The ham radio blog of Sterling Mann, NØSSC. Sterling is dedicated to improving ham radio by promoting it to younger generations.
#HamRadio Students – 8 Days left to apply for the #ARRLFoundation #Scholarship! #edtech #STEM #moneyforcollege https://t.co/Df1o4GNrWz pic.twitter.com/XSk1uYh45c
— ARRL (@arrl) January 23, 2017
Nuff said. Go out and apply and get free money for college! http://www.arrl.org/scholarship-application
I’m told that so much money goes unclaimed, so it’s extremely likely that you’ll get a scholarship if you apply. So go apply!!!
Two thousand downloads what what what holy crap! I never would have imagined…that’s awesome! Thank you all for listening! 😀
Since this seems like it’s a pretty cool thing, we’ve decided to keep doing it and have released another episode. Marty and I ramble on about sweepstakes, contesting, operating massive stations, YOTA, college ham radio, etc. Et Cetera is kinda the main theme of this podcast…
Marty did most of the editing and I tried to spend less time mastering it than the last one, which took me about 8 hours straight to get all the levels and EQ just right. This time, didn’t do any of that. And it still sounds pretty alright! Adobe Audition is so much better than Audacity at quickly editing, trimming, and mastering audio, all collaboratively, plus I’m still technically a student so $20/month is killer for Creative Cloud! #iamashill
I’m working on problems with Stitcher and iHeartRadio but feeds are working fine on iTunes, Pocketcasts, Overcast, YouTube, RSS and at http://phasinglinepodcast.com.
I’m super pumped at the next few episodes – we already have a few guests lined up and some exciting news in the world of ham radio’s next generation.
So somewhere towards the end of this ep is a massive plug to give us money, and we both feel like we have to explain ourselves a lot because it’s like, the second episode and we’re already begging for your change. Well. Stuff’s not free. 🙁 But we think we provide value to you that is worth not only your download but your (voluntary) dollar. That said, we’ll never make this a for-profit pay-to-play show, and we’ll also refrain from extensive adverts and ridiculously long and annoying solicitations. We’ve got better things to talk about!
We’ve set up a Patreon account for listeners to contribute to the show so we can keep it up. Patreon is basically a fancy facade for Paypal, that lets us host rewards for your contributions. Marty has some t-shirts that need giving away!
Web hosting, Libsyn, email accounts, online storage, and Adobe Creative Cloud (we use Adobe Audition to collaboratively edit, and it saves us a whole heck of a lot more time than using Audacity) all told cost us about $50 a month. We’ve got a goal of only $30 a month. If we can’t recoup the costs, that would suck. The show will go on, but we’ll have to be creative in how we do stuff since we’re pulling all the nice things out for Phasing Line, but it would ultimately limit the growth of the show. 🙁
So, with 2000 downloads, we feel that at least a few of you would be willing to throw us a few coins. 🙂
Speaking of coin, if you prefer bitcoin: 1LCmJSb3CSdJSxEFdghRpSCC59gJq5HD5u
Disclaimer: We will be thoroughly open, honest and genuinely transparent regarding any contributions made to the show. All contributions will be read out on the show unless you wish to remain anonymous.
Do it before reading this.
I hope Scott, W9WSW doesn’t mind hijacking his post, but I really think it’s one of the best guides to college ham radio clubs I’ve seen, and it was exactly how Barry KC0YDZ and I revitalized W0EEE after a four-year lull. I want to take his guide and go by the numbers with all the experience I had with W0EEE.
Scott serves the Michigan State University Amateur Radio Club W8MSU, and really leads by example. Go check out their Facebook page, twitter and website.
Aka use modern social media tools to build an online name for yourself. It’s imperative to do this because hams going into college will search for “<college name> ham radio club” when looking for a suitable school.
Facebook. Twitter. Website. Bonus points for Instagram or Flickr or other photo joints, and YouTube.
Even with all the modern media sites, your alumni will always prefer email. Clubs should always have a newsletter or meeting minutes email sent to the alumni to remind them that their alma mater is active. This gives them a sense of accomplishment that their work in the club was worthwhile and leads to more engagement (aka donations and sponsorships) from the alumni base.
I’m only partially speaking for myself, as an alumni. When I was a member, the alum bothered me for updates. I gave in, and it was a very good thing – see the next section for why.
A basic HF station is a must-have, which means pursuing a relationship with the University facilities department to allow for an antenna (see #8.2).
Also keep your shack clean. Having a shack that looks like this might mean it’s super active, but clutter can be deterring and stress-inducing.
People are very willing to donate used equipment to clubs, so it behooves the club to follow step 1, 6, and 8 to make your alumni and community aware of your activities. It’s rarely a good idea to solicit donations (read: beg) unless you’re really pressing for equipment. We got:
Just from having an frequently updated alumni email list (see #19) and good relationships within the EE department (see #8.2).
We collaborated with IEEE to create the “Hide and Seek” program. Imagine an easter egg hunt, but with low-power 80m beacons instead of easter eggs hidden throughout campus. Participants are given a small receiver which begins beeping within 30ft of a beacon. They find and keep the beacons which have various point values assigned to them based on their difficulty. This was a huge event for both W0EEE and IEEE, because not only could you participate for points to bid on things like XBox games and quadcopters, but also learn how to design, layout, procure, and solder the beacons and receivers together.
There’s tons of other stuff that’s out there to build, so my other recommendation is to have tools and an electronics workbench for members to use.
#3 was a big draw for meetings. So was free pizza.
I took money out of my pocket to buy pizza for meetings and used personal print quota to print flyers for meetings and events. It was worth every penny to me. Costs were recouped eventually by paying myself back (keep your receipts!) from money gained through donations and membership costs. Which brings me to #20.
But first lets continue with W9WSW’s list:
YES.
Know one thing when holding meetings: consistency is KEY. Students are regimented individuals, who prey on consistency so they can efficiently schedule their busy lives.
For years W0EEE meetings/open shacks were at 7pm on Thursday, and like a contest station running CQ, this was our time to meet, which was not contested by other big clubs and teams. Eventually, a bigger station ran W0EEE off frequency, so the time had to be changed.
Use When2Meet to plan a time to meet if your current time isn’t working so well.
And if you have to cancel a meeting, don’t forget to let everyone know as soon as possible.
Bonus points for streaming your meeting (see #16).
Branding is important.
Branding is really important. And it’s easy to ignore it, thinking your totally awesome programming or events will make up for the lack of having logos and flyers.
A brand gives your organization a major edge in competing with other interests, aka, homework, studying, and other student organizations. It shows an essence of personality and professionalism.
A logo of our mascot, Joe Miner, was edited with permission long ago for use by the radio club. Unfortunately W0EEE doesn’t have a proper logo, though I tried to make one once in PowerPoint. It’s ugly as hell.
How do you avoid having ugly logos? I suggest going to r/freedesign or fiverr and work with a professional. Otherwise, keep it simple!
Branding is not just logos. It’s keeping to the promise of the product you’re delivering. That product is an amateur radio experience. Having consistent meetings, participating and leading regular events, and staying true to your clubs mission is all part of that hook.
This year W0EEE began a licensing class, and its in progress. It is one of the best moves to make
Until then, the Rolla Regional Amateur Radio Society (RRARS) held classes, and did test sessions about 5 or 6 times per year in the electrical engineering building on campus.
It also helps if you can subsidize the cost of licensing, and better yet incentivize it with free handheld radios, 1 year of free membership, or something entirely different. This comes at a cost though, and depends on what money your club has in the bank.
90% of knowledge is knowing the right people. And 90% of the time, your alumni are those people.
For example, here’s some notable people from Missouri S&T:
Knowing these guys have been immeasurably helpful in the revitalization of W0EEE, especially Ward since he always was willing to help and kept my motivation up with his impressive knowledge of ham radio and his deep understanding of the state of the hobby.
This should be #1. You won’t be able to install anything, do events with the university, promote meetings, order pizza, get roof access, get student funding, find avenues for equipment and monetary donations, and much much more if you don’t network.
A good piece of advice is to develop a rapport with your EE department chair. This can make or break a radio club, and in the case of CalPoly, really make the club and subsequently get HUNDREDS of students licensed through ham radio based curriculum. That’s awesome!
I think this should go the other way – the ARRL should provide memberships to student hams by default. If Chick-fil-A can giveaway a free sandwich every Thursday with every meal, the ARRL can subsidize a handful of memberships for students. Perhaps lite memberships without QST, OR send extra copies of QST to the college radio club for students to read and give students members-only access privileges to the ARRL web.
Every university has events for student organizations to show their stuff. Ours is called MinerRAMA outside in the Fall, and in the spring there are about five Preview, Registration and Orientation days (PRO days) which are a low-key version of MinerRAMA that takes place indoors.
On the table, we have our old sign, QSL cards, tons of radios and CW keys, our awards,one HF rig on and monitoring 14.300, and a tablet running SDR software or digital mode software, or WebSDR, and a tri-fold sign with a bunch of photos and information.
This is creative! W0EEE’s never done this, but W8MSU has…we should try it!
W0EEE was heavily involved with IEEE and often did technology demos to dozens, sometimes hundreds of students. W9WSW’s text hits the nail on the head.
W0EEE has a backlog of QSTs going back to the 80s and they’re for use by members to read, although we’re tempted to trash them all. What better way to get rid of them than through a giveaway? Although they’re not quite recent…so.
#9 tells you my opinion on how ARRL should approach student membership.
The easiest way to get students on the air is to direct them to WebSDR and now, the home of OpenWebRX, SDR.hu.
If your club has a PC-controlled HF station (better yet a FlexRadio), you should remote-ify it. This makes it fun and easy for members to play radio from the comfort of their dwelling. It’s pretty complicated to set this up, and you also need to worry about lightning protection and FCC regulations.
In other words, operate outside, and post it to your university events calendar. Don’t forget to get permission if needed. Typically, we discover we needed permission after the fact. It’s okay to beg for forgiveness 🙂
Heck yes!
My recommendation is to use Google Hangouts to allow people who don’t want to leave their room or alumni to join meetings, and have them posted to YouTube afterwards as a sort of digital trace of work done. This falls into #17 too.
W0EEE has a google drive accessible by members, which contains all the meeting minutes, rosters, presentations, photos, documentation and manuals, logs, website information, design information, and more. Missouri S&T is closely integrated with Google Apps & Services, and it basically gives teams near unlimited storage. If you don’t have this, I recommend buying a Dropbox or Google Drive account for use, or if you’re handy, setting up a “shack server” if your IT department allows it.
This falls under #8 too, especially since N0AX was a close advisor to the club and was directly connected with the ARRL. The league was quick to provide free promotional materials (flyers, pens, bookmarks, stickers, etc), licensing books, and handbooks. I went to Dayton one year, and they literally sent me off with a stack of books and said “Here. This is for W0EEE.”
Alumni are a source of inspiration and motivation through expertise in both technical and historical fields. It’s hard to move forward when you walk into a room full of tens of thousands of dollars of ham radio equipment, all with various history, electrical modifications…and even then you might not know you have a storage outbuilding on someones farm somewhere, or club antennas installed on a tall TV tower dozens of miles away.
Alumni are also a primary source of help, both hands-on, like winning CW sweepstakes (thanks Ward), consultation, and most of all, funding.
This goes without saying: because college students are cheap.
This is good advice for every endeavor. Being open, honest, and transparent allows for better relationships with members, faculty, the college, and alumni. This is done through regular newsletters, social media updates, lots of photos, and
Our club has this, and we’re guilty of basically never being on it. This frustrates some people. Try to make it a priority to run a short weekly net, perhaps just after your regular club meetings. Be friendly too.
Speaking for all collegiate ham radio clubs, we alumni are eager to help in any way.
