Amateur Radio

Amateur Radio Tower Safety – Northern Illinois DX Association (NIDXA)

Coronavirus is driving change across everything we do. With it’s April 2020 meeting The Northern Illinois DX Association (NIDXA) went to an online meeting format for the first time in its history. I did the keynote presentation from my home QTH in Massachusetts this past Friday evening April 10, 2020.

We used Zoom, the videoconferencing application that’s taken off in a big way as a result of mandatory social distancing and travel restrictions. As we kicked off the presentation, we took advantage of one of the in-built tools that Zoom offers – polling – to learn a little bit about the audience. Of the nearly 50 participants, we found that all but three – almost 95% – have some kind of regular interaction with amateur radio tower work. Clearly, this was an audience that should care about the topic.

The best indication of whether an online presentation has been successful may be the percent of participants who remain at the end of the talk . . . in this case, we had nearly 100% staying on to the end. It was also a pleasure to receive a few private emails after the meeting expressing appreciation for the information provided. We even got one email asking for an immediate purchase of one of the climbing kits.