Thanks for the information Phillip. And thank you Dan Beard for accepting the Media Coordinator position which is going to be a key element in success next year. Looking over the rules from 2021, we can easily rake in 1,000 points before we even get on the air next year. Each contact is worth just 1 point, so that’s a pretty good head start.
I may regret this later, because I could be condemning my beloved wife to a life in prison for my murder, but I will to commit a downloadable spreadsheet showing all contacts and bonus points within seven days of the end of field day. This doesn’t mean our ARRL entry will be submitted that quickly because there is some parsing to be done to eliminate duplicate contacts, verify documentation for bonus points, etc. But access to the information from next year should be useful for planning in the years to come.
A Get On The Air (GOTA) station can not only score points, but can be a way for VIP guests and others to experience the hobby first hand while there. Young operators, licensed or not on our GOTA station, will add bonus points, so we might want to start a social media campaign early.
Meanwhile, Phillip mentioned an important resource for planning. We need input from members on what worked and what didn’t work in the past. Any suggestions made this early will be considered and carefully weighed to present the club’s best side next year. We need to look at previous year’s logbooks to determine the best times to operate each band so our operators don’t get bored. While not a point value, radio direction finding could be demonstrated on a schedule alongside satellite repeater demonstrations which count for 100 points per QSO.
Looking at both point value and public impact, we might have someone (working for Dan) on each shift who notices members of the public passing through and gets them to sign the visitor book. We had a pickup basketball game going on part of the day in 2021, but if we had a sign-in sheet and information table those basketball players would have added 100 points by signing the register. A tour the operation including each station should be available for any visitor signing the log. I was amazed at the amount of foot traffic we got at the Convention Center we should be able to raise awareness of the club this way. Two of the exhibits I want to see on the outside wall of Phillip and Kathy’s cooling station RV are a map of North America with states and provinces colored in as contacts are made as well as a large “tote” board showing the bonus and current points on various bands and modes.
I would also like to find some volunteers to put together some simple, one-board exhibits explaining things like the history of amateur radio in general, the history of amateur radio in local disaster relief (we have all the newspaper clippings thanks to the curating of Jerry Keisler (WA5KZA) so such exhibits should be easy to produce. Done right and carefully stored, these exhibits can be re-used and added to each year as well.