QNews for May 5th 2024

Q-News AR News from Queensland

Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking.

Welcome to the new WIA Board who have been getting the feel of the mood in Bundaberg at the Annual General Meeting and associated events. We wish them a very productive and successful year ahead. With the benefit of the experience of the longer serving members the new members face the task of assuming the roles of directors and also the thrill and pressures of being advocates of the Australian Amateur Radio Community.

One of the tasks that we all have is planning ahead for the activities that stimulate the juices and strengthen the hunger in this great activity. For those who have had the opportunity to attend Bundaberg, this weekend, I hope the shared experience has brought new thoughts and strengthened friendships. Some of us have had to sit out this event with other responsibilities taking precedence and we await the reports to our clubs and hopefully the written words in Amateur Radio magazine.

WIA News depends on its contributors and I for one will be eagerly waiting for the reports.

I wonder how many clubs have managed to formulate plans to grow the membership and increase the involvement of current members? This is more than an idle musing but the hope that people have the capacity to pull something worthwhile out of the collective hat. It is the case that if we don’t try we will never succeed.

Now is the time that we must realise that for amateur radio to remain a thriving community activity, there has to be no “them and us” mentality. It is the time when we need to agree that it really is all about us. Individually and collectively it is our participation that marks this pursuit as and enjoyable influence around the world. We have wars being fought and contacts are continuing to demonstrate the spirit of amateur radio in countries which are involved.

We have had disputes about politics and which is the superior marque of car but when we get on air, the rules that have governed procedure for so many years have helped to reinforce the amateur spirit of respect for our fellow amateur operators. I see that some of the older members of our community and some of the more serious younger ones, too, are extremely cautious of the supposed laxity of the Class Licence and what it can introduce.

Those of us old enough to have lived through the introduction of the CB Service have also witnessed the anarchy which overtook that activity with the introduction of class licensing. There are good reasons to take this as an object lesson and to ensure the regulator does not let go of the reins of the amateur service.

This brings me back to the need to input, to share ideas and to participate.

Collectively we are a community and we share the responsibility for growth and recognition. If we don’t take the first step in supporting our hobby, don’t expect they will do it for us.

I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I think….how about you?