I worked a guy down in GA a couple days ago, and we got to talking about a bunch of different things. It was such a good QSO that he asked me to e-mail him so that we could continue the discussion.
Well, as it turns out, one of his hot buttons was the Amateur Extra license class. His contention is that it’s not really that “extra” anymore, and that he wanted the FCC to create a new class of license whose requirements would include a 25 wpm CW test and a “really hard” written examination.
I replied that it probably would be next to impossible to have volunteer examiners administer such a test. My thought is that if we really want to recognize someone’s technical or operating skills, we should perhaps put more emphasis on programs such as the A-1 Operator’s Club and the various technical awards.
Then, it hit me that our club should have such a program, and I ripped off an e-mail to our Board of Directors. In the e-mail, I proposed the following awards:
- Club Service Award. This award would recognize a club member who has gone above and beyond in promoting, organizing, and running club activities.
- Public Service Award. This award would recognize a local radio amateur–not necessarily a club member–who has excelled in providing public service, including emergency communications, community outreach, etc.
- Technical Award. This award would recognize a club member who has done something excellent from a technical point of view, for example designing and building a custom interface for the repeater or building a cool dual-band J-pole antenna or has perhaps helped fix radios for guys whose rigs have died.
How does this sound to you? Do you have any suggestions for other awards that we should give?
Also, does your club have an awards program? If so, what kinds of awards do they give out? How often do they give them out? What are the criteria?
Robert Donahue says
Ahhh, after 10+ years of being a ham, I can get my extra class, I am loving it! I dont have time for code and I dont think many others do in this new age of Cell phones and email ….. Time to move on, I had passed all my written exms in one day only missing one question! I figured that would give me time to get my code and that never happened, so this new code change comes as a breath of fresh air to new and old hams alike, my dad who is now in his 60s (and deaf) should be loving this also!