Check out this site – click here - and the link at the top of the site’s page. It is the website of WA1KPD and features his love of boatanchors. I downloaded his calendar from 2010 and this year’s as well. Cool site for old radios and a nice calendar from the author. I am still in Florida, trying to work out the details for a return to Africa. Hopefully soon.

You may have noticed that the wspr signal from 5X7JD is off the air. There are at least two unrelated problems.

First, the main electrical transformer supplying line power to our village is out. This has happened before when someone climbed the pole, drilled a hole in the bottom of the transformer and stole the oil. It didn’t take long for the transformer to burn out. Uganda Power has told us they will have power restored in two weeks. I am not optimistic. The last time this happened it was three months!!

Second, high winds are rare in Uganda but once in a very great while a storm will come in off Lake Victoria and wreak havoc. Such has happened and it blew down my antenna. It is, or was, a simple HyGain vertical but it is now in pieces. Tom, my associate in Uganda thinks it can be fixed and I am somewhat hopeful.

So, don’t expect a wspr signal anytime soon. We are experiencing technical difficulties.

For those who might be interested, I have other blogs. Let me point to on where I am entering a new post every day on the theme “Countdown to Independence.'”

It is a day by day account of the events leading up to the Declaration of Independence in the US. If you’re interested, go to www.duniganreport.com.

You’ve likely seen the ad. You might even own one. I have two of them, one for each vehicle. Put one on, keep the key in your pocket, and no stranger can drive your vehicle. Yes, there is a point to this. Please read on.

I want to thank the many supportive comments in response to my last post about how to screw up your radio club. I’ve not been back to that club and do not intend to, but the incident actually provoked my thinking about group dynamics.

I spent thirty years as a trainer and consultant in the non-profit sector addressing the inter-relationships of non-profit volunteer associations. I observed four phases in a group’s life.

    First is the beginning, the initial days when enthusiasm and energy boils over everywhere and newcomers are chased after, sought out, and welcomed. The group’s outer edges remain flexible, open, and inviting.

    Second, is the solidification stage when processes and procedures harden, systems and ways of doing things are explored, debated, and settled upon. The outer edges, the entry point for new people begin to solidify along with the rest of the group’s systems.

    Third, is the ripening stage when the group has money in the bank, long-standing members who now curiously begin to resent new people and view them with suspicion. What had been an adventure has slipped into a comfort zone. New people disrupt the routine. They need attention, bring new enthusiasm when nearly everyone else is winding down (certainly settling down), and those new people have new ideas, want to know stuff, and want to push ahead. Ripe groups want to maintain, not expand.

The Club, pictured at the top of this entry, typifies the attitude. A few people hold the keys. Those people have put a lock on the club so no one can drive it except those proven and approved by the key holders. They mean well, but almost always fail to see the consequences of their attitude and behavior.

    After ripening comes what? You guessed it. Rot? Decay is inevitable with only one exception. Like people, if a group is not growing it is shrinking. Life itself means and personifies modification and change. The final phase is death by decay.

Now the group can die along the way – internal conflict that causes division and destruction, social factors that cause too many of the group to move away from the area, moral/ethical/financial impropriety in key leaders that causes members to drop out, and other factors can kill a group. But most do not die this way.

Like people, they die a slow lingering death. What had once been vital, vibrant, vivacious, and victorious devolves into stagnation, retreat, ambivalence, and defeat. And it is not just radio clubs that experience this. I have had only two encounters with radio clubs (one really good, and the last one - really bad), but hundreds of encounters with civic groups, churches, car clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and more.

Any group, particularly those comprised of volunteers is susceptible and most likely will follow the five phases I listed above. This is why it is so difficult to break into an established group.

But it is not inevitable IF certain steps and attitudes are taken and promoted.

1. All office-holders must regularly be challenged with these above-mentioned dynamics. The leader must regularly and continually remind those who serve with them that a soft, living, growing outer edge can and should be cultivated.

2. Procedures and steps must be written into the clubs way of doing things so that new people, new ideas, new energy finds a hospitable welcome and ready channels for expression. There is tremendous enthusiasm and energy in new people. Do not be stupid and let that energy go to waste. Put new people to work.

3. No one wants to hear your struggling pioneer stories. New people have little interest in how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed to get the group to where it is today. The only martyr in history anyone cares about is Jesus and He has groups already.

4. Learn when to step aside and let new blood flow through the arteries of your group. The group can remain vital and dynamic for generations if you make it happen.

So, the local radio club here is probably doomed. Many of you wrote to relate similar experiences and all had the same valid prescription – detach yourself and move on. Speaking of Jesus, He had some good advice – having tried to find some life and energy in a particular place, and finding none, He suggested one should leave and shake the dust of the place off one’s feet. This was not an act of defiance. It was a statement of departure. Simply leave the residue of that experience behind and move on.

I have already connected with a dynamic and vibrant writer’s group here, one which is hospitable and enthusiastic despite having been founded in 1995. And I have made connection with the radio people in my own gated community plus there is a friend from the islands who moved to this area as well. We’re having dinner this week.

Life on the move is good and appealing. Life in hospice should be experienced only once. Life’s span is much too short to sit in hospice care month after month after month, slowly but certainly dying.

If you have any interest in leadership and management topics, I have another blog – www.thepracticalleader.com – which focuses on those areas. Please visit and sign up for free notification of new posts. Also in the sidebar is a free download – The 3 Absolutely Essential, Must Have, Never Fail, Always Present Skills of a Capable, Effective, Successful Leader. I promise – I am not selling anything, you will not get spam from me, and I do not give out my mailing lists to anyone for any reason.

I am back in the States from Uganda and will be here for a few months. Since this is hurricane season, and because I am a social person, I have tried to connect with the local amateur radio club. After five attempts I have given up.

Over a year ago, when we were planning a move to this area of Florida, I googled for clubs and found the website of the local assembly. There on the contact page I found the email of the club president and sent him a message that I was moving to the area and wanted to get connected.

A day later a "read receipt" showed up in my mail box meaning he had received and opened the message. His reply? Nothing. Not a word. No message of any kind.

Well, I went off to Uganda and worked there for about 8 months. About 6 weeks ago, when the date for our return to the US was certain, I tried again. I read the club's newsletter on-line and found an article about up-coming Field Day. The article said the organizer of Field Day was asking for help and provided his email address. I wrote offering to contribute anyway I could when I returned to the US.

The reply? Nothing! No answer at all. So, undaunted I surmised the email did not get through so I sent it again about a week later.

This time I did receive a reply. It was a curt and abrupt message saying "I guess I can find something for you to do," and giving me the time and date of a planning meeting.

When I got back here, I knew this local club has an informal lunch gathering every Thursday at a restaurant near my home. So I went. They were already gathered by the time I got there even though I arrived at the stated time. Did anyone welcome me, ask me to join them? No. Not one.

Undeterred I was determined to press on. I found a seat and tried to strike up a conversation with the man sitting across from me. You would think I was a police interrogator and he was a suspect. The conversation, such as it was, was awkward, forced, and cold.

I left after lunch just about ready to call it quits but, since the Field Day planning meeting was coming up, I decided to give it another week. I went to the lunch again a week later and this one was worse than the first. I might as well have been invisible.

But the Field Day Planning meeting killed it off. I arrived early and entered the room. I introduced myself around and endured eyes of suspicion. When I introduced myself to one man, he said "Yeah, ok," AND TURNED AWAY! He did not introduce himself, welcome me to the meeting, or anything. He just turned away. When the meeting formally began I discovered this was the man in charge of planning for Field Day and the man I had corresponded with.

Once again, I was completely invisible. No one, NO ONE, made any reference to me at any time. I hung around for a bit after the meeting and was again ignored. I was tired of forcing myself onto a group that obviously does not want any outsiders at all.

I drove away determined never to go back. Now I am not an unpleasant person. I have made a living for forty years interacting with the public and most people find me congenial and hospitable. But this was the worst group I have encountered in quite awhile. So here is how to screw up your club and guarantee its demise:

1. When someone makes an inquiry, ignore them. Do not reply to either emails or phone calls. Put your contact info out there, but make sure you don't actually answer anyone. This will put people off and limit your group to those already in it. "No message, no reply" is actually a message. It means "We can't be bothered with actually answering inquiries and responding to people we do not know so please go away and don't bother us again.

2. If someone actually tries to get into the group, make sure they are kept away by not engaging them in conversation.

3. If someone tries to help, lock them out. After all, you have a routine and don't want the system fouled up by new people coming in with more equipment and expertise.

4. Be rude. If someone shows up, look through them but not at them. Do not acknowledge them, engage them, or, gasp!!, invite them to anything your club does. After all, they might actually show up.

Your club won't die right away. It will, however, die a slow and pitiful death, strangled from within by cliquishness and selfishness. One by one you will pass from the scene, your attendance will diminish, your club treasury will shrink, and you will sit around, shake your head, and opine that amateur radio just doesn't appeal to the public anymore.

We were on our way up country a few days ago when we came upon this taxi. The word “taxi” does not mean a car with a meter in it that will take passengers where they want to go. There are those types of vehicles but they are most often called “private hire.” A taxi is a mini van with bench seats licensed to carry 15 passengers who wedge themselves in and for a few shillings get on and off along a predetermined route, much like municipal or intercity bus service.

This one was loaded down and I thought had had an encounter with a tree thus the branches hanging over the rear lights. I learned that those branches were a sign to the traffic police that says “Yes I know I am overloaded carrying more than the licensed number of passengers but this is a family are on their way to a burial. Please allow us to travel unhindered.”

It is a sad fact of life here that there are too many burials. The average life expectancy in Uganda for man is 52 years, for women 53. Someone who has reached my age is considered quite an exception and I am but 59. My gray hair engenders respect and accommodation. School children automatically stand when I enter the room.

There are too few of us here. Disease and war have robbed the country of an entire demographic. There are many families who care for 20 or more children, the sons and daughters of brothers or sisters who have passed.

The people in this taxi were on their way to a village somewhere to pay their respects to someone no longer with us. The branches are a sign to us on the road to grant them passage unhindered. We do.

We  (the dog and I) are back from our walk this morning. On the main street one block up from our flat, we came across this electrical line hookup. This is on the main road, on a major sidewalk (pavement as they call it in the UK). That’s Chumley the dog’s head in the lower right corner. We have passed this way many times in the past months and not work is being done on this installation. Now, having come from a land of codes and litigation, an electrical installation of this type on a street in the US would never happen. It would most certainly not be left this way wherein anyone at anytime could access it. There are, as I see it two ways to assess this:

First, it is laxity on the part of the utility company to not button up this installation before leaving the site. This certainly speaks of a failure to adhere to minimal safety procedures.

Second, it implies a lack of litigation in the system here. Indeed, no one actually sues anyone, most certainly not the government or a public utility. There are few inspectors and those that exist function well on a crony system or can be encouraged with the right sort of gift. What’s more, there is an underlying assumption that the public is not stupid and understands danger when they see it. Warning barriers and signs are unnecessary because common sense would tell a passerby to avoid touching bare wires and connections.

So there it its just as it has for several months, perhaps years. High Voltage connections uncovered and open. And no one has been injured. Granted, it is not the busiest street in Kampala for foot traffic. But it is not an isolated avenue either. It enjoys constant traffic every weekday. (I shot these photos early Sunday morning.)

While I do not advocate dangerous installations of this sort, I do acknowledge the mindset of the culture that allows it to continue. If one were to suggest to the powers that be that such installations are an invitation to a lawsuit, they would laugh at you. It seems that the American system has given rise to litigation prompted by spilling hot coffee on oneself and blaming the seller for it. Or burglars suing owners of burgled property for injuries they, the burglar, sustained while criminally invading that property. We have entire industries now warning people of the obvious. All of this is a vain and foolish pursuit of risk-free living. We want to shift the responsibility, and thus the blame, on someone, indeed anyone else when what is required is simple common sense. If the coffee is hot (and it usually is) wouldn’t common sense warn your not to drive while holding it between your knees. Perhaps I am being ungrateful for the advances of a developed society. Here, in the Third World, there are few consumer protections. I fear the day when this society becomes so advanced as to find lawsuits everywhere.

Our QRP beacon continues to reach way out there. In the past 24 hours we’ve been picked up by WA2YUN, Colin Bradley’s station on Wake Island. That is 9116 miles from here. These long distances always amaze me. It is doubtless the sophistication of the equipment, transmitting and receiving, that make them possible.

Yesterday morning I was working in my office with the radio on, scanning through 20 meters when I heard a station in Australia. I paused the scan and responded to his CQ. VK3MO, Ian Williams came back from 80 kms northwest of Melbourne.

Now QSO’s in Australia are not that unusual from here. My rather crude dipole antenna seems to work well off the ends on 20 meters. Since the antenna is aligned east and west, I get fantastic propagation those directions, not very good north and south.

VK3MO was using a very sophisticated antenna as you can see in the photo. His 20 element Yagi on a 200 foot tower has tremendous range as evidence by our QSO. He was beaming long path to me, shooting across the pacific, across North America, across the Atlantic, across Africa to my little station.

Now it is possible he was picking me up from the back end of his antenna. Given the clarity and strength of our signals, this might have been the case. He was 59 here in Uganda, He gave me a signal report of 59+10. Anyway you slice it, it was a great contact.

Most of us have heard of New York City’s famous and now gone Radio Row.The electronics bazaar sat on thirteen acres of lower Manhattan now occupied by the site of the world trade center, this hodge-podge of family businesses held a treasure of old radios and old radio parts. It’s gone now, a victim of changing times and progressive development projects.

There aren’t many purely electronic supply stores left anywhere. When I was a teenager I worked in my father’s TV and radio repair business in San Bernardino, California. Every day after school I made a parts run in the company truck to Hurley’s Electronic Supply. It was much like an auto parts store and always busy.

I don’t know if it is still in business. Then there was Radio Shack, the victim now of completely inept corporate leadership that thinks a 400 square foot store front can compete with big box stores selling flat screen TV's, entertainment systems, computers, cd’s and DVD's. The last time I visited a Radio Shack, excuse me, The Shack, wanting to buy some parts for some components I was building, I discovered that there was almost nothing left. The wide shallow drawers of switches, fuses, capacitors, and everything else had been reduced by closeout sales to nothing else.

There is the internet, of course. Guys like Dan’s Small Parts has a lot of stuff. There’s a place in south Phoenix that carries a large selection of vacuum tubes, but you can’t really browse through shelves and stacks of goodies. You have to give your request to a clerk who disappears into a warehouse and comes out with the stuff.

I am putting together a battery/battery charger combination to keep a QRP beacon on the air in my absence. This is the radio supplied by Gernot Frauscher I wrote about in a previous post. I told my driver I needed to go to Modern Electronics or Master Electronics on Bomba Road in Kampala. The traffic was typically chaotic and he, my driver, never did find a parking place. He deposited me on the street in  front of the two stores and in I went.

It is the closest I have found to the classic radio supply shop. There are no used items, all new stuff and most of it from China. But they have thousands and thousands of pieces. It was a hoot. Up and down the street are dozens more shops selling electrical supplies, appliances, computers, computer supplies, and telephones. It is the type of place you either love or hate. The businesses are chaotic and pandemonium rules. Mostly owned by Pakistanis and Indians, they know their stuff.

There are no microprocessors for sale, no pieces to make PCB’s, but there’s just about everything else. Uganda, and probably most of Africa still have TV and radio repair shops. There are few left in the US, but here you can still take in your set for repair. There are two reasons why televisions, CD and DVD players are still repaired here rather than replaced. One is the initial relatively high cost. In the US, a new unit is usually a small portion of a person’s income. Here it is a significant portion and just buying another is often out of the question. One would have saved a very long time to get enough money to buy one to begin with. This reason gives rise to the next reason. Labor charges are very cheap here. Materials will cost a good deal more than the labor to repair something and even then it is comparatively low. Someone will work on a TV all day and the labor charge will be under $20. Not so in the US. Repair costs there will easily exceed the price of a new unit. Here, repair is much cheaper. So places like Masters and Modern Electronics stock lots of parts.

These are the only two electronics parts stores I know of. Up and down Bomba Road are dozens of computer stores and electrical supply stores as well. If it is powered by electricity, chances are good you will find it or parts for it on Bomba Road. I tell you, if you come to Kampala, go to our Radio Row.