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Other Issues

Vol 4, No 6
June 2006


IN THIS EDITION:


FIELD DAY DOCUMENTS
were published last month in the May issue of CONTACT!
See http://www.arrl.org/pio/contact/2006/05/



Hello Materials

Hello promotional materials are available for presentations to non-ham groups. They were designed with this specific audience in mind, and together with the Talking Points on the "Swiss Army Knife for PIOs," make an excellent presentation.

To request brochures or DVD's of the public service video announcement, write to hello@arrl.org and be sure to give information about how many you need and where to mail them. Please do not order more materials than you realistically need. There is no cost for the materials. All we ask is that you would consider donating back to the ARRL at least the cost of the shipping. This has been running abut $6 per hundred of the brochures. While not required, it is definitely appreciated and a sign that you support the development of more materials of this type and quality.

More information, including audio options, is also available on www.arrl.org/pio

Hello Update...

The initial order of 40,000 copies of the brochure went out to clubs and PIOs in under 6 weeks! A second order was quickly arranged to meet the demand.

In the past month we put two new audio PSAs for Hello up on the main PIO webpage.

There is a Spanish Hello audio PSA by Joe Lenartiene, KD4BTD, and friends. Also Brett Wellman, KG4KLR, produced the second English version.

KG4KLR's "Hello" Script

There are millions of ways to say hello
"hello"
"hello"
And with amateur radio, millions of people are as close as the radio on your desk
"hello"
Go to hello hyphen radio dot org. Get on the radio, and say hello to the world
We're the American Radio Relay League, and we know want to say hello.
"hello"
"hello"
Hello hyphen radio dot org.
C'mon, say hello


How's the Website Doing?
Just fine, thank you!

One measure of the success of the Hello campaign is to follow the use of the website.

While things have calmed down following the April 15th beginning, the initial curiosity surge from the hams checking it out for themselves is now over and the figures we get are more accurate for new people looking for information. It is great to see that the usage is still high - so we indeed are reaching out to new people!

Summary by Month

Month

Daily Avg

Monthly Totals

Hits

Files

Pages

Visits

Sites

KBytes

Visits

Pages

Files

Hits

May 2006

13433

10760

1351

615

18096

1274580

11076

24332

193695

241795

Apr 2006

22740

17951

2223

945

33280

2474620

19862

46683

376989

477550

Totals

3749200

30938

71015

570684

719345


"What is ______?"

One of the ideas announced at Dayton was the invitation for hams to produce short ( 3 minutes max) video clips on various topics which could be added to the Hello-Radio.org website. These should be targeted to the NON-ham or very new ham and explain what something is about. The videos should be complete and ready to go when received, in DV format and hopefully less than 20 megs in size. In this way they can be viewed on the website fairly easily. Topics might include such things as:

What is Morse code
Packet / digital
VHF and UHF
HF
A modern ham radio
DX
An HT
A ham radio antenna
A "net"

Anyone wishing to create such a video is strongly encouraged to contact Allen at apitts@arrl.org first to prevent duplication of topics and get full information.


An Idea from Larry Stanecker, WA2OLP

Digital TV is coming faster than most folks realize. At the NAB national convention, everything was HD television. But it is confusing to a lot of people. Can their TV play it? What will they need? What do all those initials mean and is anything compatible? Hams can help in this. Announce an open meeting to tell people what is coming and what works with what. Getting this information from someone who is NOT selling something is appreciated! It's a good way for hams to make friends in the community!

DTV...WHAT IS IT? WILL MY TELEVISION STILL WORK?

VOIP... WHAT IS THIS - A NEW PHONE SERVICE?

PHONE BILLS...I DON'T UNDERSTAND THEM.

BROADBAND: WHY SHOULD I HAVE IT ON MY PC? TV?


How to Get Attention. Money Talks!

The value of a volunteer hour in non-profit services was $18.04 in 2005 according to several national sources. It can only be higher in 2006.

As your group provides community services, start adding up the number of people, time they spend and equipment. Write it down and be sure to add it to any press releases or talks you give. MONEY TALKS! To say that 10 hams helped in a 3 hour parade is only mildly of interest. To say your club donated well over $500 in services gets attention.


Just for Fun

Every now and then I come across a website that has something unusual. But all too often I get files or email that looks like...

01001000 01100001 01101101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101
00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000
01100011 01101111 01101111 01101100 00100000 01110000 01100101 01101111
01110000 01101100 01100101
Running into this binary code used to be a problem, and I always wondered what it may be. But this month I found a Captain Marvel secret decoder ring in a website at:
http://www.sitinthecorner.com/binary/binary.php

You may want to save it for the next time your screen comes up in jibberish.


Dayton Comments

For those of you who were unable to make it to Dayton this year, I thought to add a few personal observations and comments about the PR role there. Once again the ARRL had a major presentation at Dayton with many booths and the chance to meet the people who make major parts of the ARRL actually work. There is always something wonderful about seeing the little light go on in spectators when they note all the different functions that their ARRL memberships make possible. Most of these we know, but like many things, knowing it and coming face to face with it are two very different things.

The Hello campaign was center stage for the display. The Hello logo was the coordinating graphic, and the booth had a huge video monitor going showing the Hello PSA. Over 4,000 of the brochures were shared with people who were going to be doing presentations to non-hams. Over 150 of the DVD copies of the video were given out for display to the public and well as over 100 copies of the Swiss Army Knife for PIOs (2006 edition), audio CD's and other materials.

There were many, many compliments about the Hello campaign and not one complaint all weekend! Bill Pasternak launched the ham radio video corps idea in his forum and Hello was presented in the PR forum. Several stage presentations were done by members of the PR committee who, with help from other volunteers, also manned the PR booth.

While my feet didn't stop hurting for two days, and I still want to strangle that 4'3" person who designed modern airplane seating, it was a most enjoyable time.

- ### -


Page last modified: 10:35 AM, 01 Jun 2006 ET
Page author: newsmedia@arrl.org
Copyright © 2006, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.