[ETS/PARC List] Preparing for that Elevator Pitch on Amateur Radio

[E. Drew Moore]

A friend sent me this write-up and asked that I continue to share it 
with clubs in my area: It's a bit long but an excellent read. 73, Drew, 
W2OU

*******************************
Amateur Radio Elevator Pitch
A good PR presentation what’s an "elevator pitch" and do you have one?

Maybe you've heard the term "elevator pitch" before and wondered what it 
was, or maybe it's a familiar tool you already know about and keep at 
the ready, just in case you need it. The concept is this: Sometimes one 
needs to explain something to a person who doesn't have a clue, but you 
don't have a lot of time to talk about it. You need to make a point in a 
short speech that can be given in the time it takes to make an elevator 
trip! Once those elevator doors open at the designated floor, your 
audience is going to split, and you have either succeeded at explaining 
your concept or you haven't.

Amateur Radio, or "Ham Radio", as it is more likely known in the general 
parlance, is one of those terms about which people may have heard but 
about which they understand very little. When the occasion arises, you 
may find yourself in need of a short, effective "elevator pitch" to 
explain the concept of ham radio to someone who simply needs basic 
information. An example would be a family gathering - let's say during a 
holiday - when you are catching up on news and events in the lives of 
your relatives. Job, kids, travel, and hobbies are all likely topics. 
Aunt Tillie doesn't need to know about which transceiver the best 
passband filter has, but she will appreciate knowing about your interest 
in ham radio as a fun hobby activity that lets you use two way radios to 
talk to your friends on the air and learn about electronics, and perhaps 
help your community as a volunteer. The idea is to be able to explain 
what ham radio is about in a minute or two, sharing the most basic - but 
accurate - information with someone who needs only that much information 
and no more.

On occasion ham radio will come up as a topic, and you will need to 
clarify a misunderstanding of what it is about. For example, how often 
have you heard, "Ham Radio? Isn't that like CB radio?"
That kind of misconception is pretty common and can take other forms:
"Ham Radio? Do they still do that now that we have the internet?"
"Aren't cell phones better?"
"I've heard that you need huge antennas."
"Don't those radios mess up TV reception?"
...and so on. You get the idea.
When you hear those kinds of comments, you know that you have to get the 
correct information out there while being convincing in a short 
conversation. Let's think a bit about the message that we want to 
convey:

· Ham Radio is a science and technology themed activity that is 
available to licensed operators who pass an FCC exam.
· Ham Radio can be a competitive "radiosport" activity.
· Ham Radio is a current technology that incorporates computing and 
internet capabilities.
· Ham Radio is an activity that can be enjoyed by anyone. There is no 
age barrier - you can start as soon as you are able to pass the exam, 
even while in elementary school, and be an active radio operator for a 
lifetime.
· Technology changes, but Ham Radio incorporates new technologies and is 
thus part of a lifetime learning process. Ham Radio satellites orbit the 
Earth, built by "makers" in the Ham Radio community. Some of us also 
write our own software and build the electronics in our stations.
· Ham Radio technology can work even when cell phones don't. It is an 
important part of emergency communications. Ham Radio operators assist 
in communications emergencies and Amateur Radio is considered a vital 
option in planning for emergencies.
· Ham Radio offers many ways to get on the air, and you don't always 
need big antennas or costly equipment. Interference to other equipment, 
like TV sets, is not likely because of the new technologies in both 
radio and digital television.
· Ham Radio is enjoyed by people with disabilities and sensory 
impairments. You do not have to be able to see or hear to be a Ham Radio 
operator.
You have some 'splainin' to do...

Now, I realize that this is quite a list of talking points. You won't be 
using all of them for an "elevator pitch", but you can pick and choose 
among them depending on the nature of the conversation. If you meet 
someone and the topic comes up, a short explanation of how Ham Radio is 
a licensed hobby activity that helps you learn science and technology 
while talking with others on the air might be all you need.

If the other person looks surprised at that HT you are carrying and you 
explain that it is a "ham radio", be ready for the oft-heard: "Ham 
Radio? I didn't know they still did that." Now you know you have to 
reach further down into your toolkit of responses to explain that, "Yes, 
Ham Radio is still a big thing, and we have added digital communications 
and internet connected radios to our worldwide networks. In fact, we 
even have satellites orbiting the Earth and Ham Radio is on the 
International Space Station."

The key is to be ready with a few sentences to explain just a few main 
points at most. Ham Radio is current, fun for anyone, affordable, and 
useful for learning as well as public service. The more you do this, 
explaining what it's about, the better you will get at it. No one is 
expecting you to be an expert, and you don't have to go into detail 
about anything. If you are asked about something you can't answer, you 
can always say that you will get back to them or you can refer them 
directly to ARRL. Questions are a good thing because they can indicate 
interest in Amateur Radio by a person who might want to join us in the 
world's best hobby.

What an ARRL Novice License Manual cost me in 1967. 50 cents, good 
memory. $0.50 in 1967 had the same buying power as $3.57 in 2015, so 
even accounting for inflation it still seems like quite a bargain. 
Remember though - back then it was a "Novice" license, a true 
entry-level ticket with relatively few electronics concepts to study and 
mostly just basic rules. I remember the license manual being a rather 
thin book, which also accounted for the cheap price. There was no public 
question pool, so you didn't know exactly what the questions would be. 
The book may have been thin, but it had to be read pretty thoroughly if 
you expected to pass the written exam. Of course there was also a five 
word per minute code test before you ever put a pencil to paper on the 
written part of the exam. Code learning was usually done with a simple 
Morse code "straight key" for sending, because there was both a sending 
and a receiving test. Receiving was always the hardest, but once you 
knew all of the letters, numbers, and prosigns you were in fact almost 
at five words per minute anyway. All you needed was to memorize all of 
these characters and then practice receiving a bit. If you had to buy a 
code key and buy or build an oscillator, that was more of a cost than 
the 50 cent license manual! If you really wanted to go whole-hog, you 
could buy an LP record of code practice groups. The best way to learn 
was to have an experienced ham radio operator send code for you to copy, 
working with you on the characters that gave you the most trouble.

The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015; Cleaning the ham shack.
What's the status of H.R.1301 and S 1685? What exactly IS the need to 
accommodate Amateur Radio? You now have a go-to website for this 
important legislation on ARRL.org, which has dedicated a special page to 
The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2015. Once there, you can read a current 
update on the legislation's status, learn in plain language what each 
bill does, read the full text of the bills, how to contact your 
Congressperson, and more. Hey, there's even an "elevator pitch" of 
talking points! Scroll down the ARRL page for all of these options.
Also, you might want to check out the KB0H website called "The Amateur 
Amateur". Gary, KB0H, tells us about his experience cleaning the ham 
shack. If you read this and don't have to admit it's mostly true about 
all of us and our attempts to tidy up the ham shack, I think you are 
probably lying to yourself.
"What is a disadvantage of using a multiband trapped antenna?"
Possible answers are:

A. It might radiate harmonics
B. It radiates the harmonics and fundamental equally well
C. It is too sharply directional at lower frequencies
D. It must be neutralized

While you're thinking about which answer might be the right one, let's 
consider why you might want a multiband antenna in the first place. Some 
of us started in ham radio with a pretty modest budget, which for me as 
a teenager was mostly my meager savings from paper routes and lawn 
mowing jobs. That meant building antennas like half-wave dipoles, but 
the problem is that that such antennas are cut for a single band. Given 
the cost of feed line and antenna supporting structures, not to mention 
accessories like antenna switches, wouldn't it make sense to build an 
antenna system that tuned on more than one band? That's what I did; I 
put together a "fan dipole" system that paralleled several half wave 
dipoles on a single 50 ohm coaxial feed line. It wasn't a "trapped" 
multiband antenna, but it did have the same potential disadvantage.

Did you decide which answer is the correct one? If you picked answer A, 
It might radiate harmonics, you got this one right. Since we are trying 
to get a single antenna to tune on multiple bands that means that if our 
transmitter does not have good suppression of harmonics, these unwanted 
signals can be transmitted on the multiband antenna. After all, the 
multiband antenna is designed to radiate on those other bands, isn't it? 
A single band antenna is at least not tuned to harmonic frequencies and 
would suppress the unwanted signals somewhat.
Fortunately today's modern transceivers have good harmonic suppression 
and are commonly used with multiband antennas. Harmonic suppression is 
one of the details you can check in an ARRL QST Product Review at 
ARRL.org. This is a member service available to ARRL members only.
73