Vol 8 No. 6

June 2010

Field Day

National Preparedness Month

New Audio PSAs

Now Hear This!

Signaling and Scouts – It’s back!

Golden Megaphone Winners

ARRL at AIDF and other places

Did You Know?

What Did You Say?

The Last Word

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Field Day

Last month’s contact had most of the Field Day information http://www.arrl.org/may-2010-contact and you should be well along in activating your PR plans by now. As a reminder,

Press release template, audio and video, banner, logo and more are at:

http://www.arrl.org/field-day-pr

Brochures and handouts are at

http://www.arrl.org/shop/Forms-and-Media-Warehouse/

We will be experimenting with Twitter this year. The PR account for ARRL’s Field Day actions with Twitter is ARRL_FD or you can go to http://twitter.com/ARRL_FD . Sign up to create your own Twitter account (it’s free) and “follow” ARRL_FD. Or, if you already have a Twitter account, just follow us.

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National Preparedness Month - September

The DHS wrote us to announce National Preparedness Month Coalition membership is now open, please visit http://ready.adcouncil.org to register as an NPM member, access the toolkit, and post events on the NPM calendar. We need you, our Coalition Members, for NPM 2010 to be a success!

“September is National Preparedness Month! This awareness month is sponsored by the Ready Campaign in partnership with Citizen Corps and the Ad Council. NPM is designed to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses, and communities.”

We have our own section! When checking “how you would describe your organization, look for “Amateur Radio”!

You may remember that in the past two years Amateur Radio ARES groups were the one of the largest type of activities in their listings for the entire country! That got the attention of a lot of important people – let’s do it again. Go to their website and register your group. List the activities you are doing and be part of the fun while serving your community.

If you have any questions for them, please e-mail npm@dhs.gov.

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New Audio PSAs

Al Urkawich, WI1W, and Jay Kolinsky, NE2Q, struck again with "IN THE BEGINNING," a 30 second audio Public Service Announcement aired on broadcast radio. There’s also “Technical People” and “Wirelessly”

(I personally like “Technical People” best)

You can hear and download them from http://www.arrl.org/public-service-announcements

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Now Hear This!

http://www.arrl.org/now-hear-this

Anyone heard it?

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Signaling and Scouts – It’s back!

The Boy Scouts have temporarily revived their signalling merit badge for the
remainder of 2010. Please see the information at http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/content/merit_badge_signaling-2046.asp.

Because Morse code is involved, this may be a good opportunity for Scouts
and hams to reach out to each other in support of the badge. The connection
between the Morse code and ham radio is obvious to us, but probably not to
Scout officialdom, so the initial contact has to come from us.

Director Mileshosky, who chairs the committee on Scouting, has suggested the
following:
Encourage hams who are already involved in Scouting to help offer this
limited-time badge in their Troop and perhaps others. For hams -- and
especially clubs, who have more resources and volunteers -- who are NOT
involved in scouting at the present time but want to assist a Troop with
this, have them contact their local BSA Council
(http://www.scouting.org/LocalCouncilLocator.aspx) and inquire about
Scoutmasters in their area to contact and offer their assistance. The
Scoutmaster should be able to scope their involvement and go from there.
Of course, be prepared with knowledge of the badge, the timeframe it's being
offered, why it's being offered (100th Anniversary of BSA), and what its
requirements are.

This relationship between a club (especially) and a Troop can evolve. First
by offering this badge, then the Radio merit badge, then Jamboree On the Air
(JOTA), then a Technicial licensing class. Not necessarily in that order,
but all opportunities.

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The Ham Radio Promotion Project - “Working together to recruit new amateurs”

D.E. “Dee” Logan, W1HEO, writes:

GOLDEN MEGAPHONE PROMOTION AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED – The 2009 Golden Megaphone Awards winners have been announced. The awards recognize effective and innovative approaches by radio clubs to publicize ham radio and recruit new licensees.

The awards are sponsored by the Ham Radio Promotion Project in association with WorldRadio Online. The main activities covered by the awards are: overall promotion programs, individual promotional events, events targeted to specific groups, and club-produced publicity materials.

Winner of the Gold First Place Award for the best overall promotion program was the New Mexico Amateur Radio Alliance (NMRA) of Albuquerque. Its objectives included introducing the public to amateur radio, emphasizing emergency communications, recruiting new licensees and explaining the benefits of ham radio antennas in residential neighborhoods. Included in its program was a 40-foot-long multimedia display in the Albuquerque International Airport that was seen by an estimated 100,000 persons.

The Gold First Place Award for a targeted program went to the K4AMG Memorial Amateur Radio Club of Chesapeake, VA. Its main audience included students of the Chesapeake Center for Science and Technology’s broadcast radio class. The club assisted in forming a school radio club, securing a club license (W4FOS), sponsoring fund-raising events to provide radios for newly licensed students, and helping with kit building and electronics instruction.

The Silver Second Place Award for its program of conducting licensing classes focusing on 9-12 year olds was the Lake Washington Ham Club of Kirkland, WA. The Bronze Third Place Award for targeted promotion was presented to J.R. Tucker High School of Richmond, VA.

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ARRL to present at AIDF July 22-23

The ARRL works hard to promote Amateur Radio in many ways. Unfortunately, a lot of them happen behind the scenes and you may never know about them. But these conferences and meetings are the places where personal relationships and understandings are formed which lay the foundations for much of the cooperative work done nationally and internationally. One such conference is coming up in July.

The Aid & International Development Forum (AIDF) is the annual global event for humanitarian aid and development solutions. An exhibition with integrated workshop sessions and side events, AIDF comprises conference sessions looking at aid and development effectiveness as well as a procurement network examining how business can best work with NGO, UN and government entities. It is a unique showcase for suppliers, a multilateral interface for the NGO, UN, government and commercial sectors to build partnerships, a network for procurement, logistics, project management and supplying professionals. It is a unique opportunity to address challenges to enhance best practice, cross-sector collaboration and effectiveness.

Will it result in Media Hits? I doubt it. But if there is ever another event like Haiti you can bet that the networking done at the AIDF will play a part in the developing events.

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Did you know…?

There are 475 ARRL PIOs (not counting club appointed folks) and 55 PIC’s. There are 472 people on the PR email reflector

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What did you say???

Any specialized activity has a tendency to develop its own vocabulary. Reporters have theirs – and some of it you should know, such as:

Flak: Somewhat unflattering term used to refer to a Public Information Officer (PIO)

One-man Band: Reporter that shoots, edits, reports, blogs & Twitters a story.

But hams have an even richer vocabulary and an idea discussed at the last PR Committee conference was creating a pronunciation/usage guide for media types not familiar with Amateur Radio lingo.

Walt Palmer, W4ALT, volunteered to take the first swing at it. It’s a good start, but you may think of others that should be added. We’re looking for terms that may accidentally be used when talking to a reporter. (You already know not to use ham-speak, but we all slip at times.) If you think of something that should be added to the list, let us know (APitts@arrl.org) .

After we get a handle on the project, perhaps we’ll add a web page form so PIOs can submit offerings to the list. The list will ultimately be published on the League website for media and PIO use.

word pronunciation definition

73 seventy three ham radio lingo for "best regards"

# pound sign / hash mark

/ slash

AM EY em Amplitude Modulation

AMSAT AM sat [Radio] Amateur Satellite [Corporation]

ARES AIR eaze Amateur Radio Emergency Service

ARRL EY ahr ahr el American Radio Relay League; Also acceptable: A -double R - L

call call see CALL SIGN

call sign call sign letters of the alphabet or letters in combination with numbers for identifying a radio or television station, an amateur radio transmitting device, or the like.

contact contact an exchange of information via radio

CW SEE double U Carrier Wave; transmission method for morse code

Dayton DAY ton Location of the largest hamfest in the world: Dayton, Ohio

dB DEE bee unit of sound measurement

dipole DIE pole type of radio antenna

FM EFF em Frequency Modulation

ham ham an amateur radio operator

hamfest HAM fest A gathering of amateur radio enthusiasts for the purpose of buying and selling ham radio related products, education and comradely

HF EYCH ef High Frequency

HT EYCH tee Handy Talkie; referring to a portable, hand held radio transceiver

mag mount mag mount a radio antenna employing a magnetic mounting device

mobile MOE bull term referring to an amateur radio station in use from a vehicle; on the move

net net slang for Radio Network. A time when groups of ham meet on the air for either a formal or informal radio meeting

OM OH em Old Man: term used referring to a male amateur radio operator

QSL card cue ess el card a post card confirming a radio conversation between 2 amateur stations

QSO CUE ess oh an exchange of information via radio regardless of age

RACES RAY seas Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service

rag chew rag chew an extended, informal radio conversation

RTTY RIT TEE Radio teletype

SATERN SAT earn Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network

stick stick slang name reffering to an antenna or tower

ticket ticket slang name for an amateur radio license

transceiver tran-see-ver a transmitter and receiver combined as one unit

XYL Ex why el term used when referring to a wife

yagi yag ee type of radio antenna; a directional antenna

YL WHY el Young Lady

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The Last Word

It’s a “GO” and you will be the A-team for it. This September will be the 75^th anniversary of the founding of ARES^®. While the name has changed over the years, this program of the ARRL has provided communities with communications for everything from parades to disasters. The PR thrust will be a tip of the hat to the past, but mainly accenting the “look at us now” and where we are going in the future. The fact that it coincides with National Preparedness Month is a significant bonus as this gives us good reasons to contact local TV and radio news and interview programs. Putting the two events together is an excellent “hook” for news coverage! Start thinking and planning now about who you can call or write to get on the air.

I hope you have a great Field Day. We already have copies of 7 state proclamations here. If your state or major municipal government issues a FD proclamation, please send us a pdf or jpg file of the document! We collect these and they are helpful in future legislative activities.

And take some good action pictures! :-)

Allen -w1agp