Before I dive in any further, to pull any of this off, we have to have commitment from people to participate. This has to be a group effort but as such the potential to truly grow amateur radio in our community. We will have a roundtable/planning meeting on Saturday 24-July at 11:00AM @ Floridatown Parkin Pace, FL. Food will be provided. Once you read through the below, please fill out this survey if you are willing to help in any of these areas.
First, the overall consensus from observation, is that it seems as if we have the best attendance results to events and activities when we have events that aren’t specifically affiliated with any club or group directly. Prime examples of this are the tailgaters Bob-W5CL have done, the Ham Hands on, etc. Many of our club and ARES meetings in the area tend to only draw 10-15 people most times, sometimes up to 20, but we know there are many more amateurs in the area. The company I work for had a slogan a while back that said “Working together, we’ll get it done” and I feel that holds so true to the amateur radio community. We are lucky and blessed that all of our area groups and clubs get along well and help each other out so I feel like these ideas are totally doable.
Some of the ideas tossed around were:
- Ham Radio Assistance being readily available
- What we’d like to do is get together a pool of experienced hams (elmers) that are comfortable assisting new hams (or old ones for that matter) with programming radios, explaining antennas, general questions, etc.
- The goal is to have a schedule set of elmers that are willing to volunteer on Saturdays from 10A-1P at Bob W5CL’s shop in Pea Ridge. Again, the thought here being this is a generic location that is not affiliated with any one group or club. If we have enough people sign up, you might only have to volunteer once a month or every couple of months. Bob said he would provide a space for us to be setup. If we do this, we’d have to be as committed to it as we are our nets so that when we get someone that needs help or have new hams we can definitively say, “Hey, stop by any Saturday from 10-1 at the Pea Ridge Flea Market and you can get help.
- Special Events Team
- A group of hams, from all the local area clubs/organizations, that are willing to volunteer to work shifts at public events to advertise/evangelize amateur radio to the community.
- Hams that are willing to go with us and setup at things like the fair, the Peanut Festival in Jay, and other community events.
- My thought was to utilize our new communications trailer that was donated to the RRPA so it would be a quick and easy setup.
- Each area club could bring brochures, signs, etc from their club so we could connect folks with the local group in their area.
- We are tentatively planning a planning meeting for this on Saturday July 24 at 11:00AM (for lunch) somewhere convenient for everyone to get to
- New Ham Follow up
- Reaching out to new hams a month after they are licensed to see if they need any assistance getting on the air or have any questions
- We’d need the area clubs that do testing to ensure we have a good email address and phone number from everyone that tests
- Need a pool of experienced hams (could be the same as the elmer list) that are comfortable with reaching out and helping others
- Ham Hands On
- Continuing this event on a bi-monthly or quarterly basis in which we have someone or a group of people that are comfortable sharing and demonstrating their knowledge on a particular topic.
- Things like APRS, Fox Hunts, antenna construction, soldering, crimping COAX/PowerPoles, digital modes, Winlink, etc.
- Need a pool of experienced hams that are comfortable presenting and sharing topics
- Engage with youth
- The youth are the future of amateur radio and we’ve got to get more young people involved.
- Use digital modes like DMR, DSTAR, Winlink, etc. to entice them to the hobby.
- Have a hotspot setup and show them how in an instant they can talk to someone around the world.
- We really need a champion for this and it likely needs to be someone that is retired or has a flexible schedule that could engage with the schools and other youth programs.
- Research other areas/clubs that have done this and how they’ve succeeded. The list of ARRL special interest clubs might be a good place to start.
These are just some of the things that have been tossed around. Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas and/or let me know if you’re interested in helping in any of these areas.
If you are interested in participating in any of these areas, please fill out the following survey – https://forms.gle/sSepM1qLYi9ZmtX68