+ AA6YQ comments below

One minor nitpick. The RF Gain control is there for a reason. Old timers will tell you to set the AF gain at a comfortable level, and reduce the RF Gain until the noise goes away, but the signal is audible. Or, you set the AF at 10 and use the RFGain to adjust the volume. This is most useful when there is a lot of thunderstorm crackles on the signal.

+ Bill K0RGR's above response to the "Frustrated HF User, Advice Wanted Please" thread is an example of information that could be harvested for insertion into the Knowledge Base (KB).

+ Who would do that? A member of the volunteer KB team responsible for "Using Your Transceiver".

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

Dave,

I think you would need to have a core team of experienced hams tasked with the function of the initial content system. Having a single person responsible for a specific area may not be feasible. Many people initially volunteer with all good intentions but then life gets in the way, schedules change, etc. Unfortunately so many people are not forthcoming in their lifestyle changes and are reluctant to step away from a position because in their minds they think the change is only going to be short lived.

This happens all of the time across the board in volunteer run organizations and would not be unique in this type of situation. The ARRL is a good membership based organization but it lacks a true understanding of volunteer management. I am not classifying this as a fault or assigning blame. It is merely a minor weakness that would appear in a pragmatic SWOT analysis.

With that being said, to develop a KB system as being discussed it would need:

1. A core development team that would transition to an administrative team once the system is built.
2. A team of content management volunteers who would be responsible for reviewing the content, removing redundant information and insuring the content is presented in a simplified manner for the new ham to better understand.
3. A team of local level mentors to provide in-person or hands on support to the new ham. Not all people can learn by simply reading, some need to be shown.

 

One thing I would add to this system is a periodic e-mail that would be sent out (monthly) covering a specific activity, feature or function. This could be called a "knowledge bomb". Some examples would be; how to manually program a repeater frequency in an XYZ hand-held radio, How to build a basic go-kit, How to get involved in Emergency Communications, etc.

 

If the ARRL is interested in exploring a project such as this, I am more than happy to assist where I can as I think this is a good idea and would be of benefit to the amateur radio community as a whole.

 

73
Jess - W9ABS

w9abs@...

+ AA6YQ comments below

I think you would need to have a core team of experienced hams tasked with the function of the initial content system. Having a single person responsible for a specific area may not be feasible. Many people initially volunteer with all good intentions but then life gets in the way, schedules change, etc. Unfortunately so many people are not forthcoming in their lifestyle changes and are reluctant to step away from a position because in their minds they think the change is only going to be short lived.

+ Agreed.

This happens all of the time across the board in volunteer run organizations and would not be unique in this type of situation. The ARRL is a good membership based organization but it lacks a true understanding of volunteer management. I am not classifying this as a fault or assigning blame. It is merely a minor weakness that would appear in a pragmatic SWOT analysis.


With that being said, to develop a KB system as being discussed it would need:

1. A core development team that would transition to an administrative team once the system is built.

+ Amateur radio and "wireless technologies" are so dynamic that the core team may always be required to maintain conceptual integrity as the information architecture expands

2. A team of content management volunteers who would be responsible for reviewing the content, removing redundant information and insuring the content is presented in a simplified manner for the new ham to better understand.

+ I agree that curation can accomplished by volunteers, ideally in teams that focus on assigned topics within the information architecture ("using your transceiver", "HF propagation", "mesh networks", "contesting", "microwave communication", "constructing electronic circuits", "wire antennas", "emergency communications", "controlling drones", etc.)

3. A team of local level mentors to provide in-person or hands on support to the new ham. Not all people can learn by simply reading, some need to be shown.

+ Absolutely, but complemented by "remote mentors" for situations where local mentors are not available.


One thing I would add to this system is a periodic e-mail that would be sent out (monthly) covering a specific activity, feature or function. This could be called a "knowledge bomb". Some examples would be; how to manually program a repeater frequency in an XYZ hand-held radio, How to build a basic go-kit, How to get involved in Emergency Communications, etc.

+ Readers should have the option to subscribe to specific topics and receive email notifications of new additions -- daily, weekly, or monthly.


If the ARRL is interested in exploring a project such as this, I am more than happy to assist where I can as I think this is a good idea and would be of benefit to the amateur radio community as a whole.

+ I don't speak for the ARRL, but competent, motivated volunteers are what would power this effort; the ARRL's role would primarily be orchestration -- organizing and guiding the effort, and ensuring overall conceptual integrity.

73,

Dave, AA6YQ

Dave,

In reference to
"....... the ARRL's role would primarily be orchestration -- organizing and guiding the effort, and ensuring overall conceptual integrity."

You would also need to add the infrastructure to this list. The ARRL would need to provide the hosting platform (Server) and would need to allow the developers access to server level functions. This is something I do not think the ARRL would be willing to do. Not so much from a control situation but rather from a lack of technical understanding in regards to what is needed for OTW database development and administration. I am pretty confident as soon as someone says

"I need access to the server so I can create a cron job to pull the data files from the FCC ULS to use that as a basis for user end-user authentication" 

At that point you start to lose most wordpress administrators and all that the business minded people who do not have the technical skills hear is "need access to the server". I don't necessarily fault them for this. I too would be reluctant to provide access to a server to someone that I was not 100% confident in their abilities.

As an alternative, the ARRL could provide a separate Server totally isolated from the current arrl.org domain. Total cost would be less than $500 per year.

 

Since you mentioned that you do not speak from the ARRL Dave, I would be interested in hearing from someone in the ARRL to see if this seems like a viable project worthy of further discussion or is this conversation purely academic on our part?

Jess - W9ABS