This evening I've been suffering a string of bad luck, so much so that I'm going to bed as soon as I finish here.
First, our cat — a new arrival here, and a 4 legged accident waiting to happen — knocked a McElroy Mac Key DeLuxe off onto the floor while I was out. The key is built like a tank, so a fall from a counter to a carpeted floor was no big deal .. BUT …
The fall broke the bakelite paddle, the thumb piece. That truly sucks because there's no true replacement for that 70 year old piece. It's simply broken. Gone. Kaput.
What made it suck more was that it appeared to be a clean break, which meant I could probably crazy glue it back and you wouldn't know it had ever been broken. The problem of course is that the broken off piece is missing. It must have shot off somewhere, and damned if I can find it. Rather than tear the shack apart, I quit looking for it. It will show up eventually, and I have saved the broken part so I can fix it … whenever.
In the meantime, I took a replacement Vibroplex thumbpiece and modified it. It's not a big modification, it only requires enlarging the “rear” hole and countersinking it to accept the factory attachment screw. I started with my X-Acto knife and finished with my Dremel. Not perfect, but a very good replacement. The shape is very close, only a true collector would note the replacement.
The rest of the key was fine, of course. Just aggravating.
I didn't think it would get worse, but it did.
One of my recent arrivals is a 1932 Vibroplex Lightning Bug. I had it here on my computer desk, but moved it to a box of “stuff” sitting on the floor, just temporarily, while searching for something on my desk. Well tonight I was reading news online and had my foot propped up on the box. Little did I know that my sock had snagged the top pivot adjustment screw on the Lightning Bug. I got ready to get up, and pulled the key sideways where it lodged in the box, then the force of my movements pulled the damn pivot mount loose from the top plate of the Lightning Bug! ARRRGHH!
I thought perhaps this was something that had happened before, but checking the parts, they had never been seperated .. until now. It's only a press fit, so I used a hammer, lined them the parts up and reset the mount into the top triangular plate.
It's looking at me now, and it looks just fine. It's very secure, too — just as long as the cat doesn't send it to the floor like my Mac Key. GRRR!
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The Cave City hamfest was very good this year. There were a good number of vendors and the flea market looked good. I spent most of my time in meetings.
Former Section Manager John Myers, NB4K, confirmed that he is going to run for Vice Director in the Great Lakes Division. He's going to run against Gary Johnston, who spent a short stint as Director before Jim Weaver beat him in the next election. Gary won the vice director spot two years ago.
I haven't seen a lot of Gary since I took office last April I've been to every sanctioned hamfest in the state in the past year, and I've not seen him at any of them. For a Kentucky resident, he's been pretty scarce at Kentucky events, or that's the general impression.
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Our local club has been going through a lot of gyrations the last few months — a lot of drama, a lot of complaining, a lot of unnecessary hate and discontent.
The club president resigned prior to the February meeting for health reasons, and the VP resigned last week. There's been talk circulating the club is going to dissolve, its falling apart, oh woe be the club. My thought is the rumors of the club's demise are greatly exaggerated.
The February meeting was canceled at the last minute due to the weather, so there was no election of officers for the next year. That's going to be the first order of business at next week's meeting.
I decided that its time for me to get involved again with the club, at least to help support it and get past this rought period. I've had two people ask if I would consider being president; I would if I didn't have irons in the fire already.
As is the case with most clubs, there are plenty of people who are capable of stepping into leadership roles. But not everone wants to be club president, and one of the lessons I've learned this year as SM is that a club goes as it president goes — a low energy president creates a low-energy club.
The meetings for months have been dominated by discussions — gripe sessions — about the repeater and other topics. The meetings need to be interesting, and the management of the club needs to be held in a seperate meeting.
Another problem is that there have actually been two meetings — the official club meeting, and then a “meeting” led by a newer ham whose main message has been to tell the club how bad they suck.
OK, well there is more to his message than that. But at the end of the normal business, he would start into a discussion about things he wanted the club to do. He wasn't working with the club president, it was as though he was his own leadership component.
His goal is to build and improve the club, an admireable goal. But many of us found the second meeting irritating — not the goal, but the execution.
It seemed that he was operating from the assumption we had never done any recruiting, nor had we worked to build membership. There were a host of other assumptions that didn't seem to based entirely on factual information. Being asked at a meeting if the club has a membership application — when an application had on the inside page of the every newsletter for the past four years — was more than a little irritating.
And as a ham licensed for less than 6 months, I'm sure he had unrealisitic expecations of what ham radio and a club should be. I say this only because I too had similar unrealistic notions about the hobby and the club. He had no idea of the club's history, and it seemed some of his assumptions were way off base.
I haven't attended a meeting since October, and the reason is two-fold. First, I realized I need to devote more time and energy on my elected position.
Secondly, at the October meeting I felt the club president was unnecessarily disrespected by another officer. During the “second meeting,” there was discussion about a list of lapsed members. The list were all old-timers the president and I knew. He wanted to contact the folks on the list. He was denied. He asked again, he was denied. He became more emphatic, he really wanted to do this. I chimed in to support him; after all, if he didn't get around to it, our new member would do it after a certain amount of time had lapsed.
Another officer made a motion to specifically prohibit the club president from contacting the names on the list of lapsed members. I was stunned — what kind of club prohibits the damn president from contacting members?? It was insanity, pure and simple.
I spent a week mulling it over, and I decided I could no longer suppor the club. Perhaps I was overreacting, but I don't think so. I withdrew from NCS of the Sunday nets, the newsletter and the meetings. The club was devolving into something I no longer recognized. And frankly, going to meetings wasn't much fun anymore.
The drama has at times been so extreme that I feel its necessary to get involved, if for no other reason than to insure the club continues. I have some programs for future meetings, so perhaps there's some fun to be had down the road.
The newsletter appears to be sorely missed, I have had more comments regarding its absence than I have on my own.
But there's a good group of folks but no one seems willing to volunteer. I've wondered if perhaps letting the club wind down wouldn't save it from the embarrassment of prolonged death. The patient can be revived later. Perhaps by dissolving the club a while would prompt some new leadership to come forth.
I think the club needs to bring more people into its operation by having committees. Get people involved with planning and discussion of events, rather than try to do it at a meeting. Maybe that's something to strive for .. or perhaps putting the patient down would be an act of mercy??
The club was better when it was simpler — not dues, no constitution, just ham radio talk, displays and show and tell. Fun stuff. That's what it needs to get back to.
Enough of my soap box. I'm out of here … 73 de KY4Z … sk … dit dit