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ARRL Products: Space/Satellites(More)
SETICon 02, Proceedings of--2002 -- Proceedings of the second SETI League Technical Symposium. April 26-28, 2002. Ewing, NJ.
SETICon 03, Proceedings of--2003 -- Proceedings of the third SETI League Technical Symposium. April 25-27, 2003. Ewing, New Jersey.
Weather Satellite Handbook -- Explore weather satellites and see your world from a different point of view!
The ARRL Image Communications Handbook -- Use Amateur Radio to see and talk with other hams! Enjoy the imaging modes: NBTV, ATV, SSTV and WEFAX.
AMSAT 20th Space Symposium--2002 -- Proceedings of the AMSAT-NA 20th Space Symposium and AMSAT-NA Annual Meeting. November 7-11, 2002. Fort Worth, TX.
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Tips For ARRL Field Day and New Hams
Hopefully you have had some
responses to your invitations to Field Day and are getting ready to greet the
new hams that come to operate. As you
know, this is a great opportunity to introduce new hams to the various operating
modes and also the many pieces of equipment that are out there. We hope that these tips help make your Field
Day a successful one and that you turn your new hams into new friends and
active club members.
In addition to the standard SSB
and CW stations, some of your FD stations may include a satellite station or a
packet station or HF digital station.
You should be prepared to answer questions on these operating modes and
it may even be beneficial to have a short description prepared to hand out to
the new hams or even the interested public.
Make these descriptions non-technical and use diagrams or pictures to
make it easy to understand.
Example:
"For
communications via satellite we transmit a signal on one frequency, this is called the uplink, and we receive
the satellite's signal on another frequency
called the downlink.
We
use two separate antennas to do this. Sometimes
we even use two separate radios
but today's modern radios have the ability to operate both the transmit and the receive frequencies."
The point is to make things simple and to entice the
person to want to pursue that activity if they wish. Notice that we didn't mention UHF, VHF, baud rate, Doppler effect,
flux capacitor, etc. Be prepared to
answer some questions but more so, be prepared to direct the new ham to a
mentor and other sources of information.
An old proverb says that a smart person does not know all the answers
but knows where to find them.
Here are some other suggestions
to make your Field Day event a fun and successful one.
- Have some "Y" plugs for headphones so that an
experienced operator can copy along with the new ham. This is a good idea for both CW and SSB
operating.
- Don't be afraid to ask the sending stations to slow
down. Field Day is not a contest.
- Make it a point to show that a simple wire antenna
can allow you to communicate all over the world.
- What the heck are all these knobs? Good question. How about a simplified chart that shows
the BASIC controls on the radio and what they do? I'm glad you asked. We have one for download (95,920 bytes, PDF file).
- If you are running a large multi station Field Day
event you may want to give a tour around the site to visitors. Make sure that give recognition to your
support staff.
- Have plenty of food and drinks on hand and offer
some to your guests. Showcase your
club's hospitality.
- Have a prepared information pack that explains what
you are doing. Keep it
simple. Include club meeting and
contact information and an application for membership.
- Give a Field Day pin to anyone that operates your
GOTA station.
Field Day is an excellent way to
provide hands on Elmering with guaranteed QSOs. Your club could use the GOTA (Get On The Air) station for new
hams to sit with an experienced op and make some QSOs. Keep this station simple as far as controls
are concerned and put it on an active band.
Remember that Field Day is not a
contest in that there are no winners or losers, but an operating event designed
to sharpen our communicating skills. Go
out and have FUN.
73
Page last modified: 01:08 PM, 17 Jun 2004 ET
Page author: webmaster@arrl.org
Copyright © 2004, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.