Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty
He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.” John 6:35, 65 NIV
Shelly made a motion to postpone the club elections due to not enough members present to vote; seconded by Frank.
Elections will be held at the January meeting, which is scheduled for 1600 on 2 January 2016 at the Magnolia Restaurant located in the Queen City Truck Stop.
At this meeting nominations and voting will occur. Scott and Shelly will need to have replacements on the board as that they will be leaving Meridian in July.
GE to all: As some of you already know that it is the time of year for both the Lauderdale Repeater Group and Meridian Amateur Radio Club to jointly pay for Liability Insurance to cover both groups and repeater sites. This year’s premium remains the same price or $325.00 for a one year policy. Both groups will pay half of the premium ($162.50 each). I urge everyone to help pay for this expense. If you use any one of / or both repeaters just remember these things do not stay on the air all by themselves. All donations will be greatly appreciated. Dennis NO5C
Capital City Hamfest and Mississippi state ARRL Convention
FRI JAN 29th 2016 5:00PM - 8:00PM
SAT JAN 30th 2016 8:00AM - 4:00PM
Hamfest admission is $8.00, includes 1 FREE door prize ticket. For $15 you get admission and 10 door prize tickets. Admission is FREE for children 12 and under!
This year’s Guest Speaker - Sean Kutzko
Sean Kutzko, KX9X, is the ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager. Sean came to ARRL in 2007 as the Contest Branch Manager and was promoted to PR in June 2013. First licensed in 1982 as KA9NGH, Sean’s ham radio interests include HF and VHF contesting and DX’ing, portable operating and working the Amateur Radio satellites. He enjoys mentoring and Elmering newer hams. “Several Old Timers took the time to teach me how to be a good operator; now it’s my turn to give back.” Outside of ham radio, Sean enjoys playing drums in blues and jazz groups, following major league baseball, and making artisan breads and pizza. He lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, just five minutes from ARRL Headquarters, with his cat, Aja.
More information here: hamfest.msham.org
What would Wayne (Green) do?
By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
Wayne Green was a crackpot…but he was a great one.
For those of you who aren’t as old as I am, Wayne Green, W2NSD, was not only the publisher of 73 Magazine, but also the founder of Byte and other PC magazines in the early days of personal computing. In 73, he would write these long, rambling editorials. Often, he would take the ARRL to task, criticizing what he thought to be some lunk-headed policy or another.
Just as often, he’d be encouraging hams to take up some new technology. He was, for example, one of the guys driving hams to set up repeater systems.
He would often exhort hams to get started in their own technology-related business. I remember one column where he urged hams to get involved in the home-security business. And, of course, when personal computers became popular, he wrote that hams should think about getting into that business. His reasoning was that our knowledge of electronics would stand us in good stead in those businesses.
Today, I think that he would be telling us to get more involved in with technologies like the Internet of Things, WiFi, or whatever other wireless technology is coming down the pike. “Wireless” is the key word here. These networking technologies are based on good, old radio, and who better to push these technologies forward than guys like us who understand radio.
This point was brought home to me last week as I was interviewing an executive of a wireless company for an article that I’m writing. He said to me that many of the companies he works with are taking a software-centric view to their wireless products. They simply use the reference designs provided by the wireless chip makers and expect those designs to work flawlessly in their products.
While they often do, he gave me an example where simply using the reference design was a colossal failure. In one case, he said, the company mounted the board inside a metal enclosure. Since the antenna was part of the printed-circuit board, the enclosure acted like a shield, and of course, the device had little or no range.
He went on to say that he thought that there was a real shortage of experienced RF guys in the wireless industry. Does that sound like an opportunity to you? It does to me. So, I’m going to make like Wayne Green here and exhort all you guys to get out there and take advantage of it.
This is not only a business opportunity, but a way for amateur radio operators to fulfill a couple of the “purposes” of amateur radio, as set forth in Part 97.1 of the amateur radio regulations. Part 97.1(b) says that one of the purposes of the Amateur Radio Service is “Continuation and extension of the amateur’s proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.” According to Part 97.1(d), another purpose of the Amateur Radio Service is “Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.”
Let’s do it!
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When he's not ruminating on the latest wireless technologies, KB6NU likes to make use of some vintage wireless technologies by working CW on the HF bands. He's also a prolific blogger (www. kb6nu. com) and the author of the "No Nonsense" amateur radio license study guides (www.kb6nu.com/study-guides). If you have a comment or a question, email him at cwgeek@kb6nu.com.
Quote of the Day
Enthusiasm is the best protection in any situation. Wholeheartedness is contagious. Give yourself, if you wish to get others.
- David Seabury
Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.
- Sir Winston Churchill
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