The Western Amateur Radio Friendship Association
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The Western Amateur Radio Friendship Association
"Communicating With The World Through Friendship "
These stories are © 2009 by Amateur Radio Newsline. WARFA feels that the publication of these two stories which include activities involving WARFA members is fair use of Newsline's material.
The OMIK Radio Scholarship Fund has now surpassed $100,000.00 in educational monies awarded. This with word from Richard Reese, WA8DBW, that the fund presented a $1000 check to Caitlin Grey of Wadsworth, Ohio, to help defray her future education costs.
Reese says that Caitlin Grey was the top recipient selected from a nationwide list of applicants. She graduated with honors from Wadsworth High School in May of 2009. While attending, she was involved in her Student Council, the National Honor Society, and several important projects. She was also a member of the yearbook staff and a varsity cheerleader an academic and athletic letterman and received the United States Achievement Academy award of excellence in a foreign language.
The OMIK Scholarship Fund is a separate organization of the OMIK Amateur Radio Association, Inc. The fund was established to manage and administer the OMIK sponsored scholarship program. According WA8DBW, the Fund's goal is to provide financial assistance to deserving youth who are pursuing education beyond high school.
Turning to the ham radio social scene, the August 15th one day convention in Santa Barbara, California, that took the place of the usual 3 day ARRL Southwestern Division show that was almost cancelled earlier this year appears to have been more than a mild success. According to Dave Bell,, W6AQ, about 500 or so drove from sweltering Los Angeles and other areas to the seashore community with 450 signed up for the famed Santa Barbara barbecue lunch alone.
Not a lot of big name exhibitors but some important names were there. These included Ham Radio Outlet, Vertex-Standard Yaesu, and Elecraft. In fact Elecraft showed their new P3 Pan-Adapter for the first time. W6AQ was told that the techs at Elecraft literally finished putting together this prototype at 2 AM in the morning and then drove all the way down from Aptos California to be in Santa Barbara in time for the gates to open.
The ARRL was represented by Southwestern Division Director Dick Norton, N6AA, Vice Director Marty Woll, N6VI and Washington attorney Christopher D. Imlay, W3KD. And while small by comparison to any past ARRL Southwestern Division Convention that anyone can remember, nobody is complaining. In fact there are at least 500 hams who are singing the praises of the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club which heroically stepped forward and picked up the pieces at the last minute, when the original sponsoring group pulled out. Or put another way, sometimes the best things come in the smallest packages.
(W6AQ)
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(These stories will be included in Newsline's weekly newscast through Thursday, August 27th.)
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