[SMCARA] ideas for the club

[mlandmann at juno.com]

Last year, after my 15-year-old twins got their Technician licenses, I spent some time talking to them about what would interest them in ham radio, and what the club could do to interest them.  Here are some of their ideas, combined with other things we have talked about.  There are a LOT of things here to consider, we don’t have to do all of them right away, or even do any of them at all.  These are just ideas to potentially stir up some interest and get the ideas flowing.

At the last meeting, we talked about having a board to do some of the work instead of putting it all on the president and VP.  Here is a list of possible positions we could elect/appoint to do some of the things we do.

VP field day- responsible for coordinating a location, radios, setup, takedown, food, etc.

VP training- responsible for classes for new hams and upgrades.  A Technician class just finished, and the obvious follow-on is a General upgrade class.  Lizzie’s goal is to upgrade to General this summer, and I would like to be able to send her to a class.  Dan and Tom have been the leads on this, and have done a good job.  Maybe time to get someone else interested in leading the effort, and Dan and Tom could spend their time teaching if they still wanted to do that.

VP new ham liaison- as Allen pointed out, we have licensed 200 new hams in the last few years, and not many of them have joined the club and come to the meetings.  We need an outreach to the new licensees to show them how to use their radios, how to set up a station and antennas, and show them how to make contacts.  Having an Elmer operating session at the museum, would allow us to expose our new hams to a station already set up, and how to make a contact.

VP museum display- responsible for the maintenance on the display/radios/antennas, etc.  We should let people know when we will do the antenna installation.  We are willing to help, and there are probably people who do not know too much, but would show up to offer moral support, and learn something about how to set up an antenna

VP testing- schedule testing, arrange for VECs, etc.  Eric seems to have this well in hand.  Maybe we should give him a title and formally recognize his efforts.

VP community support- train and coordinate support for races, etc.  The 3 of us worked the Chaptico Classic road race last fall, and we all had a good time using our radios for something 'real', beyond just talking to each other.  There are several local races, if anyone is interested we could volunteer to provide support just to give our new hams some exposure to community service.

VP emergency preparedness- train and coordinate our help to the community in emergencies

VP repeater- coordinate repeater maintenance, improvements, etc

VP youth outreach-  try to connect with new hams we have licensed, and keep them interested in the hobby

VP programs- coordinate a short presentation/program for each meeting.  Suggestions: repeaters; mobile radio installation; towers, safety, laws, etc; interference; RF safety, survey requirements, etc; antenna modeling with NEC; contesting and awards; choosing a radio, features and what they do; my rig night- demos of members radio; know my radio-  features on radios and how they work, oriented to new hams to get them started on using their radios and understanding how they work; public and emergency services, RACES, ARES, Skywarn, etc; base station setup; digital modes; packet; contesting, awards, and logging; batteries; QSL bureaus; antennas; restoring old radios; radio control; satellites; IRLP/echolink; APRS; antennas; Winlink; qrp; diy- kits and from scratch; swap meet, computers in ham radio; earth-moon-earth.

There are also speakers available through the MDC section.  One of the people available is Bob Bruninga, who has presentations on APRS and solar power.

I went to the TAPR Digital Communications Conference last fall.  It was held in Baltimore, and was very interesting.  A lot of smart people doing some really neat things.  I would be happy to give the group a quick synopsis.

Other ideas and projects
Allen has built a code practice oscillator (so I guess CW isn't dead with the younger crowd), a keyer, and is halfway through a QRP 30m radio.  He also built a 2m and 440 yagis, after seeing the 2m quad that showed up at a previous meeting.  So, we do have some interest in building antennas, small projects, etc.  There are qrp kits, code practice oscillators, keyers, software defined receivers, etc, that are fairly inexpensive.  Getting a group together to build some of these, or other things, would be great.  We could also build an FM modulator for HTs that would allow us to have an FM code practice net.

A lot to read, please feel free to wade through it at your leisure, and comment/add information.  We are not intending to make a lot of work for someone else, we are willing to help with the implementation of any of these ideas.  And, the VP in charge of an area wouldn’t be totally responsible for doing all the work, just coordinating.  For example, the VP training would not have to teach all the classes, but would line up the teachers.  The VP museum display would line up a crew to put up antennas, etc.  The VP testing would line up VECs, etc.

Just some things to think about and stir up some more ideas.  

73s,
Mike
KA6DLN

Lizzie
KB3WIA

Allen
KB3WEY




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