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Greetings, All.
So, did you get a chance to operate
during the GA QSO Party? Shame, shame, shame on me. I didn't, but I sure do
hope that a bunch of you did. Members of the Albany ARC participated in high
style, using the club's emergency communications vehicle as their base of
operations during a fun-filled day at Camp Osborne. I'm pulling for them to
place well in the club category. By the way, did you know that clubs and
individuals can sign up to be official sponsors for the GA QSO Party?? There
are a whole host of categories, and for the paltry sum of forty dollars, a
sponsor gets to select a category, and that money covers the production and
shipping of a beautiful walnut-based plaque for the winner in that category.
The plaque also bears the callsign of the sponsor. Pretty cool, huh? With the
number of categories increased from 13 to 39 this year, there are still 13
categories without sponsors. (Winners in those categories would be awarded a
certificate.) This year's QSO Party may be over, but with the logs not
being due until May 11, I'll betcha the SEDXC and SECC would be happy to accept additional sponsors to cover those remaining categories. It sounds like a
great way for you or your club to support Georgia's premiere operating
event. (Heck, maybe you can even beat the crowd by signing on as a sponsor
for NEXT year's event!) See http://gqp.contesting.com to see those
remaining categories.
Talking about operating events, the
World Radiosport Team Championship, coming up in Brazil in July, is one of the
most exciting and competitive events in the world of amateur radio. It's a
pleasure to announce that our own JOHN LANEY, K4BAI, who is no newcomer to
this high-adrenaline event, will be one of the USA East team captains. Also on
his team is another fellow Georgian, JEFF CLARKE, KU8E. Please join me in
wishing them the very best. I know they'll do us all proud.
Let's also wish the very best to
LAURA
BLOCK, KG4WQT, and her husband on the recent arrivial of one of Georgia's
newest piglets. CONGRATULATIONS to them on the birth of ALEX CHARLES, a big
beautiful bouncing baby boy. Laura tells me that she plans to introduce him to
his first Hamfest at the end of this month. (early indoctrination!)
Hamfest?? Did I say
Hamfest?? That's
right! The Cherokee Capital ARS will be holding their annual Hamfest in Calhoun
at the Sugar Valley Community Center, 3295 Sugar Valley Road, on April 29,
from 8AM until 2PM. This is another one that's gotten better and better each
year. Always a lot of fun, and I hope to see YOU there. See
www.qsl.net/k4woc
for more info.
The Statesboro ARS held elections
recently, and congratulations go out to their fine slate of officers:
President-BRIAN KOEHLER, KE4TYQ; VP- CLARK WARD, KI4GYT; Secretary-
BUDDY HORNE,
AJ4BH; and Treasurer- MARSHALL THIGPEN, W4IS. Best wishes to all of them for a
successful and enjoyable year.
For all of you folks in and around
Fulton county, the North Fulton ARES group, led by EC VICTOR WASILOV, KI4HPX, is in the re-building mode, and sure could use your support. The weekly net is on
Sunday evenings at 7:30 on the 145.470 repeater. Please check in with them if
you can. Victor has been doing an outstanding job as NCS.
Coming up at the end of this month,
hordes of technically-minded middle and high school students from all over the
country will be descending upon Atlanta for the FIRST (For Inspiration
and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championships. One of the
mentors for a robotics team from Wisconsin suggested to me that this
would be very fertile ground for an amateur radio demo and PR booth. I
agreed with him, but unfortunately, I haven't heard back from him, so the
amount of details I have are limited. By surfing the web, I found on the
www.usfirst.org site that this huge event will be held from the 27th through the 29th, with activities going on at both the GA Dome and at the World Congress
Center. It is also open to the public and FREE. The gentleman from Wisconsin
said that there would be "a place" for a radio booth to be set up, but since I
got no additional info from him, I'm not entirely sure whether that would be
at the Dome or at the WCC. I realize that time is short, but if anyone is
interested in delving into this for more information and in heading up an effort
to set up some sort of an amateur radio display, please let me know.
One Silent Key to report:
MARTHA CURRY,
K4MQO. Sincere condolences to her husband Royce, K4BFL, to their family,
and to all of her friends.
Well, folks, that's about it for now.
Until next time, this is AF4FO, signing clear. Take care of yourselves. And
each other.
73, Susan
QTC March: AF4NS-164; WB4BIK-73;
K4WKT-71; K4BG-61; KR4JI-44; N4VAD-43; K4GK-38; K4BEH-25; K4BAI-11
No trees were killed in the sending of
this message. However, a large number of electrons were terribly
inconvenienced.
ARRL Georgia Section
Section Manager: Susan K. Swiderski,
AF4FO
af4fo@arrl.org
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