IN THIS EDITION:

• A Picture worth 1000 words
• Put disposable camera in go kit
• Idea of the Month -- Dec
• Avoiding the Ambush
• Website of the Month
• Who is John Q Ham
• A Good Opening Line

A Picture Worth 1000 Words

Time to get on my soapbox.

One of the constant frustrations in my first months at ARRL has been receiving so many great news clippings and works without any pictures. The inclusion of a simple snapshot would turn most of these from "good" to "really great" articles. I also wonder how many releases go into the circular files and are never used because there's no picture to go with them.

The inclusion of a simple picture can make a story stand out. The inclusion of an action picture, someone doing something, is even better. People standing in a line holding a plaque is nice. People piled in and doing something while EARNING that plaque is better. Pictures move a story and make it come to life.

Put a Camera in Your Go Kit

There are things which hams can easily do which make the PIO's life much easier. One is simply to put disposable cameras in their go-kits and use them when things happen. Of course the first priority is the mission itself, but we all take breaks when we can take pictures of the action and get some call signs to go with them. If you have not done it, you may "suggest" your ARES or RACES leaders encourage teams to include disposable cameras. They're cheap and you can always digitize the good ones later when it gets calm again. We miss a lot of great stories because we do not remember to take pictures.

Down off the soapbox.

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10 Tips for a Tip Sheet That Positions Your Club

1. Create a Tip Sheet for people living in your area to use. You're expert communicators, so show other people in your community how to communicate in an emergency.

2. . Use numerals in the headline. There's something professional about them.

3. Limit the tips to one side of one page, with no more than 10 total. "Don't bet your life on a cell phone. Their systems can get overwhelmed in large emergencies."

4. Begin each tip with an action verb. "Keep a written list of critical phone numbers in your car."

5. Put the "what" in the first sentence. If you use a second sentence, it should explain. "Check to be sure you have at least one hard-wired phone in the house. They still work even if the electricity goes out."

6. Don't try to "sell" amateur radio. It should be one of the tips, but the focus is to help common people communicate in a crisis. "Consider someone in your family getting a basic ham radio license. Ham radio works when all else fails."

7. Use tip sheets to associate amateur radio people with emergency community service. "Write down the contacts for local ambulance, doctor and nearest relative."

8. Let your tip sheet double as a news release. "Learn the location of the two emergency shelters closest to your home."

9. Put the best tips for your community into a handout which can be passed out anywhere in town. Put your contact information at the bottom. "Get a battery powered transistor AM radio. The local station with MyTown's emergency information is WZZZ at 1234 on the dial."

10. Pass them out. "Choose an alternative location for your family to meet in an emergency and be sure everyone knows it."

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Avoiding the Ambush

If a reporter "drops in" to your meeting, home or office unannounced, chances are you havebeen targeted for something. A skilled reporter can paint you as an incompetent ninny to their audience without you ever saying a word--if you are willing to act the part. You can be very convincing as the "fall guy" if you do any of the following:

• Order reporters/camera operators out. (Always a great climax to their story.)
• Turn away from the camera or refuse the interview. (You are afraid to talk?)
• Try to make up something on the spur of the moment.

What do you do when BPL is featured in a story on the front page of the local morning paper?

Do you retreat to the closet and silently lick your wounds? Or complain to your ham friends? Or, heaven forbid, grouse about the media?

Do what savvy Publicity Hounds do:

--Call the reporter who wrote the story, introduce yourself and say, "If you're doing a follow-up to today's story, I hope you'll call on me. There's an aspect of the story you didn't cover -- spectrum pollution with radio interference." When I worked as a reporter, I'd sometimes get phone calls like this one. And if I found the information compelling enough, I'd often write another story for the next day's paper.

--Write a letter to the editor commenting on the story. I suggested this to one of my clients, who ended up getting more space for his letter than each of his four competitors got in the original article.

--Invite the reporter to lunch, explain your areas of expertise and ask the reporter, "How can I help you?"

--Give the reporter a news tip, or a story idea that ties into your expertise. If the reporter ends up covering the story, guess who will probably be quoted in it?

Who is John Q. Ham Anyway?

Reporters not familiar with Amateur Radio often ask a basic, simple question that can stump a PIO. "Who are the hams and where do they come from?" Here's an answer for you to use. A survey done by QST Magazine in 2004 gave a reasonably good snapshot of John Q. Ham. The survey said:

	Percent	Category
AGE	3	under 35
	36	35-54
	47	55-74
	14	75+
OCCUPATION	43	retired
	11	engineering
	9	other professional
	8	technician
	6	director/manager
	6	self employed
	17	other
EDUCATION	49	4 year or higher degree
	13	2 year degree
	38	some college or less
INCOME	23	$100,000/yr or more
	41	$50,000 to 99,999
	23	$30,000 to 49,999
	13	<$30,000
NUMBER OF	26	40+
YEARS HOLDING	31	20-39
A RADIO LICENSE	20	10-19
	11	5-9
	12	<5

Numbers Licensed in the US
1930	19,000
1940	55,788
1950	81,450
1960	227,500
1970	279,658
1980	393,353
1990	466,511
2000	682,240
Feb/04	683,271

According to the IARU there are 3.1 million operators worldwide. There are 1.7M alone in Japan. The IARU states that its difficult to be accurate since many of these countries don't report the true number of licensees but, according to the IARU, for 2002 the best estimates were:

1 Japan	1,700,000
2 USA	682,000
3 Germany	66,000
4 England	65,000
5 Indonesia	62,000
6 Spain	49,000
7 Canada	46,000
8 Italy	32,000
9 Brasil	29,000

An interesting thing to note is that 17 out of the top 20 countries have done away with Morse code requirements. But that's another story.

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A good opening line

Often the opening line of a speech or writing is the hardest part of all. Once you have that start, the rest comes fairly easy. But getting started can be a block. Here's an opening idea that works for many occasions and may be helpful:

Each year hundreds of thousands of Americans volunteer their time and energies for the improvement and safety of their communities. Mechanics turn into firemen when the alarm sounds. Hairdressers become EMT's . Engineers turn into auxiliary policemen. America has a long and proud history of these "Minutemen" who answer the call to service in times of emergency....

And a lot of them are "Hams!"

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service is a national, voluntary organization of FCC licensed Hams -special radio operators who provide communications in an emergency and are organized through the American Radio Relay League. This group has provided emergency communications services for everything from shipwrecks to the disaster of 9-11 ......