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Georgia Section On My Mind

November, 2009

Hello, fellow hams: Here is the second monthly treatise of my administrative year. And it has been a busy month. Let's see why:

First off, there were 3 recent Hamfest, all enjoyable. The Lagrange folk picked a very foggy and rainy morning for their first ever Hamfest. However, all was indoors and all 75 had a good time. Several new hams occurred in the testing sessions. Way to go, guys!

Next week was the regular 'fest in Augusta. The ARCA folk had good weather for the outdoor bone yard. I hope Charles, K4GK was able to enrich some others with his possessions which he would part with. The club did have significant door prizes. Nice to meet and talk radio with President Dave KI4NFJ and VP MS Boots WX4BB. Sparky (from way back when sparks meant--you know-brass pounding) gave me some valuable pointers.

Third was the first Hamfest for the Rome GA club. This old fashioned tailgate event occurred in the very cool clime (this old south GA boy realized that it was later in the year, higher in altitude and farther north!) A friendlier bunch could not be found and looks like this will be a repeat for a while.

Biggest story around lately is the problem of "Commercialization of Amateur Radio". Those of you who got in to the Webinar Wednesday 10/28 learned two things: 1. ARRL has demonstrated a fantastic method of getting information out with this technique, and 2. the sky is not falling. Businesses and government entities are looking at us. Commercial radios are very expensive compared to ours, the spectrum is very limited for them. Access to it is difficult, expensive and time-consuming. Further, we do what we do extremely well and are attracting greedy attention. The FCC is not playing "gotcha" with us, but wants us to regulate ourselves within the idea of a noncommercial service and hobby. Look at what you are about to transmit. If it benefits the public and not the agency, it probably is OK. Don't demand a list of do's and don'ts from the FCC. They clearly do not want to do that, and if we forced it, we probably would not like the result. Also, do not try to make ARRL a regulatory agency-they are not.

Look forward to the annual ARES Meeting at Forsyth on January 23. SEC Mike, KE4FGF tells us that the focus is going to be on the most important person in EMCOMM: The EC and his crew. Much of the morning session will be an open forum for EC's and members to voice your concerns and questions. We need these before the meeting to organize the presentation. Please, please send in your questions and concerns to Mike Brown, at ke4fgf@arrl.net. These will be studied and answered.

Secondly, do you know someone who ought to be recognized as Georgia ARES Ham of the Year (HOTY)? Please send in your nominations to David AG4ZR ag4zr@arrl.net. Include your reasons for the nomination and why this amateur deserves the recognition at the Forsyth meeting in January.

KM4Z, Lowry, our ASEC for Operations has brought in K2HJ, Jan as DEC ARESMAT. Jan has big plans to form a select group of hams with credentials available for assistance when local hams request outside help for an emergency. More about that later.

Our new OOC, Rich WB4A, has found much to work on. There is repeater jamming in north greater Atlanta, bootlegging of a Georgia Ham's call on 75 m, hunters (poachers) with illegal 2 meter radios (even if licensed, they are not identifying) who are hunting deer with dogs in southeast Georgia. Finally an attempt by a municipality to outlaw outside antennas (specifically mentioning amateur radio) will go nowhere, because our legal people (WA4PZD Cooper, and N1ND Dan) have been effectively brought into play.

Barry, W4TGA our ASEC for Public Health is working on getting more radio setups in regional hospitals. Money is scarce, but there is real hope for help. My bet is that he will be quite successful, because it is so well recognized as an important resource in times of disaster.

John, WB4QDX, our DEC for Georgia Public Broadcasting, tells me that money is definitely available for DSTAR repeaters around the state. Did we mention that ham radio is about always learning something new?

JOTA exercises were very successful in two notable parts of Georgia. KA4KOE led the Savannah group along with AJ4MY, K4GTM, KF4MND and W4WTO working with 3 soldiers from Hunter Army Airfield and 68 scouts. As special event station W4S they demonstrated several of the HF bands with some DX, and several modes including some digital. Antenna raising and fox hunting was demonstrated and scouting awards were achieved.

WA4ZXV Norm reports that the GARS in Lawrenceville had a great JOTA with 50 scouts getting merit badges as they demonstrated several of the HF bands and of course 'dogs and chips in a pavilion while weather was cool with rain.

Around the state: Do look at the write-up on 94 year old Harvey, W4TG:
http://www.13wmaz.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=70064&catid=153.
Harvey was at Pearl Harbor when the bombs started dropping. A great story about one of our "Greatest Generation". Harvey got his commercial license at age 16.

Laurens County has two new leaders: Marcus KF5TA is EC and John WA4FRI is AEC. Because of working arrangements Laurens County has been moved into the Central District.

ARCA (Augusta) provided communications support for the Iron Man Competition (cycling, running and swimming) on September 27, with 3300 athletes from various countries competing.

GARC/Gateway ARC(Cleveland) provided a 4 week course and testing session netting 6 new Generals and one new Tech.

The NGARC (Dahlonega) club provided sag drivers and communications for the annual Six Gap Bike Ride with 2300 riders completing the 100 mile course. Several VHF and UHF repeaters plus cross-banding were required to cover the course in this mountainous area. (Your SM understands from doing cross country rides there himself this year).

Dr. Wil NM4W, DEC Central announces that he now has an active EC in each of his 24 counties. Central District has absorbed 3 counties in the past year. Welcome to Clifford W4CDM EC of Dooly County.

All hams are invited to the North Fulton Amateur Radio League's Meeting with Joel Hallas, QST's Technical Editor. See http://nfarl.org/pdf/Joel_Hallas.pdf for details.

Lawrenceville: Look for your Division Director and Vice Director with the S.E.C. in the ARES Forum as well as the ARRL Forum. Lots of hot topics there. Biggest Hamfest in Georgia. CU at the ARRL booth on 11/7 & 8.

Upcoming contests:
1) November 7/8 CW Sweepstakes.
2) November 21/22 Phone Sweepstakes.
3) November 28/29 World Wide CW. Contesters and Net/Rag-chewers: No one has special rights to any frequency or mode, so let's play nice.

Well, friends, that's it for first report of November. Plan for future is to get first report off around the first of the month, and then to give midmonth report with S.E.C.'s help somewhere in mid month with the section reports of activity attached at that time.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but it uses three thousand times the memory. 73, Gene, W4AYK, Section Manager Georgia