John,
Your frutration is obvious and understandable, but please remember to
be cautious in painting the entire organization in a negative light
when in fact ONE person exhibited the manners of an ignorant jackass.
The ARRL does many good things for Ham Radio, but the organization is
made up of individuals. Those people have their individual experiences,
priorities, preferences, bad days, and the like. I would probably not
stand by and say nothing to that individual, but rather I would go after
his with some vigor.
You may consider sending a second letter to him, equally well thought
out and scrubbed, and tell him of your displeasure with his earlier
answer. Copy the ARRL President, and K1ZZ. Clearly it's not the time
to bring out the vitriolic & vulgar language.......maybe later. But
for this second effort stay in the exceptionally articulate and solidly
grounded area. It will pay dividends.
Good luck.
73
Dale K5MM
At 04:04 PM 2/20/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Yesterday I sent a carefully thought out, detailed and courteously worded
>contest/DX related proposal to an ARRL Board member. The exact subject is
>irrelevant, and so is the the question of his agreement or disagreement.
>The response just about blew my mind. It was brief, curt and VERY thinly
>veiled: basically it said "Thanks for your letter - Stick it in your ear".
>
>Is this the type of response other contesters/DXers have received from our
>elected ARRL Board officials?
>
>John, NT5C.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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>From Mark van Wijk" <mark3fcd@xs4all.nl Mon Feb 23 01:22:35 1998
From: Mark van Wijk" <mark3fcd@xs4all.nl (Mark van Wijk)
Subject: [CQ-Contest] preparation ?? Welcome Mr. Murphy.....
Message-ID: <01bd3ff9$85a60ae0$LocalHost@mark3fcd>
Well, to be honest I thought to give it my five cents this weekends
ARRL-DX-CW contest.
And since I had lots of experience with last weekends PACC contest
clubstation troubles (PI4SHB) I was convinced that participating from home
location would just be a flick of the switch...........
So what about preparation??? Well I got a free day from my work at Friday,
so I started early:
Setup of new Vertical R7000+80
1. Search for 10 feet mast.
Checked five(!) construction locations but no one wanted to sell a piece.
Checked two hardware stores; nil. Two scrap-yards; again nil (oh yes next
week we will have tons...). An old electrical store gave me the new adres
of the moved antenna-construction-builders. Check next town; they have
moved. I'm doing something wrong here huh? Check on the way back an old yard
of the municipal works. Yes lots of used stuff. "Sorry you have to ask the
...bla...bla.." Find a few very old used ones under some garbage. "Please,
please"? Ok finally succes.
2. The guying rope has dissappeared.
Another trip to the shop, it's afternoon now.
3. Sure that final PL-259 was used in last weeks contest.
Another trip, cause all good plugs are really in use.
4. Summary: who has the antenna analyzer and SWR for loan ?? And where did
I put the RG213 ??
Just some phone calls, two more trips and its already evening.
Ok, start setting up the vertical at saturday-mornin' 0800. (no serious
contesting this time).
5. The nut on one of the R7000 clamper-to-mast is stuck !!
Can you believe it? It's at the middle of the bolt and won't move. Finally
it breaks under serious force. Now wait untill the shops open... And surely
this is English type of measurement so I have to do some rework to make our
clamper fit.
6. I'm a big guy so I can put up that vertical all by myself huh?
Well it almost totally crashed and I look like I have been in a chimney when
coming back from the flat roof. I was still recovering from a broken
collarbone from another stupid hobby and since I'm a bit
pigheaded............. Those who would come to help were not at home when
needed so I was not to blame when something would go wrong, was I ?
7. The cable does not fit in the (crowded) hole to my shack so where was
that 0.8 inch 1 foot drill ??
Ok at my mom's house some 20 km's away, no worries...
8. 10 is ok, 15 is reasonable (dips at 21080), 20 is ok, 40 is BAD (SWR
1:3-4 in CW section, minimum at 7070), 80 is BAD (SWR1:4 in CW and min at
3600).
Ok, despite the correct preadjustment there is clearly some fine tuning
needed which is normal. So am I going to take this 45 ft thingy down to
readjust? No thank you. Not today I guess, cause my bones are hurting enough
yet.
9. Ding-Dong!! Someone from the apartment (two- to-the-left and one down)
has lots of TVI and since she saw me on the roof............ Well I have
that too since a few weeks (since I installed my 4 el/28Mhz I find out to be
exactly), how nasty. No it can't be me (?). I keep on testing a bit but mr.
Murphy cries for laughter.
10. And off we go! Nice little contest for 10W output and one vertical with
SWR 3 to 4 at 40 and 80. Let's practice some S&P.
Boy must they hate my tiny signal.
11. The pc clock appears to be about 40 minutes behind so it says on CT
after several contacts????
This pc was tested last week! Now it is one minute behind every half hour.
12. CT won't accept a band change!!
Now wether this is a bug or I have installed this version 9 wrong I don't
know. Anyway to change bands you have to make one qso on the new band,
readjust the band after hitting enter, readjust the next clear line for the
right band, than QUIT and restart CT ARRL -now.
13. Again I miss 9M0C on 28.
Yes I need that one too. Now how long will they stay there ? No USA heard
all weekend :(((
I make the best of what is possible and keep under 15 W on all bands
otherwise my packet- modem or -notebook goes out of control when
transmitting on 40 and 80. Is there an assisted section here ?? Can't
remember CT asking for that.
Making contacts with just a tiny 10W in a vertical proves to be possible; I
can work almost everybody above S5-7. It does require persistent work but
that will help my operating skills. And there will be probeabely more I have
learned this weekend.
The score:
Band QSO State
80 9 5
40 48 15
20 77 28
15 74 26
10 0 0
ALL 208 74 =46,176
I did have lots of fun and was amazed what I could work. Thanks for those
trying hard to read me. I hate QRP.
' 73 Mark, PA3FCD
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