Essex Ham Chat Forum

With clubs it was mostly about i worked China doing x amount of power. Yet some of it i think lacks the I worked china and the radio was controlled by a custom made system. It lose a lot of its like coolness.

I notice more and more with young people is the way the clubs are nowerdays. They are much older and when young people try and bring change its the same old way. I do feel virtual clubs do offer a different thing and maybe as a young person i should attempt to start one and break down some the issues faced nowerdays. People slam new modes in to the ground yet the hobby is keeping up with the times.

For me when i used to go to a not so local group it was great as it was more a lads club where anything went (with in laws, licences, rules, stronger man) but still there it lacked support for newer modes. I am 26 and for me DMR is still a great way for amateurs to work the world on a budget. The first and last "mile" is still done over RF and is radio.

My way DMR is there but in where i live its patchy.

M0PHX

Wow - It's so refreshing to read your last post. 100% agree, and echos much of what I've been trying to get across in the last 2 or 3 years.

I agree that clubs still have a vital role to play. For many, they're the first entry point into the hobby, so there's not only a chance for a club to help newcomers to evolve, but to build a training ground for new club members and more "do-ers".

So, why do so many clubs make a pig's ear of it?

One club in this area has a committee-sanctioned policy of ignoring M6s after it has helped them to pass. No comms, meeting invites or membership form to the new licensees... for "data protection" reasons. To me, this is barmy and helps neither the club nor the candidates who are looking for help & support.

In the interest of comparison, are any of the clubs in the PARC area guilty of any of the following:

1. Club websites with nothing at all for newcomers / prospective M6s
2. Out-of-date websites / lots of "tbc" dates
3. Clubs that run training courses on dates that clash with other club's courses, rather that to fill training gaps
4. Clubs who refuse to take part in local initiatives
5. Clubs that disallow members from helping out with other club's events
6. Field events with: headphones on backs-to-public operation, no greeters, no leaflets , and poor "what we're doing" branding
7. Clubs where politics gets more time at committee than talk of RF or members
8. Clubs that don't answer emails or have no listed contact details
9. Clubs that run most of their activities as "members-only" events
10. Clubs that don't do social media

We see similar inertia here re. new ideas, but occasionally we see a negative side to this too. There are ideas that local clubs have passed on, that our small group has picked up and run with, often with great results. We also believe in marketing and promoting what we do, which often results in comments that we're "getting too much publicity", have been "in Radcom too much", or that "Essex Ham's in the papers again". Personally, I don't get it. It's all PR for the hobby. If other groups or individuals don't like seeing our members getting recognition for their work, then surely it only highlights that they need to "up" their game and get more visibility for their members and the hobby.

Shall I get off my soapbox now?

Pete

I feel Essex Ham has done more than the RSGB. Some of the videos produced are much better than their one to get kids in the the hobby. I still laugh at that video and how it comes across to young people.

One thing i think we all lack as clubs is the "i made a thing" so like when people build some cool parts for their radio they never show them off. There is no hang on he made that and belongs to that club he is the guy to chat to.

Some classic quotes:

"Life's too hectic for all this ham radio stuff now, you can do it all on a mobile phone."
"I don't need a licence, radio waves travel just as far without one."
"Oh, we can't allow members to use the club callsign from their own homes."
"We don't let Novices [!] on the club radio, they don't have any experience."
"I haven't read my BR69 recently."
"All details on QRZ.com"
"QRZ QRZ QRZ . . . "
"We don't check our club emails very often."
"We aim to undertake one [!] event for the community each year." [but haven't for 5 years - comment on club website].
"We can't get involved with any external activities this year, we are busy planning an expedition to Ireland in July 2017." [Received Feb. 2016]
"I'm a member of XXXXXXXX but last week I was the only one who turned up." [An M3!].
"Roger D on that. We are in XXXX, the handle is Dave and you are giving me five pounds on the fairy lights."

And on QRZ for many club callsigns - "This callsign is unmanaged" etc.

All are genuine, honest!

All of those are signs that there are people who need the *firm guidance of their peers*; working in isolation leads to bad habits and weird notions --- and *some* of those comments came from people deeply involved in clubs. Arrrgghhh!

Hi Mitchell,

Looks like you've started off a great debate... it's good to talk and share ideas. Seems other parts of the country have the same issues as we do here in Essex.

Extra virtual clubs would make a lot of sense. There's actually a huge gap for a national (or local) M6 virtual club, for instance.

If I recall Mitchell, you had some ideas re. a virtual project... perhaps worth looking at that again, and we'd be happy to help and support anything like that if you felt it was appropriate.

Pete

Great debate - and one that should figure on a UK National Amateur Radio Forum - except we don't have one! QRZ is far to US-oriented (and has a lot of argumentative characters).

Have a look at the forums run by Amateur Photographer magazine (http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/forums/). If the RSGB invested more in its rather disfunctional website in that fashion it would be doing Amateur Radio a big service and would be taking a big step into the 20th(!) century.

The Amateur Photographer forums provide space for technical advice, group hookups in interesting places, social chit-chat (including utter trivia) and much more as you will see. It makes the 'virtual club' - a bunch of people who have common interests - able to interact in a way that TwitFace and disaggregated Yahoo Groups don't.

In fact the AP Forums give photographers a better means of communication with each other than is available to Amateur Radio-communicators!! Sad eh?

"In the interest of comparison, are any of the clubs in the PARC area guilty of any of the following:

1. Club websites with nothing at all for newcomers / prospective M6s- IT HAPPENS, but equally there may also be little for the G3s and G4s except Darjeeling and Ginger nut (best dunked) ;-)
2. Out-of-date websites / lots of "tbc" dates - MOST
3. Clubs that run training courses on dates that clash with other club's courses, rather that to fill training gaps - POSSIBLY , BUT HAVEN'T ENQUIRED
4. Clubs who refuse to take part in local initiatives - FAR FAR TOO MANY
5. Clubs that disallow members from helping out with other club's events - ANECDOTALLY, YES, BUT SO FAR UNTESTED
6. Field events with: headphones on backs-to-public operation, no greeters, no leaflets , and poor "what we're doing" branding - YOU MEAN - the public see either that back of a bald blokes head, or the back of a radio; occasionally someone with headphones tapping on the table nervously and oblivious to the surroundings . . YES
7. Clubs where politics gets more time at committee than talk of RF or members - POINT OF ORDER MR CHAIRMAN . . Hmmm, it must happen.
8. Clubs that don't answer emails or have no listed contact details
9. Clubs that run most of their activities as "members-only" events - DEFINITELY HAPPENS
10. Clubs that don't do social media - SOCIAL WHAT?

To offer a little 'balance' PARC is more than happy to help any club anywhere to do something different and 'engage' with other amateurs if it makes Amateur Radio more interesting. It would not diminish our enthusiasm, it would increase it; it would have mutual benefits. But we are certainly aware of the pitfalls - we are learning both through our successes and our failures - then we adapt . . . it's the only way. It ain't easy, but because Amateur Radio is both a Service and a Hobby we have a simple mission: to make amateur radio enjoyable and informative for ourselves and others . . . . . anyone can do that if they wish. And we don't take ourselves tooooo seriously, life is too short.

73

Loving the list of quotes from Radiobuster. I can't compete with those, but I can offer some quotes from a recent trawl around local club comms:

"Next exam - November 2015"
"Next exam - February 2016"
"We are looking to run a Foundation Course during June"
"Next meeting DVD - TBC"
"Foundation - This is a new licence that was introduced in January 2002"
"Events - Unfortunately this webpage is sometimes a bit out of date"
You are blocked from viewing [Clubname]'s Tweets
"Net tonight !.947Mhz. No specified controller named. Open to offers"
Past events photo gallery - most recent, NFD CW 2004"
Next meeting: "Informal Club Evening (Subject to change)"
"Click to phone us or write to us", returns 404 page not found"
"We excel in our field events... so we hope to do many more in 2014"
"We're a vibrant club" ... "here's a list of our recent SKs"

Pete

All copied on helping and supporting clubs. We've not been shy in pointing out problems we've noticed that are doing the hobby a dis-service, even though it's not always made us popular. Equally, we work well with the local clubs that "get" us - we're happy to support all the clubs with free events listings, PR and access to our training material. We try to support county-wide activities and to promote what happens here in Essex, regardless of what club's undertaken the activity.

We're also up for trying new stuff, including out first online training course last year, and in response to a member request, we entered our first NFD. We were proud to be ranked last place, but the 4 hour lunch break did hinder us a bit :)

Great stuff . . . You should really pick up on the Marconi biscuit idea . . . and launch them on International Biscuit Day at Galleywood - or do I mean International Marconi Day? I may try out a recipe soon. That would be an interesting story for Radcom - we could get it in the Christmas Issue!!!