HAM Class 2007 Planning Notes

This page will track the progress of the planning for the HAM Training 2007 by the CSS. This is a work in progress, and will get updated as things progress. Those looking to help out can pick any item that clearly needs doing, or email Pete (peter@peterjohanson.com) and ask how to help out. Details below:

• Date/Time:
  The current candidate days are either June 16th, or June 23rd.

  5/8/07: The Days Inn on University has space on June 30th for 20 people for $250, so that adds June 30th to the candidate date list.

  5/10/07: Jeff will be getting me a list of weekends Moe is available, we will probably have to go from there. Jeff suggested that we do the one day training such that there is a test being administered (they have several members qualified to administer the test) a week later, to give people time to study.

• Location:
  I (Pete) called CSUSB Library looking to see if they had space we could use and they simply forwarded me on to the university Events department, who told me they'd have to charge us, and charge us extra since the university is closed those days. Lame. Anyone have a contact at CSUSB that might be able to actually help us out?

  I've left a message for Mary from (http://www.san-bernardino.org/) to see if they might be able to help us out, waiting to hear back from her.

  Other ideas people have suggested include any nearby churches (will this turn people off to coming maybe?) or just do it at the LZ.

  5/8/07: In the forums, Bob suggested we try the Days Inn on University, and Alan called them and they have a room for 20 available on June 30th for $250. Seems very doable. Once we get set on the instructor, how much they want for the training, etc., we can try to figure out what pricing would be like if we used this room. Does CSS want to foot part of the cost for CSS members attending, or should each attendee pay enough to pay instructor + room?

  5/10/07: After meeting with Jeff, the C-Bar-C president, he informed me that they have space we could use for free, if they're doing the training. The only downside is that it is in Highland, about 15 minutes drive from the LZ, in the Patton Hospital complex.

• Instructor:
  I sent an email to Moe, the training director for The Citrus Belt Amateur Radio Club (http://www.w6jbt.org/) to see if he had anyone that would want to do the class, but not heard back from him. I'm going to forward the email to their president if I don't hear back from him by the end of the day today (5/3/07). Anyone know anyone personally that might teach this?

  5/4/07: I forwarded my original email to Moe to Jeff, the C-Bar-C President, in the hopes that he will respond.

  5/8/07: I've been in contact with Jeff, and am going to their weekly meeting tomorrow to try to discuss details of doing a class on June 30th. Will update with results after the meeting.

  5/10/07: I had a good meeting with Jeff last night, and I definitely think they'll be able to set something up for us. Moe is currently traveling, but Jeff is going to get in touch with him, explain what's up, and try to find weekends in the next few months that would work.

HAM training day(s) planning

On a recent flying day at Soboba, I mentioned to Alan Crouse that I really needed to stop slacking and get my HAM radio technician license so I could operate (legally) a radio while flying. Alan replied (I paraphrase), "A HAM radio training day at Marshall sounds exactly like something a new activities coordinator would put together!" So there we have it, looks like I've got a new task! The current vague outline is either a one day training, or two days of training, either the same weekend, or spread over two weekends. Spread over two weekends would give people time to study up what they learned, before taking the test the next weekend. Ideally, by the end of the training day(s), folks would walk away licensed HAM radio technicians, ready to add their words of wisdom to the AJ Airpark airwaves. I've gotten a suggestion to call the folks over at Windsports to see how they run their HAM day, I'll be doing that shortly. Thoughts? Is there interest in something like this? Suggestions from folks that have participated in something like this? Please post comments here, or email me (peter at peterjohanson dot com) [size=14][b]I've added a page to track the planning of the HAM class, please feel free to edit that, or make comments with suggestions. I will keep updating that with more details as the planning continues: http://www.crestlinesoaring.org/ham_class_2007_planning_notes [/b][/size]