January122021

ARRL North Texas January 2021 Newsletter

Greetings fellow North Texas Amateur Radio OPS

ARRL North Texas Club Leaders this is a request for your help…

We have almost 4,000 ARRL members in North Texas and I am sure we have deserving members for many of these awards. Please encourage your teams to nominate someone. From our 68 Counties and some 3900 plus members, I would expect a few nominations for all but one of the six awards that are available.

ARRL Seeks Nominations for Six Awards

01/04/2021

ARRL invites nominations for awards that recognize excellence in amateur radio educational and technological pursuits. Nominations are also open for the Hiram Percy Maxim Award, ARRL’s premier award to honor a young licensee.

The Hiram Percy Maxim Award

The Hiram Percy Maxim Award is the premier honor for a radio amateur and ARRL member younger than 21 whose accomplishments and contributions are of the most exemplary nature within the framework of amateur radio activities.

Nominations must be made through your ARRL Section Manager, who will forward nomination to ARRL Headquarters by March 31, 2021.

Nomination forms and supporting information should document as thoroughly as possible the nominee’s amateur radio achievements and contributions during the previous calendar year.

The ARRL Herb S. Brier Instructor of the Year Award

This award honors an ARRL volunteer amateur radio instructor or professional classroom teacher who uses creative instructional approaches and reflects the highest values of the amateur radio community. The award highlights the quality of — and commitment to — licensing instruction. Nominations are due by March 15, 2021.

Technical Awards

The ARRL Microwave Development Award pays tribute to a radio amateur or group of radio amateurs who contribute to the development of the amateur radio microwave bands. The nomination deadline is March 31, 2021.
The ARRL Technical Service Award recognizes a radio amateur or group of radio amateurs who provide amateur radio technical assistance or training to others. The nomination deadline is March 31, 2021.
The ARRL Technical Innovation Award commends a radio amateur or group of radio amateurs who develop and apply new technical ideas or techniques in amateur radio. The nomination deadline is March 31, 2021.

The Knight Distinguished Service Award

The Knight Distinguished Service Award honors exceptional contributions by an ARRL Section Manager to the health and vitality of ARRL.

The nomination deadline is April 30, 2021. It was named for Joe T. Knight, W5PDY (SK), who was commended for his exemplary service not only as ARRL New Mexico Section Manager for more than a quarter-century, but for his willingness to share his knowledge and leadership skills. The ARRL Board of Directors selects recipients for these awards. Winners are typically announced following the Board’s July meeting. More information about these awards is on the ARRL website, or contact Steve Ewald, WV1X, at ARRL Headquarters (telephone 860-594-0265). For further details go to http://arrl.org.

Recently announced by our new ARRL DEM (Director of Emergency Management) Paul Gilbert KE5ZW

ARES Connect, often referred to as ARES Disconnect will cease to exist this June. From Paul Gilbert our DEM…..

Concerned by the low adoption rate of ARES Connect reporting software two years after its introduction by the League, ARRL’s Director of Emergency Management Paul Gilbert (KE5ZW) instituted a review of the application that included, among other analyses, a survey of Section Managers and Section Emergency Coordinators around the country. At the same time, recent discussions between ARRL and the ARES Connect software vendor have made it clear that the League’s evolving needs for an EmComm / Public Service reporting package are not aligned with the vendor’s future plans for the product from which ARES Connect is derived. Following a review of all available information, members of the Emergency Management Committee, CEO Minster (NA2AA), and President Roderick (K5UR) concurred with DEM Gilbert’s decision to discontinue the use of ARES Connect and seek development of a software reporting package more tailored to the needs of ARES.

Paul Gilbert, KE5ZW

Director of Emergency Management

ARRL

The end of 2020, brought a news release that HamCom will be no more

In Part of what the release stated……….

It is with a heavy heart that I write this letter about the future of Ham-Com. After 41 years, Ham-Com has decided to close its doors in lieu of the restrictions in place for COVID-19 and the rising costs of putting on a show. The decision was not made lightly, but the safety and wellness of our volunteers, vendors, clubs, presenters, and attendees is our paramount concern.

The full Press release may be seen at https://sites.google.com/hamcom.org/ham-com.

Fellow amateurs should try and understand that Ham Com was not doing the conventions so they could lose money and there were many reasons they came to the conclusion that it was futile for them to continue at this time. As of now it is unknown where our ARRL Division HamFest will be held in the future .

While the FCC has proposed a $50 fee

For any future License Updates, change of address, license Upgrades etc. The ARRL strongly opposed that amount, and the Commission lowered the fee to $35 While it is still a fee that many are strongly opposed to, I have very serious doubts whether many filed comments on the proposed rule. Our League did file detailed comments and made headway on reducing the amount. More detail here….http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-proposes-to-reinstate-amateur-radio-service-fees

My question is $50 really too much for a Ham Radio license? Of course it depends on your perspective of what is Expensive. What is expensive for me, may not be for you. That is why I rarely used the word Expensive when I was running a business, after I retired from the USAF and built a photography business. I centered my thoughts on Service and Quality and even more so the needs and wants of customers. What I want from our hobby of Amateur Radio today is far different from what someone that is 15 years old wants. For example I want to gain DXCC Honor Roll status, it is something that I admire of which many of my peers have achieved (while my confirmation of working entity #331 is in progress, as of yesterday, it is not a done deal).

What you and I want and what others want from our hobby varies depending on our background and what part of the hobby we enjoy the most. Of course it is also regulated by family time and our budgets.

I pay a far greater amount for “permission” to operate my Bass boat within the great state of Texas. And thanks to the ARRL, which of course I proudly support, that $50 fee has been reduced to $35 upon my next renewal. However if you’re fifteen years old and on a fixed income from Mom and Dad and you get the Technician license and a month later want to upgrade to General class, that becomes $70 spent on licensing within two months and can seem Expensive to some. Again it becomes a matter of perspective and in the youngsters example may predicate better planning. Such as studying to pass the exam for both the Technician and General class exams in one sitting, to remain within budget.

Bottom line of course for me, this is much more than just about on the air and working DX or passing traffic etc. It is sharing the experience with those I know and many that I do not know and working together. Amateur Radio contesting for me has always been about the camaraderie of working alongside others in a multi-op environment, not to say I have not done, single op more often than not, I have, because it is part of being flexible and still enjoying the hobby.

Working for and with others is why I chose to be your ARRL Section Manager. All of this brings me to talk about something bigger than each one of us…

What can we do for each other, as individuals and as teams (club’s)? When was the last time you shared your Ham Radio experience with someone else? How about when you put forth a positive idea, a constructive thought versus complaints about what or why things are the way they are. IOW let’s work together to make our hobby even better than what it is today.

Mentoring

Mentoring makes us all better at what we do, we need more of it and we need it from everyone. It can come from sharing an experience that we had while chatting with someone on the local repeater or at the next Virtual club meeting.

We are all members of one of the greatest fraternities Amateur Radio Operators, we should be proud of that and willing to share our experiences and help our fellow hams and those that want to join our fraternity.

We also need to reward those around us versus afront them

It can be hey congratulations for getting on the repeater, it is great to hear from you, we welcome to people to our repeater and our club etc etc. Instead of hey you have really bad noise on your signal, it sounds like you are using a vibrating power supply. A welcome message and a hey your signal sounds kinda noisy maybe it is my radio – versus affronting a person at first comment will be received much more pleasantly.

There are lots of other ways we can help brothers and sisters in our fraternity

Maybe it is….

Pointing out that the new Getting On The Air area on the ARRLNTX.ORG website https://arrlntx.org/WP/get-on-the-air/ versus commenting to a prospective amateur, “hey you need a license to use that radio” when they are looking at radios you have for sale at a flea market etc.

Of course everything is not Positive in the world or our hobby

But Can we be a part of the constructive side of things or do we really want to be destructive. Is the Glass half Full or Half Empty? I like the half Full analogy, as it seems so much more positive.

I will close this long winded newsletter with this thought….

If we run everyone off with negativism, who will we be talking to on our radio tomorrow? Maybe being so matter of fact and in one’s face is not the way for all of us to enjoy our hobby and make it a better place.