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IN THIS EDITION:

• Field Day Follow-up
• The Contest
• Coming Events
• Huntsville!
• Update on 2007 EmComm Campaign
• Featured Site of the Week
• Emergency-Radio.org stats
• Influencers
• Guerilla PR
• What Box?

Field Day Follow-Up

First of all – a MAJOR “Ya dun gud!” to all the PIOs who did so much during the past month.  I have pages and pages of media hits listings and hyperlinks – hundreds of them!
None of this would be possible without the dedication and work of the PIO corps who take the tools and make it happen.

Secondly, the quality of the articles, TV spots and web hits has shown significant improvements.  No longer are we getting only a brief paragraph lost between the listings of tag sales and bingo meetings.  These were real multi-column articles- most with pictures, and “above the fold.”    While some reporters still did not get it quite right (and probably never will) the overall tones were very positive and complimentary.

Propagation may not have been nearly as good as we might have liked, but the media coverage was wonderful. 

Now – here’s a tip…
This year we had Gov. Minner of Delaware on the air at 2:30 EDT and we also had some congressmen.  We tried to set up a special net for major politicians.  It did not happen because propagation was bad and the bands were too crowded.  The stations’ signals floated in and out too badly.  But it was a start.  Next year my hope is to begin working on this much earlier and, with the SM’s, PIC’s and PIO’s, to get more congressional people, governors, senators, maybe presidential candidates and other national level politicians involved in a net at least ½ hour before the real start of Field Day.  This would be for major politicians.  (With deference to your local town councilman, we need to keep it at higher levels).  Accomplishing this will take a lot of work, setting up some good relay stations, and coordination – but we CAN pull it off!  Please start doing some thinking now for next year.

In the meantime, remember that Field Day is NOT enough.  We have a great story to tell and one media hit each June is not going to tell it. 

                                                                        -Allen,  W1AGP

The Contest

If you have not seen it – be sure to check out The Contest at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAOOd48j6WA

Coming Events

July
14-15 IARU HF World Championship
21 CQ WW VHF Contest
21-22 North American QSO Party--RTTY
22 CQ WW VHF Contest
August
4-5 ARRL UHF Contest
4-5 North American QSO Party--CW
18-19 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Cumulative Contest
18-19 North American QSO Party--Phone
September
1 National Preparedness Month Begins
8-9 ARRL September VHF QSO Party
9 North American CW Sprint
15 Amateur Radio Public Awareness Day
15-16 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Cumulative Contest
16 North American Phone Sprint
22-23 CQ WW RTTY Contest
29-30 ARRL VEC Amateur Exam Day

Huntsville!

The ARRL national convention in Huntsville, AL is coming up August 17-19.  There will be a PR booth there along with members of the national PR Committee, PIOs and Allen sharing ideas, information and the latest PR materials from the ARRL.  We look forward to meeting you, seeing old friends and greeting new ones.  If you are in Huntsville, please stop by!

Update on 2007 EmComm Campaign

We’re half-way through 2007 and the EmComm campaign.  The ARRL has produced a full set of EmComm coordinated PR materials for PIOs, and organizations to use in presentations to the non-ham public.  Information about how to order, download or receive these and many other 2007 PR materials is available on the Web at http://www.arrl.org/pio . 

Among the materials available are:

1. “Talk on a Disk” – a CD specially made to go with the new brochuresand giving anyone the ability to make a first-class presentation about Amateur Radio to groups.

1. A special Web site at www.emergency-radio.org which describes Amateur Radio, emergency activities and how to get involved, attain your own license, and find local groups.  Here’s some stats from the webpage as of Field Day:

Featured Site of the Week

If your club has a link to the www.emergency-radio.org website and you would like to drive a little traffic to your club's site, send an e-mail to PR Committee member Jim McDonald, KB9LEI at kb9lei@arl.net and give him the link to the site and a few sentences about your club or your hometown.  He is always looking for more fodder for this weekend feature and your club could be a feature some coming weekend.

Influencers

How do you influence people?
Here’s where we can take data from the world of “advertising” – you know, the people who can actually PAY for media coverage J

The major influences in making a change or purchase are (in order of importance):

            1. Word of Mouth
            2. Television
            3. Coupons (!) – who would have thought of that one!
            4. News Inserts
            5. Articles in papers and magazines

                        Now you see why advocacy and mentoring 1:1 is so important.

Guerilla PR Tip

Getting the most in PR for nothing.

Do you have a high school that has a video club of some kind?  Youth like to do projects that they think are important and will actually get used.  If your ham group has a 501c3, how about asking the HS club to work with you to make your own 30 second video PSA?

You win in three ways:

1. You get kids involved in learning about ham radio
2. You have immediate local media interest
3. You end up with your own PSA

There are many other benefits and relationships that can come out of this, and it does not take a lot of work.  Plan now for the fall and ask who you should talk to about it.
           

Positioning

 “In times of change learners inherit the earth while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to work in a world that no longer exists.” - Eric Hoffer

Box?  What Box?
In a market-driven, corporate society such as ours, Amateur Radio is an anachronism.  Sure, we use modern communications tools, but the whole concept of ham radio is out of step with the majority of the culture.  We don’t just think out of the box – we don’t even have a box.

Let me explain.

Our world is set up so that marketable ideas are generated by companies who then immediately patent them as their own.  They take the idea and put it into a box.  They sell you that box with a set of instructions on how you are to use it.  Any alteration or other use at least voids the warranty and might even get you into patent infringement hassles.

Consider the new Apple PDA-phone thingy or the coming new Windows OS. Watch the way it is marketed and sold this month.  They pitch it to you, tell you what you can do, and make sure it is sealed up well.  You plunk down your money and walk out with the new item - registered, patented, closed and boxed.  It’s as if it is still more theirs than yours.  Then they can give you “updates.”

This is good corporate strategy.  It keeps corporate profits up, maintains a market, and kills creativity. 

But Amateur Radio is, by its very nature, quite different.  You don’t just buy a license, you learn it.  Yes, you can buy a radio in a box – but then what?  There are many other parts and pieces to each system, many variations, many philosophies on how to create a station.  It’s “open software” and unbridled tinkering – the very antithesis of corporate thinking!  There is no box.  Instead there is the merry chaos of multiple modes, types of radios, antennas, bands, operating styles and goals, and the incessant itch to change something inside just to see what we can make it do.   Corporate systems try to maintain product lines.  Truly imaginative creations come out of basements and attics. 

As you speak with reporters, keep this in mind as it helps to position Amateur Radio in a new light.