Clubs

What Would You Do at a Farmer’s Market?

March 4, 2009 By Dan KB6NU 2 Comments

On the ARRL’s PR mailing list, someone asked, “I’m thinking of suggesting a Amateur Radio Display at the local farmers market. Does anyone here have any experiences to share on this type of display?”

There were many responses:

I replied, “Hang a big banner, making it obvious that you’re there demonstrating amateur radio.”
Jim, KB9LEI, said, “My suggestion would be a battery-operated emergency setup with natural antenna supports–if possible,and use speakers instead of headphones, so those standing around can hear what’s going on.” He also suggested that they have a display of QSL cards.
Steve Sanders (no call mentioned) said, “I took some articles from QST (Katrina, Boy Scout Convention, etc.) and blew them up to 11″ x 17” and laminated them. “
Dawn, KC9LQS, noted, “As a former Farmer’s Market manager, I know that displays are a big draw. You might consider some form of audience participation in addition to your demonstration — perhaps letting guest operators make contacts under your direction.”

Some other suggestions I’d make include:

Set up a base station, and have one or more rovers reporting on the wares of the various vendors.
Have a variety of brochures, including the “Hello!,” “We Do That,” “When All Else Fails,” and the “Leap into Ham Radio” brochures.
Also make up and distribute a brochure that describes your club and its activities.
Set up a little code practice oscillator, along with a chart of the characters and encourage people to pound out their names.
Offer to send radiograms. Of course, you have to find someone in your club that still knows how to pass traffic!

The Care and Feeding of Newbies

October 16, 2008 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

I write web applications in PHP for a living, so in addition to a ton of ham radio mailing lists, I also subscribe to PHP mailing lists and RSS feeds. While reading a blog post on PHP user groups, I found a link to an article on Linux.Com called, “The care and feeding of newbies at LUG meetings.”

Much of this article applies to how we should treat newcomers to ham radio meetings. I especially like the suggestion to recognize visitors. This is something that’s very simple to do and could pay big dividends.

I also like the idea of planning activities for newcomers. In our club, we are going to be starting a series of short talks on really basic topics for beginners. We’re going to do these before the regular meeting.

Taking Your Show on the Road

September 30, 2008 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

Grant, KC0VTY, posted this to the ARRL Public Relations mailing list, but since we’re in the process of setting up our station/display at the Hands-On Museum, this struck a chord with me:

While this marketing professional’s tips about display booths don’t apply to a club’s budget, there are good points made. But you say you’re visual-design-challenged? Seek out people in your community who are design-inclined and willing to do resume-building work for reduced cost.

Fortunately for our museum project, we have the luxury of having the museum’s professionals design our displays. Your club is probably not so lucky, but if you’re going to go through the effort of putting together a special events station, you still want it to have as much impact as possible.

Trunk-Fest

July 19, 2008 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

This morning, I drove over to Utica, MI to attend the General Motors ARC “Trunk Swap.” They charged $5/car, whether you were selling anything or not. They were also selling donuts for a buck apiece. the thing started at 7am and ended at 10am.

I didn’t count exactly, but I’m guessing that there were maybe 15 or 20 sellers and approximately 50 buyers. I’m also going to guess that they took in about $125. It wasn’t a big event, but it wasn’t hard to organize, and it was fun.

I liked it so much that I’m thinking of trying it here in Ann Arbor. We could commandeer part of a parking lot–perhaps the Pioneer High School lot or maybe a grocery store lot and run our own “trunk-fest.”

Have you attended one of these where you are? What did you like about it? What didn’t you like?

Field Day 2008

July 4, 2008 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

Field Day 2008, although a little wet, was a blast as usual. I say a little wet, but we really got a lot of rain this year. In fact, I thought we were going to be late in getting things all set up because it started pouring about 9:30 am, just as we were in the process of setting up the last of the masts and antennas. Fortunately, we had set up the GOTA tent the night before, and it was easily big enough to seat four of us while we waited out the storm.

The rain really came down for about 45 minutes, but that didn’t dampen our spirits too much. As soon as it stopped, we got back out there and finished the antenna work. We actually got most of the stations on the air by 2pm.

Get on the Air!
This year, I was in charge of our Get On The Air (GOTA) station. I was one of three co-captains. My cohorts included Jim, K8ELR, and Brian, K8MIO. We all did our part to make the GOTA operation a big success.

Jim provided the shelter–a big Eddie Bauer tent– and his Icom IC-746PRO transceiver. I provided the antenna system, including my fiberglass mast set, a 40m/20m fan dipole that we actually built on site, and the coax to connect it all together. Brian brought his son, Kieran, who did a lot of logging and operating.

Overall, we had quite a few operators at the GOTA station, including many new hams from our recent Tech class, including Lisa, KD8IPA; Candy, KD8IPC, and Quentin, KD8IPF. Matt, KB1PXO, showed up, kind of out of the blue, and helped not only helped us set up, but made some of the first contacts. Some of our operators were unlicensed, including Kieran. For many of these operators, this was their first HF contacts. And if their enthusiasm was any indication, they certainly will not be their last.

I’m not sure of the final counts, but we had more than ten operators make more than 150 contacts. How great is that?

Pounding Brass (well at least a computer keyboard)
Of course, I also got to operate a little in each of the two CW tents. We were using N1MM software, set up to key the rigs automatically. So, often, transmitting was simply a matter of hitting the correct function keys. Pounding the calls of stations we worked into the computer was also part of the chores.

What I usually do on Field Day is to help set up, operate a little after 2pm (this year, I coached in the GOTA tent), have dinner, then go home and get some sleep, with a plan to arrive back on site around 2:30 am. I got back just after 2:30 in the morning this year, and after surveying the operation, spelled Jim, WB0KWJ, at one of the CW stations around 3:00 am.

I operated 80m CW for about four hours, making about 160 QSOs. Not a great result, but not too bad, I don’t think. When the call came for breakfast at 7 am, I was ready.

After breakfast, I operated the 40m CW station for a while, but band conditions were pretty lousy, and the stations we could hear we’d already worked, so I didn’t do too well in the short time I worked 40m.

Bonuses
Scoring high on Field Day is all about gathering bonus points. There are bonus points for a lot of different things, including getting an elected official to visit your site and getting kids to visit your site. Not scoring these points

I did my part in scoring First of all, I wrote and submitted a press release to the Ann Arbor News. This did not garner any news stories, but we did get listed in their events calendar. Second, as our club’s educational committee chair, I came up with an educational activity–the aforementioned presentation on how to make a fan dipole. Third, I set up a public information table. They were all worth 100 points, so I joke that I scored 300 points before Field Day even started!

Food, Glorious Food
Food has become an important–not to mention enjoyable–part of our Field Day event. This year, our chef, George, K9TRV, did not disappoint. He prepared slow-cooked beef brisket, pork shoulder, and salmon, as well as hamburgers and hot dogs, for Saturday dinner. But wait! There’s more!

We had waffles and bacon for breakfast on Sunday, and if that wasn’t to your liking, there was cereal and fruit. That really hit the spot after operating all night. And for lunch on Sunday, there was brats and cold cuts. What a feast!!

Well, that’s about it. I ended the event in the GOTA booth, just hanging out. About 1 pm, it started raining again, and it looked for a while, like we were going to be tearing down in the rain. The ham radio gods smiled on us, though, and it quit about 1:50. Not only that, the sun came out, and tearing down wasn’t as much of a chore as it looked like it would be. My feet were wet, but at least the rest of me was dry.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to do it again next year.

Rotary and Ham Radio

June 20, 2008 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

ROAR Flag I spent most of the last week at the Rotary International (RI) 2008 convention. Rotary International is a service organization with over 1.2 million members who belong to more than 33,000 clubs in more than 200 countries around the world. I am very proud of of being a part of this group.

The parallels between Rotary and amateur radio are pretty clear. Just as men and women around the world are amateur radio operators, so too are they Rotarians. Another parallel is the emphasis on promoting international good will. Both promote a respect for people who come from cultures other than one’s own and who live in countries other than one’s own.

Rotary has a group of “mini clubs” called International Fellowships (IFs). IFs are formed around a particular interest, such as bird watching or motorcycling. There is, of course, an IF for amateur radio. It’s called IF-ROAR, short for International Fellowship for Rotarians on Amateur Radio. IF-ROAR has more than 500 members, all of whom are Rotary Club members.

At the RI convention, ROAR conducted their annual meeting, which I had the good fortune to attend. This is how I acquired the ROAR-Japan flag pictured above. The Japanese contingent brought a flag for each of the attendees. Exchanging banners such as these is a time-honored Rotary tradition, and I would like to that the ROAR-Japan members for being so thoughtful.

Rotary also has a tradition of clubs in different countries partnering on international projects. I’m thinking that I might be able to work through IF-ROAR to get my brother clubs idea off the ground. Stay tuned.

Amateur Radio Stations at Science Museums

November 23, 2007 By Dan KB6NU 7 Comments

I’ve written many times about our efforts to set up an amateur radio station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. Well, recently on the HamRadioHelpGroup mailing list, Jeremy, N2BUF, noted, “I am trying to compile a list of other Science Centers that have Amateur Radio clubs or Amateur Radio displays for kids.”

Below is a list of clubs that others mentioned and some that I know about:

New York Hall of Science, Flushing, NY
Club: Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club
Callsign: WB2JSM
Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, Ann Arbor, MI
Club: ARROW
Callsign: WA2HOM
Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, Oregon
Club: Blueback Submarine Radio Club, info on QRZ.Com
Callsign: W7SUB
This station is located inside the sub, which is on display at the museum.
Museum of Science and Technology, Flushing, NY
Club: Hall of Science Amateur Radio Club
Callsign: WB2JSM
Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, AZ
Club: Center for Amateur Radio Learning
Callsign: W7ASC
Ontario Science Center, Toronto, ON
Club: Ontario Science Center Amateur Radio Club, info on QRZ.Com
Callsign: VE3OSC
Canada Science and Technology Museum, Ottawa, ON
Club: Amateur Radio Exhibit Group
Callsign: VE3JW
Discovery Place, Charlotte, NC
Club: Mecklenburg Amateur Radio Society, www.w4bfb.org/dplace1.htm
Callsign: W4BFB
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Club: no club, web info
Callsign: NN3SI

Apparently, there will be one in India, too. The Hindu, a paper in Kerala, ran the story, “Ham radio station at science museum” recently. This is all very cool stuff.

Club Construction Project Ideas

November 3, 2007 By Dan KB6NU 2 Comments

On the qrp-l mailing list, Brian KB9BVN writes:

I belong to a local ARC and we, like most clubs, are shrinking, and most say it is do to boredom. So I suggested we do a group build….half of them said, but “but we don’t know how to solder”. I’m guessing half or more of our 40 person membership is Tech or General…mostly no CW experience but they have a lot of interest in it.

So what I am looking for is a kit, that produces a useful doo-
hickey, and can be assembled by anyone with beginner level soldering skills. I think I will have about 16 people doing the build. I am guessing we will need to keep the costs to about $25 maximum, a lot of these folks are retirees and on fixed incomes.

There have been several suggestions already:

PicoKeyer. This was my suggestion based on our experience building this as a club project a couple of years ago.
Pixie2. This is a cute little kit, and only ten bucks. There are versions for every band. I’m not sure that these are really for novices, though. I’d be worried that the receivers aren’t very good, and at 200-300 mW output, it would be difficult to make contacts.
MKARS80. At $90, this QRP SSB rig is a little expensive, and maybe a little complex, for everyone to build, but it looks like a very cool project.

Clubs

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