[RTTY] Re: Sad Comment on Operator Age

[WB2RHM - Ben Antanaitis <WB2RHM@ARRL.net>]

> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2004 00:19:53 -0500
> From: Sid Ashen-Brenner <sashen@swbell.net>
> Subject: RE: [RTTY] Re: Sad Comment on Operator Age
> To: <rtty@contesting.com>
> Message-ID: <6.1.1.1.2.20041019000824.04e3cb60@pop.swbell.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
>          Here in Salina, the local Radio club set up in one of the local
> area parks for the "Jamboree on the Air" for the Scouts,  we had 8 to 10
> club members show up (youngest 33) and a whopping total of 4 Scouts.  The
> local area Boy Scout Council was totally un-interested in participating in
> the event. Two of the 4 Scouts were sons of one of the club members, a
> third was a down the block neighbor.
>          Talking to someone in Central America on SSB did not hold their
> interest, but the laptop set up to do PSK-31 and RTTY did.  It would seem
> that the Digital modes may be one of our stronger drawing cards.
>
>                  Sid  N0OBM        599 56 56

Sid,

Yes, I agree with you.

This past Sunday, W4BFB, The Mecklenburg Amateur Radio society (MARS), set 
up stations ala field day, at the Hornets' Nest Girl Scout council in 
Charlotte NC.  We had HF CW, HF SSB, V/UHF FM and a 20m DIGI RTTY/PSK31 
stations.  Over 50 Scouts (Brownies and Girl Scouts), family, leaders, 
brothers who were dragged along, and others were in attendance.  The VHF FM 
radios were a hit, perhaps because a Boy Scout troop across town 
had  2m/70cm repeaters set up and kept instantly replying to any CQ JOTAs 
the girls sent out.
The other station with the most attendance was my digital setup. I had the 
video output from my laptop computer hooked up to a wide screen projector 
in a room where 25 to 35 scouts and others sat and watched the QSOs display 
on the six foot wide screen, as they happened.  At first I tried calling CQ 
JOTA on 20m RTTY. But that was a complete flop. With JARTS in full swing, 
almost no one would take time to reply, and the several who did were 
disparaging to our effort, since we were not replying to their JARTS 
contest exchanges correctly as we were trying to work RTTY QSOS for 47th 
Annual Scouting Jamboree On The Air instead.  Then I switched to 20m PSK31. 
Instant hit!  Lots of stations replied and they were courteous and spent 
some considerable time with us, taking questions from the audience. They 
reflecting very positively as ham operators, and for PSK as a mode.  The 
girls were impressed, and more than a few have asked if we can schedule 
some ham license classes for the council to host.

Ben Antanaitis
WB2RHM  aka W4BFB/4 this past weekend


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