Our annual dinner was not held this year due to the ongoing pandemic. However, a Member Appreciation & Awards Net was held on January 14, 2021 on our club repeater system and Google Meets. There were at least 16 members who checked in. A list of service award recipients, silent keys, officers and board members for 2021 are shown below. Silent Keys were remembered and eulogized.
Our club President Dave KD2KVZ, asked for comments about what we wanted the club to focus on in 2021. Members gave their comments and suggestions on the subject. Well deserved accolades were spoken about all those members who stepped up in 2020 to participate in club activities. There was quite a discussion about the Breakfast Net and how it has grown in popularity over time. Also mentioned was the excellent job the repeater committee, lead by Jason KD2QED and Bill KC2AAY, had done during the year. The new repeaters were interfaced with our SCOM 7330 controller which added much more flexibility to our repeaters. The problems with linking the VHF and UHF repeaters were solved. Also, AllStar and EchoLink were added. Time and weather announcements were implemented and the ARRL weekly news cast was added set to air every Saturday morning at 8:40 AM. Of course we all lamented the lack of eye-ball QSOs but all in all, amateur radio certainly helped many of us to survive the year 2020 and still retain our sanity.
Near the end of the meeting, the amateur of the year award for 2020 was presented. Congratulations to the winner! A link to the presentation write-up can be found at the bottom of this page.