To all,

I have been collecting online links to what the press has been saying
about us during this disaster. You can go to my web site to view press
releases about how and what hams are doing regarding Katrina:

http://tinyurl.com/b37ls

Dave
kz1o

Dave, what ever happend to the Civil Defense organization. It seems
like it vanished without a wimper during the 1970s, and now that we
need CD more than ever it appears to have been dismantled by a bunch of
hired, paid by the hour, contractors like Charnoff (sp?) and Mike
Brown.

Harry C.

In article .com,
says...
Dave, what ever happend to the Civil Defense organization.

Civil Defense was renamed Emergency Management and delegated to local
levels. In some areas of the country this worked out well. In other
areas with little funding or interest it was assigned to a storage
closet in the basement of the county building next to the Korean War K
rations and iodine pills.

Most hurricane or tornado prone areas had some level of Civil Defense.
The Three Mile Island incident kicked it up a notch.
Sept 11th kicked it up some more.

wrote:
Dave, what ever happend to the Civil Defense organization. It seems
like it vanished without a wimper during the 1970s, and now that we
need CD more than ever it appears to have been dismantled by a bunch of
hired, paid by the hour, contractors like Charnoff (sp?) and Mike
Brown.

Harry C.


I'm going to post this as a question that I am answering to one of my
Congressmen. Then again, most congressmen don't even know what a ham
operator is. They probably don't know what usenet is. Too bad for them.

=================

Harry,

You ask a valid question.

I don't want to get too far off topic here in r.r.a.m, but I think it is
safe to state that most hams are conservatives (hang on a second all of
you!!! hear me out!!!) in that, during a disaster, we don't wait for the
gov't to do stuff; we do it ourselves. Someday, the gov't will tell us
(and the rest of the world) how well we did. Government is a lot like a
woman's butt. You can ask any woman if you want to confirm this. The
smaller it is, the better it looks. And shall we pour money into it?

I should say up front that I have been a ham since I was 13 years old,
raised in a (R) household, but have mingled with other opinions. Got my
Novice, then General, then Advanced, and then Extra in 1983 (maybe
1984?). Got the coolest callsign available at the time by dumb luck:
Kay Zed One Oscar KZ1O. My current age is 50, this was written in 2005.

I wanted to give something back, so I helped with the testing of new
hams. I wanted to bring new hams into the hobby, so I elmered (as in, I
taught kids who wanted to get their ham license).

I ask the same questions that you did just now.

Where is the part of us that wants to jump out and help? The Civil
Defense people were really taking a risk to do what they did. Yet they
did!!

Amazing.

One thing that I keep finding, and you will also, is that ham operators
were there all the time, for free.

Now here is my question to you (and anyone else who has read this so
far): Why has the president not walked into the Rose Garden and
basically told everyone living that ham radio has been there when
everything else has failed. Is ham radio some kind of second-class
citizen that works when all else fails?

Yes, we are. We are what works when all else fails. Maybe you should
put that into your Blackberry when you can't get through.

Ham operators will make contact, no matter what.


Don't forget that. Especially when you are voting to take away
frequencies from our ham operators.

73, Best Wishes,
Dave Bushong
KZ1O

............
Now here is my question to you (and anyone else who has read this so
far):

Why has the president not walked into the Rose Garden and
basically told everyone living that ham radio has been there when
everything else has failed. Is ham radio some kind of second-class
citizen that works when all else fails?
............

Politics.

Hams don't vote as a block.
Do hams come out in support of a particular canidate or donate
significant $$$$ as a group to an election campaign ?

First Responder union officials make a big stink on the TV news in
support of canidates. Big companies make significant donations.

That all means something.

As hams we can and do help provide communications infrastructure during
emergencies but this is back office work compared to fire, police, EMS,
and military.

Last year my ARES group activated for major flooding multiple times.
We had tons of thanks heaped upon us by the Red Cross and First
Responders. It felt good. There was a press conference and I know for a
fact the head of the First Responders personally thanked the hams for a
job well done.

The local newspaper said nothing about ham radio. Instead they just said
there were communications problems, cellphones would not work in the
area , and the problem was being looked at.

Geese..
N2UBP

Most hams are in bad need of a heavy dose of humility.

"Dave Bushong" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Dave, what ever happend to the Civil Defense organization. It seems
like it vanished without a wimper during the 1970s, and now that we
need CD more than ever it appears to have been dismantled by a bunch of
hired, paid by the hour, contractors like Charnoff (sp?) and Mike
Brown.

Harry C.


I'm going to post this as a question that I am answering to one of my
Congressmen. Then again, most congressmen don't even know what a ham
operator is. They probably don't know what usenet is. Too bad for them.

=================

Harry,

You ask a valid question.

I don't want to get too far off topic here in r.r.a.m, but I think it is
safe to state that most hams are conservatives (hang on a second all of
you!!! hear me out!!!) in that, during a disaster, we don't wait for the
gov't to do stuff; we do it ourselves. Someday, the gov't will tell us
(and the rest of the world) how well we did. Government is a lot like a
woman's butt. You can ask any woman if you want to confirm this. The
smaller it is, the better it looks. And shall we pour money into it?

I should say up front that I have been a ham since I was 13 years old,
raised in a (R) household, but have mingled with other opinions. Got my
Novice, then General, then Advanced, and then Extra in 1983 (maybe 1984?).
Got the coolest callsign available at the time by dumb luck: Kay Zed One
Oscar KZ1O. My current age is 50, this was written in 2005.

I wanted to give something back, so I helped with the testing of new hams.
I wanted to bring new hams into the hobby, so I elmered (as in, I taught
kids who wanted to get their ham license).

I ask the same questions that you did just now.

Where is the part of us that wants to jump out and help? The Civil
Defense people were really taking a risk to do what they did. Yet they
did!!

Amazing.

One thing that I keep finding, and you will also, is that ham operators
were there all the time, for free.

Now here is my question to you (and anyone else who has read this so far):
Why has the president not walked into the Rose Garden and basically told
everyone living that ham radio has been there when everything else has
failed. Is ham radio some kind of second-class citizen that works when all
else fails?

Yes, we are. We are what works when all else fails. Maybe you should put
that into your Blackberry when you can't get through.

Ham operators will make contact, no matter what.


Don't forget that. Especially when you are voting to take away
frequencies from our ham operators.

73, Best Wishes,
Dave Bushong
KZ1O

Dave,

Why won't the President acknowledge what hams do? Simple.....can't allow
us "Amateurs" to show up the giants like Motorola...wouldn't look good on
the stock exchange.

Dan/W4NTI

"stu" wrote in message
...
Most hams are in bad need of a heavy dose of humility.


Sounds like you have a serious case of inferiority.

Dan/W4NTI

Dan/W4NTI wrote:
[...]
73, Best Wishes,
Dave Bushong
KZ1O


Dave,

Why won't the President acknowledge what hams do? Simple.....can't allow
us "Amateurs" to show up the giants like Motorola...wouldn't look good on
the stock exchange.

Dan/W4NTI



Dan,

I can't say I disagree.

Dave
kz1o

"Dave Bushong" wrote in message
...
Dan/W4NTI wrote:
[...]
73, Best Wishes,
Dave Bushong
KZ1O


Dave,

Why won't the President acknowledge what hams do? Simple.....can't
allow us "Amateurs" to show up the giants like Motorola...wouldn't look
good on the stock exchange.

Dan/W4NTI



Dan,

I can't say I disagree.

Dave
kz1o

I know Bush knows about Ham radio. He sent us a message.... hi.

Dan/W4NTI