THE LOCAL OSCILLATOR - November 2003 - NOTE: An HTML version is available at www.zianet.com/common/mvrc/index.html For this issue a pdf file of the web edition is available at www.zianet.com/common/mvrc/LO0311n.pdf. It will be easy to print that edition. If you do not have the free pdf reader you can get it at www.adobe.com - TABLE OF CONTENTS COMING EVENTS PRESIDENT'S CORNER MVRC FUTURE REASONS FOR LEAVING THE MVRC. AMATEUR RADIO STATISTICS NEW HAM DEMOS INTERNET REPEATER LINK TECH CLASS REPORT PLATFORM OF KARL LARSON HAM SCHOLARSHIP GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING UNCLASSIFIED ADS COMING EVENTS Week days 6 m FM net 52.540 6:00AM Mon WTRA Swap net 146.88 8 PM Wed Net 146.64 6:45PM round-table 52.525MHz 8 PM Weekdays Informal get together Mon Wed Fri Munson Center 10AM Tue Thur Wal-Mart Nov 1 Breakfest 8 AM Club House Nov 1 Business meeting-election 9:30AM Club House Nov 8 New Ham demos 1 PM Club House Nov 12 1st Wed after 2nd Mon Directors at Club House 7:00PM Nov 15 Baylor Pass race Nov 27 Turkey Trot race Dec 8 Christmas Dinner PRESIDENT'S CORNER AD5LJ The annual election of club officers will be held at the 1 November business meeting. This will be our most important meeting of the year and I encourage all members to attend and vote for the candidates of your choose. The candidates for the various offices are listed below. Also, nominations from the floor will be allowed, as will write-in candidates. OFFICERS PRESIDENT – Karl Larsen, K5DI, and Tim Linn, KD5SSF VICE PRESIDENT – Bob Deal, KD5PPP SECRETARY – Carleton Talbot, KC5MRM TREASURER – Charles Welch, W5TLU DIRECTORS EDUCATION – Joe San Filipo, WZ5R BUILDINGS and GROUNDS - Bob Bennett, AD5LJ MVRC FUTURE AD5LJ There has been a lot of talk in email, in the Local Oscillator and on the nets about the immediate demise of the MVRC. I believe this is highly unlikely in the near future. The club is in the best financial condition it has been in for several years. We have sufficient members to keep the club self sufficient, and we are still gaining new members each year. However, there are underlying problems in the club that must be solved or else the club will eventually fail. This may take 5 or 10 years but I believe the trends are now evident. I have only been a member of the club for a little over 10 years so it is possible I don’t have a good grasp of everything that is going on. The following are the major problems I perceive in the club. 1. Lack of member involvement in club activities. I first noticed this problem about five years ago and it has been getting steadily worse. In my opinion, it has now reached crisis proportions. What I mean by lack of involvement is the unwillingness of most members to participate in club activities, events, hold office, serve on panels, teach classes, attend meetings, help cook, and etc. This results in a few people doing everything and becoming burned out. 2. Declining numbers and aging membership. The only way to solve this problem is by recruiting new members. This problem cannot be solved by changing the meeting formats and dates, revising the newsletter and so on. 3. Conflict within the club. There are too many personal attacks between members, and too many people who do not take an active role in solving problems but complain about what others are doing. 4. Unfriendly atmosphere. I have seen improvement in this area but the club still needs to work on making visitors and new members feel welcome. My own experiences will help highlight the problem. When I started attending meeting after joining the club, no one introduced them selves to me for several months; I was basically ignored at the meetings. After attending meetings regularly for about three years, most people had figured out my name and call sign. Still, some people still referred to me as “the new guy” and had no clue as to my name. Just last week, one of our newer members confided in me that I was the only person to talk to him when he first visited the club. REASONS FOR LEAVING THE MVRC AD5LJ The membership of MVRC has been decreasing for at least five years. Up until 2003, the rate of loss was 10-15 members per year. In 2003, the club lost over 30 members. I am concerned about this and wanted to determine if I was doing something to drive members away. So, I have been asking people who left the club in the last three years their reasons for leaving. I have been doing this as time permits and have not talked to every one who left. To date, I have information from 50 former members. I had no plans to share this information but two board members requested that I do so. The following are the number of people and the general reasons they left. 1. Personal reason or not willing to discuss – 15 2. Moved out of the area – 9 3. Health Reasons – 5 4. Conflict with other MVRC Members – 5 5. Club membership of no benefit (not getting enough out of the club to justify the dues) – 5 6. Too Busy with work, etc – 3 7. Do not agree with club actions – 3 8. Lost interest in Ham Radio – 2 9. Silent Keys – 3 The club cannot do anything about most of the reasons given above. However, three reasons (4, 5 and 8) are very troubling and must be addressed and somehow resolved. The new board of directors should address these issues as a priority action. AMATEUR RADIO STATISTICS AD5LJ As part of my research into MVRC problems, I wanted to know if MVRC problems are unique or if other clubs are having similar problems. The first thing I did was use the INTERNET to collect statistics on amateur operator membership in clubs and the make up of the amateur community. As of the end of May 2003, there were 681,541 licensed amateurs in the USA. The amateur pool is growing at about 2 percent per year. Of these, 170,000 belong to ARRL, or about 25 percent. The ARRL membership is DECREASING about 1 percent per year. I find this to be strange, only about 25 percent of hams belong to the ARRL and the ARRL membership is dropping while the amateur pool is growing! I sent an email to ARRL and asked about ARRL affiliated clubs. I was told that there are 8290 amateur radio clubs in the USA (845 in region 5) and in general, their membership is slowly decreasing and aging. Also, about 20 to 25 percent of amateurs belong to a local radio club. In the Las Cruces area, there are about 500 licensed amateurs and 93 of them belong to the MVRC. Percentage wise, this is less than the national average and implies we may have a local problem. The club should work to improve this. Another area I looked into is amateur radio license class. The following table shows the statistics as percentages for the nation, Las Cruces area, and the MVRC. LICENSE CLASS MVRC Las Cruces Nation Novice 0% 3% 5% Technician 34 50 47 General 18 18 21 Advanced 14 13 12 Extra 34 16 15 This table gives a hint of why some people may find the MVRC to be irrelevant. The club membership grossly under represents the technician class and over represents the extra class. If the club wants to attract more members, the majority will have to come from the technician class. After all, they represent 50 percent of the hams in the Las Cruces area. To attract technicians, the club must reach out to them. This will require offering programs and activities that focus on VHF/UHF operations, satellites, repeaters, mobile operations and FM net operations. Emphasis on HF topics, DX, CW operations, PSK, QRP, etc should be reduced; after all, they are not of immediate interest to most techs. NEW HAM DEMOS KD5SSJ On November 8, 2003, the Mesilla Valley Radio Club will hold our first Elmer session. This is an afternoon / evening event to welcome our recent (October 3-5) class of Technicians to the Amateur Radio community. Meet us at the MVRC club house. It's really just an excuse to get together and just have fun. All Amateur Radio operators in the area, and a guest, are invited to come and join us for this Saturday afternoon. Starting at 1:00 pm until 3:00 pm we will hold an informal gathering, where demonstrations of any aspect or mode of Amateur Radio can be demonstrated. We will have demonstrations of CW, APRS, PSK-31, and hopefully satellite repeaters. This would be a great time to demonstrate HF phone, CW and other modes. An informal tailgate swapmeet will also go until 6:00 pm. From 3:00 pm until 6:00 pm we want to hold some formal demonstrations of the use of the handheld and moblie 2 meter and 70 cm radios. We want to get our new Technicians on the air, giving them a chance to get over the jitters of getting on the air for the first time. We want to give them an opportunity talk to other hams, using simplex and duplex through local repeaters. We'll demonstrate ragchewing and operation as a net. We'll emphasize proper operation, emergency operation and having fun. If you have extra equipment, some of the new Technicians may not have radios yet, if you can lend the equipment for the afternoon or longer it would be a great way to help a new guy or gal get started. Some might be ready to buy their first radio at the swapmeet. I'd also ask you to offer to Elmer the new Technicians by offering to show them your shack and show them the aspects of the hobby that has meant the most to you. From 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm I will host a free Fajita Dinner, I'll be making beef and chicken fajitas with beans, sour cream, etc. Soft drinks and water will be available for nominal cost. I'd like to try to get a head count for dinner, please drop me a note at KD5SSJ@qsl.net or catch me on the air, or call at 382-1917. Please join us. The MVRC Club House can found by driving east on North Main (HWY 70) towards Alamogordo. At about 5.3 miles from the I 25 interchange, exit at Porter Road. Continue right (south) on Porter until the road turns left (east) onto Aldrich. Continue about 1/2 mile until Wilt, turn left (north) onto Wilt. The Club House is located at the corner of Wilt and Jefferson. INTERNET REPEATER LINK K5DI The aim of the Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) is to get more people subscribed but the subscripion includes about a $130.00 purchase and use of a Linux computer. I cannot tell how many repeaters are now part of IRLP but you can read about this at: http://www.irlp.net/ Another very similar service is called Echo-Link and they have a web page at: http://www.echolink.org/ The features of this software is it runs on any version of Windows, and with a simple "Rigblaster" interface you can connect to an old handi-talkie set to repeat over 146.64 MHz and we will hear voice traffic from the Internet on our repeater. For both of these services, it is not a free-for-all with 4,000 repeaters talking at the same time, but rather it is our repeater linked to one other repeater, or, linked to a single person with just a computer and a sound card with speakers and a mike. So I am certain that any member who wants to try this with either software in Las Cruces should do so. We will all be interested in what can be done and will all learn while doing, the best way. TECH CLASS REPORT KD5SSF We had 10 students in our technician class on October 3-5. All 10 of them successfully completed the exam (Element 2). Many showed an interest in joining the club and going for General Class license. One student successfully completed the written exam for the General Class License the same day (Element 3). One of the new licensees immediately involved herself in the club activities by helping in the Mesilla Valley Marathon. The new licensees are: Denzil Burnham Kathy Chrisley Gene Cunnar Erin Edgerly Josh Hoguin Teresa Linn Elliot Michael James Moore Owen Jones Valerie Woosley There were two walk-ins (Nicholas Bludworth and Tim Jones) who took the Technician Class Exam that day. Tim Jones also took and passed the written exam for General Class License. PLATFORM OF KARL LARSON K5DI Put Radio back into the Mesilla Valley Radio Club Much more member involvement in business meetings. What are YOU doing that is fun? Training and Elmering new Amateur Radio Operators. Business meetings moved back to Monday at 7:15 PM. Members are free to walk out of a business meeting that is longer than 20 minutes. Programs will follow the business meeting. Programs will occur less frequently, to be replaced by a general coffee and chat with friends. Continue to support the Mesilla Valley Track Club. Most Club business will be done in the Directors meeting. Anything important will be reported to all the members at the next meeting. Support Search and Rescue Statewide. HAM SCHOLARSHIP K5TRW The West Texas Repeater Association is offering a scholarship which is available to any Ham or family member who resides within 150 miles of El Paso. Further information and an application form can be obtained from K5TRW. GENERAL BUSINESS MEETING SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2003 This general meeting was called primarily to announce the work of the nominating committee. It was meant to be short, since the Technology class was to follow. There was no program. The meeting was called to order at 8:05 by the President, Bob Bennett, AD5LJ. A quorum was present; see attached attendance sheet. Introductions were made and several of the class members were introduced. Bob had two announcements to make. Steve Friis, WM5Z, will audit the books for the club. Since no one from the Nominating Committee was present, Bob reported that the committee so far has one candidate, for vice-president and one for Board position for buildings and grounds. In addition, Karl Larsen has said that he would be willing to serve as president if no one else comes forward. At this time no one else has. We need a treasurer and a secretary and several other board members, as well. Bob expressed concern and disappointment that no one has stepped forward to help. Bob asked the members present to spread the word and to consider serving a term of office. Treasurer's Report: Rod, WK5I, stated that he has made no expenditures or deposits since last month so the same financial report remains. It was noted that we now have a screen door on the front. A screen door will be harder to install on the back door since that door swings outward instead of inward. So we will keep the door closed, when necessary. Vice-President's Report: Doug, KE5FF, had no report. Secretary's Report: Jim Leverett, WA2NIJ, moved and Cash Olsen, KD5SSJ, seconded that the minutes be approved as presented in the Oscillator. The motion passed. Marnie, KA2FVO, asked to speak in rebuttal to a letter that was printed in the Oscillator written by Karl Larsen, K5DI. She pointed out that the letter states that the club needs to put Search and Rescue back into the club. This is an inaccurate statement because the club never had a search and rescue unit. Instead a local unit came to the club requesting assistance in communications skills, which the club provided and is still providing. She pointed out that the club is listed in the State Search and Rescue Resource Manual. She then went on to question Karl's statement that the club "has an air of a Club about to fail" She pointed out that meeting attendance has gone up, not down, as Karl said, and that our membership, while slowly decreasing, is following a national trend and that the club has had lower membership in times past. She pointed to our successful money raising projects and our good financial position without raising dues. She mentioned the vital role the club plays in assisting, not only with Search and Rescue, but with Mesilla Valley Track Club and with the local Office for Emergency Management. Finally Marnie took issue with the phrase in Karl's letter which speaks of "our devotion to the Clubhouse". She pointed out the careful accounting of expenses connected with the clubhouse and the frequent board discussions about its value to the club. She mentioned all the uses of the clubhouse, including the permanent radio station, the storage space, the location of the bean feed and the many times a month the building gets used. She asked that these comments be made a part of the record, since Karl's letter is part of the record in the Oscillator. A discussion followed. Steve Friis moved and Marnie seconded that a letter should be printed in the next Oscillator rebutting Karl's letter. Cash Olsen agreed, saying that the rebuttal should not be buried in the minutes. A few people asked how the letter got published in the first place. Jack Lemons suggested that the club should only have one Bully Pulpit, the president or his appointee. Bob will talk to Alex about being part of the editing process. The motion was then passed. Jim Leverett, WA2NIJ, announced his intention to resign, due to problems with Karl Larsen. A discussion followed. Jack asked if there could be a meeting between Jim and Karl at the next board meeting to try to resolve the issue. A motion was made by Bob to ask a mediator to sit down with both parties at the next board meeting. George Kopp, KD5OHA, seconded it. It passed. There being no other business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:40 a.m. UNCLASSIFIED ADS WANTED: Working microphone needed for Heathkit HW-202, to make rig operational for one of our new local hams. Contact Bill Johnston, 382-7804, e-mail: K5ZI@arrl.net BACK PAGE The newsletter is always looking for articles and notes of interest to the members of the Mesilla Valley Radio Club. Please send them to Alex. F. Burr, K5XY, Editor, MVRC Local Oscillator, 695 Stone Canyon Drive, Las Cruces, NM 88011. Small personal ads from members will also be published. It would be helpful if submissions would be made in a machine readable form. MSDOS disks are welcome. Files can also be sent to the Internet address aburr@aol.com. The club maintains a web site at http://www.zianet.com/mvrc. OFFICERS Pres Bob Bennett AD5LJ 382-0148 rbennett@zianet.com VPr Doug Hicks KE5FF 522-2683 domad1@msn.com Sec Marnie Leverett KA2FVO 522-0347 Tres Rod Davis WK5I 522-6833 rodstree@peoplepc.com B'rd Alex. Burr K5XY 522-2528 aburr@aol.com Mike Homer KC5SKF kc5skf@zianet.com Karl Larsen K5DI 524-3303 k5di@arrl.net Timothy Linn KD5SSF 521-0486 timlinn@sprynet.com Cash Olsen KD5SSJ 382-1917 casholsen@zianet.com Brad Sacca KC5SKE 382-4380 shiekyerbouty@msn.com JOIN THE CLUB To join the Mesilla Valley Radio Club, renew your membership, or to support the repeaters, please complete the form below and send it with dues ($25 single, $35 family per year) to: Treasurer, MVRC, Box 1443, Las Cruces, NM 88004. Name: Address: Call: Class of License: Phone: E-Mail Address: ARRL Member? Yes? No?