RadioBanter - View Single Post

January 3rd 06, 09:36 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy

wrote:
No Roses wrote:
Amateur Radio no longer at Rose Parade

Had the "subject line" said this, the rest of the comments by the
Anonymous Troll might have been a bit less tainted.

Amateur Radio operators no longer part of Tournament of Roses Parade. The
world famous parade is held every New Year's Day in Pasadena, CA. For more
than 30 years, an amateur radio group provided support communications for
the event. But beginning this year, the amateur radio operators will no
longer be part of the event. Parade organizers have an ample supply of
alternative communications and are comfortable no longer using the amateur
radio group. They would have liked to use the hams, but it appears the hams
began to tell parade officials how to handle parts of the communications.
(Tnx to Steve Stroh, N8GNJ for the link.)

A general observation based on the article and on recent experience in my
part of the world - Many hams still view their communications support as an
essential service and have not appreciated that communications is now a
commodity availlable through many alternatives. I have personally seen
situations where amateurs adopted an attitude that clearly lost sight of
themselves delivering a service to someone else. As a service provider, the
served agency (or in this case, the parade officials) are the customer. You
do what the customer requires. Too many ham groups get confused on this
point and try to run the show themselves.

A bit of pontification by an Anonymous "source".

In my state, we have a lot of hams volunteering to help the Red Cross in
times of emergency. A decade ago, hams were called a lot to provide
communications at many disaster situations. Today, locally, they are called,
perhaps, once per year or less, because the Red Cross has many communication
options available today. Many hams still view communications problems as
"ham radio problems". They do not think outside the box....(SNIP)

Hmmmmmmm....Seems the box they were within was pretty solid over
the last four months...espeically since "professional" planners such as
this Anonymous poster failed and failed spectacularly.

And if he or she as a Red Cross manager or agent of some sort
doesn't call those Amateurs to plan, practice and drill WITH the Red
Cross, as the above would indicate, then s/he has only manufactured the
problem.

Yes, I understand that the Red Cross has lots of cellphones and
lots of their own radios.

Yet none of the ones they had in New Orleans did them much
good...now did they?

From the Red Cross
perspective, I have an emergency problem and I will solve that problem using
all possible solutions available to me, with hams being one of those tools
(I am a ham radio operator too). My job (as a volunteer) is not to create
communication opportunities for hams, but to render disaster relief in the
most effective way I can. Some hams believed it was my job to define all
communications problems in terms of them.

So far, from what's been reported in the press over the last four
months (and I DO refer to the "general media"...Not just ARRL/CQ) has
been that the "blend" was just right...Mobile, adaptable communications
that were effective, dependable and cost effective.

Hams have a lot to offer, but not
all groups are stepping up to the modern era and offering the right blend of
services that meet served agency needs. And their groups are dying.

The people who needed to be "stepping up" were the ones getting
bunches of bunches (read that tens-of-millions of dollars) of state
and federal monies for all those high tech communications facilities
that were SUPPOSED to stand up to these kind of natural
disasters...That includes Red Cross, local EMA's, state EMS agencies,
Public Safety departments, etc etc etc.

(1) No where in the piece did anyone say that Amateurs had
"ruined" their welcome. It simply said the Rose Parade folks are now
using other resources. No big deal. Many agencies prefer to keep a
tighter rein over persons "working" for them, and I see this as nothing
less. Without the "author" telling us who he/she is and from what
position of authority they make the claim that Amateurs have "ruined"
anything, I find the subject line laughable at best.

Mind you I am not doubting that they (the Rose Parade staff) may
have found other communications resoures.

(2) The original comments are from an anonymous poster who makes
suggestions that he or she is a person of some importance as a "Red
Cross" representitive. Sorry. No name, office, assignment, post, etc,
leaves me as ANYTHING but "impressed" with his/her comments about
his/her alleged experiences with Amateurs as described as they pertain
to other "emergency communications". In short, it sounds like a troll.

(3) This in no way, shape or form mitigates a single bit of
anything that has occured or continues to occur as it pertains to the
integration of and deployment of Amateur Radio resources for disaster
relief. The FACT remains that the American Red Cross, The Department
of State, the Department of Homeland Defense, The Defense Department,
The Salvation Army, etc etc etc all maintain MOU's, or Memorandum's of
Understanding with the ARRL at the National level and various
organizations at the local levels to provide EMERGENCY communicaitons.

In as much as the Rose Parade is an annual event, one would be
hard pressed to refer to it as "emergent".

(4) We're still waiting for YOUR presentation of qualifying
references on comments YOU have made on other "emergency comms" issues.
YOUR track record on such issues is, in-and-of-itself, lacking.

Steve, K4YZ