HAMRADIOSAFARI.COM: Recent Comments

Comment on 2011 Old Radio Calendar–Download Free

2012-01-05T13:44:02Z

Thanks for writing. As for the blog, I am no longer in Uganda and have no definite schedule for a return so I've let this one fall by the wayside for now. I hope to get back there sometime this year and get the site active again. So check back from time to time, please. I hope the new year brings the best for you. I am going to the Hamcation in Orlando, FL, in mid-February. I've never been to a ham event like this so I am hopeful. On a positive note, where I live now is a restricted community, but I have permission to put up a vertical antenna. Another ham here has a Cushcraft multi-band so I think I'll do the same.

Comment on 2011 Old Radio Calendar–Download Free

2012-01-04T20:29:19Z

Hi Jack. Happy New Year. You still around here? I check occasionally but no action. I just love the Trunk Monkey.

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-22T09:20:10Z

Thirty years ago I was a new ham. Another fellow and I turned up at a large, local ham club. Our experience was exactly the same as yours. We walked out and never looked back. On- the-air QRP CW actvities have been infinitely more rewarding experiences.

Too many Hams seem more interested in raising 90-foot towers and pissing off their neighbors these days than anything else.

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-17T19:01:23Z

Sorry to hear it. Maybe try another if you're not too discouraged, might be the complete opposite. Anyway, thanks for writing, always an interesting read.

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-17T18:06:43Z

Sad....their loss. Shake the dust off your feet and find a different group. This one seems to be on their last leg.

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-17T16:24:01Z

Wow Jack. All I can say is "sorry", and that it is definitely their loss. I've found your adventures as detailed here to be way more interesting than the sort of activities that most hams engage in (myself included).

A lot of hams are very friendly and reasonable people, but it is equally true that there are significant numbers of ossified sociopaths who can't seem to actually trouble themselves to interact with anyone in a positive way. Sometimes these kind of hams are driven to collect in dense patches, and a particularly loathsome "club" results.

I try to be enthused about enthusiasm. I figure if you are excited and interested in something, it's probably because it is interesting, and that if I understood what you find interesting about it, I might be interested too. Even if that isn't true, I get absolutely nothing by trying to blunt your own enthusiasm, so at the worst, I try to do no harm to my fellow hams.

I hear (too often) hams complain that young people just dont want to put the effort into working for their ham radio license, and when you talk to them a bit deeper, you realize that in varying degrees, they all seem to be dedicated in making ham radio harder than it should be, by being callous, curt, rude, or condescending. I think we should try to nurture whatever small flicker of flame they have burning within themselves, not blow it out, and then complain that we don't have any fire.

I empathize. But keep looking, you probably can find a group that will welcome your service and experiences. And keep writing!

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-17T01:27:43Z

Welcome back to the USA. Rude seems to be the latest social reality in this country! Luckily MOST Ham's I've delt with are smart ,engaging people. Maybe all the bad apples are in the same bushel! Hope to hear you on the air soon--73 Tim

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-16T23:13:02Z

And the winning club is.. ?

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-16T07:54:38Z

Hi Jack, this is really the most saddest story I've ever read about a radioclub. Well, I'm happy it is not like that in every radioclub. 2 weeks ago there was a new visitor in our club and we had a small conversation, it turned out this guy was not a radioamateur but very interested in receiving low band radiosignals. After a nice chat I discovered he worked more then 40 years in the Philips labaratories and have a lot of experience with electronics. The guys at the radioclub you visited don't know what they throw away. 73, Bas

Comment on How to Screw Up your Club and Insure Its Demise

2010-06-16T02:40:26Z

You left out point 5: when a new person gets on your clubs repeater give them the cold shoulder or mock them and make them feel stupid.

What kills me is many clubs/people act this way and then turn around and ask how they can get more people into the hobby?

Anyways if you like radios, food and a beer you're more then welcome to our clubs field day. I realize Michigan is a bit of a drive but hey I did say there'd be food and beer. haha