In the Traffic column of the April 2009 issue of World Radio Online, Jim Wades, WB8SIW, proposes a new mission for NTS, direct advertising of amateur radio. The article suggests email delivery as a solution to certain delivery problems, and outlines advantages to email delivery for the purposes of direct advertising.
NTS has always stressed the public relations aspect of final message delivery. This proposal morphs putting amateur radio's best foot forward to advertising. My impression is that the public sentiment toward email advertising has become just as strong as toward telemarketing. Perhaps the delivery can be presented in a manner which will avoid an association with unsolicited email advertising while providing information or link to information about amateur radio.
The main problem with email delivery has been that one cannot guarantee that the recipient has received the message or even that the message was sent to the correct addressee. Spam email filtering likely makes successful delivery even less certain. Ensuring delivery to the addressee is one of the advantages of the NTS. Is this issue the same for postal mail delivery which is an accepted practice? Is there a way to address the problems of email delivery?
In my view, NTS needs not so much a new mission as new ways to put the system to work. It won't be one thing but rather many things which catch the imagination of radio amateurs that will bring operators back to the NTS. While direct advertising of amateur radio may not be a motivating purpose for me, maybe it could be for others.
World Radio Online is available for download in PDF format. Jim's article appears in download part 3 of the April 2009 issue, available from the WRO Back Issues page.
73,
Dave