[ARRL-OK] Reminder

[Mark D. Conklin N7XYO]

Reminder :)

Amateur Radio Operators are licensed by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) as the Amateur Radio “Service”.  Not the Amateur Radio
“hobby”.  It is better to describe us as in most of us are “electronic
experimenter or communications enthusiast”.

Please keep in mind the word “SERVICE” when you speak about and write
about Amateur Radio. We are a “SERVICE”.  In the minds of the public and
to some in the agencies we serve, they tend to compare “hobby” is equal to
scrap booking and stamp collecting. Not that to scrap booking and stamp
collecting is a bad thing, it’s just not something you think of when you
think of service to your community in an emergency.

As demonstrated by about 80 Amateur Radio Operators here in Oklahoma
(providing 24/7 communications at the Camp Gruber, OK shelter operations)
and the hundreds of Amateur Radio Operators responding to emergency
communication needs in the Hurricane Katrina disaster area, we are the
Amateur Radio Service.
*(See Part 97 below for reference.)

73 Mark Conklin N7XYO
OK Section Public Information Coordinator
President, Tulsa Repeater Organization


When all else fails
 Amateur Radio Works!



Amateur Radio Service
§97.1 Basis and purpose.

The rules and regulations in this Part are designed to provide an amateur
radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following
principles:

(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the
public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly
with respect to providing emergency communications.

(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to
contribute to the advancement of the radio art.

(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules
which provide for advancing skills in both the communications and
technical phases of the art.

(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service
of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.

(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance
international goodwill.