On behalf of the club, I've been unable to recruit any interested
operators for the USAF 50th Anniversary QSO Party, despite a couple of
E-mail messages sent to this list on the subject, and talking it up at
club meetings and the daily lunch at Wendy's. The only response I got
was from N4OWG, who tentatively offered his property for a reasonably
small and quiet operation (and I appreciate John's lone contribution).
However, Clay WA6LBU, working on his own commendable initiative, has
been able to not only get a site, but seems to be very successful in
signing up a number of local operators (almost all of them from the
Aksarben club). Pragmatically, I think the best thing to do at this
point is to recognize Clay's efforts, call it a SACMARC project,
officially acknowledge his leadership role, and offer him one of the
SACMARC callsigns. The callsign should be the General LeMay one
(K0GRL), as that's the one yet-unused. The site is the Elkhorn
communications station, the former site of SAC's HF "Giant Talk" (still
in operation, but renamed "Scope Signal III"). Clay is receptive to the
offer of the special callsign for use at Elkhorn.
There is still the possibility of a smaller-scale K0AIR operation,
possibly at N4OWG's place, provided we can find some volunteer operators
and equipment (John is only offering the property itself, and possibly
electric power, at this point, no equipment or shelter). I'll be
discussing this with John at the Wendy's lunch today, and we should have
some sort of announcement or proposal by the board and regular meetings,
on the 10th and 17th, respectively. This might also be an alternative
if Clay winds up getting too many volunteers to give everyone a fair
chance of operating (and that certainly seems possible at this point).
I think it would be a shame if this event, the type of USAF-oriented
special event that's supposed to be one of the principle reasons for our
club existing (according to its charter) was passed up by almost all of
its membership, leaving other local clubs to take up the slack.
It's not too late for additional volunteers to step forward, especially
those that might have a contest-class HF setup ready to go (And at this
point, I would be willing to accept volunteers who will operate alone
out of their home, turn on the radio that weekend, make one HF contact,
and turn the radio off, because currently we don't even have that for
the second station).
73, Paul, K3FU
SACMARC President
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