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 Previous: Surfin': Four-Color Ham Radio -- Part 2 |  Next: QRP Community: Build a Construction Station |
By Mark Persons, W0MH
August 24, 2003
While many hams and Amateur Radio clubs have a presence in cyberspace, there are several facets of Web page building that can make or break a site.
Every ham club, in my opinion, should have a Web page. Most do, but many fall short in providing real information to visitors. Think of a Web site as a club meeting where visitors show up to find out more about the club and the hobby of ham radio. That visitor might be favorably impressed enough to join the club, or might leave wondering why you wasted his or her time. Our local club Web site gets about 20 hits per day, over 600 per month. Even large club gatherings can't equal that level of interaction.
In 1997, when writing my first Web page for the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio Club in Brainerd, Minnesota, I added a lot of animated images and a CW ID to the index page. Soon, there was so much information that it had to be split into two pages just to greet the visitor. In essence, it was a confusing mess. If you are proud of your club, you should be proud of its Web site. Don't wait any longer to make your club Web site the best that it can be. I've learned a few things about effective Web design since then, and would like to offer some tips toward a better ham radio Web site.
· Less is Better
Rather than have a single opening page that tells the story with about 40 links arranged in such a way that the visitor is overwhelmed with choices, instead I now use three main columns of hyperlinks. One links to information specific to this club, another has links to ham radio in general, and the third has recent news items from club activities. These links can be drop-down or static.
Impressing the visitor with the handiwork of the Webmaster should not be the goal. I am not handy with manipulating graphics, so the Brainerd Web site is not a piece of art. It is a place where visitors can confidently seek and get information.
· The Club Calendar
One of the most important links is the Club Events Calendar. The best calendars have 12 months of the upcoming calendar so members or visitors can accurately plan their schedules. The traditional monthly calendar with squares for each day has a lot of white space and is difficult to read. The best answer is to create a table with two columns. The date and time of every meeting or activity is shown on the left and meeting information is on the right. That sometimes includes a small icon so anyone scanning for a particular type of meeting can find it in a hurry.
· Keep it current
It is extremely important that Web content be kept up to date. Every Webmaster should consider his or her Web site to be an asset or liability to his or her personal reputation. That means keeping the calendar of events current and the list of club officers up to date. Speaking of that, when you see the upcoming events for November, it should list the year too.
· Putting the "Amateur" into the Amateur Radio Web site
Ham clubs do not need professional Webmasters. All they need is someone interested in keeping a site updated and growing the site as needed. If you are a club Webmaster, I recommend you cruise other club Web sites to pick up ideas that are right for you and your club. It is amazing how many good ideas are out there. Here are some good sites to browse: www.ecarc.org and www.rarchams.org.
· Domain names
If your club is serious about a Web site, then I feel it should be serious about a Web address. A good approach is to use your town name followed by ham. In the case at Brainerd, the address is brainerdham.org. It is easy for you to tell people what the Web address is when you have a name like that. Domain name registration can run as little as $13 per year. See: www.pairnic.com or any other domain name registrar. You can get excellent Web server space from www.pair.com or others for as little as $9 per month.
· Nine details to consider
1. Do not use "under construction" signs. It tells Web visitors that you are too lazy to finish that part of a site. Add to the site on a regular basis so the sum of all parts makes a good site.
2. Do not list the "last date updated" on the index page unless you are willing to revisit that page weekly to do more updating.
3. When you put your club name or banner up, be sure to identify the city and state. Adding USA or Canada or Burundi (as appropriate) is good, too. Remember, visitors to your site come from all over the world and don't know your local geography.
4. Do not create pages that take over 30 seconds to load on a 28.8 modem. Most Web visitors are still using dial-up modems.
5. Do not use gaudy colors. Instead, mainstream the site by using a pleasing scheme that the average person would feel comfortable looking at. Keep flashy gimmicks to a minimum.
6. Establish and stick with a screen resolution for the site. 800 x 600 pixels is about right. That means any photos you take should probably be no larger than 300 pixels wide.
7. Do not show pictures of the backsides of people. Compose shots with smiling faces or faces that tell a story. Take a number of photos and throw away the bad ones.
8. The best person to do the club Web site is the same person who does the club newsletter. It makes sense because they are both information resources.
9. Use good software. Microsoft Front Page is an excellent Web authoring tool. It is convenient and is priced right. [For those who do not own FrontPage or a Windows-platform operating system, there is a free, open-source editor/browser for Linux, Mac, Windows and other platforms called Amaya, from the folks who help keep the Web in some semblance of organization, the World Wide Web Consortium.--Ed.]
Mark Persons, W0MH, is a radio broadcast engineer and
was first licensed as a Novice in 1963 who has written numerous articles for
broadcast publications over the years. In
1997, he took over as Webmaster for the Brainerd
Area Amateur Radio Club in Brainerd, Minnesota. "It was an all new frontier
that became a fun and challenging learning experience," Persons said. His
e-mail address is mark@mwpersons.com
and his personal Web site can be found at www.mwpersons.com.
| Previous: Surfin': Four-Color Ham Radio -- Part 2 | Next: QRP Community: Build a Construction Station |
