[CQ-Contest] 11 Total Newbies set to terrorize CQWWSSB participantsas M/S at VE7FO

[Jim Smith <jimsmith@shaw.ca>]

As some of you know, I've decided to try to increase the number of 
contesters.  To that end, I routinely invite members of the emergency 
comms club I belong to to operate in SSB contests.  I've had some 
success and have created one rabid contester, but interest seems to be 
falling off.

As I'm one of the instructors for the Basic Licence course we put on, it 
occurred to me that right in front of me were about 15 potential 
contesters.  So, I invited them to participate in WW SSB, suggesting 
that it would really help them in the course to get some hands on 
experience with what we've been talking about.  They must have believed 
me because 11 of them signed up.  These people don't have a ticket and 
most of them have probably never seen a ham radio set up, let alone 
operated one.

We'll have 2 positions set up, 1 Spotting and 1 Run. 

When an op arrives, he will spend 1 hr at the spotting position, 
learning: how to tune in SSB, how the phonetic alphabet is used and why, 
how to send spots via the TRLog network to the Run position, how we get 
information through accurately under difficult conditions, etc. along 
with getting used to the protocol for making contacts.  All this is done 
under the guidance of an experienced op.  The idea being that he will 
know what to expect and what to do when he starts making contacts.

After his hour of spotting is up he moves to the Run position for an 
hour while the next newbie takes his place at the Spotting position.

The Run op starts off doing some S&P just to get used to making contacts 
and will then switch to running and doing his own logging.  There will 
also be some working of spots.  There will be an experienced op by his 
side most of the time to get him over the initial rough spots and to 
beat into him that he shouldn't say anything more than absolutely necessary.

When his hour is up, the Spot op slides into the Run position and the 
next op starts Spotting.

I've being saying "him" all the time but 3 of them are "her".

So, when you run across one of my newbies, please be patient.  If you 
want to say something like, "Welcome to ham radio from (name of country, 
state or prov), it's a lot of fun."  That would be really great.

I wonder if there's a plaque for greatest number of first time ops under 
1 call?

73 de Jim Smith   VE7FO



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