[Rdxa-bod] FW: ARRL DX Contests

Wed Jan 11 17:28:48 CST 2012

Wow,

I just read this and I need to make a few comments.

1)      I certainly agree with Gene's first paragraph, and it caused me to
go over to rdxa.com and check the Score Grids from the last two years. It is
really disappointing, with a membership of around 70, we had a maximum of 12
people post scores in CQ WW SSB contests. And for both years, that was the
highest, the rest of the DX contesting scores are around 6-8 as an average.
For ARRL DX CW is was 6 and for ARRL SSB is was 8. Yes NYQP and SS are
higher, most likely because they are shorter contests and are more heavily
promoted. (Remember, I got my ass jacked by W2FU this year for supposedly
cheating at K2NNY by sending out an e-mail to get on and have some fun?) 

2)      For the second paragraph, I don't agree with Gene, it is never
useless to pole the club, in fact I think we did that last year, except that
the results of that pole were never published on the reflector, they were
stated at a meeting, but meeting attendance is also down from normal years,
so basically no one really remembers what was poled, and maybe 15 or 20 got
the results of the pole.

3)      The third paragraph makes great sense. If you want to DX or DX
Contest, RDXA should be the place to be.

4)      Then we get our asses jacked again by W2FU by saying that we need
another reflector because he didn't like DX spotting on the main reflector
(WTF is the reflector for) Anyway that has been settled and I hope people
get back to using the reflector, it is a mechanism to keep RDXA'ers
together.

This all being said, I have also raised the point before, what are we a
FIELD DAY CLUB? As from my point of view that is basically all we do to
promote the club comradeship, that is the only thing we do as a "CLUB", and
that has evolved into a political nightmare in itself. You all know what I
mean. Watch the higher turnout and teeth natching on Tuesday when K1PY
starts again to convince us all to GO FOR IT and WIN on Field Day. (Unless I
am wrong, that will happen.)

As for getting anything done in this club, and remember all are volunteers,
it is like pulling teeth, we can't even get the newsletter on the from page
of the website because there is too much code writing to do it easily.

Bottom line, and I feel the same way, TO MUCH POLITICS and no politicians.
We all feel the pain, but many back out and no longer serve because of the
politics of getting things done. I am almost at that point, along with many
members of the BOD, that is why, at the BOD meeting last night, I laid it
out to everyone, you need to be ACCOUNTABLE for your actions To much willy
nilly going on, people afraid to tell someone they are NOT doing their job,
even though it is volunteer position. That is part of why things are going
south, but changes are coming, and I believe they will be fast.

It is an ongoing battle to get people motivated, many bitch about what goes
on, but when you ask them to get on the BOD and make changes, why do they
all say NO. They want to voice their opinions and cut up the Officers and
BOD, but they will not volunteer.

We are what we are, and believe me, the Officers and BOD are great people
and all want the same, but we all say "what can we do to change things ?" If
you have an answer, let us know.

We change things, people bitch, we don't change, people bitch, it is a no
win situation.

Gene, my thoughts, POLE the CLUB on the reflector, and let them have a go on
the reflector, then you, the Officers and the BOD members will find out what
people want. Remember, something like this will generate lots of replies,
good and bad. This is exactly what happens, people send things to the
Officers and BOD and it gets distributed around to about 8 or 10 guys and it
dies. The club members don't get a say, or a chance to reply because they
don't see the concerns from the membership.

Here is what I will do, I will take Gene's e-mail, strip any identification
from it and send it to the club and say we need your feed back, and let the
fur fly.

Paul K2DB

From: rdxa-bod-bounces at rdxa.com [mailto:rdxa-bod-bounces at rdxa.com] On Behalf
Of Paul Kolacki
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:08 PM
To: rdxa-bod at rdxa.com
Subject: [Rdxa-bod] FW: ARRL DX Contests

I received this from W2LU today.  I now forward it to you for your reading
pleasure.

FX

From: Gene Fuller [mailto:w2lu at rochester.rr.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 2:46 PM
To: Capt. Paul Kolacki; C R Shalvoy; Ken Boasi
Subject: ARRL DX Contests

Hi Paul,Chris and Ken -

I continue to be disappointed in the club's focus.  With less than two
months until the ARRL DX contests. it seems as though our focus is already
going to be on six months away - Field Day. And then it will be SS and then
NYQP.  My observation is that over the years the club has morphed from a DX
club to a domestic contest club and I may now be in a minority of the
membership more interested  in DX and not so much in just high numbers of
stateside Q's.  

I have nothing against the stateside contests, it's just that that is not
where my primary interests lie. I'm afraid that at this point it would be
useless to pole the membership since for sure there is a strong, vocal,
group focused on Field Day/SS/NYQP  activity which would dominate. Perhaps
realistically we (I) should just acknowledge the fact that we are just a
contest club and that one of the contest areas that we are interested in
might be the various DX contests. 

I would think that RARA would be the place for general contesting and RDXA ,
by name at least, would be the place for DX'ing and DX contests.

Just my nickel's worth.

73's,

Gene / W2LU

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