Handiham World for 27 May 2009

Welcome to Handiham World!

Last week's article about bad operators and their terrible habits that disrupt nets brought some comments. This commentary from John, N1UMJ, pretty much tells the story:

I find lately that my biggest problem is the one who breaks in without listening. I run many nets: a monthly RACES net, a weekly ARES net, and several NTS nets throughout the week. I'm hearing more and more of this on 2 meters. After the net, someone tells me, "Oh yeah, I know him - he's on EchoLink all the time."

That puts my problems in high gear. I even had one who, when advised there was a net going on, said, "I know", and kept talking to his party. I was at a state RACES office that day, so I had to be professional and polite. The repeater trustee helped with that one because politeness wasn't working.

Usually though, if they want to talk to someone during a net, as the clueless op might want to do, I very nicely and tactfully explain that it would be appreciated if they'd stick around and ask questions after the net and the person they want will surely stick around if they ask in the closing comments. That almost always works.

The Mr. Know-it-all type is not so common. I haven't had many of them, but the couple we've had, I just let him be his own worst enemy to be honest, unless he's really annoying, in which case I secure him or as NCS just don't give him a chance when I can see it coming. Luckily, the Know-it-alls are not the nightly check-ins.

I don't have the low life or politics person on any nets on which I am the net control station, but I think I'd probably again, go with telling them to keep that for another time.

I don't have the nontechnical guy as you mention it, because I refuse to run a net on any repeater with EchoLink. Echolink does seem to cause a lot of problems, but on HF or 2 meters with more and more radios having complicated adjustments, I advise them of the problem and explain some people checked in to the net want to get out, but if they'll stick around for after the net I'll help them straighten the technical problem out.

I haven't really experienced the late person or the one who talks too much. If you're going to be late for a net though, I often find that if you listen for a few minutes before checking in, a little patience goes a long way and you can catch up without being a problem.

As I said, I run a lot of nets, and I've probably run in to just about every situation at one time or another.

My favorite was the time we had a dam almost let go in my city.

Picture this: The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is active because the shelter is open. Someone comes on the repeater calling the EOC to ask how he can drive through the city without having traffic trouble, and no one's answering. We had the repeater on to talk from the EOC to the shelter, but we had other duties as well, especially if the shelter had us on the phone with private info or something.

Well, this guy starts yelling and screaming about what kind of EOC was it that wouldn't answer his questions and he was going to report them and stuff. The EOC wasn't using the repeater full time and thus didn't take over it to keep people off, but he was asked to refrain from use of the repeater in a phone call from the trustee for the rest of that event and he stayed off.

It's a shame there are people like that. It was just another time that it was very hard to be polite about it, but you really have to be. I was getting my two hours of sleep when that was going on, in my off shift and did get on and explain that a phone call was the best way to get his info and the repeater was not being used for requests like his because everyone was doing a million things and busy, but he's also the one that comes in to nets and tries to change topics and almost no one talks to him anymore because he hasn't changed in 18 years.

So, there are a few stories. It does happen, I see it more and more in recent years, but luckily it's not real bad yet and 9 times out of 10, there is a tactful way to handle it without causing any issues. When there isn't, I quit.

Thanks, John! And thanks to all of you long-suffering net controls out there who somehow manage to keep your cool. We really appreciate what you do.

Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager

Handiham World for 21 May 2009

Welcome to Handiham World!

We're back - sort of

Image: A shopper uses a scooter to get around the acres of flea market. He's pulling a wagon with his callsign license plate, which we have blacked out so that the XYL won't see this and ask him about all that junk he brought home from Hamvention.

Last week we were at Hamvention™ and the ARRL national convention in Dayton, Ohio.

Believe it or not, even with all the talk of recession and pandemic flu in the news every day, the show was a good one, and our experience at the Handiham booth was very positive. While we will have to wait for final attendance numbers to be released, Dayton was certainly worthwhile for us. Of course I am behind in my work, so the weekly e-letter is late. When I sent out a "poor me, I'm so busy that I need more hours in the day" notice yesterday, I got the following highly sympathetic suggestions:

• Sleep less...
• Well you could do it, but it would involve moving to another and larger planet, I think Jupiter.
• Maybe it has something to do with traveling over time zones especially the International Date Line a few times...
• There is a thing called the day stretcher. You find them at Wal-Mart right next to the cucumber stretchers.
• Learn to say 'NO" when asked to go to meetings. But then what do you do for a job?!!
• Daily, at noon, turn the hands of the clock backwards by an hour or so. This will gain you the extra time required, but first check with the XYL to make sure your extra time doesn't interfere with her timing or else you won't have much time at all, on earth or elsewhere!
• I'd give the person who could tell me how to get more hours out of a day a big bear hug!!!
• This is my secret: Time travel -- oops, now it's not a secret anymore. I put my mp3 lessons on my cell phone mp3 player and listen when driving (I don't get distracted when I must pay attention to driving.)

Thanks to all who shared their words of wisdom. Geez, a guy sure can't get any sympathy around here!

But back to Hamvention.

Ken, KB3LLA, Handiham Radio Club President, was at the booth, as were Handiham volunteers John Hoenshell, N0BFJ, and John Pedley, N0IPO. Volunteer Bill Rouch, N6HBO, also visited and was quickly recruited for some booth time! It was in speaking with Bill that I started to form some real insight about what is happening in the realm of the Handiham program.

But I am getting a little ahead of myself. First, I should tell you that I drove to the show, all the way from Minnesota. That put me behind the wheel for almost 12 hours each way, and I knew I would be bored without an audio book to keep me company as the miles passed by. I'd recently visited the bookstore, where I'd picked up an audio CD copy of New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat - A brief history of the twenty-first century". The six compact disks in the book would surely keep me occupied for quite awhile, when I was not on two meters or tuned in to the car radio.

So I listened to Tom Friedman, a Minnesota native who grew up not far from Handiham headquarters. In "The World is Flat", I learned that Tom was talking about the way technology, specifically the availability of high-speed internet communications, has made it possible for people to do their work from anywhere. That in turn means that you can be in Bangalore, India doing an information technology job as easily as you can do the same job from an office in Chicago. Heck, who even needs an office? This, according to Tom, flattens out the world. There are other "flatteners" as well, and they all work together to make it easier than ever before to do work in any place, at any time. People can collaborate on projects from every corner of the globe instead of sitting together in a meeting room.

But let's get back to my visit with Bill, N6HBO. Bill earned his license at Radio Camp, so he knows a thing or two about the challenges faced by people with disabilities. Anyway, Bill asked me about wi-fi radios. I wrote some time ago about my Christmas present, which was a Grace internet wi-fi radio, and Bill said he also recently got an internet wi-fi radio. We were soon comparing notes. He operates an excellent small mail-order business featuring ham radio accessories, and he thought such a radio might be of interest to hams. The thing is, Bill could never operate a business like his as efficiently as he does without the advantages of the flat world. He is able to use the internet to do his marketing, and his products can be manufactured wherever they can be made most efficiently. Bill's "Ham4Less" business is a success because he understands how to make the flat world work for him, and his customers benefit from quick service and good prices in the bargain!

So much has changed since I first started working in the Handiham program myself, way back in 1991. While we had Handiham members worldwide back then, the world was anything but flat. It took months to get an audio cassette tape to someone outside the United States. If you lived in New Zealand, you were certainly going to wait longer to get served than if you lived in Denver. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, uh, office, we had exactly one IBM Selectric typewriter for our document processing. Letters sent by postal mail and telephone calls via long distance were our usual methods of communication. You thought twice about making too many long distance calls, because the expense would break the budget. Contacting members by letter was so slow that you sometimes forgot what the conversation was about. With the telephone, you often traded voice mails in a frustrating effort to get things done. Sister Alverna, WA0SGJ, kept a huge bookcase full of index cards containing the membership. Down in the basement, shop volunteers like Rex Kiser and Ken Williams repaired donated vacuum tube equipment.

Today, in the new flat world, we deliver audio and information to our members around the world at the same time, which is whenever they want it, no matter where they live. It is as easy to listen to our audio or get information from our website in Europe or Australia as it is in Iowa or Minnesota. The playing field has been leveled, allowing us to serve more people when they want to be served, and do so wherever they happen to be, as long as there is internet available and they can reach our Handiham website. In the office, things have changed, too. Staff computers can access a shared member database, so that when we answer a phone call, we know the basics about the member who is calling. We can often research the answer to a question while the member is on the phone, saving another call back to that person. Thanks to secure computing technology, even if a major blizzard that keeps me home for the day strikes, I can log in to CITRIX and do my work as if I am right at my desk. Remote control also flattens our world with access to the Handiham Remote Base HF station. You can be anywhere with internet access and run the station. Handiham members who cannot put up antennas are now on a level playing field with those who can. I work every day with volunteers who live hundreds or thousands of miles away, trading files and collaborating on projects as if they are right here in the same room, working with me.

Talking with Bill at the same time that I was reading Tom Friedman's book really brought the point home to me: We have made quite a leap into the 21st Century flat world, and it has been good for all of us at Handihams!

Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager

Handiham World for 13 May 2009

Welcome to Handiham World!

Handihams at Dayton HAMVENTION - Booth 332

Image: Stop by Booth 332 and meet John Hoenshell, N0BFJ, long-time Handiham volunteer and supporter. John will also be assisting with VE testing at Hamvention.

This is the week! We are going to be at booth 332 at Hamvention™ in Dayton, Ohio. If you are planning to attend, and we certainly hope that you are, please stop by booth 332 and pay us a visit. Specifically, it is SA0332. "SA" stands for Silver Arena. Last week a typo crept in, and we gave you the wrong number. Thanks to Ken, KB3LLA, for getting this corrected.

Hamvention begins on Friday, May 15th and runs through the weekend of the 16th and 17th.

This week Nancy is back in the headquarters office, so that will help a lot! The office will be closed Friday, and there will be no audio lectures. We reopen Monday morning, May 18.

When you stop by the Handiham booth, you will be able to sign our guest register. We always have a few extra chairs if you want to sit down and talk with us for while. If you are a wheelchair user, you will find that we always place our display table at the very back of the booth, which allows you to bring your wheelchair into our area and get out of the main traffic stream in the aisle.

Ken, KB3LLA, Handiham Radio Club President, will be at the booth whenever he isn't out somewhere on the show floor finding out about all the new amateur radio gear. I will be there, as will Handiham volunteers John Hoenshell, N0BFJ, and John Pedley, N0IPO. If you hang around too much, we will put you to work as a greeter and Handiham representative!

So consider the welcome mat out and waiting for you. We hope you can stop by and see us in person, but if not, we are going to try to get on the Handiham EchoLink Net on Saturday and on the same node and frequency at other times throughout the day on Saturday. This all depends on whether or not we are able to get a reliable Internet connection, so no promises.

I hope to see you there!

Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager

Handiham World for 06 May 2009

Welcome to Handiham World!

Handihams planning for Dayton HAMVENTION

Image: Pat, WA0TDA, peeks out from behind a display at the Handiham booth during a previous Hamvention.

It is hard to believe that it is the month of May already, and that means that it is nearly time for the biggest and best ham radio get-together, Hamvention™ in Dayton, Ohio. Thanks to support from a generous donor, John Hoenshell, N0BFJ, who underwrites much of the expense, we are once again able to have a booth on the Hamvention floor. If you are planning to attend, and we certainly hope that you are, please stop by booth 322 and pay us a visit. Hamvention begins on Friday, May 15th and runs through the weekend of the 16th and 17th.

As you might expect, we are busy getting ready for the big show. Next week we will be even more shorthanded at the Handiham office than usual, but we feel that it is important to have a presence at Hamvention, and this show in particular is going to be a good one because it is also the site of the ARRL National Convention. If you are able to attend, you will not want to miss the ARRL EXPO, which is a showcase of exhibits and activities to enhance your ham radio experience. It is open to ARRL members and nonmembers alike, and features official ARRL program representatives, activities (including activities for youth), and forums.

When you stop by the Handiham booth, you will be able to sign our guest register. We always have a few extra chairs if you want to sit down and talk with us for while. If you are a wheelchair user, you will find that we always place our display table at the very back of the booth, which allows you to bring your wheelchair into our area and get out of the main traffic stream in the aisle.

Ken, KB3LLA, Handiham Radio Club President, will be at the booth whenever he isn't out somewhere on the show floor finding out about all the new amateur radio gear. I will be there, as will Handiham volunteers John Hoenshell, N0BFJ, and John Pedley, N0IPO. If you hang around too much, we will put you to work as a greeter and Handiham representative!

So consider the welcome mat out and waiting for you. We hope you can stop by and see us in person, but if not, we are going to try to get on the Handiham EchoLink Net on Saturday and on the same node and frequency at other times throughout the day on Saturday. This all depends on whether or not we are able to get a reliable Internet connection, so no promises.

I hope to see you there!

Patrick Tice
wa0tda@arrl.net
Handiham Manager