President’s Message, November 17, 2016
Upcoming General Meeting
Next Tuesday, November 22, the fun part of the November GM will be about HF operation via a remote station. This topic was one of the high interest areas expressed at our GM in September.
Unlike VHF operation where the size of an efficient antenna is modest, HF antennas of comparable efficiency are "high, wide and handsome". Even on 20 meters a half wave dipole is 33 feet long and prefers to be 30 or more feet above ground to perform well. Yes, size matters; it's a physics thing. So, if you have enough real estate, a mature tree or two, permission from your partner and reasonable neighbours you can have a go at putting up a simple wire antenna and have some fun on HF - maybe.
Another challenge all us city dwellers are facing is the increasing level and amount of electromagnetic noise produced by all the other radiators in the neighbourhood. Getting away from the noise is rapidly becoming a major impediment to the enjoyment of HF operation.
So, if having your own effective HF antennas is challenging for your situation then consider participation in remote station operation. It turns out CARA has one. It can be operated from the comfort of your own dwelling via the Internet and a computer equipped with the remote station operation software. This methodology will be illustrated and demonstrated as part of the presentation.
Recent Board activity
Enjoy Amateur Radio - Serve our Community
The previous CARA Executive adopted the above statement of mission for our club. The current CARA Executive thinks they got it right. In a simple statement the two sides of the coin illustrate the benefit and cost sides of any volunteer based organization.
Enjoy Amateur Radio; that's the fun part. It brought us to the hobby; it keeps us active in its various pursuits and in contact with people of similar interests. It is the benefit side of membership. It's not a thing, thing; it's a feeling thing.
Serve our Community is the cost side. Time, talent and treasure are the three currencies required of members to meet the cost side. Of the three, time and talent are of most value. CARA is in the most fortunate situation to have access to treasure that does not come directly from its members' pocketbooks but does require investment of members' time. CARA is most in need of the participation of its members.Time is currency of high value and its investment benefit is not a thing, thing, it's a feeling thing.
The cost benefit situation in the world of retail commerce is a different challenge involving the same three currencies but in the reverse order. Its objective is to maximize the perceived benefit to extract the most treasure from its customer base while minimizing the effort and time to make the investment in their goods or services. It is cost driven and relies heavily on the perception of the need for the latest thing, thing.
In talking to other leaders of amateur radio club's in our region we learn that we are all facing membership participation challenges. In implementing the past Board's mission the current Board recognizes the need to refocus leadership and organizational infrastructure as well as membership time and talent to realize the benefit of membership enjoyment. We understand that a members’ participation is a large component of the member's enjoyment. Hence we need to involve more members in the doing of the building and operating of the infrastructure rather than just using it. In short we need to build communities of doers" willing to share their time and talents at the point where it matters to achieve membership enjoyment for themselves and their fellow members.
Over the next quarter, the focus of the Board will be to establish a number of important functional roles with defined responsibilities to coordinate club operations. How that is to be approached will comprise the business portion of next week's GM. It won't be as much fun as the Remote Station presentation but it will be important to meaningful engagement of those members willing and able to contribute their time and talent towards this objective.
Looking forward to lively and interesting conversation. See you there, next Tuesday at the club station at 7:00 PM.
73 de VE6TI
Gordon Hungerford
