Everyone, last night’s dry-run with Zoom and nearly a dozen members went well and we are going to hold our official BARS Zoom meeting tonight. Kudos to Phil Temples, K9HI, ARRL Eastern Massachusetts Assistant Section Manager, for hosting and facilitating this meeting for us. Please do your part and try running the Zoom test, installing the app or the plugins and getting things running before trying to join. Once the meeting starts, it may be difficult to juggle presenting with helping folks. I will be posting the link as well as dial-in numbers for people to listen to audio only as a fallback.
I am very pleased to announce that our virtual speaker for tonight will be Bruce Blain, K1BG, on Field Day – Single Operator. Our situation in MA is uncertain and if reopening the state is delayed past the “fourth full weekend in June” then a BARS 2020 FD like we enjoyed last year will be off the table. Bruce will be here to talk about how you and I can STILL enjoy Field Day while forced to separate from our friends. Let’s remember that Field Day is an emergency exercise, not a contest, and an opportunity for all of us to do something out of the ordinary and learn new skills. Bruce will explain what it means to do FD/SO and show his past experiences doing it. We love having Bruce as a guest so please give him a great turnout.
Phil will be working as gatekeeper so please join promptly at 7:00. The beginning of the meeting may consist of introductions and greetings, and once Bruce begins his presentation the focus will be on him. We will definitely have time afterward for a roundtable and Q&A and members may do so via video/audio or text chat. We’re going to do our best to keep this organized and FUN!
I will announce the link to join the Zoom meeting before the meeting, but it will be posted to the BARS email list and should not be shared outside our Club. Are you on the email list? If not, please send an email to bars-subscribe@w1hh.org and then simply reply to the robot response from the server and you will be subscribed.
Observing our Zoom meeting requires only a web browser and headphones/speakers. You do not need a webcam or microphone unless you want to participate. We will likely have some sort of roundtable where folks can catch up.
Before our meeting date, please go to https://zoom.us/test and see if it will function for you. If you have problems, we can try to assist – feel free to ask questions on the BARS email list.
I am looking forward to “seeing” many of you tonight. This will be a fresh experience for us. I can’t believe we only cancelled the April meeting – it feels like it’s been 12 months and I really want to reconnect with ham friends.
Andy
KA1GTT
President, Billerica Amateur Radio Society
