Michael Coslo wrote on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:36:39 EST:
AF6AY wrote:
Michael Coslo wrote on Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:00:40 EST:
Do we HAVE to 'attract new blood?' Serious question.
We do need new people to replace those who leave for one reason or the
other. I want someone to talk to on the other end, and don't want the
Amateur radio community to become closed and eventually die out.
That seems a tad premature to me. At present there are 722K TOTAL
licensees and the expiration rate is roughly 27K/year. If that
keeps up without any newcomers, it would be 26.7 years before all
were gone. [of course there will be newcomers...but how many
depends on the attitude of the old-timers they come in contact with]
... We are NOT required to DO certain
things in the hobby just because some old-timers say we MUST
do those besides the regulations that all must obey.
I'm fortunate that I never had that experience. Of course, if someone
ever did tell me how I was supposed to use my time in the hobby, I think
I would politely decline, and go do what I wanted to do. 8^)
Well, from my experience (at work or at play) I've had some
who INSISTED on telling me what I 'should' be doing. Some
of those got rather antagonistic about it. "We don't DO that
kind of thing in fill-in-the-blank" kind of comment. It was
so prevalent among amateur radio licensees that I encountered
that it turned me off of bothering to get a license for a long
time. That's been my experience over the last half century and
I spent that time working IN the electronics industry.
I'll have to say that the above attitude was reflected in the
older amateur-radio-interest newsgroups and was partly due to
the creation of rec.radio.amateur.moderated.
... I don't know if you were watching
the group a few weeks ago, but I related a story about an emergency comm
person speaking at a club meeting.
I was 'reading the mail' but didn't bother with it much. :-)
When a member noted that the ARS
frequencies were there for use after the normal comms weren't working,
he replied " Every thing we do is a matter of life and death, so we can
use your frequencies any way we wish".
That was not only wrong, but scary that people that think in that manner
are coming into the hobby with such an attitude.
That person was more right than wrong. If one bothers to look,
the small-number Parts of Title 47 C.F.R. state clearly that
ANYONE can use ANY radio frequency to call for assistance if
a situation is really life or death...licensed or not. True.
Phil Kane could probably quote the Part and wording off the
top of his head but, not being an attorney, I would have to
search the Parts (all freely accessible). Besides, someone
in here would want to start a whole steamy argument thread on
that, arguing minutiae on the whichness of the what...:-)
Memory says it is the Part on commercial radio licenses but
undoubtedly someone in here will say 'I am wrong.' [sigh]
Radio amateur licensees are not bound JUST to what Part 97
says. The whole of Title 47 applies, even if 99+% has nothing
directly to do with the amateur radio service. But, with REAL
life-and-death situations, anyone can use any frequency at any
time with or without any license.
He (and some like him)
come in to talk to the people who will be building and maintaining
repeaters and infrastructure, and lay one like that on them?
Let's take that IN context. Consider that the attending radio
amateurs might ALSO have an 'attitude' going. Consider that
lots of government infrastructure radio facilities are kept
going 24/7 expressly FOR the purpose of life-and-death comms
needs. Amateur radio repeaters aren't. Amateur repeaters
are there primarily for the benefit of other amateurs.
I don't know about your local group, but I've seen (in real life
as well as in print) some groups that are simply too full of
themselves with self-righteousness. Such folks have a terrible
attitude and couldn't negotiate anything unless it was in their
favor. Anyone coming in contact with them would tend to reply
in-kind.
Now, in my area, I'm GLAD that the commercial, professional
radio services ARE there for anyone's benefit 24/7. LAPD and
LAFD are up and running as are the neighboring incorporated
cities of Burbank and Glendale (with nice cooperative ties
between all the government facilities). The Greater Los
Angeles Emergency Communications Center is staffed and ready
to go into action any time there is a REAL emergency and they
can tie into dozens of utility companies and other firms for
unusual emergency situations. It was put to the test on
17 Jan 94 with the Northridge earthquake and passed. Since
then it was improved via the LAFD Emergency Communications
Service which donated old, unused buildings and bought or
converted busses and radio equipment. I took my amateur
tests at an 'Old Firehouse' that is now part of that LAFD
sub-organization. Nice civic cooperation by the LAFD.
I experienced that Northridge earthquake first-hand and helped
a utility company restore services. All the electric power of
an area populated by 10 million or so were WITHOUT electric
power for half a day. Didn't see ANY sign of 'amateur radio
emergency' groups until two days AFTER the 17th. FEMA flew in
RF-plus-video terminals and put them in service the day after.
I'd like to say something positive about amateur radio since
I am a licensee in the radio service, but there wasn't much
evidence of it. I've been a commercial radio licensee for 52
years and can't forget that...I have to give credit where it is
due from REAL experiences, not some nebulous 'future plans' or
PR write-ups that appear only within amateur radio interest
groups.
73, Len AF6AY