The race for vice-director in our division is getting increasingly interesting, which is something rare when it comes to radio politics.
Since the director had no opposition, he keeps his elected position without the need to cast a ballot. But for vice-director, there are three candidates — the incumbent and two challengers. I know only of the incumbent and one of the challengers; the other candidate (from Michigan) I've only read about.
All of them are qualified for the job; its a bit like being lieutenant governor, you fill in when the boss can't make it. All of them are passionate about the hobby.
The incumbent vice-director has — in the past 18 months at least — ceased traveling to Kentucky hamfests (at least the ones I attended). Now this may be due to work, family or other reasons (which may include travel to the other two states in the division, where there are many more potential voters), but the truth is we've not seen him much. It's been two, no three years since I saw him at a hamfest here. But the truth is that our state has the fewest members. We can help elect someone, but the state is too small to really have the votes to elect a candidate on its own.
The director hasn't been to many hamfests in the state in the last 18 months either, but he too has a large area to cover. But then again, he isn't in a competitive race for his office this time around.
It's been widely known that the director was not backing the incumbent nor the challenger from Kentucky, but the candidate from Michigan. An e-mail sent to the members of the section made that public a few days ago when the official endorsement was issued.
Since the director is assured his seat, it was interesting to see the endorsement in the contested 3-way vice-director's race. Kentucky has roughly 13 percent of the members in the 3-state district, and it will be interesting to see how the voting breaks down, and how the votes from our state impact the outcome of what could develop into a tight race.
Two of the candidates have already e-mailed statements to members in the division regarding their candidacy and qualifications. I suspect a mailing from the third will be coming soon. Ballots for the election should be in the mail now, and are due back by late November.
It's a good sign to have competitors in these races. In a state north of here, the organization can't find someone to volunteer to accept the nomination for state office. And from my research, 3-way races for director (and vice-director) aren't that uncommon.
Speaking of the organization — do you know which state has the fewest members? Chances are if you've earned WAS it probably took you some time to get this state confirmed. Give up? Answer: North Dakota.
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FT-450 REACTIONS. I'm enjoying getting to know the FT-450. I just bought some 3.5mm stereo plugs so I can wire up a key to the rig. I can see one mod that it could use — there's no key jack on the rear panel. I haven't looked yet, but something tells me it wouldn't be difficult to add one.
My IC-746PRO made it to Washington state on Friday. The front panel that I want replaced is a part that's on back order. For now I'm willing to wait on the part just to get the front panel replaced. Other than the divot in the edge of the front panel, the rig is mint.
I ran the state ARES net tonight with the rig, and using the big clunky handmic was pain. Gotta get a Heil adapter for my headsets! The audio quality was passable — typical hand mic. I haven't experimented with the EQ settings. This rig has built-in monitor function, a feature not often found on low-end rigs.
Last night I was listening to some friends on 75 talk, and signals weren't great. And to top that off, a digital slow scan session fired up just above our frequency. I couldn't hear the digital transmission (though it was very strong), the adjacent signal was de-sensing the FT-450 receiver. I could tell something was going on, and had to tue up the band to realize what was happening. I realized I had the bandpass wide open at 3 kcs, so dialing it back a bit eliminated the problem (and I thought it was memories of FT-757GXs coming back to haunt me).
I'm out of here to go play with the FT-450 some more. I need to get some of my extra “stuff” ready to put online to sell. I would like to see the carpet on the floor sometime this fall … 73 … dit dit