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Page last updated on: Friday, October 18, 2019
Will a Beginners licence cure the slump in new radio amateurs?

The number getting their UK Foundation licence has slumped in the past 13 years. In this YouTube video RSGB VHF Manager John Regnault G4SWX discusses his proposal for a Beginners Amateur Radio Licence

1892 newcomers gained their Foundation licence in 2005 but there were only 1366 in 2018 a drop of 28%. At the same time the RadCom Silent Keys column shows the death-rate of amateurs has increased. Take into account the natural churn in the hobby as people leave to pursue other interests and it's clear the number of newcomers is insufficient to cover those being lost - the hobby is in decline.

It has been suggested we need at least 2,000 newcomers each year just to maintain current activity levels and even now the VHF/UHF bands can be very quiet most of the time. To grow the hobby and increase activity at VHF/UHF we need many more than that.

Watch A beginners UK amateur radio licence?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYGAmtClfzc

New UK Entry Level Licence proposed
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2019/oc...oposed.htm

Read the report on the Future & Growth of Amateur Radio presentations given at the RSGB Convention on October 13
https://www.essexham.co.uk/news/rsgb-con...-2019.html

Japan's Class 4 ham radio licence
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2019/oc...icence.htm

Can online ham radio exams improve accessibility?

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2019/oc...bility.htm



Ham Chat UK - Discuss the future of amateur radio
https://groups.io/g/HamChat

Hi all.

Our Club has has been approached to support a charity fundraiser. It is this coming Sunday October 6th. We're looking for volunteers. The more with cross band repeat ability, the better. I don't have a lot of details to offer at this time, but I will have more in the very near future.

73
Tom
VA3TVA

From Dayton Daily News:
The Fair Board in Greene County has struck a long-term agreement to keep hosting the Dayton Hamvention event at the county fairgrounds. Officials confirmed today that the board and the Dayton Amateur Radio Association have reached an agreement on a five-year deal to continue hosting the annual amateur radio convention at the fairgrounds in Xenia.

This list is from the Minuteman Repeater Association in Massachusetts (https://www.mmra.org/). A couple of the items are specific to their club, but I hope folks will find something useful in it.
73
Dave, VE3WI
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A Few Hints for Public Service Participants
Bruce Pigott KC1US, Minuteman Repeater Association

After working a number of public service activities, I started making notes on how to be a more effective communicator. Some of the suggestions come from observations, others are from my own experience.

Be concise: Each message should be brief and convey a single piece of information.

Dress sharp: You have to earn respect quickly. Many other volunteers and professionals are observing you and your actions.

Use plain language: Q signals, Morse code prosigns, and funny phonetics are unnecessary on voice channels and reduce message comprehension.

Push to talk, Wait to talk: All repeaters have delay. Some have more transmit delay than others, especially linked systems.

Talk slowly: Net control and other stations are either out in the open, or in a room full of noise.

Stay calm: Shouting into the mike and not keeping the radio antenna vertical decreases readability.

Think long: The repeater uses an 18 foot antenna from a better location. Use a minimum of a quarterwave antenna (at least 15” for two meters) on your hand held radio so you will be heard.

Lock it: Place your radio in lock mode so your assigned channel does not get changed.

Label it: Since situations and sometimes locations change rapidly, keeping track of your gear is easier with labels.

Volunteer early: Check the Public Service List, local section news or club nets, so organizers can make assignments and return event details to you.

Be patient: There will be a lot of waiting for events to happen. When the peak hits, both net control and field operators will get busy with multiple activities.

Be aware: of your situation. There may be hazards to be vigilant for while you are doing your communication tasks.

Make notes: You will forget the call of the ham you want to talk to later, or what broke on your radio(until the start of the next walk).

Wear good socks: You will be on your feet quite a bit, so take a tip from hikers about supportive footwear and good socks.

Eat early: Once the walkers/runners/cyclists start coming, the interruptions will be continuous.

Be flexible: Information is not always available when the event starts. You will be called on to do multiple tasks.

Be specific: Include limitations on time, transportation, or personal capabilities in your sign up data. Do not wait until you receive your assignment, and then assignments have to be juggled.

Take it off: your belt. Leaving your HT next to your body will cause up to a 15dB loss in transmit power. Your two watts are reduced to only 1/16 of a watt.

Turn it down: The person you are shadowing does not need radio chatter blasting in their ear all daylong. You should be a filter so the coordinator can do their job effectively.

Equipment will break: Have appropriate spares and tools you know how to use.

Make a list: Keep a short checklist of equipment needed for working these well controlled events. This will be a subset of the items in a full ARES go kit. Update it based on event experience.

Copyright © 1998-2009 Bruce Pigott KC1US <http:// www.mmra.org/pubserv/>May be reproduced with proper attribution. 2009:039

IC-705: 10W, HF/VHF/UHF portable. Yet another all-in-one transceiver aimed at the portable ops market. Now, if we only had some sunspots!

Brochure: https://t.co/w7PJYFy0Yq

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RW6xiLAoyc

73
Dave, VE3WI

Anyone working on restoring vintage rigs? I have been doing a few over the past couple years and they are not that difficult to get working for the most part. The most recent is a Yaesu FT-101ZD mklll that I picked up on kwarc. It was untested, quite dirty and fortunately low priced. The face wasn't scratched up but the case needed painting. The knob inserts which originally are silver, were bronze from nicotine stains and the rest of the rig was grimy under dust and dirt. It cleaned up quite well and I repainted the cabinet with Rustoleum Winter Grey. I steel wooled the cabinet to remove the rust and glaze but I left the pebble texture in the original finish. The new top coat still shows the texture. Inside, I cleaned all the switches, pots, band switch wafers, relay contacts and all the harness connectors with deoxit. I had to net the trimmer for the display counter so it reads accurately. I have been using it for a few weeks now and it works great! It is great fun to use a piece of gear that you have brought back to life from the junk pile. Here is a before shot
73 Don ve3ids

We had a great day at the race. Perfect weather & no bears this year

Ham volunteers (hope I don't miss anyone):

Tim VE3RTE & Greg VE3NXB ran net control at Wiarton arena.

In the field: Bobby VE3PAV, Doug VE3WRF, Frank VA3GUF, Fred VA3STG, Phil VE3QVC, Tom VA3TVA, Zane VA3ZRD & yours truly VE3WI.

Frank & Tom overcame an early repeater problem & kept us communicating. My attempt to reach the portable repeater from Hope Bay with a 4 el. yagi up about 20' did not work, but fortunately Fred's crossband repeater in his vehicle worked great again.

Lots of fun watching someone doing touch-and-goes on Hope Bay with a cute little amphibian (ICON 5 I think. Best 500k$ he ever spent!).

See you all again on 8 Aug 2020!

73
Dave, VE3WI

A significant number of licensed Canadian amateur radio operators do not support their national amateur radio society: Radio Amateurs of Canada Typically support is by membership, but may also include volunteering time to perform the various functions required to run a large, non-profit organization. It has been demonstrated repeatedly, that a small percentage of people are doing most of the work in modern volunteer organizations.

Some thoughts concerning volunteerism
-Volunteerism is down in many sectors including service clubs, meal delivery programs, church groups, volunteer firefighters radio clubs, etc. etc.
-The population is aging and our current volunteers are retiring; Younger folks have so many distractions and things they can do today. We now live in a world with 200 plus TV channels! The spirit of volunteerism seems to be decreasing in the western world.
-There is some evidence that people who donate their cash to charities also tend to participate in groups, associations and organizations. Is this a characteristic or trait?
-People volunteer for causes they believe in. What do people believe in now? Is our culture too self-absorbed, individualistic and focused on our own personal agendas and pleasure?
-Economics. Are young to middle aged people less able to volunteer and contribute because they are spending more of their time working?

RAC Membership
If you haven't, please consider joining RAC. I joined out of respect to the many RAC volunteers who have devoted their personal time and continue to toil to keep amateur radio viable in Canada. We cannot take our currently allocated radio frequency bands for granted. There are groups who for profit, want to apply technologies which will consume or interfere with the radio frequency bands we enjoy. Canadian amateur radio needs a strong, united voice to survive into the future. Apathy and lack of awareness may significantly decrease the rights and privileges we enjoy as radio amateurs today. The least we can do is support our national amateur radio society. It would be even better if more of us contributed by volunteering our personal time towards our wonderful radio hobby and serving RAC

Todd, VE7BPO

Good Evening,
I actively chase grid squares toward the various VUCC awards with one of them being Six Meters. I would like to know if anybody onboard can work Six Meters OR knows somebody in grid EN95 that can? FT8 is the most likely mode with band conditions as poor as they are. I can be reached at k8six at comcast dot net for direct communication.
Appreciate any help and 73 de Al, K8SIX