WANTED: Your ideas on promoting Amateur Radio to the public

Started by VK5AV, Jul 30, 2024, 07:47 PM

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VK5MCH

I wonder how this new resource would have helped said girl in post #8 or guy in post #12 above.

It's all well and good for the WIA to try and help boost the numbers by building a separate education website, but if we have dickheads sitting on the side drilling people for getting their callsign wrong or getting the callsign sequence wrong on their first go on air, what's the point?????

It's fairly easy to get a foundation licence these days and deliberately so, it's then up to the rest of us to help the new licencees move up if they want to or make them feel comfortable enough to want to hang around, not piss them off and embarrass them to the point where they leave.

Getting them a licence isn't the problem, VK5PH is doing a great job, 51 so far this year I believe. Keeping them is the problem. I can only imagine what the people who got bounced in post #8 and #12 above has told everyone they know about the welcome received. Great advertising.
Mick VK5MCH

VK5AV

Quote from: VK5AAD on Oct 09, 2024, 11:15 PM
Quote from: VK5AV on Oct 09, 2024, 10:14 PMFeel free to take a look at this resource, work in progress.

The WIAs Education Committee have launched their own website...

By why in a separate domain?  Why not something like education.wia.org since the WIA already owns and uses the wia.org domain. The com.au domain has reasonably strong controls on registrations, and this is a legit site, but creating names like this which include the name of a know company or organisation is a common tactic of scammers. Finally, why include social media links (Instagram, X and Facebook) on each page which go to those of the (presumably) hosting provider, SquareSpace, and not of the WIA?

For me, a relatively new amateur and even newer WIA member it gives the appearance of the Education Committee having to go around internal WIA obstacles - ie not a united organisation.     
The website was developed seperate to the WIA domain as that was what the committee had access too (I am a member of the WIA Education Committee). It now has a WIA domain link that points to the site. www.education.wia.org.au
When the WIA update their website to a more modern format, then I expect further integration will take place.
I will pass back the feedback on the social media links. The facebook link appears to go to the WIA facebook page. I can't comment on the X link as I don't have an X/Twitter account. The Web link icon goes to the WIA home page.
The web presence is definately needing an overhaul. It would be a massive job.

VK5AV

Quote from: VK5MCH on Oct 10, 2024, 11:14 AMI wonder how this new resource would have helped said girl in post #8 or guy in post #12 above.

It's all well and good for the WIA to try and help boost the numbers by building a separate education website, but if we have dickheads sitting on the side drilling people for getting their callsign wrong or getting the callsign sequence wrong on their first go on air, what's the point?????

It's fairly easy to get a foundation licence these days and deliberately so, it's then up to the rest of us to help the new licencees move up if they want to or make them feel comfortable enough to want to hang around, not piss them off and embarrass them to the point where they leave.

Getting them a licence isn't the problem, VK5PH is doing a great job, 51 so far this year I believe. Keeping them is the problem. I can only imagine what the people who got bounced in post #8 and #12 above has told everyone they know about the welcome received. Great advertising.
Mick,
Certainly agree VK5PH is doing an amazing job.
It's probably worth a seperate thread to throw ideas around to prevent further occurances of post # 8 and #12. Of course you can't control what any particular person says or does on air, however maybe we can do more to give them the experience and confidence to be able to brush off the inevitable comments that might come there way.
Tim VK5AV.

VK5AAD

Quote from: VK5AV on Oct 20, 2024, 06:13 PMThe website was developed seperate to the WIA domain as that was what the committee had access too (I am a member of the WIA Education Committee). It now has a WIA domain link that points to the site. www.education.wia.org.au
Yes, good to see they're on the same physical, and presumably virtual, server now.
Quote from: VK5AV on Oct 20, 2024, 06:13 PMThe facebook link appears to go to the WIA facebook page. I can't comment on the X link as I don't have an X/Twitter account. The Web link icon goes to the WIA home page.
Looks like they've been fixed up now by whoever is doing the content management. When I commented, all those I checked were Squarespace links.
Quote from: VK5AV on Oct 20, 2024, 06:13 PMThe web presence is definately needing an overhaul. It would be a massive job.
Indeed. Removing some very stale content would be a good start.
Richard.
Former IT Security serf
Recycler of human body parts

SWLVK5ANDY

I'm a newbie here, so forgive me if I tread on any toes or challenge any long held beliefs.

I still haven't got my license,but I've been around radios as long as I've been working (in one way or another) and having picked up on SDR in the last year or so, I am constantly finding out new things that I can do with a radio receiver.

When I was a kid, there was a ham radio operator up the road so I picked up a sort of stereotype of an old bloke sitting in a room surrounded by electrnics talking to some other old bloke a long way away.  Apologies to any old blokes our there that fit this description, I secretly aspire to be like that in a few years.

But perhaps in order to get the next generation into Amateur radio, there needs to be more information on the things you can do that aren't just talking to someone a long way away.  Signals from the ISS and satellites can be received and decoded with a bit of planning and some inexpensive hardware (perhaps the delights of an SDR will prove to be a "gateway" to the broader subject), but there is also wifi signals, picking up wireless data on 433 MHz, radio astronomy, even a lead in to the security aspects of wireless transmissions, all topics that could spark an interest that leads to other things.

Of course whatever topic is being used should be strictly on the legal side (no tips and tricks on hacking next doors smart fridge!), but getting people interested in the multitude of things that radio communications are currently used for in one way or another could lead to bigger and better things.

Anyway, that's my 2c.