Whenever  I deal with theses types I try to be a professional as possible.

I went to a video game thing with my younger son.  Not as strange as the hams.  

Well...I'm a normal looking guy.  Not overweight, no coke bottle glasses...40 years old.  I dress respectably.  I teach Boy Scouts Ham Radio.  And I don't wear a flashing light pin with my call sign on my hat.  I just look like any other guy.  Well....better than some....

You wouldn't see me and say...there is a ham radio guy.  That said, I don't care what you look like.  I will make fun of anyone who wears a flashing billboard with their name or call sign on it.  It's not personal.

I think it is the accessories that make some look over the top.  Wearing the billboard is just weird, a ball cap with HUGE lettering call sign is strange also.  A polo shirt with discrete call sign may be acceptable because if you are not with other hams, very few will know what xx2xxx means, and even less will ask what it means.  
In my local club, www.limarc.org there are a few over the top, but the real intelligent scientist types wear normal clothing without callsigns or billboards at all.  I think most over the top with billboards need the connection to something.  They are also the ones that tell their life story on the repeater every day.  

Bill

The public face of whatever you do makes the first impression.

When I was skydiving hard we would have a yearly demo at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. 60 of us split into 3 teams of 20 doing a 'competition'. Not really a competition as the visuals of the complex boggled the mind. Being in freefall at 2500ft seeing a Saturn 5 laying on it's side all you can think is 'Damn that's one big SOB'. Anyhow we we're to ditch our normal skydiving garb and don collared polo shirts and was strongly urged to wear shorts that you would wear to a restaurant. Keep the cutoff jeans at home.

Since we were interfacing with the public who may not have ever seen skydiving, it was important to look and be the professionals that we really were not at the drop zone. The drunk chick that was naked riding the airport beacon last week was explaining this week how the dual container parachute system worked and that you don't see it but we really do have two parachutes in there. I had a ball packing in front of the crowd, having them feel the canopy fabric, and answering the general questions. After every demo we'd see an uptick in students wanting to make their first jump.

More than once the public made the statement "I thought you guys was just nuts. Didn't realize that there were a lot of professionals who did this." That's one we won over.

If you happen to have a Field Day where you can get some face time with the public it's just as important to have the public face, even if it's fake. Get cleaned up and dress the part. Leave the goofy hats and badges for the hamfest. We have a hard enough time not being pegged as the eccentric geeks who hasn't been with woman in years without adding fuel to that fire. Show that we are just people who have an interest in technology and put our interest on the air on occassion.

I read some kind of thing somewhere one time that pretty much applies to me:

When I was young, I was deeply concerned about what other thought about me.
When I was middle aged, I didn't give a shit anymore.
When I was old, I realized nobody was looking at me in the first place.

Do you really believe that people are staring at you because you are wearing a callsign hat ?


I punched into this long ago with CCW. I was terrified that someone would notice me "printing". Then after awhile I realized that I could be standing there naked with two bloody heads in each hand and 99.9% of the people are too self absorbed to even notice; IF and this is a big IF they wern't taking a break from being self absorbed and instead were staring at their cell phone.

444 I feel the same way as you.  I am not old yet though so I don't care what people think.

Yes, I do think if you have a flashing billboard on your head people will notice that.  May not care, but  hard not to notice.

There are always ways to get noticed.

Every once in a while you have to put on your ambassador hat. Yes it's a game and yes it's a show. It you want to win people over to ham radio, skydiving, sport shooting, or Persian cat racing you have to put the public face on. Comes with the turf.

There are those that do enter that other world. Once in they find out that there are those that are 'out there' in whatever endeavor. The brilliant ham who can build a SSB rig in an Altoids can't but can talk to another human being while looking him in the eye. The skydiver who is an adrenaline junkie always looking for his next fix. The gun guy who stockpiles 100,000 rounds for when the gummit gets out of control or when TEOWAWKI comes around. Persian cat racers, well they are a different breed.

Another way to look at it is that the public who doesn't know squat about ham radio is a customer. We're trying to sell them on what we do and how much fun it is. Who do you want to do the sales pitch? Bubba who hasn't shaved or bathed in 3 days and hasn't carried on a casual conversation in years or the guy who is clean cut and can talk a good line of shit.

I get what you are saying. But the person you describe is a hellava long way from a guy wearing a callsign hat or a name tag with his callsign on it or someone wearing a ham radio related T-Shirt. You would have to be extremely vain to believe that you are so captivating that everyone is looking at you.

I don't think Vanity has much to do with it.  I know plenty of guys and gals that can carry a room; some are beautiful people, most are not.  I personally believe those of us capable of public interaction have to take that role.  It may mean missing a contact or 100 on field day.  It may mean Attending local VE sessions to shake the. New Techs hand and offer a genuine welcome.  In any case, most know if they've got "it" and "it" far outweighs a name placard or ugly Trucker Hat.

You may have read where I posted about ordering an alternative styled Name Badge.  I did this anticipating just what I typed above.  The alt style badge "feels" more like a name tag most are familiar with from work.  It's less 1960's nerd and IMHO a little more professional (at least for the younger crowd).

Be there, be the first face they see, make a positive impression-get to them before Bubba does with his 'backey running down both sides of his mouth.

But if that's not you, smile and be polite as you work the world