[Qcwa] The Blackout of 2003

[Norm Gertz]

Mike.....I am not surprised at the "meager response" to your
posting........your "doomsday" remarks make me wonder just what amateur
radio activities you are involved in these days.

VHF, UHF Weak Signal techniques, PSK, Echolink etc.
are a few areas getting a lot of attention from the amateur radio community.

A look at the results of the different ARRL and CQ contests show very
substantial activity. (Note all the CW participants)

Having participated in disaster communications from the 1938 Northeast
Hurricane to several emergencies here in Florida I can assure you that there
are thousands who benefited from amateur radio communication who will never
forget.  This in spite of a lack of publicity in most cases.

" I'm just hoping
that the Amateur Radio Service and Amateur Radio Operators will still be
around toward the end of the decade when I can finally retire, get that HF
antenna up and get back to my favorite Ham Radio activity - Rag Chewing.  "

Mike, rest assured that when you put up an antenna again there will be
amateur radio stations on the air available to rag chew.

Remember, you can only get out of a hobby what you put into it.  There are
still plenty of different aspects of the hobby to interest almost anyone.

73     Norm    K1AA






----- Original Message ----- 
From: <ka2e@att.net>
To: <QCWA@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, August 22, 2003 3:24 PM
Subject: [Qcwa] The Blackout of 2003


> Frankly, I'm surprised my tongue-in-cheek posting about the blackout
elicited
> the meager response it did.  I wonder if that is because we're finally
> getting the message or that the message is no longer relevant.  I'll
explain.
>
> I am deeply concerned for the future of Amateur Radio in this new
environment
> where the proliferation of low-power wireless services is so rapid and
where
> worldwide communication is now available at the click of a computer mouse.
> What reason can I possibly give to a youngster to persuade him to invest
vast
> amounts of time studying for a ticket and building a station and vast
amounts
> of money on decent equipment - when a five hundred dollar computer and 20
> bucks a month puts him on the Internet?  Heck, how can I convince an
inactive
> ham to log off the Internet and get back on the air?  Much more important,
> what arguments can we proffer to the public and public officials to give
> Amateur Radio priority and protection from incursions by wireless devices
and
> technologies such as BPL?  Can our governmental leaders really be expected
to
> protect Amateur Radio at the expense of new technologies that offer
services
> to millions and that will nurture new industries?
>
> Look at the age-old TVI/RFI problem - have we been able to convince the
> Government to require manufacturers of home entertainment equipment to
make
> them less prone to our signals?  Given our "success" with TVI, does anyone
> really think that a technology like BPL will be denied to the public to
keep
> a bunch of CB'ers from having their chatter interfered with?
>
> Yes, I mean CB'ers.  It is an undeniable fact that the vast majority of
the
> American public refers to Radio Amateurs as "CB'ers" and has no concept of
> what the Amateur Radio Service actually is.  That was the reason I made my
> blackout posting.
>
> I received only one answer to my posting and it contained the same old
clich�
> answers about "service".   How will the future of Amateur Radio be
guaranteed
> by our public service when that service is largely unknown and
unacknowledged
> by the very public we profess to serve?  Furthermore, have we taken a hard
> look at exactly what our "Public Service" is actually accomplishing for
> others outside the hobby.   Is there in fact, a genuine need for what we
can
> provide in this wireless phone and Internet age?
>
> In the first half of my thirty years of being a Ham, I volunteered for
just
> about every type of event that needed communications assistance.  (I only
> regret that family and work took precedence in the second 15 years, I hope
> that when I retire, I can return to full enjoyment of the hobby.)  The
> important fact to note is that in the 70's, telephones that used radio as
a
> link were rare commercially, and such a service was mostly the domain of
> Radio Amateurs through Autopatch and HF Phone patches.  Thus our
> contributions were necessary and clearly justified our existence.  When I
was
> deployed during the 1991 Gulf War, I sure didn't need MARS to get a
message
> home, the troops had banks of phones set up for them to call home and if a
> landline wasn't available, I grabbed an INMARSAT terminal and got through
> that way.
>
> Perhaps even more important, after all the events I volunteered for, I
always
> checked the nightly news afterward for coverage.  Rarely did I ever see
any
> coverage for our efforts.  If any was given it seldom amounted to a few
> seconds buried amongst all the "important" news.   The only coverage I
heard
> about hams in the NYC blackout was a short piece on AM radio about
"Amateur
> Radio operators using World War I technology to help people whose cell
phones
> didn't work".   A few days ago, the ARRL sent out its letter about Amateur
> Radio's "service" during the blackout.   Will anyone outside of the
Amateur
> community even see that letter?   And what if they do?  Do you know what
> handling 500 pieces of traffic means to the public?  Absolutely nothing!
The
> only lesson the public learned from Blackout 2003 was that our cellular
> networks need to be made more robust and more spectrum needs to be taken
away
> from the "CB'ers" to make sure there is enough wireless bandwidth for
> subscribers.
>
> You'll notice that this posting contains many questions and very few
> answers.  That's because I don't have the answers.  I'm an ordinary
rank-and-
> file ham who's always looked to the leadership of such organizations as
the
> QCWA and the ARRL for these answers.  You've had more experience as hams
and
> more experience at life than I have but I believe that you are starting to
> lose sight of serious problems that are on the horizon.  I think you're
> beginning to believe your own "hype".  Instead of wasting time debating
the
> utility of CW and such irrelevant issues, we must pose and debate the
basic
> question, is Amateur Radio still relevant and will it survive.
>
> You and I both know the answer to that question, but can we make our case
> outside the Amateur community?  Unless we can prove our relevance to the
> public and their elected officials whose laws control our future, I do not
> believe that we have a chance of competing against encroachment and
eventual
> extinction by other wireless services.  Amateur Radio spawned the age of
> electronic communications and later, spawned the original computer
hobbyists
> like myself who built the information age - God help us.  I don't know
what
> future technologies will arise or from where they will come.  I'm just
hoping
> that the Amateur Radio Service and Amateur Radio Operators will still be
> around toward the end of the decade when I can finally retire, get that HF
> antenna up and get back to my favorite Ham Radio activity - Rag Chewing.
>
> 73.
>
>
> --
> Mike Sturm, KA2E
> http://home.att.net/~ka2e
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