Roy,
First, your apology is noted and accepted. Second, forgive me, but I never told you I wanted to operate PSK. I did say I was less fond of RTTY, but digital is digital. I agree with Ron’s sense that PSK is getting a bum rap. RTTY is slightly wider and may be run at much higher power, whereas running PSK over 50W is often self-defeating because of distortion issues. (Besides, RTTY simply reminds me audibly of cow bells, but whatever. J) Half of my QSOs this year were in RTTY so I’m baffled about why you thought I would only operate PSK. In fact, this may point out another aspect of FD that you're still learning. The BVARC FD event has to be very much a cooperative effort so coordination is absolutely necessary, and the chairman is the BSIC. That means lowly operators like me aren’t guaranteed that we’ll operate our favorite bands and modes; we’re volunteering to help that cooperative effort, and that can mean operating where and how we’re instructed to in order to insure the overall plan is executed. At least that’s how I approach it. Yes, my FD activities do require a nontrivial amount of effort to deliver me to the site, pick me up the next morning, and then follow a modified schedule Sunday to get things back to normal by Monday. But Roy, I don’t think you realize that everything I do necessitates some degree of purposeful effort, that’s what I pay my employees to do. When I told you before FD that my attending would require additional effort, I also said that I was making you aware so that you would try to use my time there to the best benefit. Do you remember that? Judging from last year, 60 days should be plenty of time for BVARC to plan for FD. Yet, I noticed that some preparatory steps seemed absent this year. For example, what happened to the FD kick-off meeting at Fuddrucker’s at the start of the process? That’s where the planned participants met to decide what would be needed, and who would bring what. Preparatory communication also seemed to be really negligible this time. I know the event was still fun, but I gather that some things were lacking. Scott From: Roy Storey [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2014 14:14 To: Travis Burgess; Scott Royall Cc: BRAZOS VALLEY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Subject: My Side Of The Hurt Feelings Controversy First, I want to apologize to the two gentlemen that are at the center of this "Flame War" that occupies so much time on this reflector. I and the individuals involved, have the only first hand knowledge of the facts. It was my decisions that created the situations that I will explain below. I would like for it to be understood that in my defense, when I took on this job, I knew nothing. Everything was "On The Job Training" and I had only 60 days to put it together. I knew that mistakes would be made in some of my decisions and I would receive some flack for making them. So, to settle the matter, here are the facts about the two incidents in which I was involved. As this controversy applies to Scott Royall: After the Field Day Committee had been formed, discussions about what modes we would operate were held. It was decided that we would have two RTTY stations, three CW and three Phone. The subject of using PSK was strongly advised against since prior experience told of interference to other stations on the field. Scott contacted me via email about bringing his station. He explained in great detail about how difficult it would be for him to do this without a person to dismantle and reassemble his station. Also the disruption of his caregivers lives. I knew that Scott wanted to use PSK, but we were not going to have that mode this year and I knew that this would be a great disappointment to Scott. I replied to Scott in an email. I told him how much I respected his abilities in spite of his physical limitations (I really do). I told him I knew that this decision would be a disappointment to him, but to not let it get him down. I suggested to him to operate from home on Field Day and I understand that's exactly what he did. Unfortunately, Scott continues to complain by using using this reflector to reveal, what I perceive as a childish attempt at retribution against me and BVARC. Scott, directly to you. I am truly sorry for the actions taken by me that caused you so much hurt. You should hold me responsible and not the club. It was my decision. I made it and I have to stand behind it. As this controversy applies to Travis Burgess: Travis, this was a terrible screw-up that I made. I want you to understand how sorry I am and would give anything if it hadn't happened. Some background: As we were trying to gather radios and equipment, Travis volunteered two radios. He later changed his mind and offered one. He then decided he would provide a stand alone station. All the emails sent to me by Travis, I Replied to. As FD got closer, I sent several emails to Travis and he did not reply. There was also communication between Travis and Mike Davidson (Operations) so I didn't worry about a no reply from Travis. About a week before Field Day, I sent Travis an email explaining we would not need his station after all and not to bring it. I got no reply but thought nothing of it since he seemed to never reply to me anyway. I went about my business and forgot about the no reply from Travis. Friday afternoon, I delivered to the field some antenna poles that belonged to Travis that I had stored at my home since last year. I went home from the field late Friday and something triggered my brain to make sure Travis understood about his station. I sent off an email to him and went to bed. Saturday morning, I was shocked to find a rejected notice in my inbox stating there was no mailbox for the email sent to Travis. I checked my address book and sure enough, I had his address wrong. Why didn't his ISP reject my other emails? Too late to do anything now so I went to the field. Shortly after I arrived at the field, Travis came in with a smile and raring to go. I was the one that had to give him the news about his station. Travis just looked at me with no expression on his face and said "I'm going home". If you know Travis like I do, you know he hides his true feelings behind a mask of no expression. This makes it hard to know if he is serious or not. Anyway, I found out later that he, in fact, had gone home. In case you don't know, Travis is an excellent photographer and the clubs official one. Fortunately, other cameras were available but we did miss Travis. I was disappointed he had abandoned his post. So there you have it. My firsthand accounting of the events that set this fire storm in motion. I want to once again apologise to both of you and to the members of BVARC. As to who is right and who is wrong, I leave it up to the reader. As the Chairman of the Field Day Committee, I had to make some hard decisions. I stand by my actions. Please give some thought to what I just said and let's put this matter to bed. Respectfully, 73 -- Roy Storey W5TKZ Chairman, 2014 Field Day Committee
_______________________________________________ BVARC mailing list [email protected] http://mail.bvarc.org/mailman/listinfo/bvarc_bvarc.org
