[AReU] Fw: Ham radio operators become asset to HOmeland Security

[Tony Stone]

Some information from Mike (KB4JHU)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Michael Glennon <kb4jhu@arrl.net>
To: Tony W4TAS Stone <w4tas@gte.net>
Sent: Friday, June 27, 2003 10:54 PM
Subject: FW: Ham radio operators become asset to HOmeland Security


> Here is a good words on ham radio....
> 
> Michael D. Glennon KB4JHU / AFA2DQ / WWJ-40-B
> Amateur Radio Extra / USAF MARS / USCG AUX Flotilla 07-07-05
> Web:  http://www.qsl.net/kf4aze
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alacat [mailto:alacat@i-1.net]
> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2003 10:22 PM
> To: Tommy Bennett
> Cc: kb4jhu@arrl.net; Pete Carroll; Larry D. Brown
> Subject: Ham radio operators become asset to HOmeland Security
> 
> stumbled across this just now.  thought you might like to see it.
> Lawrence
> 
> 
> Ham Radio Operators Become Asset to Homeland Security
> Newhouse News ^ | 06-26-03
> 
> After February's space shuttle Columbia explosion, emergency workers in
> East Texas trying to locate the debris quickly
> learned that the easiest way to communicate wasn't by e-mail or cell
> phone -- it was ham radio. Rescuers in New York had
> made the same discovery after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
> 
> Now, emboldened ham operators want the rest of the nation to stop
> thinking of them as geeky basement hobbyists and start
> regarding them as valued assets to homeland security. They are lobbying
> successfully for federal funds and recognition.
> 
> "We're not a hobby. We're an amateur radio service," said Jim
> Haynie,president of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL),
> the Connecticut-based national ham operators' group.
> 
> Unlike cell phones and the Internet, ham radios can handle massive
> surges in traffic and rarely succumb to technical glitches.
> Users are experienced and enthusiastic, always willing to volunteer
> during disasters as a backup when other methods of
> communication fail.
> 
> But they complain that their efforts often go overlooked.
> 
> "Amateur radio's been in the shadows for 75 years," Haynie said. "We
> always did our thing and then went home; we are own
> worst publicists. But I've been spending a lot of time in Washington
> trying to get us recognition and legitimacy."
> 
> Haynie's efforts appear to be paying off. His group received a rare
> $181,900 federal grant last year to expand emergency
> training for homeland security volunteers.
> 
> And the Homeland Security Department recently signed a formal agreement
> with the group to work on ways to expand ham
> radio's popularity as a public safety resource. The agreement calls for
> the agency and radio league to collaborate on raising
> awareness about amateur radio, to provide training and accreditation for
> users and to form local Citizen Corps volunteer
> councils to support rescue efforts.
> 
> "We're very dependent on ham radio folks," said Ron Castleman, chief
> operating officer for the Homeland Security
> Department's Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate, formerly
> the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
> "When something adverse does happen, they're first to keep the
> information flowing, often without electricity."
> 
> As part of this summer's annual Field Day preparedness exercise, local
> ham operators around the nation are looking for closer
> relationships with city and county emergency operations centers, who
> they say sometimes regard ham radio with suspicion.
> 
> All too often during emergencies, those officials "want to be in control
> of everything, especially the police," said Agoura Hills,
> Calif., Mayor Jeff Reinhardt. "Some of them have had to relearn that
> they can indeed be in control and still depend on the
> volunteers. But they've got to nurture those relationships."
> 
> Reinhardt, a ham enthusiast for 12 years who is active in ARRL affairs,
> said he hopes such efforts can help enhance ham radio's
> image. "A lot of folks don't understand what we do. There's been a
> tendency to lump us in with geeks," he said. "We come
> from all walks of life."
> 
> Ham radio operators use a console and a microphone to transmit
> short-wave signals -- either voice or Morse code -- that
> "bounce" off the ionosophere from their home, boat or car transmitters
> to receivers' antennas.
> 
> Around 835,000 licensed hams are in the United States, with around
> 160,000 belonging to the ARRL. They own equipment
> ranging from $150 walkie-talkies for neighborhood use to
> ultra-sophisticated and powerful sets that can communicate
> worldwide and cost upwards of $5,000.
> 
> After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, New York officials found that ham
> radio was the only way they could coordinate the
> sharing of information among firefighters, medical examiners, health and
> technical workers. At the Pentagon plane crash, hams
> also provided help in ensuring that rescuers could talk to each other.
> 
> "It would have been a mess there if we hadn't gotten involved," recalled
> H.D. Scott of Cheverly, Md., a volunteer with the
> Prince George's County Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), a
> ham emergency group in suburban Washington.
> 
> As soon as they heard the news about February's Discovery explosion,
> hams from around Texas converged on Nacogdoches
> County, one of the counties where debris landed. With cell phone
> coverage sporadic in the hilly terrain, every
> search-and-recovery team took at least one operator on its missions.
> 
> "We got a lot of kudos and pats on the back," said Tim Lewallen, a
> manager at a Nacogdoches computer company and ham
> operator. "That's the only pay we get."
> 
> Haynie believes the time has arrived for federal officials to provide
> some funding. He noted that ham radio operators tend to be
> middle-aged -- their average age is 52 -- and that they need to start
> expanding their training programs for schoolchildren.
> 
> "If I had a magic wand and I could get from the Education Department or
> National Science Foundation a million-dollar grant
> where the proceeds and interest would fund these school programs, I
> could make a difference," he said.
> 
> Haynie also wants to ensure that operators have enough broadcast
> spectrum on which to operate. In the last 15 years, he and
> others said, the frequency bands allocated by the Federal Communications
> Commission to amateur radio have been
> substantially reduced.
> 
> In Congress, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate are
> sponsoring legislation that would ensure there is
> adequate spectrum available to amateur radio operators.
> 
> Meanwhile, ham operators in New York and other states are lobbying
> officials to pass legislation that would continue to give
> them the right to set up radio antennas.
> 
> (Chuck McCutcheon can be contacted at chuck.mccutcheon@newhouse.com)
>