October 2003 - arrl-odv - reflector.arrl.org

[ARRL-ODV:9608] Re: Broadband from the electric company? No thanks
by Jim 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Gee, how I long for the days when I was still pounding away at the keyboard at 11:50 PM trying to meet my 12 MM deadline for the Enquirer (Cincinnati, not National)! AMATEUR RADIO: The only fail-safe communications system in the world. ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio is! Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division ARRL 5065 Bethany Rd., Mason, OH 45040-9660, Tel. 513-459-0142, E-mail <mailto:k8je@arrl.org> k8je(a)arrl.org

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[ARRL-ODV:9607] Broadband from the electric company? No thanks
by Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Online columnist David Coursey, N5FDL, has done a column on BPL. See http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/4520-7297_16-5089730.html David is good about asking me for input as he's writing his column, but usually it's with a very short fuse -- in this case he wrote at 7:20 PM Thursday night and said he had a Friday morning deadline. Fortunately, I was able to turn something around for him. Dave K1ZZ

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[ARRL-ODV:9606] Re: Fwd: ARRL code/no-code feedback
by Joel Harrison 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Frank, No one closes on Columbus day (or President's Day) except the government and banks! Joel >I hope everyone is having a good Columbus Day. I was a bit surprised that >HQ is open today on this fine sunny 70 degree day.

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[ARRL-ODV:9605] Re: Fwd: ARRL code/no-code feedback
by Frank Fallon - N2FF 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Andy, The devil is sitting here on my shoulder making me ask this...... "Is this another California legislation by referendum thing?" Just joking..... and feeling a bit depresses because I know you can't get reelected in the Hudson Division by "groping" around hamfests. I was under the impression that HQ was going to tell members to let their directors know how they felt about the issue and or conduct a survey. I was told at the St. Louis meeting that there would be no HQ survey. I was a bit surprised and not too happy as I see us going down the same path as we did with the move of Section News to the Web. Flawed implementation here we come again. As we are a membership service organization above all we must always involve the members in the process. We are not doing that in this instance and we are setting ourselves up for some severe and perhaps well deserved criticism about our pending January decision. I think most members are unaware that we will make a decision in January. As a result, I sent out a questioner to all division members who get the web based monthly bulletin, which is a bit more than half the division members. At this point less than 10% of those receiving the bulletin responded, but of those that did many said they were happy that they had been asked. I had a guy at a hamfest on Saturday tell me that his was the first time in forty years anyone asked him for input. Although I thought that was probably a slight exaggeration I did not correct him. Andy, I agree with you that members should be asked. BUT, and this is a BIG BUT, they must also realize that they may not get what they or the majority vote for in the survey. Other factors are going to be entered into the decision making process of the directors voting on the issue. But we still need to ask. While I am still a long way off from completing the survey (too busy kissing babies) the response is pretty well divided on the issue. I must also comment that I found it more than a bit interesting that we voted for "leadership training" for the SM's at the July meeting but we did nothing for directors. (I await Darth's take on that one.) We are going to need some leadership skills to explain to about half our members why we did not do what they wanted. We may have to create a "spinmaster position" at HQ to solve that one. I hope everyone is having a good Columbus Day. I was a bit surprised that HQ is open today on this fine sunny 70 degree day. Frank Fallon........ N2FF

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[ARRL-ODV:9604] Re: Fwd: ARRL code/no-code feedback
by Jim 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Andy, You, in my opinion, are clearly on the right track. I am ambivalent; however, to taking the poll you describe. Unfortunately, we nearly are too late in what I perceive to be our intended timeline to take a national poll. Nearly too late, this is. In addition, I suspect that several of us don't need additional polls. I do not because of the poll I took of the Division in July. If we are to conduct a nationwide poll, my concern would be its wording. To me, a poll of "who wants to keep" vs. "who does not want to keep" code requirements is of little value. The key is the comment in your note about determining how strongly those who want to keep the requirement, want to keep it. Replies in the GLD show that nearly 2/3 of the members "want to keep," but not many of these think we should to go to the mat to fight to keep the requirement. Factoring the "how badly I want it" into the simple "I want it" gives much differing views. A second concern is a possible stuffing of the ballot box. I need help on this issue, because I don't know if it is or is not possible. In short, even though our ongoing polling on the ARRL web site says we "should" vote only once, is there a feature built into the site that will prevent this? I voted a second time on one occasion to test this out and as I recall, each of my votes counted. I don't think I'd want NCI or FISTS mounting a campaign to overly influence the results of a poll. My bottom line to all this is that if we are to do a poll: 1) It needs to be done very soon so that we have time to digest the results before the January Board meeting, 2) It needs to be very carefully worded so that it provides necessary perspective rather than a simple yes or no answer, and 3) It needs to be done in a way that prevents flagrant multiple voting. Finally, please know that I fully endorse learning how our members think on issues provided we request their opinions in a manner that allows us to learn something of value rather than confuse the issue. 73, GL, Jim W. AMATEUR RADIO: The only fail-safe communications system in the world. ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio is! Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division ARRL 5065 Bethany Rd., Mason, OH 45040-9660, Tel. 513-459-0142, E-mail k8je(a)arrl.org

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[ARRL-ODV:9603] Re: Fwd: ARRL code/no-code feedback
by Andy Oppel 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Greetings, The author of the note below gave me permission to share it with you, and Director Vallio gave me his blessing to raise the issue with you. I believe the note raises valid concerns that many of our members must have. In particular, if we don't have a formal and uniform process for collecting our members opinions on an issue as important (to some at least) and controversial as the code requirement, we won't have a defensible position. And at least in terms of QST, it may be too late to anything formal in print. But we really do have to have firm numbers (e.g. xx% said they want code requirements retained as is, xx% said retain the requirement only for Extra class, xx% said they want the requirement eliminated, xx% said they have no strong preference) or those who feel like they lost on the issue will have an easy claim that we did not properly represent them. Could we at least put a survey form up on the web site that we can point to in Division newsletters and maybe sneak a late reference to in the December or January QST? For those who don't have web access, we can ask them to send the responses to their Director via e-mail, NTS message, phone or other means. I firmly believe that without something approaching a properly conducted poll, we are just leaving ourselves open to more criticism, which ultimately leads to lost memberships. 73, Andy Oppel, N6AJO Pacific Division Vice Director >Delivered-To: andy@5 >From: "Martin Fouts" <fouts(a)fogey.com> >To: "Andy Oppel" <andy(a)andyoppel.com>, > "Glenn Thomas" <glennt(a)attglobal.net>, <wb6w(a)arrl.org> >Cc: <w6rgg(a)sbcglobal.net>, <n6ajo(a)arrl.org> >Subject: RE: Re: ARRL code/no-code feedback >Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2003 21:01:12 -0700 >X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.6604 (9.0.2911.0) >Importance: Normal > >Hi Andy > >Thanks for taking the time to answer Glenn's question on my behalf. I'm >still somewhat puzzled about the process, not at the board level, but within >our division. I wonder if you could tell me what form "collect that >information" is going to take within the division. > >As a VE, and a new ham, I can honestly say that I agree and understand that >the code/no-code issue is a small thing in and of itself. The real issue >isn't the final decision, it's the divisiveness within the amateur radio >community in the US, which will only get worse as time passes. > >I think the ARRL made an unfortunate mistake by not knowing its position >sooner, and by not being ready with its petition once WRC-03 has ended. I >believe the ARRL is doing itself, its members and the US amateur radio >community a disservice by "waiting until the smoke has cleared". I can't see >how yet another petition, much later than all of the others, is going to do >anything but increase the acrimony. > >73 > >Marty AE6IP

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[ARRL-ODV:9602] Re: Oct 13-Nov 4 in SE Division
by Greg Milnes 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Nope. Not SW this time. I'm off to So Fla and the Caribbean. 73/Greg W7OZ

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[ARRL-ODV:9601] Re: Oct 13-Nov 4 in SE Division
by Tuck Miller NZ6T 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

Southeastern Division???? Usually you would be in the SOUTHWESTERN Division Greg. Have you checked for your passports from Director Butler and Vice Director Donahue? Of course your passport to the SWD is always valid. 73, Tuck Greg Milnes wrote: > I'll be in the Southeastern Division from Oct. 13 through Nov. 4. I > may have some limited email access. > If anything exciting happens I can probably be reached via 88 MHz > transceivers (ie Cell phones)... > 503-866-2111 or > 503-807-3001 > (note the tube type prefixes) > 73/Greg W7OZ -- ************************************************ ARRL The national association for Amateur Radio Remember, Helping Others....Always Worthwhile!! Southwestern Division Vice Director Are you a member yet? If not, please join! Check out the Convention web site at: http://www.hamradio2004.com/swdc2004/ Personal Web Page: http://www.qsl.net/nz6t

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[ARRL-ODV:9600] Oct 13-Nov 4 in SE Division
by Greg Milnes 13 Oct '03

13 Oct '03

I'll be in the Southeastern Division from Oct. 13 through Nov. 4. I may have some limited email access. If anything exciting happens I can probably be reached via 88 MHz transceivers (ie Cell phones)... 503-866-2111 or 503-807-3001 (note the tube type prefixes) 73/Greg W7OZ

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[ARRL-ODV:9599] Meeting with Ohio Citizens' Corps Co-coordinators
by Jim 12 Oct '03

12 Oct '03

IMPRESSION There clearly is an opportunity for Amateur Radio to benefit as we work in support of Citizens' Corps activities. At the same time, we will need to be advocates on behalf of the services we can offer through the Corps. At least in Ohio, the Coordinators have essentially no understanding of the services we can perform. MEETING I met with the Ohio Citizens' Corps Coordinators this past Tuesday afternoon (10/7/03). I was not certain what to expect and, frankly, didn't hear anything to astound me. A few notes: 1. Each of the two women who are the Ohio Coordinators has been on the job less than a year and are still figuring our what is going on. 2. Their concept of operations is to coordinate the several organizations and agencies that exist in the state. EMA, Red Cross, senior groups, sheriffs organization, etc., etc. 3. Their idea of what they are to do in emergencies is to serve as a provider of workers. In doing this, they plan to use a practice of the Florida EMA which draws volunteers who otherwise are not already occupied in helping served agencies to an assembly point some distance from the emergency. Here, the volunteers will be logged in, screened for type of job they can best perform and held until a need for them is called in from the emergency area or other controller. 4. The Florida plan calls for a telephone bank through which it is supposed that calls for supplies and personnel will be funneled into the volunteer assembly point. Volunteers will subsequently be dispatched to fulfill these needs. 5. Neither of the women had any concept of Amateur Radio, but both were impressed with the descriptive paragraph on ARRL and Amateur Radio contained in the list of colleague organization distributed in Citizens' Corps literature. They received this literature in a meeting of state coordinators held a short time ago in Chicago. This region is Region V and consists of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. 6. After the women had described their ideas on Citizens' Corps operation, they asked if there was a way in which we could assist, in particular, by relaying information from a disaster area back to the volunteer assembly point. This signaled my opportunity to talk. 7. I described amateur radio and how we can operate (in our terminology) in base, portable, handheld fashion. They were instantly impressed and obviously thrilled. After a 3-way discussion, I showed the ART video. Again, they were enthralled and wanted to show it to more people. They asked if I could leave the CD-ROM and, of course, I gave it to them. They also asked how much the charge for our service is. I jokingly (with some serious intent) told them the only charge was for them to talk about us when the opportunity arises so that others may become interested in joining us and from this come to assist the Citizens' Corps as part of our team. 8. The Ohio Citizens' Corps people plan two or three trials of the Florida plan during the coming few months. One is to be in the Youngstown, OH area and another in the Newark, OH area. Details of these and all planning for the third have yet to be set; however, ARES as representative of Amateur Radio has been asked to participate in all three of these. I had invited Ohio SM Joe Phillips, K8QOE, to attend the meeting with me; however, he was unable to do this for a week or so. We agreed that I should go to the meeting so as to avoid the impression we were not interested. During the meeting I discussed his role as well as that of the Ohio SEC. At the conclusion of the meeting I commented I would forward the information I had received to Joe and that he would follow up on it. Joe is out of the city and will contact the Coordinators soon after his return. He is aware of the coming exercises and their tentative dates. I also obtained the name of the Michigan Coordinator and will pass this to Vice Director Mondro and SM Williams for possible follow-up. It was an interesting and fruitful meeting that shows promise for the future association between the Citizens' Corps and ARRL in Ohio. 73, Jim, K8JE AMATEUR RADIO: The only fail-safe communications system in the world. ARRL: The reason Amateur Radio is! Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director, Great Lakes Division ARRL 5065 Bethany Rd., Mason, OH 45040-9660, Tel. 513-459-0142, E-mail k8je(a)arrl.org

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