I recently had a discussion with a guy that wanted to use Search & Rescue as a way to entice more people to want to become a licensed amateur.
The people that does Search & Rescue already has their own frequencies, and they don't have to physically do anything to get them.
When you approach people that are only out to get something for themselves - and then leave, and you try to make them do something to get something, their attitude is usually - WHY?
Why would I want to do anything more than the bare minimum to get what it is that I want?
This is what entices so many people to buy a CB radio, put a CB radio antenna on their vehicle, and use a CB radio - for emergencies only.
Living in the heart of gas patch country, most everyone has some type of antenna on their vehicle these days. Any roughneck will tell you that if you need to drive on one of their one way roads, you first must get permission to use the road before to start to travel back into the job. God bless the guy that has to drive off the road to let the water truck go by.
But to try to strike up a conversation down in town on a CB radio, without first making a schedule to do so, would be fruitless.
If you wanted to make contacts on Sunday, all you had to do was press the microphone button. 20 contacts could have been made in 20 minutes, without even trying.
It was a very target rich environment. But you won't find people that are willing to talk to someone on Field Days weekend, because they too are looking to make as many contacts as possible.
My advice is to bring the ham radio to every S&R event, and not to schedule your event the same weekend as Field Days.
Put those people on the air, when there isn't a lot of pressure to make quick contacts and let them make some contacts. 10 meters is excellent - when the band is open. I had a cub scout once that worked 27 states, including Alaska, Hawaii, Russia, Japan and New Zealand, and did not realize that there were more than half of their amateur radio club that had not worked even one of these entities in their whole amateur radio career..
Even when that little boy is 60 years old, he will be telling his grandchildren about the weekend he operated a ham radio and talked to all of those people..
