AARC History 1982

A New Year Begins
In January of 1982 the following officers were installed: President-Dick Jessup/N3FN, Vice-President-Nick Buinicki/WB3KIW, Secretary-Jerry Herman/N3BDW and Treasurer-Howard Miller/KA3ERP. The year proved to be an active and productive one.  The first of the quarterly open houses was held in March of '82. The purpose of these open houses was to involve spouses and families of Club members in some of the Club's activities, so that they would have a better understanding of a Ham's interest in his hobby. At the June open house Don Miller, Sr., a network engineer for C&P, presented "The Lights Fantastic", a spellbinding program on the use of fiber optics in telephone communications. Mr. Miller gave the program to the Club in July of 1981 and returned by popular request. For the September open house Club members and guests had a three-hour cruise up the Severn on the Annapolitan. A Christmas party was held for the December open house--complete with Santa Claus and
gifts for the children.

Novice Classes and The Club Auction
Under Training Coordinator Keith/AE3D two Novice Classes were held in the spring--one on Wednesday evenings and one on Saturday mornings. The classes resulted in approximately thirty new hams. Keith coordinated another Novice Class which started in September. About 15 persons completed the course. AARC received many new members as a result of these three classes.  A successful auction was held by the Club in April '82, due to the efforts of Coordinator Jerry Herman/N3BDW,  Auctioneer Howard Miller/KA3ERP and more than 37 members and XYLs who helped them. 

New Repeater Controller
The much-discussed and anticipated new 2-meter RC-850 repeater controller with all its bells and whistles went on line mid-year,  Through the efforts of Club Member John Williams/K8JW, who had a hand in its design, and with help from Ron Nord/N3AKP and Harry Suit/N3DE, AARC could boast of having a controller that was one of two of its kind in the entire country. The other one was in California.  In July, Club members voted to make the new emergency autopatch available to all local hams.  Shortly thereafter, after much discussion regarding procedures and cost to members, the regular autopatch was activated.