Hello all you guys and gals,
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year! It’s been VERY busy around the O’Dell household and I haven’t been able to get on the air as much as I would like, but hopefully things will slow down a little soon. I hope all of you got all the nice new packages of rigs, bells and whistles you wanted for Christmas……if you didn’t, well hamfest season is upon us. Speaking of which……
2013 Hamfests
These are the hamfests that are already on the calendar for 2013. There are a couple yet to be determined…
2/2 Tri-State Hamfest & Computer Show, Mooreland, OK
3/2 Elk City Hamfest, Elk City, OK
3/11 – 3/12 Green Country Hamfest, Claremore, OK
6/7 – 6/8 Ham-Com, Plano, TX
7/26 – 7/27 Ham Holiday, OKC
9/???? Ada Hamfest, Ada, OK????
10/25 – 10/26 Texhoma Hamarama, Ardmore, OK
11/2 Enid Hamfest, Enid, OK
Legislative Agenda
Eddie Manley, K5EMS, our State Government Liaison has gotten one piece of our proposed legislation filed and has found a couple of others of note to amateurs. When I get the actual bill numbers, I’ll post them here.
The bill we had filed changes the wording on our current PRB-1 legislation to make the municipality,not the ham, prove why they might not be allowed to erect an antenna structure.
Of the other bills of amateur interest, one will now allow you to apply for Oklahoma Amateur Radio license plates at your local tag agent but rather by mail only. The application cost is apparently $8 if you do it at the tag agent and, if you have a zero in your call, they WILL put the slash mark in it. You will need a copy of your amateur license to give to the tag agent.
There are 2 bills having to do with texting, one from the House and one from the Senate, they are basically the same bill. Amateur radio is specifically excluded from these bills.
Youth
I am proud to let you know that the section now has an Assistant Section Manager for Youth. Conner Keef, WX5CJK, is a meteorology student at OU and will be working with the youth of the section. He is being assisted by Megan McCellan, K5MEM the North Texas ASM for youth. They are planning on having a Youth Lounge at the sections 3 larger hamfests this year starting with Green Country, then Ham Holiday and ending with Texhoma. The youth lounge concept has really started to catch on. This way, any kids that come to these hamfests, licensed or not, will have programming aimed directly at them.
ARRL Centennial
Don’t forget the ARRL Centennial is coming up in 2014. By the beginning of 3rd quarter this year you should start seeing ideas for your club to start the planning process for next year. Be looking especially for the chance to immortalize your QSL card for 2064!!
E-mail Groups
If you aren’t a member of the aresoklahoma or OKtraders Yahoo groups, then you should be. Also check out the section presence on Twitter and Facebook. Then make sure you join the ARRL-OK section e-mail list at http://mailman.qth.net/.
That’s all for now. I hope to see all of you at one time or another this year.
73,
Kevin O’Dell, N0IRW
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