Girl Power

It is with great pleasure that I can announce another Radio Amateur is about to take to the air after sitting her Foundation licence at Mold and District Amateur Radio Club. Congratulations to Samantha Baker XYL of Mark 2W0CCK. I will publish her callsign here when I get it. Thanks to Keith GW0OKT and the rest of the team particularly for going out in thick snow on icy roads in temperatures of minus seven centigrade to get the test done before Christmas. Lets hope Santa brings this young lady just what she wants for Christmas, she deserves it not only for all the work she has put in but for shivering her way through the exam in double quick time and still getting an excellent pass.

Unfortunately another YL candidate never made it due to the poor driving conditions, but hopefully we will sort out a resit early in the new year. Meanwhile we have our Advanced Course due to start on the 19 January 2011 and it looks like we have plenty of candidates lined up for that.

Personally I would like to see a lot more ladies taking up the hobby.When I was first licensed there were a number of very competent YL operators around here. Some of whom had done some 'hush hush' type things with the military and could knock the spots off even the best CW operators. Oh course on CW the guys did not know they were talking to a YL. On phone they knew their stuff too and were always keen to help the newbies. It was a lady operator that first took the time to try to teach my wife and I Morse code, unfortunately her husband took ill and it was impossible to continue. These days around here we are getting more and more ladies taking up the hobby. The majority seem to be married to Summits on the Air activators and have probably decided they have had enough of just logging or walking up mountains and sitting around waiting for an hour while hubby makes his contacts and might as well have ago themselves. It seems strange that the girls who love to talk for hours on the telephone don't get in to the hobby, they should. It is also strange that when the YLs get together on the air the conversation is not about knitting or cooking as one might expect but the more normal stuff for ham radio and that you are more likely to find it is the guys who will tell you all about the cat's trip to the vets. I do feel for the girls sometimes as when one calls CQ it can be like flies around a honey pot and I can just visualise the slavering perverts in their dirty macs, but hey it sure fills the log up quick and on a SOTA activation or in a contest a pile up is what you want.