Why don't local clubs advertise meetings?

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Jasphetamine

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It would make finding a meeting to attend far less obtuse and possibly more in the spirit of HAM if the way you found clubs was listening to local traffic.

The process of parsing often clumsy online aggregation lists and hoping that the club page is up to date is not intuitive or rewarding. CHIRP will program devices with nearby repeaters with a few mouse clicks, and listening to local radio repeaters to find a radio club just makes sense.

Hearing a person inviting new members would also reduce the anxiety of showing up to an established social group as a total outsider. You would be able to say "I heard [callsign] say new people should show up." Little things like that can go a long way for social anxieties.


I'm looking through FCC regs and I don't think it is prohibited.

- Jas
 

wa8pyr

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It would make finding a meeting to attend far less obtuse and possibly more in the spirit of HAM if the way you found clubs was listening to local traffic.

The process of parsing often clumsy online aggregation lists and hoping that the club page is up to date is not intuitive or rewarding. CHIRP will program devices with nearby repeaters with a few mouse clicks, and listening to local radio repeaters to find a radio club just makes sense.

Hearing a person inviting new members would also reduce the anxiety of showing up to an established social group as a total outsider. You would be able to say "I heard [callsign] say new people should show up." Little things like that can go a long way for social anxieties.

I'm looking through FCC regs and I don't think it is prohibited.

You are correct, making announcements on the repeater is not prohibited as long as (in a nutshell) it's specifically related to club functions and doesn't advance the interests of a private business.

This is actually an ongoing issue for ham radio groups. Many get complacent and don't actively try to invite new people to attend, instead relying upon word-of-mouth (which is usually something along the lines of "oh by the way...."), and finding someone who is enthusiastic enough and/or has the available time to follow up on these things is sometimes tricky.

On the online front, some groups have a lively online presence with a web page that's regularly updated, others have a web page that's sometimes updated, while still others have no web page at all and continue to rely on a mailed newsletter.

Likewise, some groups put a regular announcement on their repeaters, others mention it manually during the net, and most don't do anything at all.

The problem is finding someone in the club who is willing to take on the responsibility of making the regular announcements or ensuring that the repeater is kept up-to-date. This isn't actually as much work as it seems, as most clubs have their meetings on a specific night every month (for example, the fourth Monday) in addition to a weekly net. Many modern repeater controllers allow an announcement to be automatically made on specified days or at specified intervals, and a manual announcement can be made part of the regular "speech" used by net control operators to open and close the net each week.
 

majoco

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I assume you're talking about the ARRL.

Here in NZ our national association publishes every year a listing of all members and all the clubs that are part of the 'incorporated society'. The club listings show the names of the executives, their contact address, phone numbers, email addresses,all the different club activity meetings and all the repeaters that the club is associated with. If the club runs a web page, that will be listed too.

I would have assumed that your national body publishes a similar call book and listings. It's nothing to do with the FCC - they are the national regulating body.
 

spongella

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You can find a local club a number of ways, such as looking at QST's Special Events column or their hamfest column. These events are usually sponsored by a radio club. Also, just Google ham radio clubs in your state and you might find one. In my 40 years of hamming I found out about local clubs by word of mouth, like the Delaware Valley Radio Club which is about the greatest one can hope for. Also, 2 meter nets and 440 nets which tend to start at 8 pm in the evenings usually ask for check-ins, and there's another way to find out about a local club; just ask.

Hope you find a club to join.
 

jwt873

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Yes.. Google "amateur radio [put your location here]" Hams are a technical bunch and most clubs have a web page.

Unless you're in the boonies, you should find something. Our local ham club meets once a month and has the dates and agendas on their web page..
 

Jasphetamine

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I would have assumed that your national body publishes a similar call book and listings. It's nothing to do with the FCC - they are the national regulating body.

If the FCC regs regarding the permissibility of using amateur radio to advertise an organization were hazy then it would be something to do with the FCC.

I'm in the Tristate so I assume the ARRL is dominant in the region. However my question was why, and barring regs violation I couldn't see what was stopping meeting announcement. That isn't the purview of non-regulatory organizations.

- Jas
 

Jasphetamine

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Yes.. Google "amateur radio [put your location here]" Hams are a technical bunch and most clubs have a web page.

Unless you're in the boonies, you should find something. Our local ham club meets once a month and has the dates and agendas on their web page..


Right, but doesn't the fact that you can't use an amateur radio to find a meeting of licensed operators in the local area seem profoundly silly you?

- Jas
 

Jasphetamine

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You are correct, making announcements on the repeater is not prohibited as long as (in a nutshell) it's specifically related to club functions and doesn't advance the interests of a private business.

This is actually an ongoing issue for ham radio groups. Many get complacent and don't actively try to invite new people to attend, instead relying upon word-of-mouth (which is usually something along the lines of "oh by the way...."), and finding someone who is enthusiastic enough and/or has the available time to follow up on these things is sometimes tricky.

The problem is finding someone in the club who is willing to take on the responsibility of making the regular announcements or ensuring that the repeater is kept up-to-date. This isn't actually as much work as it seems, as most clubs have their meetings on a specific night every month (for example, the fourth Monday) in addition to a weekly net. Many modern repeater controllers allow an announcement to be automatically made on specified days or at specified intervals, and a manual announcement can be made part of the regular "speech" used by net control operators to open and close the net each week.

Thanks, very insightful relocation. Complacency makes sense to me.

I'm glad you mentioned the inconsistency between online activity of clubs. It is so severe that it is why I had a moment of " Hey hold on... Why can't I just tell my SDR to keep its ears open to find an active club?"

You'd imagine clubs could at least find one or two members who could pick up an HT or use a mobile to say a brief message now and then. :confused:
 

wrath

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Locally when a meeting is coming up its the major subject of QSO'S, Whos going who car pooling with who ,are they going early for the barbecue or just in time for the meeting , during the summer whe have cookouts before the meeting ,in winter its coffee and cookies with a Technical presentation before the meeting , we only have two actual clubs in the county but a ton of hams ,elmers and disabled so car pools are popular to insure that everyone who wants to go can get there , it also gets talked out should a meeting need to be moved or cancelled.

We also APRS beacon reminders ,that's a much smaller audience because a lot of locals are anti digital modes,so those of us that do do digital tend to know each other.
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
 
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Jasphetamine

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We also APRS beacon reminders ,that's a much smaller audience because a lot of locals are anti digital modes,so those of us that do do digital tend to know each other.
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

That sounds amazing; wish it was around here! Overall I suspect you are from a less hostile area. We don't even hold doors in CT; we are cutthroat by nature up here. I wish the ARRL would step up and wrangle all clubs they have influence over into a more disciplined group when it comes to community building and recruitment.

Side note in response to your mention of digital migration reluctance: As a sound engineer we went through the analogue/digital war way before you radio folks. Turns out the solution is just keeping the analogue stuff that everyone likes and start designing digital stuff that emulates the experience of using analogue stuff. :cool:
 

TheSpaceMann

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There is a repeater in Norwich CT. on 146.73, that automatically announces the times and location of its next club meeting via recorded message!
 

Jasphetamine

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There is a repeater in Norwich CT. on 146.73, that automatically announces the times and location of its next club meeting via recorded message!

Sounds like you may have helped me find a club of like-minded people for me; at least on this topic. I hope it announces hourly so I can make sure I can get a hack on it. All SDRs, deploy! Feed me that sweet raw input!

Can't poke it (I TX-inhibited my two HAM capable radios as soon as I got them) so in meantime I shall look up what club owns this beacon of hope. :lol:

Thanks Spacemann!

- Jas
 

AK9R

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I wish the ARRL would step up and wrangle all clubs they have influence over...
Each amateur radio club is an independent entity. Some may be affiliated with the ARRL, but that doesn't mean that the ARRL has any control over them. The ARRL may suggest that clubs do this or that, but the clubs make their own decisions as to how to conduct themselves.
 

Jasphetamine

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Each amateur radio club is an independent entity. Some may be affiliated with the ARRL, but that doesn't mean that the ARRL has any control over them. The ARRL may suggest that clubs do this or that, but the clubs make their own decisions as to how to conduct themselves.


Hence my choice of the word influence and not control. Also why I chose wrangle and not organize, or initiate. It'd be a tussel. It'd take a lot of work. It'd get a little messy. The ARRL seems to have left the business of grassroots wrangling though.
 

KE5MC

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JAS,

Figuratively speak I would say you are taking away 90% of how you would find a club meeting by only listening. You have the skills as I read through the post, but from a ham's perspective we would ask on the air.

"Right, but doesn't the fact that you can't use an amateur radio to find a meeting of licensed operators in the local area seem profoundly silly you?"

You really can use an amateur radio if you can transmit. Once you get that license you might change you viewpoint about broadcasting automated meeting messages as you become accustom to asking for what you want and hearing the same automated message for the xx time that day.

If every problem looks like a nail, then the solution is a hammer. Personally for me I'm a cutoff disk in a grinder or a nail puller kind of person. :D

Mike, KE5MC
 

N4GIX

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We here in NW Indiana (Lake County) have been taking a very proactive series of steps to promote amateur radio, gain new members, and expand our club more to the general public.

1. Automated repeater announcements for both bi-weekly nets and monthly meeting times, as well as the location of meetings at the Lake County Emergency Management conference room.

2. Newspaper announcements for two weeks prior to monthly meetings.

3. Free membership for the first year for all newly licensed hams and recently upgraded hams.

4. Direct mailing on club letterhead an invitation to all newly licensed or upgraded hams who aren't already members. Included is a coupon for free first year membership.

5. Currently we have two major events each year: Field Day and INPOTA (Indiana Parks on the Air). We are now giving consideration to adding at least two new special events each year, both of which will take place in more publically accessible locations to expose amateur radio to a larger public audience.

6. We currently hold three Technician classes each year. We now have five certified VEs available to hold testing sessions during the final class session. Consideration is being given to increase this to six classes each year (bi-monthly).

7. Beginning next year, we will be initiating outreach to local schools and BSA troops to promote STEM, and expose the young people to aspects of amateur radio beyond that of simple voice communications.

As an example of the efficacy of #4 (direct mail), we had two new young folks show up at our meeting last Friday, both of whom had received our invitations that very same day. One was a young man (22) and the other was an even younger man (14)! The older one had just passed all three tests at one session, while the younger had just gotten his Tech license. He's already studying for his General.

We were very careful to ensure that both were greeted warmly and both have been assigned Elmers to provide ongoing contact and advice between meetings.
 

TheSpaceMann

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Sounds like you may have helped me find a club of like-minded people for me; at least on this topic. I hope it announces hourly so I can make sure I can get a hack on it. All SDRs, deploy! Feed me that sweet raw input!

Can't poke it (I TX-inhibited my two HAM capable radios as soon as I got them) so in meantime I shall look up what club owns this beacon of hope. :lol:

Thanks Spacemann!

- Jas
Anytime! I think that repeater is also connected via Echolink, so you could access it from anywhere.
 

Golay

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Get the word out.

N4GIX had some good suggestions.
Running meeting announcement in the local paper is always a good idea. The weekly paper is always looking for filler for their calendar of events, or whatever it's called in your paper.

Something that has worked for us is setting up a table at the street fairs around town. Most of the cities consider the ham club a non-profit, booth runs right around $40. You get a lot of people that will stop and say "I've always wanted to get into ham radio" or "My dad/uncle/grandfather was into ham radio". We get quite a few come to the next meeting from seeing us at a street fair or festival.

Another thing that attracted people into the club was "Open Shack Night'. Once a month, a ham would open up his HF shack to tech's, unlicensed (and even General and Extra's that don't run HF). Kinda a more relaxed way to introduce people into the hobby, as opposed to Field Day, which can get frantic sometimes.
 

zz0468

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...I'm in the Tristate so I assume the ARRL is dominant in the region.

Bear in mind that in many areas, ARRL influence is a negative commodity.

There's absolutely no regulations prohibiting the promotion of amateur radio clubs and activities on the radio. The root problem of why you don't see more is simply apathy. Many radio clubs are comatose and on artificial life support, ironically because of a lack of new members. It's what's known as a self-eating watermelon, or more popularly as Catch-22.
 
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