[CC-ARES-RACES] Ham Radio & INET

[JD Delancy]

Extracted from a note WB5ZQN sent to me.  Draw your own conclusions..

-----------------------Original Message-----------------------

Dispatched this week to readers in 195 countries and to the New York, New York
offices of the National Kidney Foundation, it's...

THIS is TRUE for 5 May 2002             Copyright 2002 www.thisistrue.com

I WORKED COMMUNICATIONS SUPPORT for another forest fire in Colorado this week, very
near the last one I mentioned. When I talked about my involvement earlier, I got a
LOT of notes from ham radio operators. Don in Washington: "With the explosive gains
in the Internet, we as radio enthusiasts are abandoning the traditional uses of ham
radio in droves. Daily, it is becoming easier to get that 'rare dx' [long-distance
contact] via the Internet rather than the conventional mode. As a result, many are
losing incentive to build on their knowledge and expertise to maintain a real radio
station. When the telephone lines are lost due to many hazards, it is becoming more
difficult to communicate, via the only failsafe system, we have available to us:
Radio. I see no solution on the horizon that will improve our plight. I hope someone
has a way to invigorate our hobby."

It's true that the 'net satisfies the basic drive to communicate (especially by
geeky methods!) that ham radio used to. But amateur radio has always changed with
the times -- not too many communicate via spark gap anymore, you know? By pointing
out that ham radio is still viable (e.g., by use in forest fires and other
emergencies), people learn that ham radio is still viable. What it lacks, I think,
is good press: "the public" doesn't know that ham radio isn't just scratchy
communications between continents (which can be fun, of course); it's rarely Morse
Code anymore, either (much to the annoyance of a lot of the old timers). It's color,
full-motion TV. It's communications over hundreds of miles with tiny handheld
radios. It's bouncing signals off the moon. It's beaming your voice over satellites.
It's talking direct to the space station (I helped set up a chat between Boulder
County school kids and the station last year). And a lot more. If you've "always
wanted to" learn about ham radio, you use the best tool for the job: the 'net! The
Amateur Radio Relay League, formed in 1914, is still an active organization and can
be found at http://www.arrl.org Newcomers will probably want to start with the
"Learn About Amateur Radio" link near the top. To read about the Boulder kids
chatting with the space station see: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2001/06/22/3/

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