[Ares-races] Paid vs volunteer radio operators

[Rick Hampton]

Bill wrote:

> I never mentioned M.A.R.S.. I was one of the ham operators and all of the operation was in the ham frequencies with
> individual call signs. Much of Goldwater's activities was on MARS frequencies, but a ham license was required to have a
> M.A.R.S. operation and still is. K2USA is one of the few remaining. The point is there is no consistency with what the
> government does. We had our radio club meeting of the Ft Hood Amateur radio Club at a M.A.R.S. station located at
> Killeen, Base, TX. It had to co-exist with a ham station.

At the risk of going too far off topic, you could be correct on this one.  Though I spent nearly 15 years in the Ohio Air
National Guard, I wasn't allowed to do any of that, so I simply didn't think anyone else would be either, and assumed you
were talking exclusively about M.A.R.S.  In my unit, any traffic of this type was reserved strictly for the M.A.R.S.
operators, and I wasn't one of them.  No one forbid me from becoming one, I just never saw the need.  (I was in a Combat
Communications Squadron and I think half of use were licensed amateurs, most were also M.A.R.S. operators.  There were too
many operators with too little equipment.)  The only time I used my radios on the amateur band was when my partner rolled
his comm jeep, amputating part of his thumb and sustaining a concussion.  The military nets we'd been using earlier had
closed, so I used the radio in my jeep to contact a local ham (and M.A.R.S. operator) who relayed the message to our base to
meet us back on the net frequency.

> Just another point: I have been on the staff of a hospital for 40 years. That does not make me an employee. Patients or
> a third party pay the doctor not the hospital. I'm sure some doctors maybe employees of a hospital.
>
> If the time should come I will use my ham radio and asked for forgiveness later.capable of posting them there.

And if the physicians at our place want to play radio operator, according to Mr. Cross, they can do so, as long as they
aren't hospital employees.  To the person, every one of them I talked with said they would do so as long as their medical
and/or administrative skills weren't needed more.  We all then agreed they probably wouldn't be operating radios.

Frankly, when I first got the response from Mr. Cross, I was more than a little miffed, though the rules were perfectly
clear.  After really examining the situation at hand though, it seems to me the rule is only a silly, minor annoyance and
certainly nothing worth the risk of an enforcement action.  My point here is that if this rule really hampers our ability to
perform a valuable service under penalty of an enforcement action, it needs to be changed.  It won't get changed if we only
complain to ourselves.  If we really want to change things, we need to offer a realistic alternative and back it up with
supportive data.  I'm willing to help, but I don't have any compelling data that says a change is absolutely necessary, as
I've managed to work around the issues in my case.

Rick