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Great Ideas!
These are great ideas... just a few things.
First off, I am Chris, N1ZYD from Farmington CT. I have a tech plus license. I have had my radio in Florida for the past two years, however have not used it extensively on the actual ham radio bands. (more as an interface to the FRS radios a lot of other people have)
I would definately check with FIRST officials, explaining what Amateur Radio is, and the extreme differences between the operating frequencies of the robot controllers and the 2M band. The rule from last year (no cell phones, radios, etc) is still in place, and could be a detriment to our cause. Also, explain what we intend on doing -- providing cross complex communications for teams, updating teams on other information. This would include determining now what we actually want to do at the event in terms of public service. Also, we have the goal of spreading FIRST through amateur radio.
I would also find some way of IDing anyone who is actually a ham. I know I have a call sign badge from my participation as an Official Relay Station with the Nat'l. Traffic System. Perhaps some badge system could be made up.
Speaking of the NTS, we could arrange with a local net to send out traffic for robot people at the event. (For those not familiar, the NTS system disseminates written third party messages throughout the nation and the world via a network of 'traffic nets'.) This could use the robot event to also raise awareness of a great hobby, ie Amateur Radio.
These are just my ideas. Lets see how far we can really take this!
~Chris Lester, N1ZYD (ORS)
Team 178, Farmington HS/Otis Elevator
Farmington CT
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