[ILHam] SEC Re: Rebuttal to Hot air in the `blogosphere' - (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune (Mike D.)

[R. Patrick Ryan]

original
 sent to Mr. John Cook jjcook@tribune.com
 
I must take issue with your recent article circulating on our Illinois
amateur radio reflector on blogs and their influence, especially
concerning your opinion of amateur radio operators. As an ARRL field
service appointee in the American Radio Relay League in Illinois, I just
had to enlighten you somewhat, if possible.
 
I just do not understand your claim that amateur radio operators are
isolated, lonely and bored people, as you describe yourself. Obviously,
you do not know of the amateur radio operators that are individually
involved in support of their local community, or their many fine clubs
and amateur radio groups whose members enjoy our technical hobby.
Individual amateur radio operators do volunteer much time in the public
service, and contribute their knowledge of the science of communication
and technology to their everyday lives. Not because they are lonely, but
they care. Explaining communications to a journalist with a "I talk, you
listen", or worse, "I write, you read" mentality may be a waste of time,
but I just can not let your very biased opinion pass unchallenged.
 
There are many amateur radio operators from all professions who are
united in their love of amateur radio. "What king of old had the power to
hurl his words far beyond his realm", and even receive an instant and
friendly response from the far corners of earth?  Not a "chat room" of
words appearing on a computer monitor, but many real conversations occur
in amateur radio, perhaps centered on the common point of their amateur
radio hobby as an opening exchange of pleasantries.  Not flamers, or
deriding comment, but a communication exchange with a new acquaintance
"on-the-air" in amateur radio. And also long term friendships form, and
can last decades, in amateur radio. Not because the amateur radio
operator is friendless otherwise, but because they tend to be friendly as
a culture, some exceptions, of course.
 
Amateur radio operators are probably among the friendliest people around
today, united by their common technical communications hobby, or special
interest in a particular facet of this broad hobby. The person from the
distant end of the conversation may be a medical doctor, who writes
computer software for other amateurs to use as a way to challenge their
mind in a different technical field. Or a teacher who uses amateur radio
to explain physics to his high school class. Or an inventor who meets the
group "on-the-air" to check on the performance of his free intellectual
product with other amateur radio users in a regular network. It may be
the former military service member meeting an amateur radio network at
the same daily time, every day, in order to relay free messages from
family and friends to deployed active duty military members, overseas or
in isolated posts, to keep them from being bored and lonely. Other
amateur radio operators may meet to chat at a regular time with friends
met on the air recently, or years ago, and ironically, they may never get
to meet in person due to their distance separation. 
 
Other amateur radio operators may have been meeting and planning for
their annual outing, called Field Day, occurring all over the United
States on the fourth full weekend in June every year at a public area or
emergency operations center nearby. These people work as a team to set up
a temporary amateur radio station, and to test their emergency
communications skills. And skill it is to spend the next twenty four
hours of listening, calling for contact, picking out station after
station from a bedlam of thousands of other operators all over America,
and complete an exchange of data with each. Again, just one station at a
time, using amateur radio's many modes, including voice, Morse code or
even digital communications, as complete a basic exchange of the basic
two way communications. This all in a friendly competition with a serious
purpose, to be able to test a link between two points in America in the
most basic communications network in case the need arises for disaster or
emergency response.
 
In their underwear, I doubt it. Comfortable clothing, certainly casual,
perhaps even a house coat or bathrobe occasionally after the shower to
wash off the day's toil. Others meet with friends then in their own time
zone and lets the days pressure dissolve, or meets with those far away
just waking to a new day across the world, such is the magic of amateur
radio. And, there is amateur television, too, and those particular
operators have spent some effort in arranging the view for the enjoyment
of others, and I have yet to see one in underwear in that medium, unlike
the computer spam received unsolicited almost daily here.
 
And a few, the precious few, amateur radio operators who may not be
interested in a weekend contest to see how many stations or countries
they can work in periodic contest events "on the air" using amateur
radio. These special, and registered, amateur radio operators may serve
not for the usual betterment of just their own lives, but for the lives
of others with their spirit of volunteer service in Emergency Management
Agencies (ESDA) of local and county government. Here they may be, serving
long hours as volunteer communicators during crisis and disasters. The
World Trade Center 9/11 attack was also a disaster, and had many amateur
radio operators working communications around the clock for week after
week with the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and other volunteer
organizations. Local floods, tornados, earthquakes, wild fires, the list
of amateur radio stations and volunteer amateur radio resides in our rare
"Public Service Activity Reports" to the American Radio Relay League for
their monthly publication, QST, a magazine of some renown. Our local
service is also reported to our member elected ARRL Section Manager for
Illinois, Shari Harlan N9SH, of Rockford, IL, along with a count of free
messages sent or delivered, and relayed along the way by a few key
stations. Read this month's SM report at her ARRL web page at
http://www.arrl.org/sections/?sect=IL.
 
Amateur radio operators also work and report many hours in public service
to provide free communications support for their favorite charity events,
bicycle races, and other Public Service Events, helping to ensure all
come home. Even the National Weather Service in Chicago and other offices
utilizes amateur radio communicators to obtain ground truth observations
during severe weather warnings and watches from trained observers, who
may be amateur radio operators, that will augment and verify public
reports of tornado sightings, and provide the necessary real observations
and ground truth far remote from the weather forecaster radar position.
 
Blog, yes, we must have some somewhere in our amateur radio ranks, and
interesting, perhaps, to others. Influential? Perhaps not to a writer who
might have a closed mind, and maligns or spreads a misconception that you
admit that describes yourself. It amazes me that you then try to apply it
to a commendable public service group. It is true that we do refer to our
"freqs", meaning a short version of  "frequency", a word of technical
meaning in our hobby you would equate to "channels", perhaps. The
pronunciation of  the word "freak" is the same, so perhaps your writing
just displays an attempt at a pun, or just your prejudice and ignorance,
to me, by failing to recognize the contribution we amateur radio
operators do provide.  Even if you were a member of this vast legion of
amateur radio operators, you might soon find yourself lonely and
friendless "on the air" as well, but we have room in our federally
licensed hobby even for you, John Cook. 
 
best regards,
Pat Ryan KC6VVT
Illinois Section Emergency Coordinator, ARRL
P. O. Box 24
Tonica, IL 61370-0024   
kc6vvt@arrl.net

________________________________________________________________
The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand!
Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER!
Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!