Good day all!  Just a quick note to share with any of my readers who happened to miss the announcements that we have started sharing about the Summer 2019 Support Your Parks Event:
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   For this second annual event, I am coordinating the sponsorship, and distribution of a series of plaques for Parks on the Air, Inc. that will be up for grabs during the Support Your Parks, Summer 2019 event.  This event takes place on July 20th and 21st UTC.
     These are no ordinary QSO party plagues!  Up for grabs will be premium series plaques, on black piano-finish wood.  The Award is laser engraved on an 8x10 textured black aluminum plate with a silver Florentine border.  Check out these beauties, which were awarded during this event in 2018:

​For 2019, we have a list of plaques that may be available, depending on the number of individuals or clubs that volunteer as Sponsors – if you or your club is interested in sponsoring a plaque, read the “plaque sponsorship information” section later in this document.  The final list of plaques that will be up for grabs will be shared via the POTA Facebook Group and POTA Slack Channel 1 week prior to the event.
 
I will be once again sponsoring the “Most Contacts, Activator” award, to get the ball rolling.  

General Rules and Items for Consideration

•  Plaque winners outside of the continental US will be responsible for any cost over $15 associated with shipping plaques.  Winners will have an opportunity to decline the physical plaque if desired.

 

• The POTA database will be used for data collection for the awards.  All activator logs must be submitted within 3 weeks of the end of the event, winners will be announced before the end of the following month.  Hunters do not submit logs.

 
Plaque Sponsorship Information

• Previous sponsors have first priority in sponsoring the same plaque as they did the year before

 

• Because of the high quality of these plaques, sponsorship of a plaque costs $115.  The price of the plaque varies depending on the number of characters in the winner’s name and information, but is generally between $90 and $100.  Flat rate shipping to send the award to the winner is $15.  After all plaques are paid and shipped, any remaining funds from sponsorship collection will be donated to Parks on the Air, Inc.  If final cost of plaques and shipping is greater than the amount collected from sponsorship, I will contribute the balance.  If the winner of your sponsored plaque declines receipt of the physical plaque, you as the sponsor will have the choice to either have the plague made and sent to you, or to have the full amount of your sponsorship donated to Parks on the Air, Inc.  All Plaque sponsors will be provided with a copy of the final invoice for record keeping and any valid tax purposes.

 

• If you or your club is interested in sponsoring a plaque, contact me at  N3VEM@parksontheair.com and you will be provided with a list of plaques available to sponsor.  If you decide to sponsor a plaque, full payment must be made by July 12th, so that we can announce the final list of plaques that will be available.

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     We often hear about the importance of spreading the word of ham radio in order to keep new blood in the hobby.  The right person could pontificate on this topic for quite some time, but I think one of the things we're missing in this effort is remembering to reach out into the world in a way that can touch places outside "the norm" of where we think we'll find future hams.  With this thought, I decided to start some ham radio outreach in a slightly non-traditional manner, and I'm going to ask for your help!  If you don't have time to read my full post, just skip straight to the Easy Steps to Spread the Word! at the end of this post.

    This whole idea ties into something my YL wanted.  If you follow me on instagram you may have seen this post a couple years back, where I dropped a couple pictures of a project that I was starting for the YL, using some of the leftover plywood from my shack build.

    Well, 2 years later, I finally finished the project, and here is what it turned out to be:

    If you don't know what a Little Free Library is, here's the scoop - random people put up some type of box, little house, etc. and stock it with books that are free for the taking.  Take a book, and when you're done, leave it in the same little library, a different one, or pass it along - I think this type of sharing is certainly in the spirit of ham radio, so if you look close, you'll see one of my contributions to our Little Free Library:

     With any luck, maybe a neighbor will get curious, take it, and become a new ham!  

So how can you help?  First, you don't need to build your own library - take these easy steps, and you can help spread the ham-radio word to anyone that may stumble across libraries like this that are all over the world:

• Go to littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap/ to find a little library near you
• Buy some of the books below, and stick them in!  I'll probably put these on repeat in my own Amazon cart, to make sure that there is always at least 1 or 2 radio books stocked in ours.