Sunday night
I recently picked up a used MFJ antenna analyzer on eBay worth the money. The seller had listed it for a Buy It Now price higher than I wanted to pay, so I submitted an offer that was $50 below his BIN price.
He turned away my offer, but dropped the Buy It Now price $10.
A few days later, I sent another offer for the same low-ball price. The seller didn’t just reject my offer, but he countered — with the original Buy It Now price! He sent a note along with his counter, explaining that the original price was still a bargain. Well, it was a bargain to someone, but not to me.
I let it lay for several days, and no one made another offer. I decided to try one more time; he accepted my third offer. The moral here? Persistent pays?
CLUB CALL TRUSTEE BOOTED! I was surprised this weekend to realize that I had been booted as the trustee for the radio club callsign I was the trustee for since I applied for the club callsign in 2003.
I was apparently booted from the trustee position last month, actually. I had applied for the club call in 2003, and then applied (and paid for) the vanity callsign the following month. I renewed the callsign in 2014 when it was due.
What I didn’t realize was that you could be removed as trustee without being advised of such. I was a little surprised to be booted to the curb, frankly, I was the one who selected the vanity call and did the leg work, so yeah, I had some ownership in the call.
The radio club name has changed too, not just once but twice. The club (or what’s left of it) is going in another direction, and that’s fine. I’m just a little miffed they took over the trusteeship of the callsign I obtained.
I have kicked around the idea of resurrecting the original club name and forming a new club — one that would reflect the club’s origins from the mid-1980s: No dues, no constitution, no repeaters, just a loose association of ham operators who enjoy radio.
Clubs tend to wax and wane over time, and the local radio club went dormant twice for quite a period. My wife and I worked hard to restart the club both times, and we were successful.
Two things helped revive the radio club both times — launching (and re-launching) a printed club newsletter and sending it to every licensee in the county, and conducting license classes to bring in a new generation of enthusiastic hams. This was in the days before social media mostly replaced radio club newsletters. I’m still a believer that a mailed newsletter will still grab the attention of your local hams, both active and inactive. Maybe we can bring the club back a third time, who knows?
73 es CUL …. de KY4Z SK SK …. dit dit …