I was going through some of my papers looking for a letter I received from a friend a few months ago and ran across the certified letter that I received from a local Ham Radio Club. Some 20 years or so ago I was a founding member of a Ripley County Radio club. I donated much time and funds to this organization as did many others. Much fun was had along with a good bid of public service that was provided to the county. Then we gained a few new members that changed the overall internal workings of our little club. These people rooted their way in as officers and made drastic changes, such as dues cost, closed to the public meetings, closed repeater use, and many other things that were not in the best interest of amateur radio. As a result I spoke not favorable of these new changes. The offices campaigned for the membership to discredit me by telling them untrue statements, such as I was using cuss words on their repeater stations and this would be an FCC violation. John Reid (trustee) investigated this and other clames they made and found no violations. He also uncovered that many other statements they claimed were completely false, such as tape recordings made of myself cussing did not exist at all. At this outcome the officers discredited Mr. Reid and he was removed or resigned under presser. I could go into many other instances that occurred including much hate mail I received. If indeed and you do not believe me I can prove these and many others. The fact that I want to make is, check things out for yourself, do not rely on gossip from others. There is a new Ham Radio club now in Ripley County and it has arose to being one that all Hams can be proud to belong to. If you check both clubs out, I think you will have no trouble picking the one you want to belong to.
Click the letter to enlarge.
Links of interest:
http://rcarc.ripleycounty.net/
http://rcrepeater.tripod.com/
http://146805rcra.com/OpenRepeater.aspx
http://146805rcra.com/default.aspx
Jack Demaree WB9OTX