past, nearly everyone submitted paper-only documents to me, so  
posting to our website has been limited to those bios written by me  
and others that exist as either text or RTF files.  They can be found  
here:  <http://homepage.mac.com/rrucker/chapter91.html>.  To obtain  
one of these files, click on "Folder of Downloadable Files," open the  
desired folder, and click in the download column for the desired file.
-----------------------

Perhaps if you were to broaden the posting criteria proposed for the  
new website, others might be encouraged to write down their stories  
now, and to submit photos, while they are still able to do so.  As I  
learned belatedly, one must emphasize the need to submit such  
materials in a format suitable for on-line use.

I'd suggest requiring either
   (1) text-file submissions with software-controlled line length  
control; i.e., "no hard carriage return characters" or
   (2)RTF-formatted files.

PDF files are fine if you don't want to exercise editorial control  
over what gets posted.  But if you sacrifice that option, you're  
probably going to end up with submissions that you can't repair at  
your end and, therefore, can't post without further negotiations with  
authors.


I understand that this is beyond the scope of what you're proposing.   
However, encouraging people to act now, rather than putting off the  
effort until later, might be worth the extra expenditure at your end.

73, Dick Rucker, KM4ML,
   former Secretary and still webmaster for
   QCWA Vic Clark Chapter 91