The Spark Gap - February 2024

THE SPARK GAP

A monthly publication of the Meridian Amateur Radio Club February 2024

Happy Valentine

Bible Verse

Ephesians 5:23-25 --- For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (NIV)

President's Report

Hello All,

I hope everyone gets to make it to the Jackson Hamfest this weekend February 2-3. I plan on being there to see what is up for grabs as most of the tables are already gone. Our meeting was moved during the January meeting and will be held on the 10th of February at the Queen City Truck Stop.

Also just a reminder that during the last test session we had several pass and with that I say " Congratulations to our new Hams". If y'all would please welcome those into our wonderful hobby. Other than that I hope to see you in either Jackson or the next meeting.

73"s Charles, KB5SZJ

Next MARC Business Meeting

IMPORTANT NOTE: MEETING TIME AND LOCATION

The next business meeting will be held in the side room at the Queen City Truck Stop from 9am until... on Saturday February 10th . Come join us for breakfast, coffee, and fellowship.

Treasurer Report

Please bring your 2023 dues to the next meeting or mail them to the address below. Thank you for your support. Dues are:

$23.00 per Year per Member

$25.00 per Year for Family

$15.00 per year if 65 or older

Meridian Amateur Radio Club
4887 Valley Rd
Meridian, MS 39302

VE TEST RESULTS

Here is today (Jan. 13, 2024) MARC VE test session result:

We had 5 people take the test and all five passed their test! One upgrade and four new hams! Congratulations to all five of these candidates!

John Larson              KG5LKP     Now a GENERAL CLASS Operator

Carl Richardson        KJ5EAU        Passed his TECH and GENERAL CLASS

David Fason               KJ5EAK        Passed his TECH Test

Shirley M. Fason       KJEAL        Passed her TECH Test

Michael Knost           KJ5EAM        Passed His TECH Test

Carl Richardson made a perfect score on his GENERAL Test!

I would like to make a recommendation. If anyone knows anyone that is taking the test or recommending some one to this team to take the test. PLEASE instruct them to contact me, Eldon Richardson, W4IOS, Cell: (601) 227-6690, eldon.richardson79@gmail.com ASAP. This will give me a chance to instruct them to what they need to do prior to taking the test or make them aware of any updated information.

73s Eldon Richardson, W4IOS

Capital City Hamfest - Jackson, MS

Dates: February 2nd and 3rd, 2024

Contact hamfest@msham.org for any questions.

Learning about radio does matter
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

I recently received an email from someone who reads my blog that struck a chord with me. He wrote:

“I ’ve been a ham for decades, operate all modes (but mostly CW), and do a lot of Parks on the Air (POTA). I also spend a lot of time recruiting people into the ham radio hobby and mentoring new hams. It ’s that last focus that prompts this question.

“For a variety of reasons that I can ’t put on my finger on, it seems like more and more hams don ’t really care about how radios or antennas work, and don ’t want to invest much time or effort into learning such things. They just want to turn it on and use it. How it works, and what ’s going on inside of the box, aren ’t important.

“For example, I know of one guy—a General-class licensee—who decided his top-of-the-line Yaesu HT was ‘defective’ because whenever he pressed the push-to-talk switch on one of the repeater frequencies, the radio transmitted on a different frequency. Ugh. Another guy I know thought that his hamstick wouldn ’t tune because the wire coil was installed upside down. As you ’d guess, the hamstick tuned and worked just fine.

“Some people say that we should get hung up on this. Get new hams into the hobby and they ’ll learn as they go on. Except that doesn ’t seem to be happening, at least not consistently. Even very experienced, highly educated hams can be clueless on very simple, fundamental radio concepts.

“So, here ’s the question: does any of this matter? I don ’t know how my microwave oven works, and I don ’t ’ need to, and I don ’t want to. All I want to do is push a button. So maybe it ’s perfectly fine that hams don ’t know about radio technology and we should stop pretending that any of this matters. Put ‘em through a ‘ham cram' and get them on the air. Or maybe amateur radio transceivers are different than microwave ovens and it does matter. I don ’t know. I go back and forth on this and don ’t really have a clear assessment in my mind.

“Anyway, since this seems like the kind of thing you ’ve already thought about, I wonder what you make of all this. If you ’re sitting around with nothing to do, I ’d be curious to know what you think.”

Yes, learning about radio does matter

This struck a chord with me because I teach ‘ham cram’ classes, and I often encounter people who think this way. They just want to push buttons and talk on the radio. They say, “I ’m only going to use it when I go off-roading with friends,” or “I ’m only going to use it when my CERT team is activated.”

I always ask them what they ’re going to do when something goes wrong (and we know that at some point, something is going to wrong). I tell them that without some basic knowledge of how radios and antennas work, they aren’t going to be able to fix problems or work around them, and if they can ’t do that, they’re not going to be very effective communicators and their experience is going to be very frustrating. Not only that, I explain that they ’ll have a lot more fun with ham radio if they understand how the technology works.

So, the question is how to get these people to be more curious about radio technology and how to encourage them to learn more. Being insulting or negative isn’t the way to do it. I hope, for example, that when the guy complained about his Yaesu HT, that someone patiently explained how repeaters work. Sure, he should have known that already, but belittling him for not knowing this would only do more harm than good.

I don ’t think that you can fault people for not knowing things, but you can fault them for not wanting to learn things. There ’s a lot to learn in ham radio, and you can ’t learn it all before you get a license. In fact, I ’d argue that most things you can only learn after you get a license and start doing things.

Having said all that, our challenge is to make ham radio a place where those that want to learn things can thrive. I think that we ’re doing better at that. Look at all the YouTube channels where you can learn about just about anything that ham radio has to offer. The ARRL is getting in on this as well, with its “Learning Center.”

I ’d say not to worry about those who don ’t want to invest the time and effort. They ’re not going to be hams for very long. They ’re going to get frustrated when they can ’t get things to work and drift off to something else. Let ’s concentrate those who are curious and able and willing to invest the time and effort and make good hams out of them.

—————

Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, is the author of the KB6NU amateur radio blog (KB6NU.Com), the "No Nonsense" amateur radio license study guides (https://KB6NU.Com/study-guides/), and often appears on the ICQPodcast (https://icqpodcast.com). When he ’s not writing about amateur radio, he   tinkers with electronics projects and operates POTA and works CW on the HF bands.

Quote of the Month

“Though, February is short, it is filled with lots of love and sweet surprises” — Charmaine J Forde

Have a BLESSED month!