Denby Dale ARC
When the Denby Dale amateur radio club was faced with having to cancel our regular meetings our immediate response was to organise a club net on 2m. This was well attended. I proposed that we should try to organise meetings online (as well as our regular radio nets) so that we could invite speakers to the club.
I asked on air for suggestions of subjects and speakers. We then arranged our first Zoom meeting which was a very lively and involved meeting. The ages of participants ranged from 14 to 84. Like many clubs we have some very active members who have been involved in the hobby for well over 60 years. Most of those who took part in our first Zoom meeting had never attended any online meeting. Everyone found it really worthwhile, fun and engaging.
I was tasked with contacting potential speakers. Our club line-up is really impressive. It would have been impossible to get the range of speakers to the club we have if they were required to travel in an evening to West Yorkshire!
The subjects we have up for discussion range from using satellites, moon bounce, amateur TV, contesting, G QRP club, HF Propagation to speakers on the future of our clubs and hobby. From outside the UK we have amateurs from the USA and Israel and one of our members who lived in Australia for a while is trying to set up a joint meeting of our club with one in Australia! There are literally countless possibilities. It’s an exciting club programme.
What has already emerged in our discussions is a request that after the health crisis is over and we are able again to hold our regular meetings that we also stream them online inviting outside speakers to participate that way and any members who aren’t able or don’t want to travel to the club venue to take part online as they are now.
The latest suggestion is to invite the big Ham radio shops in the UK to come to an online meeting to talk about their products to club members.
Members with disabilities can of course attend our meetings with ease using this format and shift workers who may struggle to get home and out to the meeting would also find being able to log in online a real bonus.
The health crisis has confined most of us to our homes and our online meetings have brought people together in an even more direct and personal way than over the radio. Our club would invite other clubs to make contact with us and perhaps sit in on any of our meetings to get a favour of how powerful the medium is to keep us in contact.
Nick Bradley
G4IWO
bradleynickj@btinternet.com
Category: CV-Support
