Section Managers Report for July 2022

Hi everyone, Field Day 2022 is in the books. My day started at 0730 when I started my travels to Windsor Ma. which is between Peru and Hinsdale. It is a pleasant ride with hills and farms etc. There we find our first stop, the NOBARC club. They were setting up for a 4A effort. Marcia KW1U also stopped by there later on.

From there I visited Franklin, Hamden, Southwick, Central Ma. They all looked to be having active events. Did I mention it was HOT out there! Kudo’s to those who were out in the sun dropping large amounts of sweat on the ground setting up and taking down. Sunday, I visited WECT in Worcester and finished the day at Montachusett and helped with the take down there. Thanks to CMARA for treating me to their dinner Saturday. Montachusett made me happy as there was a new Ham operating a station and her 12-year-old daughter operating the GOTA station. Now that’s mentoring! I think she is going to study for her Tech license soon. She loved it! I hope all the Field Days had a similar experience. I would love to hear about it.

Speaking of mentoring, the license classes I have been conducting with a group of instructors just keeps surprising me. A couple of weeks ago we had a VE session in Gardner and 14 people arrived to take the test, 8 of which were our students. All 14 passed their intended tests! Many of them passed with 100% and a number of them did attempt the next level. One person was 2 questions shy of the trifecta! 2 of our students passed at earlier VE sessions. My hats off the the group of instructors who have put forth the time and effort to tune and tweak our course structure to provide a quality course. We have been developing it ongoing. We’re new and we are learning also. The reward so far is great! We are planning future classes for all 3 license classes.

The Big E event is moving right along and I am happy to report that they received a 10,000-dollar grant to help finance the project. There is so much going into this and with events of this magnitude is help is always needed. Please go to https://nediv.arrl.org/project-big-e/ to learn more. We are also reaching out to all New England states as well. This effort benefits Ham Radio, our clubs, and more.

I have been looking at the league’s web to see if the new ham listings have come out and there has been nothing. The FCC is issuing callsigns and I am not sure if the League is getting them. I have not inquired about it as I know there are issues ongoing. My arrl.org email address is still broke. Please use aa1se@arrl.net or ray.aa1se@gmail.com to contact me.

I hope everyone has a great summer. Do some good radio while cooking those burgers and dogs while working on your tan!

73,
Ray AA1SE