September 12th MARC Meeting

For the September 12th club meeting we will gather outside the Musser Public Library at 5:30pm, and plan to leave town at 6:00pm to venture to Bill's.

Before moving to Riverside, Iowa, Bill Hartley, K3JNZ, was living in a New York City apartment. Being an enthusiastic contester, he noted how his coverage was meager at best. However, something in him always caused him to be on the look out for a place that would make a great amateur radio station. He did this for years.

Then one day, he found a house for sale in an ad on ARRL.org. It was a house that was also a VHF contest station! And this contest station had a write-up in a VHF magazine (CQ VHF). The reason for this was that it included a 42-ft dish capable of doing EME on 144 MHz, 220 MHz, 432 MHz and 1296 MHz. Not too many houses had a feature like that! Bill's comment: "Who wouldn't want a place like this?" Others had looked at the place but they hesitated. Bill didn't hesitate and ended up scoring this dream station.

Of interest are all the things he's doing with this new station. He's had a couple open houses, inviting people over to learn more about amateur radio. You can certainly tell that Bill has a heart for this.

More than just teaching others about amateur radio; he sees his new radio station as an opportunity to learn things for himself. "The learning curve is incredible," Bill said. "I've learned so much already. My learning curve is exponential."

One of the things Bill would want to convey is to never give up on your dreams. Keep alert and be on your watch. Be ready to jump when that rare opportunity appears. Hesitating could cause you to miss out on your dream (or dream station).