[PPRAANet] Why we must pay attention to our abilities and practice at Fi...

[DESloan at aol.com]

Some very good reasons why we should all find some time to participate in  
Field Day.
 
73,
Dave N0EOP
 
 
In a message dated 6/18/2008 3:38:12 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time,  
ukbrown at aol.com writes:
I got this from Johnny  KD5LWU the president of  the Cortez ARC and a 
GMCC member.  Its a bit long but still good. PTL  bill K0UK





Subject: Why we must pay attention to our  abilities and practice at
Field Day



America's Quiet  Warriors

America's quiet warriors are the legion of ham radio operators,  700,000
of them, who are always at ready for backup duty in emergencies  –
amateur, unpaid, uncelebrated, civilian radio operators, during  and
after floods and fires and tornadoes. After the 9/11 attacks, hams  were
indispensable in reuniting friends and families. Most recently it  was
they who expedited the search for debris after the disaster to  the
space shuttle Columbia, and right now, at this moment, they  are
involved in homeland security to a greater degree than you would  want
me to make public. — Paul Harvey News and Comment, ABC Radio,  March
19, 2003

The Amateur Radio Service:

Why It Is  Essential

Homeland Security

Ham radio is essential to homeland  security in the United States. Our
service is a dispersed and decentralized  communications system that
can't be shut down by terrorist attck. While  public safety agencies
rely on central dispatch stations, amateur radio  operators can go on
the air just about anywhere anytime. Hams are trained  communicators
with technical knowledge that prepares them to put their  stations on
the air at remote sites quickly, creating makeshift facilities  when
needed. Amateur radio operators don't have to wait for technicians  to
arrive to repair equipment or re-program computers. Hams can do  it
themselves on the fly.


Natural and Human  Disasters

Amateur radio operators have proven themselves to be  essential
volunteer responders in weather and other natural emergencies,  and
disasters of human origin. Hams can go on the air and stay on the  air
when ordinary public service communications fail. For many decades,  ham
radio often has been the only means of communicating from a  stricken
area to the outside world for hours and sometimes even  days.


Communications Technology

Radio amateurs have unique  capabilities. The telephone companies can't
afford to build cellphone towers  everywhere. There are big holes in
coverage of sparsely populated areas away  from cities and Interstate
highways. Ham radio, on the other hand, is  everywhere. During
disasters, amateur radio volunteers can work without any  fixed
infrastructure. We're mobile and we're portable.

Of course, we  do have a huge infrastructure in place, also. For
example, the ARRL Repeater  Directory 2006-2007 lists 20,389 VHF and UHF
repeaters across the U.S. and  Canada. And then there are hundreds of
thousands of homes and cars outfitted  with two-way radio transceivers
on HF, VHF and UHF bands.

Whether or  not there are towers to receive and repeat their signals, we
can't help but  notice there are cellphones everywhere. Unfortunately,
the one-on-one nature  of cellphone calls makes it almost impossible for
a large group of emergency  workers all at the same time to get an
overall picture of how an event is  developing. When an emergency
manager is taking a call from one person, he or  she miss calls from
others.

Also, cell networks can go down when  conditions are most critical.
Towers can become disabled by the very  conditions that may have caused
an emergency and cellular networks can be  flooded out with panic calls
placed by members of the general  public.

Hams operate nets all over the HF, VHF and UHF bands, while  public
safety agencies and related industries have narrow two-way systems  on
one or a few frequencies with what they call dispatchers. Those  public
safety agencies – such as police and fire departments,  ambulance
companies, rescue squads and the power and telephone companies  and
other outfits that are part of the nation's critical infrastructure  –
can't afford to provide the kinds of widespread, distributed  radio
communications networks for themselves that hams already have.  Instead,
those agencies that radio amateurs work with during emergencies have  to
rely on ham radio.

Radio amateurs bring more than two-way voice  communications to
emergencies. Here are some of the additional services hams  can offer:

portable and mobile amateur television (atv)

fixed and  mobile data services (packet radio)

vehicle location services  (APRS)

telephone connections (phone patch) where cellular networks don't  have
coverage.

Hams are ready now to carry emergency message traffic  across town,
across the state, coast-to-coast or around the  globe.


Human Resources

Those public service agencies served by  radio amateurs get more than
the latest technology. They get the hams  themselves – dedicated workers
who are trained specifically in emergency  communications. Training and
experience in unexpected emergencies make radio  amateurs more likely to
convey accurate information over their radio systems.  In fact, the
served agencies get a close-knit collection of experienced,  disciplined
volunteers who know how to work together as team.

For many  hams, solving communications challenges is what amateur radio
is all about.  Because they are dedicated communicators, hams aren't as
likely to miss key  information shared on a net while agency leaders are
busy doing other things.  Radio amateurs often can see the big picture
and provide information support  to agency leaders during a crisis
simply because the hams have been  monitoring emergency nets and know
more about what's going on at any one  moment than the agency
leadership.











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