On Mar 12, 8:30 pm, Steve Bonine wrote:
Reading the recent thread on antenna restrictions has me musing about
public-service aspects of ham radio. This has always been an important
aspect of the hobby for me; somehow I never got hooked on things like
chasing DX, collecting wallpaper, or winning contests.

That's the kind of thing which makes amateur great. There's room for
those with any number of interests within it. Some enjoying
experimenting with circuitry.
Some enjoy digital mode ragchewing.

When I examine the potential for public service from the hobby, I
separate them into the two areas of disaster and non-disaster.

Non-disaster includes providing communications for local events like
parades. Time was that ham radio operators were really key in this
regard, then along came cell phones.

I don't know when you came into amateur radio, Steve, but when I
entered it, there was very little in the way of radio amateurs
providing communications for a parade. I've never thought it a valid
use for ham radio. Our local ARES group has participated in things
like Independence Day parades and Christmas parades. The ARES group
in the county to the north of us provides communications for a number
of running marathons. I do not participate in these activities.

Ham radio still provides a pool of
people who can pitch in and help, but it's not the only pool now. I'm
sure there are shining examples of ham groups that continue to provide
stellar service to this kind of event, but my personal experience
suggests that the hobby is becoming less and less involved with helping
out in non-emergency situations.

I think that is probably a good thing. I'm part of ARES because of
what the letter "E" stands for.

Then there's the disaster aspect, the "when all else fails, ham radio
works" event. I was a part of the Katrina effort; I saw ham radio
working when the communications infrastructure had failed. But I saw
other things, too. I saw vanishingly little health-and-welfare traffic
on NTS. I see organizations like the Red Cross pumping lots of money
into satellite-based communications systems that can be quickly deployed
for the next Katrina-like event.

That's a good thing too. The more communications capability, the
better as far as I'm concerned.

How can we maximize the potential for ham radio to contribute to public
service in the future?

Radio amateurs can get there first. They can go where a van full of
Red Cross workers can't.

One thing that I think we need to realize is that hams are a pool of
people who can help, but we no longer have a monopoly on communications,
especially for non-disaster events.

We may just need to realize that there are (mostly) other alternatives
from which to choose.

We need to pitch in and get the job
done, not fixate on providing communications.

That's the sole reason we are involved, Steve.

If the organizer needs
someone to direct traffic, and you refuse to do that because your job is
communications, the organizer is going to find someone with a cell phone
who is willing to direct traffic and also can handle communications.

I think that's a great thing. Let the organizer find someone else.
I'm not showing up to direct traffic. For the past couple of years,
our local ARES group has participated in our county fair--as parking
attendants. I'm not going to show up to be a parking attendant. The
county fair makes money. Let the fair hire parking attendants.

Hams need to work more effectively with non-hams. For example, if
FRS/GRS radios make sense, they should be a part of the plan. Local
events can provide good recruiting opportunities to get people
interested in the hobby.

I think that's a very good idea.

ARRL needs to step up to the plate and actually _do something_ about a
national plan for ham radio in a large-scale disaster.

I'm not sure just how detailed a national plan for amateur radio
disasters can be.
What works for a group on flat terrain or in an urban or suburban area
may not work well at all in a swamp or in mountainous terrain with
poor roads.

It has been 18
months since Katrina demonstrated the need for such planning, and while
there is progress, it is slow. ARES organization is great in some areas
and nonexistent in others, so the training level of people who show up
on the scene varies from excellent to zero.

We should urge those with little or no training to stay at home.

I feel that ARRL has been unnecessarily antagonistic to the Red Cross.
The first news release that came out regarding background checks was
downright derogatory, although each one since has been progressively
less confrontational. While I applaud ARRL's attempts to protect the
interests of their members, some of the language has been unnecessarily
harsh. In a large national disaster, Red Cross is running the show in
most of the areas where hams can contribute, and it's to everyones'
benefit to improve the relationship between the two organizations. It
strikes me as ironic that the hobby is essentially communications, yet
we continue to demonstrate that communications is not our strong point
when it comes to inter-organization politics.

If the American Red Cross wants to do a background check on me, based
upon whatever information it can readily find, that'd suit me. If it
expects me to submit financial information, that isn't happening. If
it finds itself short of volunteers, it'll likely wake up. Our local
ARES group is supported by Marshall County, West Virginia. The county
provides us with a place to meet, space for an operations center. It
provides us with money for equipment upgrades and maintenance and even
provides tower space for an ARES repeater. We work closely with the
Marshall County Office of Emergency Services. The Red Cross isn't a
factor.
Marshall County ARES is likely to be activated during flooding,
searches for lost individuals (with the Northern Panhandle Search and
Rescue team), the aftermath of wind storms and fires/explosions at
area chemical factories.

I hope we're able to maintain a public-service aspect to the amateur
radio hobby. Without it, little details like frequency allocations and
the ability to erect antennas will suffer.

I suspect that a reduced public service role won't play a large part
in our ability to erect antennas. I exercised my choice to buy a home
in an area where no one may tell me what antennas or towers I can
install and no one can tell me what color to paint my house. I
wouldn't consider buying in a place where conditions are otherwise.

Dave K8MN