[SECC] Club activities

[K4SB]

In my opinion, the recent post by John, K4BAI was the most insightfull
concerning our club I have ever read.

Now, I will be the very first to state that God and family must always
be #1 on your
priorty list. But, some of these lame excuses such as "the xyl has
invited the in-laws for the CQWW weekend" are stretching it a bit. If
you truly want to be a member of a contest club, it is YOUR
responsibility to support that club. And if you can't have a "heart to
heart" chat with the XYL and ask her to please set aside a couple of
days on a couple of weekends for you a year, you've got a problem.

Even with the outlaws visiting, there is absolutely NO excuse for your
not being able to operate an hour. If necessary, do it in the middle
of the night! It won't kill you to stay up an hour after the others
retire, or get up an hour or so early and make a few contacts.

Now, I don't think I have a copy of our Constitution and ByLaws, but I
seem to remember
it requires participation in at least 2 contests per year. And let's
add in that log
submission is also a requirement. Just how many of you qualify to
remain club members.

But, in all the contests, it seems a few core members are the ONLY
ones who operate.

Put bluntly, if you cannot support your club, then resign. It's
entirely possible that your doing so will enable the club to shift
it's geographical center to pick up someone who will operate.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but my hearing is so bad that about 3
hours prior to the
end of the CW SS, I went completely deaf. In the SSB SS, I discovered
I cannot always make out the difference between "Alpha" and "Oscar".
My hearing tests revealed that I am 82 db down in the range from 1200
to 3000 cycles, which means if your XYL is 10' from me and I cannot
see her lips move, I cannot hear a word. If she turns her back to me
and SHOUTS, I will hear nothing. Somehow, along the way, I seemed to
have "self taught" myself to lip read. Incidentally, at 100 feet over
the end of a runway, a Boeing 747 has a 112 db noise level to a normal
ear. Fortunately, it's also low frequency, so I can hear it. But, if
it was at say, 2000 cycles, and 200 feet up, I would NOT be able to
hear it, which is scary. And yes, the audio people outfitted me with a
pair of $1000 hearing aids with 80 db of gain. Solved the problem
nicely, until a 18 wheeler blew his horn, and I almost lost control of
my truck.    

Another area I thing we could concentrate on are the RTTY contests.
ALL you need is a soundcard in your computer, and a copy of MMTTY,
which is free! Take the output from your speaker and feed it into the
mic plug of the sound card, take the speaker output from the soundcard
and feed it into the mike position ( hopefully you have an aux audio
input on the rear of your radio ) and you're in business. Now, you
also need 2 RS audio transformers, which will set you back about $5
and should be wired into those two audio cables to eliminate hum.
There are also PSK, BPSK,  and other digital modes which will operate
on those same 2 cables, and LOGGER, by K4CY supports them all. And
it's free!

The great advantage for me in a RTTY contest is I can completely turn
the audio down.  All I need is to see the computer screen, and use the
mouse.

And don't try the excuse that you cannot generate a Cabrillo log. I
can, and will for any member who sends me the .all file. I'll even
submit it for you. Incidentally, CT is now free, and it WILL generate
a Cabrillo log. CTWIN is also free for those of you without DOS.

And let's all do our best to recruit contesters. I worked a K3 in
Marietta during the
SS, chatted a couple of mins and am going to sign him up.

And from now on, in every contest I work except the RTTY ones, I will
use the Unlimited category, and spot all of you every chance I get!

Think about it...please.

73
Ed