January was an interesting month for the Desert RATS. The monthly meeting wound up being shot
from the hip. The scheduled speaker was stuck in Washington DC. The back up speaker wound up stuck
in the hospital. I pulled some strings and at the last minute got a guest speaker that brought in a bunch of Boat Anchors and talked about vintage single side band gear. Boat Anchors, for those who don’t know, is a term for an older, heavy piece of Ham Radio gear that usually has vacuum tubes in it. I hope everyone enjoyed the presentation.
We pulled the winning ticket for the Kenwood dual band mobile radio. Ralph KI6ZJB was the lucky winner. Congratulations Ralph. A straw vote was taken to see what kind of radio the club wants up for grabs starting next month. The overwhelming majority was in favor of a HF radio. So in next months newsletter, I’ll let you know what we have planned.
I personally enjoyed the T Hunt on Saturday, February 1st. OK, I didn’t do well, but I don’t feel bad. Most of the other first timers gave up and we all wound up at the same park. My hunger trumped my drive to find the hidden transmitter and I opted for lunch. I certainly plan on doing it again. Ralph has more on the T-Hunts scheduled further down the line.
Time for the usual stuff.
Membership dues are due. You can pay at the meeting or on line using Paypal, at desertrats.am. Click to Download and Print Your Membership Application Hamfest is only a month away. It is shaping up very well. I have been informed that Elecraft will be joining us. Some prizes have been donated by Kenwood and Alinco. BUT!!! We still need volunteers. You can help with parking, food sales or help work at the clubs consignment table. There is also the club station that will be operating as a special event station. Even if you are a Tech, Tom AE6WL is in charge and he will get you on the air on HF. We will need some committee chairs in the future. Gary and Susie will not be putting on the Tech classes this year. If it is going to happen, we need someone to step up and take over the committee. It’s kind of a plug and play job. It’s already all there. It just needs a boss.
Same with field day. I’d like someone to take over as head of field day. It’s not hard. Also plug and play. We have our own gear and where we hold it has some of its own as well. So again, we just need someone to put it all together.
