Greeting’s! What a month! West coast is burning while out our way is drowning. You never know what the forces of nature is going to bestow upon us. This is a great example of making people aware that even though it has not reached that point, it can turn into a disaster and things will fail. This is an opportunity to tell people how Amateur Radio can be a valued service to our neighbors, towns, counties. Even if you are not involved in emergency communications you can still provide information to others about it.
On that note, Aug. 1 I had the privilege of attending the NTS picnic hosted by Marcia, KW1U who is the East/West Traffic mgr. and was treated to perfect weather and good food and company. Along with myself also were the Eastern MA and NH section manager and the Vice Director with the 2 candidates for New England director. Both of which shared their passions for Ham Radio and why they would be the choice for director. Looking around the group shows there is still a passion for NTS and traffic handling in ANY mode and needs to be recognized more by the league and others in order to keep this valued tradition alive, because…you never know!
Over the past year I have been working in the trucking industry and found the hours were taking a toll on a lot of things personally and physically. After a huge amount of thought and soul searching, I decided to retire as of July 30. This does not mean I’m old! Lol. Yes, radio played a big part of that as I was not on the air very much and stuff was piling up because I was too tired to do anything. So, first thing I did was get my hotel for Dayton for next May. (I know, Xenia.) I have been wanting to do that for some time and I’m doing it. As I have told others, “I will not be bored!”
It looks like the club meetings will be making a comeback after our Covid hiatus in September. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Zoom has now provided a new element to meeting as you can add it along with presenters who may be distance challenged. There is a plethora of recorded content that can also be used to get a good presentation. Definitely worthy of a search in YouTube and other sources for good content. The League is also expanding on available content and also there is a speaker list in this website. Good meeting agenda will keep things interesting and coming back each month.
That’s enough chatter for this month, hope to see you at Marlboro in September and at the club meetings. Enjoy!
Ray, KB1LRL