Club Stations

[W2RWJ]

Over the last 3 years, we have been making progressive upgrades at the N2MO station.   One of the members graciously pointed out that we may be a "bit over the top"   I respect their opinion (I've only been licensed a few hears) and wanted to get a sanity check.

What would you consider excessive for a club station in terms of equipment and facilities?   We have two towers, a couple wire antennas, 7 operating positions, 2 radio rooms, and a classroom.

73 Martin Flynn
W2RWJ

[LA9XSA]

That depends on the size of the club membership and what activities you take part in. Is the station under-utilized today and collecting dust? Do you run classes, do contests, JOTA?

Do you have more operating positions than antennas? If it's impossible to use all the radios at once because there are no antennas available for them all, it might be a good idea to get more antennas, or perhaps give/sell some equipment to another club. Perhaps a school or a disabled person could borrow some equipment?

In my view, it's impossible for a station to be "too awesome", and I get a real kick out of the ex-military bases or broadcast sites are used as ham stations today, but of course it would be a shame if it sits unused.

PS: The club station information pages on your website seem to not work at the moment.

[W2RWJ]

We have at least one major event a month.  It's usually more.  The station is available 24/7 for membership use.  It does get used.

Membership is ~60 people.

Will follow up on the bad links. 

[K1CJS]

One thing to remember--In today's world, there is more opposition to antenna structures than there ever was.  Some hams think nothing of contributing--heavily--to a club station, which they then use and share as their major operating station.

No, I don't think that the club station is 'over the top,' nor do I think that having two radio rooms is too much--for an very active club, which yours seems to be.  The classroom, however, may be, depending on the use of the club.  Not, however, if the meeting/general room is almost always in use.

[AA4PB]

Ever though about making one of the stations a remote base so club members could log on via the Internet from home? It would be a good way to get members who have antenna restrictions on HF. I can imagine that the time of the "club station" my see a comeback.

[W5DQ]

Over the last 3 years, we have been making progressive upgrades at the N2MO station.   One of the members graciously pointed out that we may be a "bit over the top"   I respect their opinion (I've only been licensed a few hears) and wanted to get a sanity check.

What would you consider excessive for a club station in terms of equipment and facilities?   We have two towers, a couple wire antennas, 7 operating positions, 2 radio rooms, and a classroom.

73 Martin Flynn
W2RWJ

Sounds mighty impressive. My hat is off to your club.

We have appx 75 members on the roster in our local club and after whittling down the list for this and that, we have maybe a dozen or so who actually work HF and of those probably half are a "once in a while HF" type of operator. Probably 6 or so in the entire club work HF on a regular basis and participate in any contests or chase DX. We have no club building, no club equipment to speak of outside an old tower trailer and most of our club, until recently, consisted mainly of 2M FM repeater users.

On the positive side, the club has started holding Tech and General classes over the last few years and we're starting to grow, both in members and HF interests. Maybe someday we'll actually have a place we can call a club station. Right now, it's a dream.

Gene W5DQ

[W2RWJ]

One thing to remember--In today's world, there is more opposition to antenna structures than there ever was.  Some hams think nothing of contributing--heavily--to a club station, which they then use and share as their major operating station.

No, I don't think that the club station is 'over the top,' nor do I think that having two radio rooms is too much--for an very active club, which yours seems to be.  The classroom, however, may be, depending on the use of the club.  Not, however, if the meeting/general room is almost always in use.

Thanks - the membership has been extremely generous in supporting the club.

The N2MO station has it's own building.  That being said, the "classroom" doubles as the "meeting/general" room

Ever though about making one of the stations a remote base so club members could log on via the Internet from home? It would be a good way to get members who have antenna restrictions on HF. I can imagine that the time of the "club station" my see a comeback.

Looking into it.  The practice is to ground all of the antenna leads when the station is unused.  Would take a change to how we operate.  

Sounds mighty impressive. My hat is off to your club.

We have appx 75 members on the roster in our local club and after whittling down the list for this and that, we have maybe a dozen or so who actually work HF and of those probably half are a "once in a while HF" type of operator. Probably 6 or so in the entire club work HF on a regular basis and participate in any contests or chase DX. We have no club building, no club equipment to speak of outside an old tower trailer and most of our club, until recently, consisted mainly of 2M FM repeater users.

On the positive side, the club has started holding Tech and General classes over the last few years and we're starting to grow, both in members and HF interests. Maybe someday we'll actually have a place we can call a club station. Right now, it's a dream.

Thanks - We are building on several decades of prior work.   Re your situation - a portable tower and a borrowed room works wonders.  Check out the portable tower donated by Mike Reason (W2EXQ) to the Garden State ARA  http://www.gardenstateara.org/ and their station at the Red Cross building.