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 -