SVARA Radio Day on Saturday April 19, 2008:

The Saginaw Valley Amateur Radio Association hosted the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps at the Saginaw American Red Cross.

About 30 kids, ages 7 to 16 attended the event along with 7 officers and 10 hams. After introductions and a short presentation, we opened seven hands-on learning stations. The learning stations were: introduction to Morse code, see your voice on an oscilloscope, talk through a laser, amateur television, packet instant messenger, VHF radio communications, and HF radio communications. The kids spent two hours trying different radio technologies and having a lot of fun!

This was so successful and enjoyable for everyone that participated, that we are considering the design of a ham class for kids. I'm sure others have built kids ham classes so if you have any ideas, they are very welcome.

Link to Sea Cadet Radio Photos

Keith DeLong (N8XD)
n8xd@arrl.net

Greetings Michigan Amateur Radio Operators,

On Saturday April 12, the Michigan Section of the ARRL held it first Youth Forum. This effort was designed to bring our younger licensed hams together in one facility to discuss what interested them in amateur radio, how they were mentored, plus what their likes and dislikes are about this hobby. Despite our moving the forum into April, some severe snow prevented several groups from attending. Still, those that were there all reported that they had an outstanding time and the sessions were very successful. We had some very frank discussion on all of the key subjects. It was exciting to see how this group opened dialog on other pertinent subject matter as well. Now the work has begun on compiling our results into a formal report for distribution to the ARRL Affiliated Clubs in the state. There is probably three times the amount of material we had expected to collect from our discussions, so the report writing will take couple of weeks. My personal regards go to all who attended. Simply put, your efforts and the time you took to participate, may well set the pace for the future of amateur radio. Thanks!

The first ALL YOUTH Amateur Radio Conference is being held in Michigan!

I would like to remind all youths and clubs alike in Michigan to participate in this year ARRL Youth Michigan Conference. It is being held in Gaylord, Michigan on April 12th.

Starting around ten o’clock, the day will be filled with fun activities and session to help increase the number of youths in Michigan. The youth will be able to interact with kids from across the State and take part in unique events that will happen just for this Conference. Including the special event station N8ES and the Civil Air Patrol demonstration.

Greetings all,

By now you have read that Michigan hams have an opportunity to participate in the National Priorities to Strengthen Communications Capabilities through our Amateur Radio Public Service Corps. As you know, ARPSC is the integrated ARES®, RACES and NTS program in Michigan. This effort is part of our state's plan for Emergency Preparedness and incorporates the National Incident Management System, Protection of critical infrastructure, improving citizen preparedness etc, all-in-all, eight specifically detailed categories.

The ARPSC effort will encompass three areas: 1, Maintain and enhance the statewide Amateur Radio communications system, 2, Establish suggested standards for Amateur Radio Capabilities in local EOC’s and 3, Develop a Public Awareness and Education program to bolster the ranks of Amateur Radio participants. Procedures will be developed over the next few months through a detailed planning process involving our ECs, DECs and the SEC/STM, with input from the state's NTS Net Managers. We will be producing specific guidelines that will open the doors for grant funding opportunities, based upon needs and meeting state and nationally established milestones.

Greetings all,

Well, this year is off to a real roll. With March and Michigan's spring storm season just a couple of weeks away, please get your plans in place for Skywarn training. The National Weather Service has been booking sessions and insuring NWS participation early will make your training program thoroughly effective for 2008. A note to hamfest planners: your Section Manager attempts to attend all of the Michigan hamfests that are sanctioned by the ARRL. The reality is that time conflicts can prevent my attendance at every swap. I do ask those who would like to assure the League is represented at your swap to contact me by email to request my attendance or to insure that an alternate can be with you. That will be a real help and assist me in being available to meet with ARRL members in the field.

As we start out each new year, your Michigan Section staff meets to review the past year and plan for the new. That meeting was held on January 19. I am pleased to report that Michigan continues to make gains in the areas we targeted for the year. Our efforts with Public service have shown improvements both in the increase in membership (we now stand strong with more than 2400 individuals in the ARES®/RACES program) and despites horrific band conditions where copy is often problematic, our NTS traffic counts are higher. Details will be posted at http://arpsc.mi-nts.org/ and http://www.mi-nts.org/. The state’s digital infrastructures are growing and we have continued to expand our packet coverage and this year, we have seen implementation of D-Star® and P25 digital voice systems, with more scheduled to start in both Districts 1 and 7 and others in the early planning stages elsewhere. Check http://www.mi-drg.org/ for details. Our OO/AA program has been successful in working with the FCC in eliminating scofflaw users of ham frequencies for unlicensed purposes. Plans are in place for the 2008 Michigan Section Outing to be held in Lupton the weekend of July 11, 12, 13. The Technical Specialists have resolves several EMI/RFI issues during the recent months and assisted hams in solving some interesting problems. Club growth continues and more groups are opting for ARRL affiliation. Work with Local governments continues with very positive results and our relationship with state level officials is demonstrated with the continued growth with the support of the RACES Program. Local officials are being offered our Power Point® presentation on amateur radio.

January 19th in Burton Michigan

Doors open for sales 0800 to noon
Admission $5

Location is Bentley Middle School
I-69 and Belsay road (exit 141)

Talk in 147.100+ pl 100Hz

Vendors include:
Elmer's Ham Shack
Dentronics
Tower Electronics
Webster Communications
Amateur Acessories

VE Testing at 1000

For more information contact Greg N8HXQ at n8hxq@arrl.net or 810-736-2126

The Hazel Park Amateur Radio Club will host it's yearly swap at the Hazel Park High School From 8am until Noon Sunday January 20th.

For Further information visit the club website www.hparc.org
There is a link to download a flier for the swap with directions.

Sean Fleming
K8KHZ Swap Chairman

Holiday Greetings everyone,

As the year draws to a close, we are pleased to announce elections for club officers for 2008 in two of our Michigan ARRL Affiliated Clubs: The Michigan Amateur Radio Alliance held its election for 2008’s board members. Pres is K8JX, VP KB8VOZ, Sec WD8LGN and Treas W8MSK. Newly elected for the Genesee ARC ARE Pres K8KZB, Treas WA8MY, Sec K8LJG, Trustee K8LJG. Of special note, the GCARC will be celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 2008. Congratulations to all.

2007 brought some minor struggles and some great victories for the ARRL Michigan Section. We faced the challenges of some personnel changes, but these went well and some new faces are in place to help our continued progress. Our sincere thanks go out to each of these new members of our staff and extended team. Next month we will be able to report some of the details for CY 2007 and let you know how the Michigan Section performed according to our plans.

Greetings everyone,

Your ARRL Michigan Section Staff is planning to host a State-wide ARRL “Youth Forum” in the near future. The object is to bring together some new ideas and directly involve the young movers and shakers who share this great hobby of ours. It will be our goal to develop and promote communications among the younger hams and allow interested clubs to draw upon some new ideas to introduce amateur radio to youth in their areas.

At this forum, we will ask our attending young amateurs to examine the existing clubs that successfully incorporate young hams and look at how their youth programs are implemented. We will consider what makes amateur radio exciting for youth and then determine the best ways to distribute these ideas. We’ll look at recruiting, school relationships, family involvement, community leaders, scouting programs, what specific interests exist and any other influences we can uncover. Our plans are to focus on the youth and their comments, ideas and suggestions, but our focus is to maximize youth attendance at this forum. The sessions will be moderated by the youth with support from adult team members. If your club is involved with youth, if your club is youth oriented and any way, we want to hear from you. If you want to participate in the Youth Forum or share in its results, please contact your SM, wa8efk@arrl.net. (Note that I would rather get duplicate inputs than miss a single club). We will need to have this input very soon to help us establish the expected attendance and determine the best venue for hosting the forum. The forum will be moderated by Simon KC8YZD kc8zyd@arrl.net.