KG5VK Shack 2024

 KG5VK

Upshur Area Amateur Radio Club is Hosting a Ham Radio 101 Four week Class

If you want to learn more about what to do with your amateur radio license
Take this Course !!! 

This Course will be held Four weeks in September 2024
In the County of Upshur, Texas. (Near Gilmer in the North Texas Section)

Week One – Sep 3
1.1 Introduction and what you should learn.
1.2 How to earn a certificate of completion.
1.3 How Ham Radio is different from other services;
GMRS, CB, public service,
Amateur Radio Frequency Spectrum,
Formal structure,
National League is ARRL,
Technical Contributions,
Public service,
Emergency communications,
Introduction to ARRL publications – Radio Handbook and Antenna book.
1.4 The RF Frequency Spectrum from 500 kHz to 150 GHz.
1.5 FCC license requirements and associated privileges.
1.6 Ham radio equipment and parts suppliers.
1.7 Common VHF/UHF Ham frequencies and HT propagation.

Limited Seats sign up now at.....
Ham Radio 101 Course Signup form

To see the complete Syllabus click below....

Syllabus for Ham Radio 101 Class

Graduating Students will be afforded the opportunity to win one of Two Door Prizes
An ARRL Handbook Or ARRL Antenna Handbook

Instructor is
John Keith
W5BWC
jlk@bwcelectronics.com

Questions and Comments may also be directed to your ARRL NTX Section Manager
Steven Lott Smith
KG5VK@ARRL.ORG

K1VR gets denial letter from ARRL E&E, in my opinion Just another way for the CEO to suppress ARRL member Voices - Steve KG5VK

 My URL KG5VK.com

is officially in the past.

Current info going forward will be shared using this currently free toolset Blogger.com

Also with the Ransomware break at the ARRL mycallsign@.org is not working

Simply use mycallsign@ARRL.NET or my personal email address
LottsPhoto@Gmail.com

Word is ARRL LOTW is back online,

However more than a few of us including myself are unable to get logged into it.
It appears to be either a work in progress and/or is getting to much traffic right now.
I'll wait a week or two more to try again.

Cheers!

Steve

KG5VK

Milestones Accomplished during our tenure as SM for NTX

 Greetings fellow ARRL North Texas Amateur Radio OPS

I took office on April the 1st, 2019

During my Campaign to be your Section Manager
I pledged I would be a visible Section Manager,
I hope you feel I have done that and much more.

Before taking office, I gladly took many phone calls, and emails with questions and comments, I continue to talk with fellow ARRL members on a weekly sometimes daily basis.

While I have not solved everyone's concerns. I have always listened and followed up with answers to questions that I may not have had at the time of initial contact.
I have been publishing a Monthly Newsletter since my appointment as your Section Manager, this is a small part of the process of staying in touch with the members I serve.

Some highlights of our Section Management Team accomplishments:

• Appointed a Section Youth Coordinator, which is one of Youth.
  Katherine Forson KT5KMF should, by now be well known to any ARRL NTX member.
  She was highlighted in QST the same year she was appointed with a full page article
  and continues to serve us proudly by sharing what Ham Radio is with both young and old.

• Asked and Received Nominees for an ARRL North Texas Ham Radio Operator of the Year 2019/2020.  Appointed an award committee from the Section Management team to vote on the nominees.  I presented the Award to Jim Erickson KB0DBJ president of MJARS at their September 2019 club meeting. 
• We have continued to Award a North Texas ARRL Ham of the Year Award every year, since I took office in 2019.
• Within the First Seven months of taking office as your Section Manager
  I attended Nine Ham Fests, Seventeen Different Club Meetings, Two JOTA events and a visit to the EOC at the Plano Balloon fest. I also appeared at Eleven different ARRL FD sites.
• I have attended the Belton Ham fest every year since taking Office (with one exception in 2023), this is significant because the ARRL members from that area had for several years been in pursuit of being realigned by the ARRL with South Texas, until I showed them the support they deserve. 
• Began Monthly ARRL NTX Section Management Team Staff meetings, held virtually with Teleconferencing tools.

• October 2020 we began conducting Quarterly Zoom conferences with ARRL NTX Affiliated Club officers and the ARRL NTX Section Staff members.  These meetings came from a suggestion received by one of the club officers during a recent round table conference with myself and John Robert Stratton N5AUS our ARRL West Gulf Division Director.
• I continued to attend club meetings on a Virtual basis with those clubs that are having Virtual Meetings during this time of COVID19 Social Distancing.
  
• Post COVID I still use Zoom conferencing tools to attend virtual club meetings as well as in person meetings Monthly. 
• Built a strong working relationship with Section Managers and their Staff near and far from our Section, doing so betters our readiness to respond to neighboring Sections that need our assistance with ECOM and allows them willingness to assist us in times of need.  I feel we can always learn from others and therefore maintain contact with all the fellow Section Managers within the ARRL West Gulf, and Delta Divisions, as well as several Section Managers beyond those borders.
• We have assembled an outstanding team of assistants, from Greg Evans K5GTX our Section Emergency Coordinator, to all the other Assistants on the Section Management team. Our team works as a cohesive unit for the betterment of our fellow ARRL members which we serve.
• As of early 2024 our Team has awarded Five ARRL NTX HOY Awards, Five Section manager Certificate of Merit Awards, and seen Two ARRL North Texans awarded the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial Youth Award. In addition Jo Ann Keith KA5AZK of 7290 Traffic NET Fame was awarded the George Hart Distinguished Communicator Award from ARRL Headquarters.
  
  
  Early in 2021
  Thanks to Greg Evans K5GTX and Aaron Hulett K8AMH for many hours of work and planning,  our team unveiled the new ARRL North Texas website https://arrlntx.org
  
  Our Section Management Staff Team continues to work for each and every North Texas ARRL member, if you feel you would like to be a part of our team, please drop me an email of what you would like to contribute, we presently have over 18 staff members. 
  
  Thank you for your time and your service as an ARRL member!
  
  Steve KG5VK
  KG5VK@ARRL.ORG

ARRL Members Forum Recoding from Visalia

In my opinion, every ARRL member should set-aside 90 minutes and listen to the dialogue here 

Yes this is a bit long.

Yes it is worth listening to
You can skip toward the last 30 minutes

If you enjoyed the recent ARRL’s CEO Reset Editorial you will love the facts that Mr. Dick Norton addresses.

Of course the CEO claims their are half truths, misleading and taken out of Context

Here is the link to the YouTube Video

https://youtu.be/NsNX6sWZNLQ

Steve KG5VK
ARRL NTX Section Manager

ARRL NTX ARES Team at Paris EOC

 Several members of the Red River Valley Amateur Radio Club
were spot lighted in the recent ARRL News Letter
(An Emailed Newsletter sent to those members which have signed up for same)
Steve KG5VK

ARRL Members may opt in or opt out of this Newsletter as well as news from their ARRL Division Director and Section manager.....

Free of charge to ARRL members...

• Subscribe to the ARES Letter (monthly public service and emergency communications news), the ARRL Contest Update (biweekly contest newsletter), Division and Section news alerts, and much more!

The ARRL Letter is published Thursdays, 51 times each year. ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member Data Page at www.arrl.org/opt-in-out.

CEO Briefing to ARRL SM's analysis by Dick Norton

Dick Norton
Shares Comments on The ARRL CEO’s dialogue with ARRL Section Managers
during their February 2024 Team’s Meeting

 

The February 2024 ARRL Section Managers Electronic Meeting was primarily a lecture by Mr. Minster. I found a great deal of what Mr. Minster presented to conflict with facts or to omit relevant information.

 

My comments on some of the subjects presented follow. 

1) Introduction

 

Mr. Minster used the word "transparency" in his introductory remarks, claiming that he will give a "straight answer" to any question. However, he then stated that members do not have all the information that he does, and if you disagree with any of his answers, you need to "buckle up," which apparently means change your thinking to match his.

However, the ARRL Organizational Structure states, "The ARRL is a representative democracy. Its members control its policies through the power of the ballot." 

If the members control the policies, the members are entitled to information on potential changes to policies as well as reports on impact of policies and changes made to them.

2) Notice to Members About Potential By-Law 46 Changes

Mr. Minster said that it was not the practice to release potential Articles-of-Association and By-Laws motions to members. However, after the 2018 attempt to enact questionable bylaw changes, the Board, as articulated by President Roderick, promised to do exactly that. Despite that commitment, Mr. Minster complained about a couple of Board members following through on that promise by releasing a proposal to substantially expand By-Law 46 beyond its original purpose.

The notice prompted a group of prominent ARRL members to send postal-mail alerts to donors about the implications of the proposed changes. Mr. Minster claimed the letters had essentially no effect, something that conflicted with communications I received from multiple donors who were even reconsidering future gifts to the League. 

 

Those letters and other communication among members led to the proposed motion not being presented at the Board meeting, although it may well resurface in a slightly different form at a future meeting.

3) High-functioning ARRL Board

Mr. Minster claimed that the January Board meeting was great, and that we now have a high-functioning Board. This may be a result of the "Shadow Board" of 10 or 11 Directors who meet secretly with Mr. Minster on the Internet, forming League policy without the participation of all the Directors. His characterization may be appropriate to him if he confers only with those who agree with him.

4) By-Law 46

Misdirection is a technique used by magicians to divert the audience's attention away from what is actually causing an outcome. Misdirection was used in the defense of the proposed changes to By-Law 46.

Mr. Minster directed attention to a part of the proposed changes that purportedly just combined a number of relevant items into one single document, something that no one would likely find objectionable. He did not talk about three things that people have criticized:

a) allowing a majority of the Board to effectively vote minority or dissenting Board members off the Board, something that conflicts with Connecticut law.

b) requiring that Board members and potential Board members sign what amounts to a loyalty oath.

c) requiring Board members to publicly promote political ideas of the majority, rather than act in accordance with their beliefs of what best serves the organization, as required by Connecticut law.

 

Mr. Minster claimed that the proposed changes to By-Law 46 were not another attempt by a majority faction of the Board to concoct a mechanism to vote another member off the Board, but the details of the motion do not support that contention.

5) Ultra Vires Report

Mr. Minster made reference to an analysis of proposed By-Law 46 changes by an attorney in Massachusetts, who said the proposed changes went beyond the authority the Board actually had in that area.

a) Although Mr. Minster stated that he did not read the attorney's analysis, he nevertheless said that he initiated action by the League's Connecticut counsel, claiming that counsel had met with someone in the Connecticut Attorney General's office on the matter. He represented that that the Attorney General's office rejected the ultra vires analysis, although he has produced no written legal opinion from either the Attorney General or Connecticut counsel to support that representation.

b) Mr. Minster had not previously mentioned this legal engagement to either the Board or even the Administration and Finance Committee, nor had he advised them as to the legal fees involved, which could easily have run into tens of thousands of dollars.

6) Life Membership Costs

Mr. Minster made a few cursory comments on Life Membership costs. He stated that, in 1973, it was already clear that Life Membership was a bad idea, a conclusion not supported by facts and certainly in opposition to my evaluation.

In his discussions, Mr. Minster showed that he did not understand the roles of management, the Board, and the auditors in determining how much money can be recognized as revenue to cover the yearly costs of sustaining a Life Member. The assertion that you "can't take more (money) out" is not correct.

For 50 years, the League has run the Life Member program very satisfactorily, and in all years the related revenue recognition, which is based on management’s estimate of servicing costs combined with actuarial analysis, has been unconditionally approved by auditors. There have never been any contrary comments on this in any of the Annual Reports.

7) Internal vs. External Financial Reporting

For budgeting and internal reporting purposes, ARRL reports revenues and expenses without income from bequests (understandable because they are less predictable and cannot be managed) or unrealized changes in the market value of the League's investments (which fluctuate with short-term market conditions). External reporting, such as in the published annual report and in IRS filings, includes these components. Clams that the League lost money in a certain year may be based on the less complete internal reporting. A truer measure of financial condition can be gained by looking at Unrestricted Net Assets. ARRL’s unrestricted net asset balance grew over eleven of the past twelve years from roughly $6 million to over $20 million. The decline in 2022 was due to a decline in the market value of the investment portfolio with general market conditions, which was most likely temporary and should largely reverse during 2023 and 2024 as the markets recover.

Mr. Minster's claims of a dire financial situation do not appear well founded.

8) Roll Call Votes

Mr. Minster defended the July 2023 motion that eliminated the ability of a single Board member to call for a roll call vote and raised the threshold to now requiring five members.  This change raises questions in the minds of members as to why their representatives’ votes are not all recorded and available in the meeting minutes. He referred to some roll call votes being “weaponized.” Why should a Director fear the electorate seeing his or her vote on a matter? How a Board member votes on motions best describes the Board member's performance in directing League affairs.

9) Director's Workbook Being Made Public

Mr. Minster reported that the Board passed a motion that the Director's Workbook would be made public and that this would happen before Dayton. The Workbook is presently on the arrl.org website and could have been made public the day after the Board meeting. Is there something wrong with it that requires rewriting before the public can see it?

10) Print QST Costs, Dues Increase and Projected Member Loss

 

Mr. Minster defended the Board's actions in not living up to providing print QST to term members. I have not encountered a single member who agrees with this action in my participation in club meetings or forums. Membership forms that I accepted at conventions specifically stated postal delivery of print QST.

About 30 years ago, the League commissioned a study which concluded that the League would maximize its finances by roughly doubling the membership dues. The increase from the remaining members would offset that money lost from those who left. The Board at that time wisely chose not to go that way. They valued a larger membership over a larger treasury. I believe that choice should still prevail. Mr. Minster said that with every dues increase, the ARRL loses 6 to 9% of its membership, but that it returns after 3 years. This is simply not true. When the $39 to $49 increase took place, the League had been adding several thousand members per year. That series of increases abruptly stopped, and the membership has since shrunk from 170K to 150K. The membership has not rebounded.

11) Cost Cutting

Mr. Minster stated that at some point early in his present role, he determined that the League did not have a spending problem, but had a revenue problem instead. 

There has never been any evidence of this presented to either the Board or the A&F Committee.

There are many areas where costs could and should be better controlled. In one six-figure example, management replaced top-tier volunteer (free) trademark legal services with paid services running tens of thousands of dollars and additionally wasted over $50,000 in trademark extension fees by not providing trademark counsel with timely responses to repeated, documented requests.

 

12) Minster Salary

In a textbook example of a "Straw Man" response to an issue of his salary, Mr. Minster pointed out that an estimate that someone apparently made that it was $891K per year was not true. He also correctly pointed out that he did not give himself a $100K per year raise in April 2023.

He never did disclose that his salary is actually about $350K per year, up more than 40% over what he agreed to work for three years ago, but did claim that even with the new higher salary, he was the only underpaid person on the staff.

 

Mr. Minster is actually overpaid, and should be making about one half of his present $350K. If you want to verify this, put "Median salary for non-profit membership organization CEO in the Hartford, CT area" into any search engine such as Google or Bing. Ignore very high salaries from large non-profit medical or hospital groups with thousands of employees, since they are not related to a hobbyist organization with 75 employees.

One reference from salary.com shows: "The average Nonprofit Executive Director salary in Hartford, CT is $139,213 as of January 26, 2024, but the salary range typically falls between $116,573 and $168,847." 

 

Also note that none of these estimates consider that many League employees have worked for substantially less money than they might otherwise receive because of their love of Amateur Radio and their desire to serve it.

13) Employee Morale and Satisfaction

In response to a comment about employee morale, Mr. Minster related a comment from a Director who reported hearing a staff member describe the ARRL like being in North Korea. Mr. Minster countered with his claim that another long-time employee who had recently retired stated that the last two years there had been the best two years of the employee's career. 

The reports I've received as a Director unquestionably match the North Korea report best. I note that Mr. Minster is on his seventh administrative-assistant/secretary in three and a half years.

Since the ARRL Board's Standing (or permanent, not temporary) Committees now meet in the Marriott Hotel's meeting rooms rather than at ARRL headquarters, not only have our costs increased by several thousand dollars but Board members no longer have their long-standing opportunity to interact with staff members.

14) Logbook of the World (LOTW) and IT Manager

Mr. Minster stated that LOTW needs to be completely redesigned and rewritten from scratch, a conclusion actually not shared by LOTW experts.

The reason he gave that a new LOTW project manager has not been hired is that such a project manager would report to an IT manager, and the IT manager position needs to be filled first.

Mr. Minster has not been able to hire and retain an IT manager position in the three and a half years he has been on the job. He did hire a competent IT Manager once, but that person left after a few months, citing Mr. Minster as the reason for leaving.

Note that the person most respected as being the LOTW expert is retired software executive Dave Bernstein, AA6YQ. Dave would be the clear choice for someone to lead development of a future version of LOTW, and would probably do it without charge. Unfortunately, Dave is one of a number of volunteers with whom Mr. Minster is having a personal feud and is extremely unlikely to assist the League while it is under control of Mr. Minster.

15) Concluding Sermon

Mr. Minster ended his presentation with what might be called a threatening sermon.

He described people who disagreed with him as being ignoramuses.

He demanded that all SMs and volunteers talk positively about the ARRL, which seems to mean talk positively about how Mr. Minster is running it today. Those who wish the ARRL would operate in some different way that benefits Amateur Radio are not welcome. If you don't support Mr. Minster, you don't belong, and you should resign.

Some of you might now better understand what it must be like to work under Mr. Minster. Both volunteers such as Section Managers and paid employees should be treated with respect by management.

He lauded himself for the way he will be working at Dayton and expects volunteers to do the same. I suspect that if any volunteer Section Manager receives $350K per year, the SM will be happy to do so.

16) Conclusion

I found much of Mr. Minster's presentation to be inaccurate and/or inappropriate.

I welcome your comments on the Section Manager meeting.

73,

 

Dick Norton, N6AA

 

ARRL Bylaw 46 Proposed Changes

Proposed ByLaw 46 is a Terrible Idea

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NfMGQ5B07_wZmKJ3ar2VnF5StqLroL7p/view?usp=sharing

and 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/14vTWDLWZYISyRDuEEiVdqoPqXu99FRqa/view?usp=sharing

Steve

KG5VK