From fred at wb4aej.com  Sun May  3 11:17:33 2009
From: fred at wb4aej.com (Fred Atkinson, WB4AEJ)
Date: Sun, 3 May 2009 08:17:33 -0700
Subject: [MNham] Ham Banner Exchange
Message-ID: <05f901c9cc02$48ca7b00$c800000a@mishmash>

OMs and YLs, 

      There is a new Banner Exchange Website up for Ham Radio Web sites. The URL is: http://www.cq-cq.org .  It is called the Ham Banner Exchange (HBE).  You can find it by going to http://www.cq-cq.org .  

      A Banner Exchange is a way of allowing your 468 x 60 banner to be displayed on other Web sites in return for allowing other sites banners to be displayed on yours.  

      This site has been created since the previous service providing Banner Exchange for Ham Radio Web sites went dark. There is a need for such a service so here it is. 

      It uses a commercially developed script. The site is fully functional and a set of FAQs is has been developed.  You must log in to see the FAQs.  

      If you have a personal Ham Radio Web site and wish to attract more traffic, you can exchange links with other web site owners or use a banner exchange.  Sites selling ham products and services are also welcome.  

      Like QSL Net, it is a free service to ham radio operators. I may get to the point where I'll accept a donation or two (like QSL Net does). But I will limit donations to a small amount. I'm not going to allow money to govern how often a particular banner appears on other Web sites. For now, I am not accepting any donations. 

      The way it works is that you get an account by signing up on the main page. Next, you create a campaign for your Web site/page. You upload your 468 x 60 banner. Then you provide the URL where you would like to see traffic. 

      Once I review your Web site, see that you've installed the HTML snippet of code on the *top* part of your Web page (Above The Fold), and activate your account on the Banner Exchange, your banner will be shown randomly on other HBE member sites. They can click on the banner and be taken to your site.  

      It runs on units called 'impressions'. Impressions are credits. When you sign up, you get five thousand impressions. You assign as many as you want to your campain(s) (I suggest you start out with a thousand impressions on your campaign). And yes, you can have multiple campaigns. The lower your impressions balance, the less often your banner will appear on other sites. 

      When your site displays a banner, you will be credited one (for now) impression to your account. If someone clicks on it, you will get additional impression(s) added to your account for displaying their banner (I am still working out the specific numbers for this. As time goes by, I may adjust this a bit). When your banner is displayed on another site, at least one impression will be debited from your account. 

      Go to the Ham Banner Exchange site at http://www.cq-cq.org . You will see two banners at the top. Click on the right one (the right one is a randomly displayed banner from one of the member sites). 

      You will go to another member site. You will see another Banner on that site. You can click on it. And this can go on and on. 

      As far as any data I am collecting, it is only for use of managing the site. I will not be selling it for any reason. I don't really need your mailing address. It's just that the company that provided it wrote the code to require mailing addresses. I would never betray the ham community by divulging information to marketers. If you don't want to provide your address, just put a bunch of stray characters in the address fields to make it happy.  I may be able to get the manufacturer to delete the requirement for mailing address by altering the code in the script.  

      But I do need your email address to contact you if there is an issue about your Web site.  

      As far as terms of service, it is a service that I am providing at no cost or obligation to you or you to me. If you use it and decide you don't like it, you are free to remove the code from your page and delete your account and banner(s) from the Ham Banner Exchange (you can have multiple banners for the same campaign). Whether or not your site content is acceptable is according to my judgement. As long as there is ham content, nothing offensive, no pop up ads (unless ham related), and the banner is displayed on the top of your page, there would probably be no reason for me to preclude your site participation. 

      I will make every effort to see that it runs reliably. But I can't be held financially responsible if the site goes down. I will consider that beyond my control. But I have been running Web sites since 1995. While I am not a PHP guru (the site runs on PHP scripts), I know enough about Webmastering to address issues that arise. I did take a course in beginning PHP and a complete overview of HTML some years back. I code HTML at the text level. When I code PHP, I also code at the text level. 

     There is a forum for users to share information.  I only answer questions about HBE through that forum.  If you have questions about it, I would ask that you go to http://www.cq-cq.org/forum and post them there.  Then, all can benefit from the information in the answer to your question.  

     If you have a ham site you'd like to publicize, please go to http://www.cq-cq.org and sign up. Add at least a thousand impressions to your campaign and upload a 468 x 60 pixel banner. 

    Your sites will usually be reviewed within twenty-four hours. But it could be more than that. As time goes by, maybe I can get a ham friend of mine to stand in for me when I am traveling, etc.. 

    The page must meet the following requirements: 

1.     The html snippet must appear near the top of the page. At the very minimum, it must pop up visible in a maximized browser when someone accesses your site. I refer to that as being 'Above The Fold' at the suggestion that was made when I publicized this on QRZ.  This is only fair since your banner will be displayed at the top of other member pages.  

2.     Neither the banner(s) nor the campaign(s) may be anything that is offensive. This one everyone should understand. 

3.     The site must relate to Ham Radio and have significant Ham Radio content.  

4.     There must be nothing on the site that ham radio operators would have a problem with. What that means will be defined by the opinions of the ham community at large. 

5.     Unless they are ham related, there must be no pop up ads on your site. 

6.     Your site must not have an adverse rating with McAfee SiteAdvisor. 

     The rule of thumb is a page that is well put together, relates to ham radio, and won't offend. But I think that nothing listed here would get in the way of anyone with a good ham site joining up.  

     Enjoy, 




       Fred, WB4AEJ

McAfee and SiteAdvisor are registered trademarks of McAfee, Inc.  
QSL Net is a registered trademark of Scott Fox and Al 

From kzerohb at gmail.com  Thu May 14 12:57:38 2009
From: kzerohb at gmail.com (K0HB)
Date: Thu, 14 May 2009 16:57:38 -0000
Subject: [MNham] Can't make Dayton this weekend?  How about Plymouth?
Message-ID: <3CA5EBD58FDA4F4498DB41CE10DC7717@BigGuyII>

NARC Radio Daze 2009, May 15-16th.

Link ----> http://www.geocities.com/northland.geo/

73, de Hans, K0HB
http://k0hb.spaces.live.com/

