Subj : Newsline Part 3
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Mar 02 2017 10:18 pm
BREAK HERE: Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur
Radio Newsline, heard on bulletin stations around the world, including
K8SCH, the 2-meter repeater of the OhKyIn (Oh-KY-Yin) Amateur Radio
Society, on Wednesday nights following the Tech Net.
**
GETTING ON BOARD THE HAM RADIO BUS
NEIL/ANCHOR: In Australia, one lifelong amateur has turned an old public
bus into a kind of school bus - the school of radio - as we hear from
Amateur Radio Newsline's John Williams, VK4JJW.
JOHN: An out-of-service bus sits outside town in the central Victoria
community of Castlemaine, and the vehicle's not likely to be going
anywhere soon. The same can't be said for the small group of teenagers
inside: They are Castlemaine Venturers, scouts who have just begun their
journey into ham radio. Their tutor, Tony Falla, VK3KKP, is igniting in
them the same wonder he felt as a child.
TONY: When I was 5, my dad brought home radios from work. He was working
connected with the military. I was playing with radios, dismantling them
and putting them in boxes and every weekend I would bring them out and
take them into even smaller parts. Then I went to primary school. I must
have been about 7 years old. I was next to an army training camp, and the
soldiers invited us all into the trucks, and into the tanks, to listen to
headphones. We heard the whole battles, the pretend battles going on, and
I think that really got me in. I remember that moment so vividly. So,
when I introduce these ideas to kids these days, I do see that they have
the same excitement. I just put some earplugs into my first grandchild,
she was about 5, and it was a radio station there. To see the look on her
face was amazing!
JOHN: Sometimes, Tony said, even well-taught classroom, theory and radio
simulation can't compete with the power of the real thing.
TONY: When we were just talking across the car park, somebody broke in
from New Zealand, and we got talking to them. The scouts saw that was a
genuine contact that hadn't been set up, and the scouts talked to the
chap. He was up a mountain, one thousand meters high, camped in a little
cabin with a radio and a battery. Again, because they are scouts, they
knew this person was in a remote area. Chatting to us one evening
suddenly made it real again, you see. So I think what we were talking
about before, making all these examples real, not just simulating them
over Echolink or Skype, we were actually doing it for real -- and that
person was isolated! So it did tweak them as well.
JOHN: A member of the Bendigo Amateur Radio and Electronics Club, Tony
said the enthusiasm for ham radio has now gotten a bit infectious.
TONY: We've had teachers approach us and other members of the public,
and we are going to be teaching the teachers hopefully. We are going to
teach the scoutmasters, so they can go on and teach other scouts. We
think we should move up a level so that we don't get burned out -- but
at the same time, just keep using these arguments to demonstrate why we
think it is important.
JOHN: The first group of students takes the Foundation exam this month.
We wish them luck, as they ride the ham radio bus, and bring more
passengers on board.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm John Williams, VK4JJW.
**
NEW MANAGER FOR ARRL WEST VIRGINIA SECTION
NEIL: Leadership of the ARRL's West Virginia section has just changed
hands. Amateur Radio Newsline's Jim Damron, N8TMW, tells us who's in
charge now.
JIM: Here in West Virginia, a new ARRL Section Manager has been appointed
as of March 1st. He is Morgantown attorney Dan Ringer, K8WV, and he will
succeed Phillip Groves, N8SFO. Phil has served since July 2015, and is
stepping down for personal reasons. Dan will fill the remainder of the
term, which concludes on September 30th. The new two-year term for section
manager begins on October 1st, and nominating petitions are due at the
ARRL's Connecticut headquarters no later than June 9th. I talked with Dan
about his new position.
DAN: I took the position, because first of all, I have been deeply
involved in amateur radio for most of my life. I was first licensed when
I was 13 years old...and I have been involved with the ARRL during most
of that time. I was an assistant director for the Roanoke Division for a
number of years. I have been an assistant section manager for a longer
period of time. I'm an attorney, so I've volunteered as a volunteer
counsel with the ARRL. And, because I'm an attorney, I tend to know people
involved in local government, so I have been a local government liaison.
JIM: Any closing thought on our ham radio hobby?
DAN: It's a wonderful hobby. It's an important hobby, and it's a useful
hobby. Everybody...there's a role for everybody in amateur radio.
JIM: That was Dan Ringer, K8WV, newly appointed WV ARRL Section Manager.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Jim Damron, N8TMW.
