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bumfuzzle[ buhm-fuhz-uh l ]
verb (used with object), bum·fuz·zled, bum·fuz·zling. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S.
– to confuse or fluster.

Origin of Bumfuzzle

1900–05; bum- (expressive prefix, perhaps to be identified with the initial syllable of bamboozle) + fuzzle to confuse (perhaps expressive alteration of fuddle)

This is how I would characterize my reaction to this item appearing on the ARRL website on January 19, 2020. Just confused and flustered:

My own belief was that CEO Howard Michel WB2ITX was doing a necessary and deliberate job in changing the operational focus of the League’s office and services. The main goal as he stated publicly was to increase the value of League membership. He was a very successful CEO of the much, much larger and more complex association, IEEE.

As a Presenter on the ICQ Podcast, I’ve had the opportunity to regularly interview Howard after each Board meeting of the ARRL so as to get our listeners updated on Board actions that had occurred and were being rolled out. I put him on the spot each time, asking what he had done to increase the value of membership. He always responded with an articulate set of accomplishments and plans. As a Life Member of the League, I thought he was doing a great job, especially walking into an opening where his predecessor was ousted after only a couple of years, amidst much rancor and consternation by members and non-members alike. So I’m bumfuzzled.

League officials, including the just re-elected President, have stated that it’s a personnel matter so there is no public comment. Others engage in conjecture, based upon the nefarious “I heard…” source of information that always occurs in the absence of factual source-based statements. I’ve heard a lot, too. And from a wide range of sources. But not much that is public.

The recent emergence of a “backlash group,” coming on the heels of the previous CEO hiring, censure of a Board member, and the attempted change of officers getting a vote on matters in addition to the long-standing votes of Board members, has pressed for greater openness in League business. This group stated that transparency in League actions is paramount. The myARRLvoice group states the following on it’s web-page:

This group had a couple of supporters get elected to the Board in a recent election. We will see how these two Directors, especially, act to publicly announce how they voted regarding election of the CEO Howard Michel WB2ITX. It’s on the “I heard…” rumor mill that the vote was 9-6 to not re-elect Michel. How did each Board member vote? I asked my Director, David Norris K5UZ, how he voted. Note: I serve as one of his appointed Assistant Directors. He told me that he voted to retain Howard and thought he was doing a fine job. So that is one vote now made public.

How did your Division Director vote? If you don’t know, ask them! And why? Did they take your views into account in the run-up to this Board meeting? They are your voice on the ARRL Board, if you’re a member of the League.

Channeling his inner Jerry Lee Lewis, George Thomas W5JDX set his dual-band rig on fire at the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association on Tuesday evening. All for demonstrating DIY Projects with Arduino and Raspberry Pi. Not everyone is aware that W5JDX is an accomplished musician. George brought the house down, to say the least, with this Arduino Grand Finale. But let me explain.

The only fire involved was W5JDX using a lighter to dramatically raise the temperature of a heat sensor attached to an Arduino. But, the voice chip in an Arduino “hat” very audibly announced: “Your rig is on fire!“. All done in the fine instructional style that led the Dayton Amateur Radio Association to give him a Special Achievement Award in 2013 for his tutorials on AmateurLogic.TV and the Smoke & Solder segment on Ham Nation.

The presentation was exceptionally well received. We were fortunate to snag George for a talk since he’s very, very busy. Not only with AmateurLogic.TV, the very first video podcast in the world of any genre, but the highly popular Smoke & Solder segment on Ham Nation, but as an RF Engineer for a chain of radio stations in Central Mississippi. This talk was streamed via Facebook Live at the club’s page there. For followers of AmateurLogic.TV, one may recall a mishap that a former podcast member, Jim Burrell (N5SPE), had with a propane torch. Jim has taken much grief over that episode for years. Hmm. I guess that Jim now has good company, with George’s rig “on fire!”

Here’s my produced version of George’s talk, shown below. The brightness of the projection screen’s reflection made my HD camera go darker than I’d have liked. I’ll remember that and move it to the side to avoid that next time. The Facebook Live stream was just to my right and didn’t suffer this situation.

January 11, 2020. (Brandon, MS): For Immediate Release

Information Contact: Frank Howell K4FMH [email protected]

A fan favorite from the internationally known video podcast, Ham Nation, kicks off the 2020 programs for the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Club. “We are delighted to have George Thomas W5JDX, star of the Solder Smoke segment on Ham Nation and founder of AmateurLogic.tv, give our first presentation on January 14, 2020,” said Frank Howell K4FMH, Vice President for Programming. Ham Nation Founder Bob Heil K9EID says that Smoke & Solder is by far the most popular segment of the show according to email and other feedback. George’s topic will be, “DIY Projects Using Arduino and Raspberry Pi,” beginning at 7:00pm at the Rankin County Extension Service and EOC Building. CMSARA President Quinton Frasier KW5TON added, “I’m excited to see George W5JDX in person this month at our meeting. It’s unusual that we could get him to give a live talk since he’s so busy with Ham Nation, Amateur Logic TV, and his day job of RF Engineer for many radio stations in the Central Mississippi area.”

George W5JDX is only the first well known ham to headline this year’s program agenda, added Frank K4FMH. “We will follow George with the prolific author, broadcaster, and ham radio operator Don Keith N4KC in February.” Don’s recent book, Firing Point, was made into a very popular movie, Hunter Killer, with others on the way. He is a prolific author of books about shortwave and amateur radio, one of which is The Amateur Radio Dictionary: The Most Complete Glossary of Ham Radio Terms Ever Compiled. Don’s February presentation via Skype will be on Ham Radio Lingo. Our year will backend with Rob Sherwood NC0B, producer of the Holy Grail of receiver measurement ratings, the Sherwood Tables. Rob’s talk, also via Skype, is titled, “How to Use My Tables.” These are very well-known amateur radio operators but we have much more during the year planned for presentations.

“We wanted to blend some well-known ham speakers that we do not regularly get to experience in a club setting with informative topics from both our own members and other area hams,” Frank K4FMH said. “I think we’ve done that.” Topics and speakers include operations on six meters (Mike Duke K5XU), WSPR (J.D. Toony K5HH), APRS (Mike McKay APRS), and digital modes on HF (Eddie Pettis N5JGK and Carolyn Irons KJ5RC). We will also cover preparing for contest operations (John Struemph  K1JHS), establishing basic test equipment on your workbench (Tom Brown AE5I) and a festival of pictures of CMSARA member shacks during a program called Shack Night!. Frank K4FMH said, “I’m very pleased to have area hams who are affiliated with the Jackson ARC and the Vicksburg ARC to deliver top flight presentations to our membership and meeting attendees.” The ability to have an interchange of ideas and experiences from area hams is a real benefit to maintaining a vibrant club.

CMSARA welcomes non-members, hams who are visiting the area, and groups from nearby cities to join us at the Rankin County Extension Service auditorium where we have plenty of seating, good audio-visual equipment, and Internet access. We keep the “business” end of our club to a minimum and include a half-hour of pre-program fellowship as well as after the program itself. VE Testing is available every month with the exceptions of June and December due to Field Day planning and our Christmas Party respectively. The club has periodically had car pools of hams from as far away as the Starkville and Columbus areas attend CMSARA programs.

J.D. Toony K5HH, Vice President of Special Events added, “This will be an exciting year for radio amateurs in the Central Mississippi area. Not only for this month program agenda but for the multiple outings we are planning, a group Field Day, our new involvement with the Girl Scouts program, and a new repeater Net for new hams.” CMSARA welcomes visitors so get a car pool together and come visit us! Our website at http://centralmsham.club has updated information as well as via our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/CMSARA/), e-mail ([email protected]) and telephone (601-345-1654).The Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association is a non-profit 501(c)(3) status Mississippi  corporation serving counties in the Central Mississippi area. We focus on promoting having fun within the hobby and serving our communities through emergency and public service communications. We meet monthly on the second Tuesday at the Rankin County Extension Service / EOC Building, 601 Marquette Road, Brandon, MS 39042. Contact us at 601-345-1654 or at [email protected] for additional information. Any program changes will be communicated via the club website and Facebook page.

A few months ago, I challenged the ARRL’s new mission to serve members in a more effective way by bringing “value” to members. I suggested that one quick “win” would be to stop selling through Amazon (at a 55% discount) and use that money-per-book to fund “free shipping” for members who purchase books. Many readers just didn’t read beyond the title of “free shipping” before raining down the it-will-just-be-passed-along-to-members rhetoric. This does not understand that the League would make a greater profit margin by selling at the 100% retail price (even with whatever discount the member may receive by being a Certified Instructor, etc.), charging no shipping, and still recouping a higher profit than the automatic 55% “loss” through the standard wholesale discount.

In one of my interviews with Howard Michel ARRL CEO on the ICQ Podcast, he said he ran the numbers and that it wouldn’t work out. I did not directly challenge him on that issue since it’s clearly his call. My thought was that it was a pure and simple strategy to demonstrate his new vision of “increasing value.” But enough with my recommendations, already!

However, perhaps it’s just me, but has the ARRL increased their free or discounted shipping stance in marketing publications? Like other League members, I’m sure, I received the above coupon code for Cyber Monday (after Thanksgiving). It’s FREE SHIPPING on $50 or more. That’s an incentive, especially with the new Handbook out and discounted temporarily at $40. So, I thought I’d grab another discounted book to reach $50 or more and get a FREE SHIPPING discount. On my daily driver desktop, I run Linux Mint on a Dell T-5500 8-core CPU with 72GB of RAM and a gigbit Internet service via ethernet to my commercial class switch. I rarely ever have buffering of websites from my end. Ever. But, boy, did I on this Cyber Monday order at ARRL.org! It took several HOURS for me to get the order through to checkout. I tried several different machines, in addition, just to ensure it wasn’t on my end. It wasn’t as I did a network speed operation test on getting packets to and from the ARRL.org server. It was on that end…because, no doubt, there was a boatload of customers ordering. So that’s the point of marketing offers, no? And I’m very happy to see evidence of it drawing a crowd at the virtual checkout page at the League’s website.

And, here are several more adverts e-mailed to members, all with $5 discounted shipping. So, has the ARRL been rolling out a version of this “free shipping” strategy? Well, only some offers reflect actually free shipping but a cap at $5 shipping is also a winning offer, too. I’m delighted at this marketing move by ARRL Product Development Manager Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R. Keep it up, Bob! This increases value to members who receive the code coupons.

The line-up of speakers for the Wes Schum W9DYV Radio Symposium at the St. Louis area Winterfest 2020 has now been finalized. Nick Tusa K5EF, coordinator for the Symposium, was pleased to announce that long-time boat anchor operator and aficionado Lynn Fisk, K5LYN is the final speaker.

Lynn Fisk grew up in the Texas Panhandle in the 1950s/early 1960s and enjoyed playing with radios since an early age. Amateur radio has been his life-long passion after earning his General Class ticket at age 15. Lynn was drawn to the early Central Electronics exciters developed and sold by Wes Schum W9DYV that were on the air everywhere in those days. However, he had to grow up, go to college and become a professional in Latin America History first! He eventually moved into the healthcare industry, later retired from the State of Texas in 1997 and resides in Austin, Texas.

Since retirement, Lynn has been a full-time restorer of vintage radio equipment and avid homebrewer. His more recent projects have included the design of transceiver adapters for 9MHz phasing exciters and the construction of medium-power linear amplifiers.

Lynn is extremely active in the vintage radio community while serving as one of the net control stations for both the Boatanchors Unlimited and Vintage Sideband HF nets. His nets are quite lively and often start off with a short description of how the early days of single sideband progressed in the 1950s-70s.

Nick Tusa said, “The Symposium is enhanced significantly by Lynn’s agreement to speak in the final slot on the program. His long background and standing in the ‘boat anchor’ community will supplement what our other fine speakers contribute to this year’s program at Winterfest 2020.”

K5EF also has a lengthy history with Wes Schum’s SSB and Central Electronics equipment. Nick started his adventure into Amateur Radio in 1963 as a novice class attendee at the Jefferson Amateur Radio Club. First licensed as WN5NID and later WA5RMC, Nick’s interest in Ham Radio led to an Electrical Engineering degree from Tulane University and a 40-year career in Radio/Microwave system engineering. K5EF also has a lengthy history with Wes Schum’s SSB and Central Electronics equipment. Nick started his adventure into Amateur Radio in 1963 as a novice class attendee at the Jefferson Amateur Radio Club. First licensed as WN5NID and later WA5RMC, Nick’s interest in Ham Radio led to an Electrical Engineering degree from Tulane University and a 40-year career in Radio/Microwave system engineering.

A life-long resident of the New Orleans area, Tusa Consulting Services – the firm he founded – has developed and implemented numerous public safety conventional and trunked analog and digital voice/paging radio systems throughout the US. Nick’s hobby interests – aside from Triumph sports cars – include antenna system design, homebrewing of HF equipment of all types, and the restoration of vintage radio gear (Collins, Central Electronics and TMC) and mechanical Teletype equipment.

All in all, this year’s W9DYV Symposium could be the best one yet! See videos from last year’s speakers for a flavor of the event held then in Slidell, LA. Make you plans now as this is a growing hamfest sponsored by the St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club.