"Take Your Handheld to Work Day." June 20

Men insecure enough to get emarassed by having their HT's with them are the same ones who go red in the face when purchasing feminine products for their significant others.

If you're not proud of your hobby...why do you do it?

 

I work nights.  Between noon and 1pm I will be knocked out with my face in my pillow.  Now if the ARRL or whoever is monitoring between midnight and 1am they may hear me or my YL.
I regularly take my HT to work so it's no big Whoop.  My cellphone doesn't get good coverage at my worksite which is approx 45 miles from home.  So I often use my Radio Shack HTX-400 micro HT to transmit simplex to my car in the parking lot. There my signal is cross banded via my Kenwood TM-D700 mobile to a 2 meter wide area repeater which my YL monitors.  She then uses the Yaesu 8500 at home to speak back to me through the repeater, my Kenwood picks up the repeater and relays out on 440 simplex to my HT. An earplug keeps coworkers from unnecessarily being bothered by the noise.
Everyday is "Take your radio to work day" for me.  Maybe in my case it should be called, "Isn't It Time You Got A Different Cellphone Service? Day".  
Besides, when I first started working there I had my HT and one of my coworkers said "Oh, ham radio? We listen to that all the time. Those guys are crazy." Sure enough they had a AM/FM/Shortwave receiver set up near a window and on long boring nights would tune to the 75 meter band. They spent hours listening to the Extra class Lids who cussed and jammed each other all night. Their impression of Ham Radio had been made long before I showed up with my HT. It's not a favorable impression.

 

Ditto here, except it's a Relm/BK.

If I didn't have an HT with me at work, my co-workers would think something was wrong.

 

Is that not also GEEK demo day?

I would prefer that people don't think the HT is what ham's are proud of. The whole HT and repeater crowd is generally too embarrasing to "put out there" as a flagship. And even if you do recruit a new ham or two to the use of an HT, he won't be sophisticated enough to subscribe to QST. (Which is the whole reason behind the effort: selling subscriptions.)

 

How about, "Invite your co-workers to Field Day on June 24th - 25th", and show them what a "radio" can really do!

 

HELLO, THIS MESSAGE IS FOR N3DRK. IF YOU THINK THE PEOPLE AT YOUR JOB WILL MAKE FUN OF YOU, TRY A DIFFERENT APPROACH; SHOW PEOPLE WHAT HAM RADIO CAN DO BUT ALSO INCLUED HOW HAM RADIO SAVES LIVES (PROOF IS IN THE NEWS) AS IT DID DURING KATRINA AND EVEN 911. SET UP SOMETHING LIKE A SCRAPBOOK LIKE FROM THE MID 1900 TO DATE AND HOW THINGS HAVE CHANGED. BUT SIR, PLEASE DON'T DAMPEN THE FUN FOR EVERONE ELSE BY BEING NEGATIVE. THIS IS A GREAT HOBBY AND WELL RESPECTED AROUND THE WORLD. hAVE A GREAT DAY 73'S
GEORGE,
KI4CZR

 

You were given an "O O notice" for something as innocuous as that !! Maybe that O O should just take a Vacation to a TRUCK STOP and listen in and not necessarily on a radio... You just be your self and smile as these old FARTS won`t last forever....

 

O O!!! ah "73`s there and i`m CLEAR!!!
maybe I will recieve that dreaded piece of paper!! LOL!!!

 

Someone in the ARRL needs to have their heads examined. This is absolutely the most stupid idea for promoting Amateur Radio that I've seen yet.

Besides, the building I workin is so shielded that my ht will not work inside the facility.

 

I used to carry my handheld to work many days. But it was used as a public service and weather band scanner. Kept it low and hidden in my office so it didn't bother anyone else. Reason was, I had to keep up with road conditions so if the mountain pass home was being blocked with snow, as is now and then the case, I could beg the boss to let me off early so I could head home before the road - the only road home - was closed. In good weather, I didn't need it.

However, now and then I would tell someone else who also lived over the mountains that road conditions were getting worse.

I don't think any of my coworkers knew it was ham radio. Except one fellow. He was very interested, because he wanted his Mother to get her ham ticket so she could use the ham radio in her real estate business, instead of her cell phone.

Come to think of it, all my VHF and UHF radios are used primarily as public safety scanners, even in the car.

Since I am retired, I have no work to take a handheld to, so that solves that. Guess I could go to a restaurant and plop down for dinner and turn the radio up loud and let the diners hear the repeaters. Uh, come to think of it, that might spoil their dinner. And mine, too.

Ed

 

I'm a operator and there is a fellow contractor at the office who is a operator. He has his HT with his 25 inch whip attached to his belt. I leave mine in the car. Guess who gets all the weird looks and stares? And this isn't about being 'afraid to show off your love for the hobby'. It's about professionalism.

There are so many 'ideas' going to get people into this hobby - bring your HT to work day, Field Day, kids day, etc. When will people realize, even if licenses were given away or sold at Walmart, I am sure that not many people would be doing this. You really have to have a interest to begin with. Even if it is a small interest that can be kindled into something bigger, the spark should be there.

You can do field day til your blue in the face, setup as many tables as you want, show kids, adults, give lectures on it, talk to High School kids.. the list doesn't end. But in the end, this hobby will always remain one of lesser people simply because of what it is. Using a radio to carry on conversations. I know a mobile phone is basically a radio doing the same thing, but its somehow different in the eyes of society. Not to mention most mobile phones have many ringers, mp3 players, cameras on them, etc., this just makes it appear less as a radio.

Back in the day, it was a thrill to communicate with others around the world or locally. Now anyone can pickup a mobile phone and talk around the world, or call someone over the internet. Voice conversations over radio just isn't something that has a broad appeal. It also suffers from what I call the 'people' factor. Go to Dayton and tell me how many old farts or nuts you saw - this is exactly what the public thinks of us, and with pretty good reason. It's somewhat of a dichotomy, we have alot of 'weirdos' which makes it hard to get more 'average' people in, but you can't get them in because there are so many 'weirdos'.

Take your HT to work, fine by me. But I can almost guarantee that there won't be any new 'recruits'. If you need to set aside a day to bring your HT to work and tell your co-workers about your hobby, there is something wrong.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to bash the hobby, I love the nerd factor, the nuts, old farts, cars with more antennas than wheels and the like. Everyone of my friends and family know that I am in it and NOT ONE has expressed interest in doing it. It isn't because of how I presented it, they just simply don't have a desire to get into this hobby.

 

Being in an Emergency Preparedness Office bringing my HT to work would not seem out of the ordinary. I have even been thinking about putting my IC-701 in my office just to listen. People will stop by and ask about it just like they do with my SAR gear that sits around here. They will show interest and just maybe a little while later someone might pick up a book and start learning it themselves.

Now just get rid of the people that have no creativity [You know who you are!] and this hobby will pick up and fly.

 

Yes! These are the same people who are complaining about D-STAR. They are living in the past and are afraid to look to the future. They would like to prevent others from doing something that they don’t personally approve of and anything that they don’t have themselves, is no good.

 

I think the ARRL should have "Take Your HT Fishing Day". I can't take my HT to work. I don't have a job....

What happened to that D-Star discussion anyway?

73, Jim KH2D

 

Looks like Dim-Star faded out.