Just a quick post to help spread the word that the RSGB Governance & Changes forum is now live, you can get there by visiting: http://www.rsgb.org/EGM/start-forum.php – it’s not even a day old yet and has well over a hundred posts so if you’ve got something to say about the future of the RSGB make sure you get involved.
Oct
18
The Future of the RSGB and Amateur Radio
Recently I attended the RSGB Convention where the current president Dave Wilson M0OBW and John Gould G3WKL outlined the RSGB’s strategic plan for the future, it was quite a heated session with lots of passionate members and non-members giving Dave and John a bit of a tough time. They handled themselves well and in the end I think answered a lot of questions or at least gave an indication of when they might be answered, essentially the RSGB acknowledge that their management and oversight processes haven’t been up to scratch in the past leading to a number of poor decisions and inappropriate actions including the ‘financial irregularities‘ associated with the former General Manager and the large financial commitment made to the National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park. The fact that they admit this is a good start and is the first step to addressing the complaints of the more vocal members which, if left unchecked, would create a level of ‘noise’ in discussions about the future that could prevent us having a meaningful dialogue. The next step is the RSGB EGM due to be held on November 19th at the Birmingham NEC at which a temporary board of directors will be elected, the nominees being made by president Dave Wilson and selected by the members, the board will sit until 2013 when the RSGB will return to the usual election process.
Earlier in the year the RSGB Survey showed that the average age of the current membership is around 65, without being morbid this situation clearly isn’t sustainable and whilst I’m sure that many of the members would love to see the hobby continue it may not be the most sensible way forward to rely on the average opinion of the ageing membership to provide a vision for the future. At just under half of the average age and having just gotten into Amateur Radio I really do have a stake in the hobby and a genuine desire to make sure that it and the RSGB continue to exist. Clearly the society and the hobby in general need to lower the average age otherwise in 30 years time we’ll be looking at a bankrupt organisation and a disappearing hobby, this is fairly obvious but what can we do about it?
There is a view often that getting kids into the hobby is the way forward but I disagree, I’m sure it would help but kids tend to be interested in a lot of things and whilst it may be easy to get kids interested I think it’s hard to get them to remain in the hobby as they’re unlikely to commit to anything and have very little disposable income. University students are a good start, especially those on technical courses whether it be electrical engineering or computer science, encouraging university clubs and societies to embrace amateur radio would only be a good thing. The next age bracket is the post-university crowd from 24-35, across this period most people will have moved out of their parent’s place and got past the ‘shared house’ phase where space and house guests tend to get in the way of hobbies, once you’ve got your own place you’re a little freer to do what you want and it’s a great time to start something. Having picked a couple of target demographics, how do we get them interested? The trick is that they already are, they just don’t about amateur radio specifically.
Over the last 5 years or so there has been a phenomenal increase in the presence of Hackerspaces and the Hacker/Maker community, these guys read 2600 and Make magazines, attend events like Over the Air and Maker Faire, play with Arduino kits and generally have fun with technology. The hackers of today are essentially the same crowd that started amateur radio societies over a hundred years ago, bending and shaping the technology of their day to their will, not playing by the rules and using technology to achieve unexpected and unanticipated aims. Our clubs and societies have resources, regular club nights, interesting talks, good meeting rooms and an organised membership – these could all be shared with similarly minded people that need somewhere to go to play and experiment – and why not have people experimenting with radio right alongside people building 3D printers, power meters that post on Twitter and devices to turn off televisions?
As a community we need to widen the net to make alliances, support and coexist with other like minded communities and increase the profile of the hobby and for that I think we need to look both outward and inward. In addition to the hacker/maker crowd I also think that the RSGB could be more inclusive within the other radio hobbies by embracing CB, PMR, scanners and SWLs as part of the wider community, we’re all affected by the same issues when it comes to the radio spectrum and we all need to fight QRM from PLT, rogue operators, etc. and joint representation with Ofcom would surely help.
Personally, I’d love to get involved in steering the future of the RSGB and I sincerely hope that they provide a means to allow people like me to participate – for now I’ll look forward to the EGM and what that brings.
Oct
10
RSGB Convention 2011 Wrapup and Review
Having attended the Hamfest on the previous weekend it was great to get the double whammy with a visit to the RSGB Convention held at Horwood House, Buckinghamshire. As with Hamfest this was my first RSGB Convention so I didn’t really know what to expect, especially as it could end up being a relatively dry affair but actually it was great fun and a really friendly atmosphere. The convention itself covered both Saturday and Sunday daytime with evening events being held on the Friday and Saturday nights, being relatively local I chose not to stay at the hotel and so I didn’t bother too much with the evening events but from what I gather they were pretty good and I did hear talk of fuzzy heads on Sunday morning!
The first talk I attended on Saturday was A Tour of the ARRL by Bob Inderbitzen NQ1R whom I had met the previous week at Hamfest, I attended primarily since I was pretty sure Bob would make a good speaker and I wasn’t wrong. The talk made me want to pop over to the states for a wander around their HQ and if I hadn’t joined the ARRL on the previous weekend I’d have signed up for sure, don’t get me wrong though – it wasn’t a sales pitch but you can see that as an organisation they’ve got it right and that’s why I’ll be glad to be a part of it. Next up was Africa with Two Suitcases, a fascinating talk by Alan Messenger G0TLK covering a variety of trips to South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Kenya and Uganda – sorry if I missed any Alan! The stories alone were fascinating but the tips were great too including how to fit a shack’s worth of gear in your “5kg” carry-on, how to handle the local authorities, getting licences in advance and good practical antenna advice.
The third session I attended was a hotbed of controversy and debate, RSGB Towards 2020 by Dave Wilson M0OBW. I’ll give a detailed opinion about the RSGB in a future post but essentially the gist was that they acknowledge that they’ve not always been getting it right in recent years but that they’re undergoing internal changes to make that a thing of the past. The essence of the new RSGB will start with an election and a change of some board members, the nominees are short-listed by the current board but the vote will go to the membership, probably at an EGM in November, and that board will sit for one year until a full democratic election in 2013. Alongside this change of personnel is a commitment to a strategic plan aimed at making the RSGB more appealing to new members, to provide the existing members with a better offering and to improve communications – especially via the web. All said and done I think it was a positive session, there were quite a few awkward folks in the audience but in the end I think a balance was struck between the folks that just complain and those of us who want to see (and want to help with) a change to a forward-looking society.
Having had a few SOTA contacts along the way I attended the Summits on the Air talk by father and son duo Tom and Jimmy Read (M1EYP and M3EYP respectively), it was a great talk and has definitely inspired me to get up on those peaks with my Wouxun, the £20 collinear and the tripod purchased at Hamfest. After the Read’s talk I saw Michael O’Beirne talk about Electronic Warfare and Radio Intercepts, a fascinating talk from a fascinating speaker – I came away with a good understanding of the topic but also an education on some of the older Racal rigs that are still floating around on the markets. Last up was an interesting talk on the 2012 Olympics by Murray Niman G6JYB who outlined the likely (but not yet confirmed) restrictions on the 70cms band, the special event stations that will be running and the special event NOVs that we may well end up being allowed (GOnaaa or MOnaaa) an interesting day brought to an interesting close.
I started Sunday off with Simon Brown’s talk about developing SDR software and being from an IT background it made a great deal of sense, this was followed by Effects of the Mid Latitude Trough by Professor Mike Warrington G4EMW which I had the honour of introducing after being asked by Andrew G8GNI of the Milton Keynes club to chip in and help (the MKARS folks were doing a lot of introductions & stewarding over the weekend). During the coffee break I popped over to the exhibition area which consisted of one trader (ML&S) where I picked up a Funcube Dongle Pro USB SDR receiver, I must say that whilst everyone has their favoured dealer I’ve always found Martin Lynch and his guys to be friendly and welcoming – even when extremely busy so I was glad to be a customer on the day. The rest of the exhibition area was filled by the RSGB book stall, the ARRL membership stall, manufacturers Icom and Yaesu as well as organisations like AMSAT UK, a DF group and the UK Microwave Group. After the break I saw David Hilton Jones G4YTL’s talk on WSJT and Daily DX on 144MHz covering the exotic propagation modes of Meteor Scatter and Moonbounce, an inspiring talk and something I think I’ll try in due course.
At lunch I bumped into Martin M1MRB and Chris 2E0CTH from the ICQ Podcast (it’s awesome, please give it a listen) who helped me overcome some organisational issues and encouraged me to take the US licence exams, having gained my Technician licence at The Next Hope last year I took the General and Extra exams and managed a pass in the General. Thanks to Martin and Chris for getting me down there to take the exam – now I owe gratitude to Martin for both my UK Advanced and US General passes! After the exams I had just enough time to catch the last part of G4WNC’s Introduction to Digital Modes, watched myself fail to win a prize in the raffle and then head off home.
I can honestly say that this was one of the best conference events I’ve ever been to, the atmosphere was great, there were almost always talks I wanted to go to (in some cases several at the same time!) and for the RSGB to pull all of that off for just £10 a head (both days) it’s incredible. Well done and thanks to the organisers at the RSGB and I hope everyone else in attendance enjoyed themeslves as much as I did.
Oct
10
National Hamfest 2011 Wrapup and Review
For the first time this year I attended the annual Hamfest organised by the Lincoln Short Wave Club at the Newark showground in Nottinghamshire. The event featured a ‘flea market’ style area outside and a sizeable indoor trading area with the main dealers (ML&S, W&S, Lam, Moonraker, Sandpiper), the manufacturers (Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood) and a whole host of stalls selling books, cabling, antennas and so on. The RSGB were there in force with a large book stall and booths for the various subsections, there was also a good selection of information stalls promoting organisations such as the RAIBC, BYLARA, activities like WAB and a scattering of radio clubs.
From across the pond we also had the ARRL, at their stand I met Bob NQ1R and signed up for the annual membership including monthly delivery of QST magazine for around £40. Whilst we’re on the US one of the highlights of the day, other than the glorious weather, was a lunchtime talk by Bob Heil. After a short video covering Bob’s career and role in the history of Rock and Roll Bob explained how his background in Ham Radio taught him the importance of phasing which over his career he has applied to speakers, microphones, antennas and all sorts of things. It was impressive to see how fired up Bob still gets about the fundamental principles of the hobby and I found him to be both impressive and intelligent as well as quite a live-wire when he gets going.
On arrival I was expecting to wander around, be done within a couple of hours and head off home – in reality I found myself spending the best part of five hours there and I didn’t even break the bank. In the end my purchases were relatively modest, consisting of…
- A telescopic 2m/70cm antenna for my Wouxun UVD1P
- A tripod to use /portable with my bargain £20 collinear
- A reel of lead solder
- 10 meters of RG58 cable
I also managed to get a free Yaesu baseball cap, a free copy of QST and a free Small Antennas for Small Spaces book. All in all I had a great day, bumped into a few friends from the Milton Keynes club and all for the ridiculously low entry cost of £4 – a bargain, I’d recommend it to anyone.