The New Year and what it holds

Hi All,

Welcome to the New Year and thanks for your support. I have been thinking hard on how to make the hobby relevant to the community. First of all, I think we should emphasise on publicising what the amateur radio can offer to the community. In a nutshell, I am thinking of 'marketing' the hobby. For that to happen I would need to have a publicity chief to plan out the strategies and carry out the strategy - any volunteers?

After having the publicity - we would then need to have something to keep the members (current and future) interested in the hobby. I know you would say that if they are interested in the hobby they will remain faithfull to the hobby - but there must be something that keeps them interested and how do we do it? any comments on it.

So for the year 2009, we would hold some refresher classes for the members - say Standard Operating Procedure - HAM ethiquette, the Fox Hunt and upload more relevant information on the hobby on the net.

Last but not least, I note with pride that MARTS National had launched the MARTS RACES set up in Sintok Kedah. How I wish someone would enlighten me and the gang here just what is MARTS RACES is all about. Its not enough to state that it is about Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services - we need to know what sort of Civil Emergency Services and the how the what and the who - basically what do we do and how can we help?

till the next time - keep DXing and keep transmitting ....

73 de 9W2SBS