Greetings, welcome to "Dale's Tales" for
August, 2019.
In visits to hamfests and meeting with everyone, I am
often asked "What is ARRL doing to promote ham radio in the news
media?" As a matter of fact, we
actually do a great deal in promoting our hobby, but rarely is it enough in the
eyes of our members. National events and
amateur radio's participation get good coverage, more of course in the region
where the event occurred, but there seems to be little reporting when a local
public service event occurs.
Yet, as we all know, most of the local more or less
routine activities, such as parades, runs, walkathons, races, and the like,
rarely get mentioned in the news much to our chagrin. So how do we fix this? We fix it by insisting upon more activity on
the part of our many Public Information Officers (PIO). We have about 50 PIOS
in the Great Lakes Division. These are
the folks closest to the events and closest to the local news media. Many of our PIOs are on a first name basis
with local reporters and media people.
They are the "Go-To People" when questions about ham radio
arise. And it is the PIO who is best
positioned to keep the media advised of our day-to-day amateur radio
activities.
To assist our PIOS in this effort, ARRL has created
through our Lifelong Learning project a complete course in Public Relations
called PR-101.
The goal is to provide our PIOS with the tools necessary
to help them do an outstanding job in reporting what is happening in ham radio
and how ham radio benefits our communities. All PIOs and those interested in becoming one should check out http://www.arrl.org/pr-courses and
register for the program. It is a lot about relationship building and as we all know that is the key to success in virtually
everything we do these days.
Oh, and I just checked, today there are just eleven slots
open for students in the forthcoming online course. So don't delay. The cost: ZERO. The
benefits: UNLIMITED.
TOM'S TOME
Comments from your ARRL Vice Director Tom W8WTD.
The future of ham radio is: more hams! Younger hams.
And older hams. Tech-savvy hams.
Experimenters. Public service
hams.
My wording, but that was the essential message at the
recent Board of Directors meeting. Rick
Roderick, K5UR, the ARRL President, keeps talking about it. Howard Michel, WB2ITX, writes about it in his
editorial columns. The ARRL staff is
working on ways to improve our communications with those who get licensed.
And throughout the Great Lakes Division, many clubs are
stepping up with classes. We’ve had some
good numbers recently. Sadly, the
overall number of licensees is down this year nationwide from a year ago. We all know that the ham population is
aging. If we want the hobby/service to
continue, we need to recruit more people.
There are two problems as I see it. One is getting people interested to begin
with. And the second is giving them
something they like to do once they are licensed. Again, some clubs are finding new ways to
engage new hams, making sure they understand how to get on the air, providing
challenges, and helping them with applications that might have never thought
of.
We all tend to do what we know best, and most of us
realize that for us, ham radio is based on what we did and still do. There are many aspects of the hobby that
don’t appeal to everyone equally. We
need to ask ourselves what things interest Makers? They may know about the Raspberry Pi, but do
they know how it can be used in ham radio?
What forms of say, Mesh networks or data transfers will draw the
interest of our EmComm and Public Service contingent, and will encourage further
experimentation? Which group might find
weak-signal propagation most interesting?
Here are two questions.
Club leaders, is your club growing or shrinking? If your membership numbers are down, maybe
you need to expand your horizon of what your club can do. And for everyone –what things are most likely
to cause that spark of interest that will result in new challenges, new
scientific breakthroughs in radio, and more enjoyment of the hobby?
--73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division
OUR GREAT LAKES DIVISION web page does carry news from
some of the recent events in the Division, useful links and information as well
as some neat photos supplied from around the Division. Check it out: http://arrl-greatlakes.org/
Be sure to check your ARRL Section's news pages for the
latest local happenings, club and net information.
HAMFESTING: Here
is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL Sanctioned Hamfest Schedule covering
the next few months. These swaps have
received their sanctioning approval from ARRL HQ at the time of this publication.
If you plan to request ARRL Hamfest Sanctioning, please
be sure to do it well in advance of your Hamfest date, as this allows adequate
time for QST Listings. Be
sure to invite your ARRL Officials as soon as your date is set. Plan
ahead and request your ARRL Officials to attend. With 52 weeks and 70+ hamfests in the Great Lakes
Division, things do double up a little and we need to share duties.
8/3/19 Columbus
Hamfest Columbus, OH
8/3/19 U.
P. Hamfest Escanaba,
MI
8/10/19 DX
Engineering Hamfest Tallmadge, OH
8/10/19 Central
Kentucky Lexington, KY
8/11/19 Seaway
Trunk Swap Port Huron, MI
8/17/19 GARS
Germantown Germantown, OH
9/7/19 GRAHamfest Wyoming, MI
9/7/19 CMARC
Hamfest Okemos, MI
9/7/19 Greater
Louisville Shepherdsville, KY
9/8/19 Findlay
Hamfest Findlay, OH
9/14/19 Central
Kentucky Richmond, KY
9/15/19 Adrian
Hamfest Adrian, MI
9/21/19 GMARC
Trunk Swap Shelby Twp, MI
9/21/19 OHKYIN
ARS Hamfest Cincinnati, OH
9/22/19 Cleveland
Hamfest Berea, OH
9/22/19 Flying
Beers Int'l Ferndale, MI
9/28/19 Paintsville
Hamfest Paintsville, KY
73, Were you on the air today??? Ham it up!
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
