-------------------------------------------------------------------69 QNEWS - FEBRUARY 20 VK4 ON AIR 2022 ------------------------------------------------------------* WHY DIDN'T YOUR CLUB TELL QNEWS ABOUT AMATEUR RADIO THIS WEEK? ------------------------------------------------------------* QUEENSLAND (VK4) STATE GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH PORTAL Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest news, key facts and figures, contacts and answers to your questions. tinyurl.com/uddvmx98 ------------------------------------------------------------* THE FOLLOWING NEWS CAN BE HEARD FROM OUR AUDIO SERVICE based in BRISBANE, OLYMPIC CITY 2031, RIGHT NOW:- www.vk7ax.id.au/wianews/ OR www.wiaq.org.au Importantly remember to download from the site by COT (Close of Transmission) Mondays. Also search QNEWS (make sure it IS the Ham Radio QNEWS) in your podcast app.. tinyurl.com/4hnahk8p ------------------------------------------------------------* Hello, I’m Geoff Emery, VK4ZPP, and I’ve been thinking. It seems to me that when we lack all the information that we need to deal with a problem, there is the temptation to let preconceptions intrude and jump to conclusions. Sadly this is often the way a lot of public discourse is conducted and many fingers are pointed and faces flushed red as people try to justify opinions based on ignorance, just blind faith. We take part in a pursuit that is based on the principles of science and how we understand the technology that we use is to apply the questioning and experimentation that is the foundation of radio type communications. We read many splashy articles announcing findings which are going to change the world. The public relations blurb that underpins these so-called press releases is usually based solid research and the findings that it has produced. Even when the scientific paper that officially announces the finding is vetted by others familiar with the area of study, it is not until the experiments and analyses are done over again and again, the work is replicated, and the results are interdependently confirmed that the work becomes part of the official literature of science. Similarly to the physical sciences, other areas of academic research follow the same principles of understanding whether it be later applied in farming, advertising or public health campaigns. The logic of having the best information on which to build seems undeniable but when it comes to running our organisation it gets swept under the table, all too often. It was reading a news item from the ABC, Western Australia, about using a marketing firm to find out how to engage people, in this case the Gen Zeds as they are known, in the volunteer sector of the state that got me considering this. With the loss of people over the years and a sudden disruption and loss of willing people because of the Covid-19 pandemic that provoked the volunteering bodies to engage a marketing company to research and devise approaches that would not only encourage young people to take up volunteering but would hopefully retain them through interest and the self reward that volunteers achieve. www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-16/volunteering-wa-youth-marketing-makeover/100762290 Using the best information available would certainly be seen to work in Western Australia. This brings me around to the Jeremiahs who constantly foretell the death of amateur radio. It is very true that old age is overtaking so many in the community and the numbers aren’t being replenished. Here I am pulling the tiger’s tail by saying we aren’t doing the job of understanding what interests the young people. We don’t have the research and the knowledge to promote AR to a new generation and if it comes to it, we don’t seem to be doing much of a job in recruiting the more mature, either. When this has been raised before, various reasons have been given that these things cost money and there aren’t the funds. Great, so I see that as an admission of defeat before the battle has even been joined. Do we really want to use the information that can be gathered and sorted or do we sit on our hands and watch our numbers shrink? I’m Geoff Emery VK4ZPP and that’s what I think� how about you? ------------------------------------------------------------* QNEWS SOCIALLY SPEAKING REDFEST Saturday April 9 St Michaels College Caboolture (vk4bz) Due to the COVID-19 situation, please check these events' direct for up-to-date status information and even without Covid dates have an uncanny knack of being changed at last moment. ------------------------------------------------------------* TO SUPPLY QNEWS ITEMS:- Send SCRIPT to qnews@wia.org.au send audio to http://www.wia.org.au/members/broadcast/upload/ QNEWS Tips to get MORE out of your weekly newscast on VK4WIA If you would like to submit club news items for inclusion in QNEWS broadcasts, please email your item in text to:- qnews@wia.org.au THEN submit audio:- To submit audio email qnews@wia.org.au Remember the sooner you submit audio material the more the likelihood of it being broadcast in the very next QNEWS. 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