[BARC-List] Taking Issue with Ham Radio

[KA1MOM at aol.com]

I have two items that come to mind:
The "greying" of  American hams: There seems to be an impresion that we will 
die out of  
old age.  The cure for this is more mentoring  through schools and youth 
groups.  If you 
want some  examples of this working, check  out:
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2004/12/31/1/?nc=1
http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2004/12/31/2/?nc=1     
http://www.claycenter.org/CC-ARC/index.html

The  CC&R problem: 
HR1478 (the  latest number for the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications  
Consistency Act) had almost twice  as many sponsors as it did on the previous 
 
attempt.  It will surface  with a new number and exactly the same wording 
("For  
purposes of the Federal  Communications Commission's regulation relating to 
station  
antenna structures in the Amateur  Radio Service (47 CFR 97.15), any private 
land  
use rules applicable to such  structures shall be treated as a state or local 
regulation  
and shall be subject to the same  requirements and limitations as a state or 
local  
regulation.'') in the new  congressional session.  What is lacking is a 
vigorous  
campaign of letters to  congressmen explaining why this is an important issue 
and  
asking them to support it.   Supplying statistics on how many hams are in a 
given  
congressional district is not  difficult, just tedious: the license database 
and the  
congressional web site that tells  what ZIP codes are in each district are 
the only  
tools you need.  I am  willing to do a quarterly refresh of this for 
Massachusetts for  
anyone willing to pressure their  congressman. If necessary, I can find time 
to do it 
        for the other New England  states. There are nearly 14,000 hams in 
Massachusetts.
        That is enough of a voting  bloc to be noticed.

-= Bill, KA1MOM =-