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A few short items this month, all in the direction of increasing and retaining our membership:
First, when the International Amateur Radio Union, Region 2, held its 14th General Assembly in Guatemala City, in October, twenty-one IARU member-societies from throughout the Americas were represented. In a summary of their proceedings they "Encouraged member-societies (that's clubs like KWARC) to urge individual radio amateurs (that's you) to intensify their efforts to bring more persons to join Amateur Radio, with special attention to young people." So, whatcha goin' to do about it?
To help you out, we've prepared a new Club pamphlet for Prospective members. I've got a bunch, so if you want some let me know. Better than that, our greeters at the door of each club meeting will have some, so when (note I say 'when' not 'if') you bring a guest make sure they get a copy. While I'm at it, please let me thank our greeters; Hugh VE3IYG and Harry VE3EIX for creating this important role and being so friendly to all who come to the meetings! By the way, did you know that Harry's last name is the same as the suffix of his call? First time I ever heard of that.
Keeping our club healthy isn't just bringing in new members, and new hams; it is also keeping the present members keen, doing what we can to keep them with us. One of the services that KWARC provides its membership with is VE3KSR - a 24/7 open channel for us to all communicate on. KSR is also a service to 'hamdom' at large because it permits amateurs who travel the highways and byways in our coverage area to have access to other amateurs for help while travelling - that's a very key reason why KWARC gets the transmitter site and antenna space out on the Baden Hill donated; a key reason community grants are available to KWARC to keep the repeater running. Even though KSR is there for everyone to use, it is a binding force that keeps KWARC members together.
So why am I bringing that up? Well, to make all of those things work we need to have members who monitor the repeater on a regular basis. I'm hearing that 'interference from a repeater in another region, and intermod from lots of local commercial transmitters' is causing the squelch to 'kerchunk' very frequently, and is thus discouraging members from monitoring. While it's much too involved to explain in my short space, there is a simple solution; activating the regional PL tone of 131.8 Hz. Activating 131.8 Hz does not 'close' the repeater (as is often misunderstood by the uninformed), nor is it a secret tone (but rather the approved method of preventing interference with repeaters today). What it does, is allows the transmitter to only turn on when the receiver 'hears' the regional tone, thereby preventing unintentional transmissions.
Now, you as members are going to hear more about this matter. As your VP responsible for membership I want to be sure that you are going to have our key local repeaters working properly to meet your needs. If you are a REGULAR user of KSR I'd love to hear your opinions on this interference. E-mail me at
ve3etk@rac.ca . I won't promise to respond, but I will collect your opinions and present a summary at an Executive meeting.
A very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and the best of the Holiday season and the New Year to everyone.
73 Bill VE3ETK
KWARC Vice-President
and Membership Chairman
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