[PaQSO] PAQ ramblings (part 2)

[Scott Jones]

Hello again everyone.

This is part 2 (of 2) of my ramblings on PAQ.

2 - Marketing.  The "buy a plaque" for working all 67 counties idea is
great.  I want the plaque and I will be working hard this October to 
get it!  We should build upon this theme.  Many great suggestions have
been made here recently about QSO level incentives for T-Shirts, etc. 
Personally, a mug, T-Shirt, Hat, Pin or Plaque are all nice award to
work towards.  

For example:
25 Q's - Pin
100 Q's - Mug (Existing)
200 Q's - Hat
300 Q's - T-Shirt
Sweep of Counties - Plaque (Existing)

The key to all of these incentives is making people aware of the awards

and of the contest itself.  

K4OJ has done a great job of marketing the Florida QSO Party.  Jim 
loves the FQP and it shows.  Additional marketing to out-of-state
participants through mentions/articles on CQ-Contest, ARRL Contest Rate
Sheet, the ARRL Letter, The ARRL Web site and out-of-state club web
sties and newsletters would be great. Some of this already occurs but
more and varied exposure would be beneficial.

In State marketing idea.  Current in state participation is excellent.
Assuming more is better, we could have a short video made and some 
flyers, etc.  Use a time machine audio band recorder and make a copy of
the 40m PAQ activity.  Take all this stuff and some brochures and set
them up at various hamfest around PA throughout the year.  On a smaller
scale, there are enough enthusiastic PAQ people that brochures/flyers
could be put at the info tables at these hamfests. Just a thought.

Increase the resources available on the web site.  There is lots of 
good stuff there, but again, assuming more is better, then things like
PDF based check off sheets, County maps, etc. would be great.  Mobile,
fixed station and rover plans info like the cool stuff Bud, AA3B
provided would be a great addition to the site too.  Hopefully, it
would save Bud some time as well. Mike, KB3EIA has done and is doing a
great job on the web.  I'll volunteer to provide JPG or PDF based PA
County maps for the site if there is interest.  Jim, KD8MQ also has
some really nice stuff on his web site too.  Also, noticed that the
paqso.com, .net and .org web addresses might be available.  As an 
example, www.floridaqsoparty.com has a number of the files I refer to. 
Also, www.mrrc.net/oqp has a variety of files and has a "sign-up" sheet
that allows you to tell the world, so to speak, where you will be
operating from.

>From the above, you can tell I am NOT a marketing guy.  Just throwing 
mud at the wall.  Seems like more activity and fun is always a good
thing.  Again, perhaps the PAQ committee would be interested in a
marketing volunteer who would focus on some of these things (marketing
for example) and help offload the committee.

3 - Items 1 (from a previous post) and 2 are not actually rule changes.
 My only suggestion for a rule change would be to allow PA County
multipliers to count both on code and phone for in-state and
out-of-state participants.  I think the mobiles would enjoy this change
and I think it would increase and spread out activity, especially on
40m.  You could then offer a SSB and CW worked all county award of some
sort.  It changes records, but if you look at the history of this and
most other contests, you will find changes to rules that have altered
records in the past.  I truly think people adjust and in many cases
enjoy the opportunity that the change presents.

If the PAQ committee is interested in some of these ideas, but doesn't 
have the resources to do them, perhaps there would be some folks who
would be willing to help out in some way.  The goal would be to make
the PAQ folks life easier, not more difficult.

Thanks for looking at these postings.  I promise not to post anything
this long again.   :-)

Sorry this got so long.  73 - Scott, N3RA (ex WB3KKX and WR3G)



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