In the latest Great Lakes Division newsletter, there is a article titled, “What kind of Ham Radio Classes is your club teaching?” Its basic premise is that one-day Tech classes—the kind of classes that I teach—are inferior to more traditional classes. There’s so much misinformation in this article, that I just had to reply.

My friend, Rick, K8BMA, sent me an email this morning that included Nancy, WZ8C’s, article on instant character recognition. This article is often cited as gospel when it comes to learning Morse Code. While I agree with her thesis that instant character recognition (ICR), I’m not sure that her advice to “overlearn” Morse Code is any better than my mantra, which is “practice, practice, practice.”

My wife, Silvia, is a stickler for keeping the garage door closed, even if I’m just outside doing some gardening. So, I have a garage door control that I keep in my gardening toolbox, so that I can close the door when I’m outside and then get back in when I’m done.

I often do POTA activations with two friends: Paul, KW1L and Rick, K8BMA. We almost always operate CW. On a recent activiation, Paul asked if there was a way to do a joint activation like many phone operators do. If you hunt phone POTA activators, they often say something like, “Stand by for a second operator,” then the second operator gets on and makes their contact.

This afternoon, I was talking with a fellow who approached me about providing leadership training for ham radio club officers. Back in 2012, when I was the Michigan Section Affiliated Club Coordinator, I developed just such a course, based on my work as a facilitator for the Rotary Leadership Institute.

The topics I covered included

• Leadership Characteristics

• The World of Amateur Radio

• The Amateur Radio Club and its Activities

• Membership: Recruiting and Retention

• Leadership: Team Building

• Leadership: Setting Goals

• Evaluating Your Club

• Moving Forward

In case you haven’t heard by now, SteppIR, the manufacturer of very expensive HF antennas is getting out of the amateur radio business. Their announcement has caused a minor uproar in the amateur radio world, but personally, it’s not a big surprise to me. If MFJ couldn’t seem to find enough customers for their $300 – $500 Hy-Gain antennas, how many $5,000 antennas could SteppIR really sell?

Shame on the ARRL again for once again allowing a division director to resign with only months to go before the next election. It was reported today that Anthony Marcin, W7XM, is resigning as Pacific Division director after serving two and a half years of a three-year term. This very undemocratic manoeuvre is a common one for the ARRL, and this time, no excuse was even given for the director’s resignation.

Last week, I went to lunch with a ham friend of mine. This fellow has been a ham for more than 60 years, and an ARRL member for most of that time. As we were waiting for our food, he says to me, “My ARRL membership is up soon, and I don’t think that I’m going to renew.”

Several years ago, I got a good deal on a Flex 6400 and thought I’d give it a try. It’s a great radio, and I enjoyed using it, but after a couple of years, I decided to give it up and buy an Icom IC-7610 instead. The main reason was the user interface—the IC-7610 has real knobs and buttons instead of just a computer screen to control its functions. Maybe I’m just being old school (I am certainly getting old), but I prefer real knobs and buttons, even if those knobs and buttons are just providing digital inputs to the processor controlling the radio.

Last Saturday, at a ham swap that I attended, Scott, N8SY, our division director, came up to my table and extended his hand. I just couldn’t shake it, though. When I didn’t reciprocate, he asked, “You’re not going to shake my hand?” I said, “No.”