[MNham] Hams no longer welcome at parade

[N2DUP at aol.com]

This is real sad ... 73, Chuck, N2DUP
 
Pasadena Star-News
By Gene Maddaus 
Staff Writer 

Thursday,  November 11, 2004
 
PASADENA -- A pair of ham radio operators were lugging equipment onto the  
grounds of Tournament House in preparation for last year's parade when they were 
 stopped by a "senior Tournament official.' 

"This senior Tournament  person came absolutely unglued,' reports Allen 
Hubbard, a board member of the .  "He was accusing them of lying to get on the 
grounds.' 

Although they are  not officially part of the Tournament of Roses, the radio 
amateurs have been  providing a communications link along the Rose Parade 
route for more than 30  years. Radio operators have routinely "shadowed' 
Tournament White Suiters,  behaving like a volunteer signal corps straight out of World 
War II. 

But  in the age of cell phones, they have begun to feel unwanted. 

This week,  the Tournament of Roses Radio Amateurs voted not to participate 
in the upcoming  parade, after suffering what they perceived to be a series of 
indignities.  

"This has been building for at least the last four years,' Hubbard said.  

For many of the more than 250 club members, the incident at Tournament  House 
last year was the last straw. 

"I think it's come to the end of a  run,' said Bill Flinn, the Tournament's 
chief operating officer. "We're sorry to  see them go.' 

Most White Suiters have cell phones, and don't need a  radio operator 
shadowing their every move. Nextel is a corporate sponsor of the  parade, and has 
donated a number of phones to the Tournament. That doesn't sit  well with the ham 
radio operators, who point out that cell phones often lose  reception in 
areas where ham radios work. 

Amateur radio operators also  tend to pride themselves on being hobbyists, 
and on not being profit-seekers.  

"We provide a genuine service to the Tournament,' said Earle Bunker, a  club 
member for 20 years. "The people we work with the White Suiters are very  much 
for us. They tell us that. It's somebody farther up the line.'  

Bunker, who has traditionally handled ham radios at the post-parade  float 
viewing, said the radios often come in handy. 

"Two years ago a  fellow lost his insulin kit,' Bunker said. "Somebody turned 
in the kit at one of  the gates.' 

Radio operators made the connection, and the kit was  returned. 

The radio group has also tracked floats with global  positioning devices and 
installed a dozen video cameras up and down the parade  route. 

"Every year, there's $70,000 worth of private equipment brought  in to help 
the Rose Parade,' Bunker said. "I think there are some who think they  can do 
it all with Nextel. I don't think they can.' 

Over the years, the  group has coordinated its activities from a room inside 
Tournament House that  acted as a nerve center. But a recent remodeling 
transformed the radio room into  archive storage. Over the past few years, the group 
has had to transmit from a  mobile trailer. 

"We used to get what we felt was better cooperation,'  Hubbard said. "People 
on the board have felt that Nextel has put pressure on the  Tournament to get 
rid of us. They want people using Nextels.'  

Representatives of Nextel Communications did not return calls for  comment. 

The radio group had been negotiating with the Tournament in an  effort to 
keep the relationship alive. The minutes of a July meeting suggest  that at the 
time, relations were strained but the radio club remained optimistic  that it 
could still be useful. 

"Time was spent reviewing the TORRA  assignments list, clarifying, confirming 
and deleting positions,' the minutes  state. "Most TOR chairs will not need 
shadows since they have Nextels.'  

The minutes also suggest that radio operators were left stranded and  bored 
last year, without a White Suiter and with nothing to do. When Ed  Afsharian, 
chair of communications and credentialing for the Tournament,  suggested that 
one radio position be cut, the radio amateurs responded that the  position was 
so important that an extra operator should be added. 

The  negotiations finally broke down Sunday, when the radio amateurs' board 
voted to  back out of the Jan. 1, 2005, parade. 

The Tournament will get along  without the radio operators this time, Flinn 
said, and consider having them back  for the 2006 parade. Hubbard said his wife 
is looking forward to taking him out  for a New Year's Eve party for the 
first time in 15 years. 

"They say new  technology will take care of it, but I don't know,' said 
Bunker's wife, Mary  Louise, herself a ham operator and a former mayor of Alhambra. 
"A lot of gals  don't know what good a husband is until he goes on a business 
trip.  

"It's going to be a real interesting New  Year's.'"