Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020
Sometimes you have to expect unexpected things to occur; for example, Donald Trump winning the Republican nomination and then the 2016 election.
Well, the unexpected happened today — it even surprised me. What was this monumental event? I decided (finally) to rejoin the ARRL.
When I left my role as Section Manger March 31, 2015, I wanted nothing to do with the ARRL, ARES, or any other League-sponsored program. In fact, by the time I left office, I didn’t have a rig in any of my vehicles and I seldom used HF in any mode.
WHAT HAPPENED? In the 8 years I was SM, I’ll admit that for most of that time I enjoyed serving. I mostly enjoyed traveling the state, visiting hamfests and radio clubs representing the ARRL. But there was enough bullshit politics that you find in any organization. The Section Managers were pretty much kept in the dark about anything at HQ.
Former Ohio SM Joe Phillips, K8QOE, had been in office a dozen years, and of the three states in the Great Lakes Division, Joe was our ring leader. Former Michigan SM, Dale Williams, WA8EFK, and I were kept informed of ARRL HQ happenings — particularly board meetings — by some on-site contact of Joe’s who feed him all the gory details. For example, at one board meeting, the former Division Director got too drunk the night before to attend the next day’s session!
But Joe did us a great service by letting us be “in the know.” The board thrived (thrives) on secrecy, and we got an insider’s look at the action.
On April 1, 2015, I turned my back on the ARRL and all of its programs, and even on ham radio in general. I didn’t want anything to do with any aspect of ham radio.
Over the past five years, I’ve gotten re-involved in ham radio, and I’m a regular check-in on the Georgia CW NTS Traffic Net. I have checked in a time or two on my state’s CW traffic net as well.
Now that I’m again a League member, I’m thinking that I should get active again with the section in some capacity. There are a number of state appointments that have remained open since I was SM — for example, Affiliated Club Coordinator. I’ve had thoughts — dare I say it — of serving again as state Section Manager.
Of course, I expect sanity to return to me at some point in the future after giving it some thought. My first job will be to be a volunteer for the SM.
I’ve checked in on the local 2-meter net the last two weeks, and one of these days I probably need to go to a local radio club meeting. Its been more than half a dozen years since I went to a meeting, and I keep hearing all of these new voices and callsigns. Its really, really good to see and hear from new hams.
I think I’ll just slide back into some volunteer position in the future should something arise. I’m not sure I could ever serve in leadership of ARES, I tend to think that program as less useful than it once was. I suppose its still important for us to have a mission, and I guess we just need to remember that you will only have a small percentage of people who actually volunteer for this sort of thing. The challenge is to keep them busy and entertained.
CC SDR UPDATE. My Cross Country SDR 4+ is playing right now and its doing a fantastic job. I wish it also had a transmitter, but I won’t complain. Listening to this reminded me that I purchased a Flex 3000 several years ago, and its around here “somewhere” … most likely in the attic. Once I get some of the stuff cleared out of Studio C, I’ll start selling the stuff in the attic.
Of course, I’ve got some primo stuff in the attic beside the Flex 3000. I also have a Hallicrafters SX-101A receiver, and a National NC-300 “Dream Receiver”, among a long list of other old rigs. That’s to come, though, right now I have other stuff to list, lots of stuff.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z …. SK … SK …. (dit dit) …