Springbok Chapter seal changes

[W4ZYD]

Hello Everyone,

SCI is considering doing away with non collectable seals, and moving to a solution that allows the member to still receive the award and on air points, but stop the inflating of lists, and less work for all concerned.

The Flower, Mineral, Tree, Bird, Animal, Big Five, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontain, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town, will remain in place. They ARE collectable for awards and therefore will remain that way. The removals would include Cheetah, KC4RHW, etc, that are not currently being used in any manner, and are only for show. These seals are not part of K4HAV's Ten Ten program as they are not "collectable". Members completing sections would still receive on air points and the certificates, either in paper, or electronic, just no longer with seal numbers to put on brag sheet.

Any comments to this change are welcome.

73,
Mike W4ZYD

[KC4TVZ]

Mike,
I would like to recieve Electronic (Email attachements) for all the following certificates.
If some of them are going to be not available, thats fine but I definate would like to
be emailed the Main Springbok Cerificate as I never sent in for one when I first joined.

Springbok 778IQ
Springbok_AS 682
Springbok_BF 657
Springbok_BS 795
Springbok_FS 1039
Springbok_MS 873
Springbok_TS 736
Springbok_Pretoria 214
Springbok_Johannesburg 204
Springbok_Bolemfontein 121
Springbok_Durban 103
Springbok_Port Elizabeth 122
Springbok_Cape Town 121
Springbok_Cheetah 70
Springbok_KC4RHW 74
Springbok_Bar 20
Springbok_OM-XYL 266
Springbok_Rainbow Award 274

73 KC4TVZ Todd 10-10# 60783 VP 3297

[KC4TVZ]

Mike,
I forgot to tell you , JPG Certifcates would be better, as PDF files remind me to much of Government documents, .

73 KC4TVZ Todd

[W4ZYD]

Todd,

The main cert is still a work in progress. It was a crazy size, that does not carry over well to image, or PDF.

I don't understand the aversion to PDF though, please explain. Other than being a standard across all computers for
printing purposes, I don't get the Mulder/Sculley reference?

73,
Mike W4ZYD

[KC4TVZ]

Mike,
I think you just told me you cannot email the main Certificate ? How many Megabytes is it ?

To explain why I don't like PDF files, other than they remind me of government documents. I only have Adobe Acrobat Reader that I have neglected to update and since it is a read only type program, I just don't like never ending update , update, update , and more update stuff. As far as PDF files being standard on all computers. I have had two compters and had problems with it on both. However JPG files have always been a favorite of mine and seemed to be standard on both machines I have owned.

The Cypress Chapter sent a nice JPG Certificate that was just over 4megabytes, have you seen it ?

73 KC4TVZ Todd

[W4ZYD]

Hey Todd,

Yes PDF is non editable, for a good reason I think on chapters. It does remind me of military for a matter, but in this case, it does exactly what it is supposed to . The MAIN reason for using PDF vs JPEG, is no matter what computer you are on, if PDF can be displayed, it prints exactly as the originator designed it to be. No worry about margins, etc. It is auto adjusting for printing. I've done everything from images to word documents, and nothing beats PDF for the printing. JPEG are pretty, and if done correctly can move down to a reasonable size. But it will never beat the clarity of a well worked PDF doc. So your concerns are duly noted, but for the majority, SCI will still keep PDF running. I may try to help you specifically in this area, but for most there is no choice. PDF files run to 256k's, vs's a JPEG's 4 megs, and I am still on dial up? HI HI. Have to go with lesser of evils.

Mike,
W4ZYD

[W4ZYD]

While speaking on the subject,

Yes SCI did put in a never ending update, in the manner of the SCI Master. After everything is worked, members need a small reason to keep SCI running, and this was the solution. If you want to upgrade to the end and never remember the chapter, that is a bad thing. We have also put in place other measures to allow points to be gained after all is done. Read the http://www.springboknet.com/SCIFiles/newpoints.asp . I totally disagree that a never ending program serves no purpose. So long as it is tastefully represented, it serves very well in keeping members active in a club. The DE stations have taken to it very well, and with their ground wave propagation, I say this is a very good sign. Please reconsider, Todd.

Mike,
W4ZYD

[KC4TVZ]

Still have dial-up here, just cannot justify paying more than $5 a month for Internet service since email is all I ever do. I have no reason to edit any certificate other than, resize them to paste on my QRZ website. I have been trying to post all my chapter certificates along with a few other important ones on QRZ, but noticed I didn't even have a SCI certificate from when I joined. SCI was the very first chapter I ever joined back in 1995 when KE4CRU(SK) signed me up. It wasn't until after 2002 when I started upgrading SCI because I got this wonderful program called Win1010. It is my lifeline to paperchasing and it is a task keeping it updated, so I really don't have the time to update any other programs. Forget SCI, NO WAY, I still invite folks to join SCI often. Some who join here lately have been KU4XO, KI4SYV, and KI4HPX. I even invited a few others this month to join SCI , but they didn't join because of a $5 fee associated with joining. I think that maybe something new because I didn't have to pay $5 to join in 1995. Anyway getting back to the PDF vs. JPG thing. I just remembered I recently downloaded a program that will convert PDF to JPG. So I do have that capability, theres always more than one way to skin a cat, but it makes the file kinda blurry, so I would just like to have the original JPG if possible. One day I'm sure I will have to get a better version of Adobe Acrobat, but am putting it off until its a must. Now maybe that time but I really don't have the time to deal with that until next winter.

73 KC4TVZ Todd