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#31
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Entry-level class
On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:21:40 EDT, Michael Coslo wrote:
What I have been seeing recently is that people who are already working in emergency operations have been getting Technician licenses, and intend to commandeer repeaters as needed during emergencies. Our district-wide ARES/RACES groups have several repeaters licensed to members so no "commandeering" is necessary. In addition, we routinely test simplex paths between our served agencies in case repeaters go down for any reason. Even in our area, whole groups of folk have been getting licensed in this reverse manner. We have ambulance drivers, paramedics, comm center staff. I suspect in the near far term, we won't be getting in the door period, unless we become some kind of semi professional unpaid volunteer. We've kicked this around too. All of our active members have been "vetted" by the state police for RACES ID cards and most of us carry Sheriff's Office entry passes (picture ID, not law enforcement officer credentials) that are necessary to get into facilities where the SO provides security. We've also kicked around the situation where in our hospital we have to go through the Emergency Room entry area to reach the EOC, and the ER docs and nurses are empowered that if during an emergency/lockdown they see anyone in the ER whom they do not recognize they are to have security detain them for interrogation. For that reason those of us who serve hospitals also have hospital picture IDs issued by the security department. Welcome to the 21st Century. I think a new class of Ham is inadvertently coming about - that of the quasi-professional ham - one who is employed in a field that occasionally calls on them to use their amateur radio license in pursuit of their work. Note that the FCC has upheld this as legal IIRC. Most, if not all of our served agencies have ruled that in a "real" emergency, the employee does his or her regular job, not serve as part of the Amateur Radio teams. We have MOUs with the served agencies that we will provide the necessary comms if their regular comms become unavailable. The only exception is with the HEARTNET role as the secondary backup for the inter-hospital ER status and reporting system carried on 800 MHz with a primary backup of 155 MHz, and if both of those "commercial" services go down, the 146 MHz simplex net is used by ER personnel who are licensed hams. We have no problem with that because the traffic that would be handled is very medical-specific and decisions have to be made "on the fly" over the radio, and it's better to have the RNs do it than to have to pass messages through non-medical personnel. The major downside of all this is that as Emergency ops move toward this mode, the question arises of why they would be using amateur radio to perform the function at all - they might as well have their own system on their own frequencies, that they alone use. And they do. We are the "whenever all fails, we are still there." And the "modern" 800 MHz systems are virtually useless when things get hot because of either system hardware failure or priority public safety traffic making the system unavailable to "lower on the ladder" users. A very small payback for the privilege of using the spectrum that we get. -- 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon e-mail: k2asp [at] arrl [dot] net |
#32
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Entry-level class
"Steve Bonine" wrote in message ... In a week I will begin teaching an entry-level class that the local Another issue is the scheduling of the class. There are proponents of the weekend method -- cover the material in a day or so. While there are advantages to that, I favor multiple shorter sessions. I think that learning is much better in that environment, but in today's hectic world, getting people to commit to multiple sessions is problematic. We've decided on six session spread over three weeks. Maybe that was a fatal error; time will tell. have you considered schedlues the classes past the projecting VE tests ession allowing to focus more at fist on the exam and more later on real operating |
#33
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Entry-level class
Bruce in Alaska wrote:
In article , Michael Coslo wrote: The major downside of all this is that as Emergency ops move toward this mode, the question arises of why they would be using amateur radio to perform the function at all - they might as well have their own system on their own frequencies, that they alone use. What happenes when the Repeaters, and or Remote Bases, are lost due to Power Loss, FIRE, or EarthQuake, at the High Point Remote Locations that the EMS/Enforcment System uses, or secondly, what happens when the Telco Links from the EMS/Enforcment Comms Center fail, due to these same situations and the CommCenter can work the Repeaters and Remote Bases via RF Links but can't communicate with the next higher Govt entity? There you have it. I would say that those who are running the show are very VHF/UHF centric. They don't know about long distance radio, except for perhaps satellite Operations, which are still line of site. Someone somewhere has to know what bands to use at what time and for what distance. A bunch of good stuff snipped The Feds have been trying to deal with these senerios since 9/11, and are just NOW, starting to get a handle on SOME of the problems, and solutions, that will be involved. Your post is pretty accurate, Bruce. One of the things that I want to add is that while Amateur radio was one of the few things that worked very well, those who are in command are bent on turning it into something more like what failed. I believe that the present day post 911, and even more post Katrina emphasis on emcomm Amateur radio is imposing a structure upon those Hams who would volunteer their time, when in fact, what has allowed Ham radio to work in emergencies is that very lack of structure among knowledgeable Hams who in a random fashion come forth and offer their services and know-how to the problem at hand. I believe that imposing a structure on the ARS, and bringing it into the fold, so to speak, will increase the chances that Amateur radio will be the one to fail along with other parts of the emergency operations. As we are called upon to have our backgrounds checked, our lifestyle and financial dealings investigated, and resign ourselves to hauling out the trash or unloading trucks, there will be less of us willing to spend our vacation time or even simply lose money to offer our services. At that time, most of what will be left is those quasi-professional technicians who are licensed to talk, but know precious little else about how to make sure the comms continue. Then comes failure. It's a real problem, because those who make the decisions can only see solutions as application of structure, and if there is a problem, the answer must be more structure. Its like the old saying "If your tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails." This is a very controversial position for sure, as witnessed by local Emergency people's reaction when I bring it up. My only suggestion is for people to look at what causes failure, and correct it. Some times what seems like a good idea is what causes failure. If that is the case, no application of more of that "good idea" will create success. - 73 de Mike KB3EIA - |
#34
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Entry-level class
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:49:38 EDT, Michael Coslo wrote:
There you have it. I would say that those who are running the show are very VHF/UHF centric. They don't know about long distance radio, except for perhaps satellite Operations, which are still line of site. Someone somewhere has to know what bands to use at what time and for what distance. Most, if not all, of our served agencies have or are getting HF transceivers for "long distance" communication. If the repeater and/or packet relays go down, that's what we have to use to connect to state and regional EOCs, usually by NVIS facilities. Most of our leadership have those in their home stations as well. Some of us are looking into automatic interchange between VHF to HF for digital traffic. We aren't content with a "shack on the belt" approach. -- 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon e-mail: k2asp [at] arrl [dot] net |
#35
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Entry-level class
Phil Kane wrote in
: On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:49:38 EDT, Michael Coslo wrote: There you have it. I would say that those who are running the show are very VHF/UHF centric. They don't know about long distance radio, except for perhaps satellite Operations, which are still line of site. Someone somewhere has to know what bands to use at what time and for what distance. Most, if not all, of our served agencies have or are getting HF transceivers for "long distance" communication. If the repeater and/or packet relays go down, that's what we have to use to connect to state and regional EOCs, usually by NVIS facilities. Most of our leadership have those in their home stations as well. Some of us are looking into automatic interchange between VHF to HF for digital traffic. We aren't content with a "shack on the belt" approach. Perhaps your local setup is doing well, Phil, I can only see what is happening locally, and what I get from the news. I suspect they have some good people running the show there?\ - 73 de Mike KB3EIA - |
#36
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Entry-level class
On Oct 30, 4:49?am, Michael Coslo wrote:
Bruce in Alaska wrote: In article , Michael Coslo wrote: It's a real problem, because those who make the decisions can only see solutions as application of structure, and if there is a problem, the answer must be more structure. Its like the old saying "If your tool is a hammer, all problems look like nails." If all you have is a nail-puller, your structure won't hold together... AF6AY |
#37
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Entry-level class
Last December, some hams in my town put on a "Ham Cram" one-day study and
license test for Technician Class. One week ahead of time, the students received a print-out of the question pool. On Ham Cram day, from 7:30 AM to 1:00 PM they were drilled on the questions, with the correct answer being stressed. After a lunch break, at 2:00 PM my VE License exam team arrived to test them. 13 of 14 passed. BUT, I have had contact with several of these students since the Ham Cram, and they had almost no practical knowledge of amateur radio. They required A LOT of Elmering. IMHO, lessons spread out one night a week for a couple of months, with practical demonstrations and discussions of ham culture would have made much better hams. 73 de Dick, AC7EL |
#38
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Entry-level class
"Dick Grady AC7EL" wrote in message
... Last December, some hams in my town put on a "Ham Cram" one-day study and license test for Technician Class. One week ahead of time, the students received a print-out of the question pool. On Ham Cram day, from 7:30 AM to 1:00 PM they were drilled on the questions, with the correct answer being stressed. After a lunch break, at 2:00 PM my VE License exam team arrived to test them. 13 of 14 passed. BUT, I have had contact with several of these students since the Ham Cram, and they had almost no practical knowledge of amateur radio. They required A LOT of Elmering. IMHO, lessons spread out one night a week for a couple of months, with practical demonstrations and discussions of ham culture would have made much better hams. 73 de Dick, AC7EL There is very little math on the Tech test. If you can't remember to divide the number "300", you probably won't remember the rest of the answers. However, experience makes a good ham, not knowledge of the answers. I am an extra class ham, but I realized that without experience or a fundamental knowledge of electronics, I really couldn't do much more than push a button and chat. -Mindraker |
#39
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Entry-level class
Dick Grady AC7EL wrote:
Last December, some hams in my town put on a "Ham Cram" one-day study and license test for Technician Class. One week ahead of time, the students received a print-out of the question pool. On Ham Cram day, from 7:30 AM to 1:00 PM they were drilled on the questions, with the correct answer being stressed. After a lunch break, at 2:00 PM my VE License exam team arrived to test them. 13 of 14 passed. BUT, I have had contact with several of these students since the Ham Cram, and they had almost no practical knowledge of amateur radio. They required A LOT of Elmering. IMHO, lessons spread out one night a week for a couple of months, with practical demonstrations and discussions of ham culture would have made much better hams. I think that the optimum recipe for baking a new ham is first a class that teaches basic concepts based on the pool questions, then the exam, followed by a combination of classes and one-on-one Elmering to get the new hams on the air and integrated into the ham-radio community. If you present a prospective ham with the prospect of a class that continues for months they're likely to be intimidated to the point of deciding that they can't make that level of time commitment. The trick is finding a scheduling scheme that gives you enough time to do more than just go over the pool questions but doesn't scare away all the prospective students. A one-day cram might be a good starting point *if* there is plenty of followup support and the new/prospective hams are encouraged to do more than attend the one-day class, pass their written test, and then never get involved with the hobby. Personally, I don't care for cram sessions, but some people do, and they have the advantage of providing an opportunity to get people "hooked" and thereby get them into appropriate followup activities. They also have the potential for being such a negative experience that they turn off prospective hams. Everything is a trade off. The key to getting new people involved in the hobby is to pique their interest enough that they follow through. Back in the "good 'ole days" the allure of radio technology was enough to attract folks, many of them teenagers, into the hobby. In today's world, radio is pretty "low tech" and this natural attraction is diluted by newer bells and whistles. We need to do the same kinds of public relations and marketing that is done by other activities that are competing for peoples' spare time. We need people to read or see something that makes them think, "Gee, that could be a rewarding activity." You can offer all the entry-level classes you want, but if no one is interested enough in the potential of ham radio to attend the class, nothing is gained. That's not to say that I have any magic answers on how to do this. I do see a trend of more "middle aged" recruits coming on board these days -- people who have had the idea in the back of their heads for years of getting into ham radio, and finally have time to act on it. My experience is that many of these folks see an article about ham radio being used for some aspect of public service, and that's what re-kindles the latent idea, but I have no real scientific basis for that belief. I think it would be a good use of ARRL funds to do some market research in this area, figure out what it is that's motivating people to enter the hobby, then use that knowledge to improve our PR. As an aside, for those who might be interested in the class that was the impetus to start this thread, I've got ten students and I think that things are going well. Most of the students are interacting in the class and seem to be enthusiastic about what they're learning. (Well, perhaps "enthusiastic" is a bit of an overstatement since much of what we discuss is dry regulations, but at least I haven't heard any snores yet.) Of course it is much too early to tell how successful we will be since I will judge that based on how many of these folks I hear on the air and see at local ham-related activities six months from now. 73, Steve KB9X |
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