The turn of the New Year reminded me of an email I sent two years ago after the bands went nearly quiet at the end of the home run that was ARRL's Centennial QSO Party. Two years later, a similar note is deserved. Another hearty kudos and thank you to the Board, ARRL staff and volunteers, our members, and hams — this time for engineering, organizing, executing, and participating in ARRL’s year-long National Parks on the Air event. It’ll be another month until all logs are due but, as of this moment, stats show that hams participating in NPOTA caused over 20,000 activations in the field from dang close to all of National Park Service’s 489 units throughout last year. Quite impressive. I have visited with many hams at conventions, hamfests, forums, and during casual QSOs who remarked that long-duration (and finite) operating events such as the Centennial QSO Party and NPOTA have created a completely new kind of dynamic and challenge to being on the air, not to mention League promotion. Though we have many organizational challenges to rise to in 2017, I hope that a sliver of bandwidth is set aside to craft ways of building on the member and ham enthusiasm that the NPOTA and Centennial QSO Party events have created. A happy and healthy new year to each of you; I look forward to our gathering in a few weeks. 73, Brian N5ZGT
Begin forwarded message:
From: Brian Mileshosky <n5zgt@swcp.com> Subject: Thank You and HNY! Date: December 31, 2014 at 5:25:12 PM MST To: <arrl-odv@arrl.org>
Okay, now I'm bored on the air -- same for a zillion other League members and hams across the world. Fair warning: I'm making a Director's motion in January to create a Centennial QSO Party Anonymous or Points Anonymous service, because lots of people now find themselves staring hopelessly at their now absolutely quiet radios.
A huge THANK YOU to everyone -- ODV, staff, volunteers, members, hams -- for an absolute home run on the air this past year. Centennial celebration aside, if there is one thing that I hope everyone who participated in the QSO Party walked away with, it is that they became better and more dedicated radio operators throughout the year. That they used this year-long opportunity to learn more about themselves as an op, learned more about their gear, uncovered station and operating limitations and found ways to resolve them, and rediscovered the magic, fun (God forbid), and camaraderie that is ham radio.
One very profound moment today was working a few folks in the QSO Party who I hadn't worked since back in January 1, 2014. Staring at that date in the log, and greeting those hams once again, with literally one year of time padding our last QSO was an in-your-face "this year has absolutely flown by way too fast" epiphany. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as they could while it lasted.
Happy Centennial, and Happy New Year everyone. Be safe this evening and see you in a few weeks.
73,
Brian N5ZGT
ARRL Director, Rocky Mountain Division