Social Life

[Radio]

Tell us about your involvement in Ham Radio, RV clubs and the local community.

We just want to know what's going on around here!

[electricflyer]

I volunteer for several organizations here in Atlanta. I am a Volunteer Examiner for ARRL, W5YI and CAVEC. My ARRL session count is 9th from the top of 759 VE's in Georgia. According to ARRL we are one of the busiest VE teams on the east coast. We test locally 11 times a year with testing whenever someone can't make it to a regular session. I am a volunteer ham radio operator for a local hospital for emergency radio service affiliated with ARES. I assist Elden, N1MN with FCC license classes, we usually do 4-5 classes a year which are 3 class sessions each.

This afternoon we just conducted a test session for 18 4-5th grade students at Russell Elementary School in Smyrna. One of their teachers who is a ham has been training them for this exam. It was a little disappointing that only 2 pass the exam although there were at least 6 others that just missed passing so they are going to study more and probably retake the exam at our regular test session in October. We did a test session a year ago at this school and had 7 students take the exam with 2 passing that time also. Chris said the pretesting he did had good results but test fright my have taken it's toll.

I have attached some photos of our test session at the school (9/1/16). VE's in the photo are (back row left to right) Larry K4LDC, Homer ND8F (of OMISS fame), Steve K4ELI, John W4TXA and Chris KM4KPJ, the teacher. Front row is Cheri K4TXA (John's wife), Elden N1MN the team leader and certified ARRL license instructor, and myself, Marvin KT4W
Also there is a photo of the school radio station. The local local Lincoln Mercury dealer, Pugmire Lincoln Mercury donated a new Kenwood radio of which I just learned used to have a ham radio store at the dealership, this was before HRO, Radio may remember it. They have a dipole on the roof of the school which is at a high elevation in the area. They will soon be getting an antenna system so they can track satellites and ISS that is being donated by IBM. Chris said they usually get on the radio on Friday afternoons around 2:30 local time, and usually on 20M. If I can get some sort of schedule from Chris I will let everyone know and maybe you can make contact with them. They have made a number of DX contacts.
And last a group photo of all the participants for todays session. What a fine group of youngsters, after the testing was complete each student came by to each of the VE's to shake our hands and thanked us for coming and giving them the test, how wonderful. Days like this make you feel there is hope for the next generation.
Marv
KT4W

[coupevillefish]

In addition to being treasure of our local radio club, I am very busy with volunteer activities through our Lions Club.

[kd2iat]

Here's a short list of my current volunteer activities:



EMT & Driver for our local volunteer ambulance squad
Vice President of the 501(c)3 corporation that partially funds the ambulance squad
Sit on local emergency preparedness council
Treasurer of my high school alumni association
Deputy EMS Coordinator for our county
Active member and tech advisor for RV club
Member of local historical society

My plan for this past year was to get much more active with the radio club, primarily doing events where the club provides communications for things like foot races, bicycle races, etc. But I shattered my heel bone in June and have been laid up ever since. I am now recovered to the point that I can drive on my own and get around pretty well with a knee scooter so I'm working a 5K run/walk tomorrow morning. I can't hop in and out of the truck like usual yet, but I'll take post out on the course.

The doc says I can start putting weight on the foot next week so I am hoping to be able to walk around on my own and get back to taking ambulance calls.