President’s Message for September 2010

Hello Fellow Amateurs,

First of all, I want to take a moment to thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as the President of the RACK club for the next twelve months. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank past President, Jim Norman for his hard work and dedication to the club over the last few years. I hope to be able to continue his legacy. As President, my number one goal is to work to increase our club membership. As you may, or may not know, the RACK Club has been around since 1954 and our membership has seen ups and downs. At one time, not too long ago, we had a membership base of approximately 300 members. Today, even though we have seen a small growth spurt, we are no where near where we once were. The question is; how do we increase our membership? It will require some interesting activities as well as member participation. Kevin McCready, K4MCK is working diligently to line up guest speakers for our upcoming meetings. For the September 16th meeting, Bill Renaud, WR4MS will have a presentation and live demonstration on PSK31 digital communications. If you want to learn about PSK you don’t want to miss this meeting.
On Saturday September 11th, the RACK club will participate in the annual Marine Corps Mud Run by providing communications support for the event. If you would like to participate, contact Jim Norman, N4CFB@tds.net , he is still looking for volunteers.
David Waters, AC4JF has done a great job implementing some new technology that is available to members to enhance the membership experience. The HAMCAM and RIBS (Remote Internet Base Station) have been a big hit with our members. David has also been working with Paypal to get the club set up to accept payment for membership applications as well as for tax deductible donations. This should be fully functional within the next few weeks. We hope to be able to add additional membership benefits in the near future.
Another change includes an updated web page. Joe Campbell, KG4UJC has done an excellent job with a major web site overhaul. Several new items have been added, one of which is a calendar of events. See http://w4bbb.org/calendar/rack10-11.pdf . Joe is also building a member projects page. He is asking members to send him photos and details about ham radio related projects. Please participate by sending him information to post on the projects page. If you have not seen our web site in a while, be sure to check it out @ www.w4bbb.org. You will want to check it often, because it is constantly updated.
I look forward to seeing you at the next meeting, be sure to bring a guest.

73’

Joe Meighan, KB4REC
RACK President