Another part of the problem is that many hams are not
interested in contesting, or in operating in general.
Look at most local clubs. How many members actually
show up to FD and operate. Many don't show up at all,
and many that do are mainly there for the club picnic.
Last year I went out to our local clubs FD at 4:30pm,
and at the main station they had 2 contacts in the
log. Not exactly burning up the airwaves.
We try to promote contesting every which way,
especially VHF contesting, but most just don't care.
Some do get interested and that is great, but the
majority never will. Maybe your club is different,
but I have belonged to 5 different clubs, and this is
the typical picture of 4 of them. The other club was
formed by people who actually operated because they
got sick of the 2 local clubs that didnt.
Maybe a couple of good articles in QST about how
simple it is to get up on VHF contesting will help. I
think that many people have the perception that you
have to have a brick amp and large antennas to do
anything on VHF. After all, what kind of pictures
tend to get put in the VHF columns of magazines? If
it would be repeated stressed that a FT100 or Icom 706
barefoot to a dipole on 6 and a small yagi on 2 and
70cm will get alot of attention, those people might
think twice.
73s JOhn NE0P
--- Dan Evans <n9rla@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Any ideas on how to get small town hams to keep an
> ear out for us
> > during contests?
> >
> > 73 de KI0SK (Erich)
>
> I wish I did. I'm afraid it all comes down to
> advertising. Unfortunately,
> there are a lot of hams [majority?] that do not
> spend any time on Internet
> email reflectors, or subscribe to any magazines. So
> it is difficult to get
> the word out. I do my best to advertise via other
> email lists, and chat it
> up on local repeaters and such. I've intended to
> travel to some local club
> meetings [there are no clubs in my area] and do a
> VHF+ presentation but I
> haven't found the time, as yet. I think the club
> competitions could be a
> big plus, but we need more clubs to get involved.
> Using 146.52 would help,
> but I can see where it might cause some problems as
> well. Although I keep
> 146.52 programmed into memory on my rig at home that
> is usually scanning
> whenever I'm in the shack, and it's a real rare
> occasion when I hear someone
> there.
>
> Field day is a good way to get your club involved.
> How many of us here are
> a part of, or in charge of, our clubs VHF+ Field day
> station? Field day is
> a great intro. to contesting, and a good place to
> show case VHF.
>
> I often do the tail gate thing at local hamfests.
> I have brought the
> entire Rover setup to a few. It would be nice if we
> had something like "an
> intro. to VHF contesting" pamphlet to hand out.
> That could be an
> interesting project, any volunteers?
>
> Now, back to planning my route for June:-)
> 73
> Dan
>
> Dan Evans K9ZF
> Scottsburg, IN 47170
> {EM78}
> K9ZF /R no budget Rover
> ex-N9RLA
> Check out the Rover Resource Page at:
> http://www.qsl.net/n9rla
> QRP-l #1269
> Central States VHF Society
> IN-Ham list administrator
>
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