September 2020
September marks the closing of summer activities (strange as they may seem during Covid 19) and the planning for Fall events. Given that we are not experiencing the seasons as usual, exactly what can we do until we gain more normalcy?
Given our restricted operating environments (no group Ham in the Park, Field Day, or QRP collective activities, or Fox Hunt this year), how can we productively spend our hobby hours outside of making contacts? Please allow me to make some suggestions.
1. Preventive maintenance of equipment. When was the last time you opened up your transceiver to check for loose connections, dust bunnies, or checked your coax and antenna connections? Are your components grounded and shielded? Do you have a complete list of components and serial numbers for each piece of equipment? Do you keep an up to date inventory of what you have?
2. Upgrading your skill level. Can you send and receive morse code at a level competitive with your peers? Have you mastered your logging program(s)? Are you conversant in the latest FT-8 and FT-4 programs? What have you always wanted to learn and said to yourself that you never had the time to do it? Well, now is the time. Learn more about antenna theory, digital modes, and even moon bounce. Maybe build something that you said to yourself that you never had the time to do. Idle time is wasted time so go ahead and challenge yourself to learn something new.
3. Reach out to fellow hams. With our aging ham population, reaching out to those shut in would truly be welcomed. Our club has a number of people in this category and I am sure they would welcome a call or an email just to stay in touch and connected to our club.
4. Purge that old stuff you have collected but haven’t used in years. Consider donating it to the club to help support our many club activities and club overhead.
BTW, I think one reason for our recent growth in membership (topping 200) is that curtained outside activities and events leads to falling back on things we can do. And certainly ham radio fall into this category. Our Thursday evening net attendance is up. Our participation at our virtual club meetings is up and our Saturday morning breakfast attendance is up as well. Activities like our virtual build club has shown strong attendance as is our attendance by applicants for our VE sessions. Of course, much of this is attributable to strong and innovative programming by our Board of Directors and is supported by being responsive to membership needs and interests. We are always open to trying new and exciting things.
Enjoy the Fall and our hobby. Before you know it, things will normalize again and we will be better off for making good use of this gift of time.
73,
Burt KR9T