Vol 10 No 7

July 2012

In this issue:

· Field Day Results

· Colorado Fire Link

· PSAs Available

· Webinar on Video

· The Last Work – plans for future

Field Day Results

You have often heard the admonition “Read the fine print.” Well, I have 60 pages of small print just listing the hyperlinks to hundreds and hundreds of articles and stories about Amateur Radio that came out in June. Most are Field Day related and it is obvious that the PIOs and groups were very active in the PR role this year. While not as heavy in TV coverage as last year, we more than compensated in increased print and broadcast radio activity.

Now is the time to follow up on those media contacts and be sure to follow up with any visitors you had to your site. Don’t let it grow cold.

“Ya dun gud”

Hams and the Colorado Fires

ARRL HQ has not said much about the fires in Colorado because we do not want the hams there to be bothered by self-deploying “wannabe’s.” But we are in contact with the Colorado hams and if they need anything they know we will make it happen. Meanwhile, they are tired but doing fine and have the resources they need. (Some of them are both hams and trained firefighters – they know what they are doing!)

If you want to follow some of the activity there, Jack Ciaccia, WMØG, has made available the link to the APRS they are using.

http://aprs.fi/#!addr=Colorado%20Springs%2C%20CO

Reminder – 30 sec PSAs available

General promotional 30 second video PSA’s are available for viewing or download at http://www.arrl.org/video-psas or below BUT.... for the broadcast quality files go to http://p1k.arrl.org/pub/pr/

Ham Video Webinar

Professional videographers and editors shared tips and “how to” ideas for creating Amateur Radio related video in a webinar done by the Public Relations Committee. It was recorded and is now available at:

http://p1k.arrl.org/pub/pr/Info%20and%20Training%20for%20PIO/WEBINARS/

The Last Word

So much of our focus has been on the preparations and execution of Field Day that there is little else to talk about in this issue. But the work of reaching out to others goes on even after June. So here are some things that are in the “thinking stage” - and you might want to develop them yourself.

We all are aware of the rapid growth of Technician Class licensees in the past few years. How can we motivate these new hams to move up to General or even Extra? I believe the answer is in the experience of using HF. The sheer wonder of sitting on your back deck or in your room and suddenly talking across a couple of continents is what brings many people into becoming Dx fans and higher licenses.

One resource that can be helpful is the “Quick Start Guide” which ARRL mails out to every new Technician. These are 46+ page books and not available for order or download, but you should be able to get a new ham to lend you their copy. The latest version is expected to come out early September.

You may remember the movie “Field of Dreams” where one of the messages sent was “Go the distance” to encourage the completion of the project. I think something can be done playing with those three words. But it will take encouragement and experienced hams to help the new people out. Having a club session on making a simple 10m dipoles and actually working 28.3 to 28.5 MHz (Technicians can do that) would get them started.

In the meantime I will be working on a parallel idea, but I want to see what you can do with “Go the distance” as a concept. We have a lot of creative people out there and I can see brochures, power points, video and more on that theme.

Another future event will be the ARRL Centennial in 2014. There has been a lot of head scratching behind the scenes and President Craigie has worked with the ODV and staff to condense many theme ideas into a short list. Soon these options will be presented to the membership for voting as the 2014 theme/slogan. Your experiences and serious thought as PIOs will be valuable in local discussions on these options as people vote. Keep an eye out for this.

I hope you have a wonderful summer and enjoy the propagation! We’ve waited many years for this – well, most of us have. Use it and have fun.

Allen Pitts, w1agp