[QCWA] A Challenge

[Mike Sturm]

I was very heartened by the measured response by all those who commented on the code issue.  Frankly, I expected a more traditional response and I'm thrilled to be disappointed.

Thirty years in Information Technology has made it easy for me to accept major changes in technology.  In 1980 I was an expert COBOL programmer but that skill is about as useful to the world now as the 20 WPM CW test I took for my extra ticket in '75.  

OK, OK – I do feel a bit superior to anybody that got an extra recently with a 5 WPM test, but that feeling is somewhat deflated by the fact that my 20 WPM test was in the multiple choice format which much easier than the 13 WPM test I took in '72 which required perfect copy for one minute.

CW aside, I really wish the QCWA would tackle the larger issue – the survival of Amateur Radio itself.  Let me illustrate this with something that happened yesterday.

I’m a private pilot and yesterday I flew a few circles around a friend’s house for photos.  Before arriving on station, I flipped my cell phone and called to tell everybody to "look up".  After the photo-mission, I called again to say I was heading back to home base and no, I couldn't see them at the altitude I was at.  Then I shot a picture of myself in the cockpit on the cell phone camera and sent it to folks below.

Ten years ago, sending real-time voice and images from a private aircraft required a sophisticated Amateur or Commercial communications set-up – today it is routine with a cell phone half the size of the battery on many of our old 2M HT’s and more important, available to anybody without having to pass any kind of test.  Of what practical value is a multiband HF rig, tower and a ton of antenna when international Internet communications are instant, available for free in nearly every library or in every private home for nothing more than the price of an entry-level PC and an insignificant monthly ISP charge?

Some will argue the emergency capabilities of the Amateur Service justify it.  To this I say that these capabilities, like HF communications, are just plain unneeded in the 21st century.  Sure we read, as recently as the Katrina disaster, heroic stories of Amateur Operators helping out - largely written by and consumed by our own community.  In reality the carriers are getting better and better at rapid restoration of wireless service and could improve even further if pushed by a more public-spirited FCC (I can hope, can’t I?).  

In the mid 90’s I trained soldiers going to Somalia to use a huge, clunky INMARSAT terminal for wireless voice and data communications – today every emergency service has “satphones” that fit in a briefcase.  World War II required the mobilization of Hams to serve the country with their unique skills.  Any future mobilization of such a scale (Heaven forbid) would have a huge pool of talent to choose from, given that nearly every teenager has basic computer skills.
 
Thus I maintain that justifying the existence of Amateur Radio by declaring the Amateur Radio Operator essential to emergency communications - even with the latest technologies like WINLINK - is delusional.  Please remember that systems are currently being marketed to the Government to block all radio communications for a wide radius around a potential "ground zero" for security reasons.

However, Amateur Radio can have a future.  The desire to operate radios as a hobby will not die for the same reason that horses are still ridden, small boats still sail and private airplanes still fly - because people still love amateur radio communications or riding or boating or flying and will continue to do so indefinitely.  THAT is the reason that Amateur Radio should be saved. Ham Radio gave me my career in IT, it was the crucible from which numerous technologies were born and can maintain its place in the radio spectrum if organizations like QCWA and ARRL begin now to take steps to actively preserve it.  This can only be done by a realistic reassessment of what we are, what we can offer and why this should be preserved.

Hasn’t FCC’s less-than-supportive response to our serious BPL concerns proven our vulnerability? I implore the QCWA and all Amateur Radio organizations to abandon the old paradigms and embark on a realistic and forward-thinking campaign to preserve our Amateur Radio allocations for the future.  The Amateur "Service" must be redefined as a hobby that has a right to its portion radio spectrum in the same way that bridle paths have a right to exist, small boats have a right to public waterways and private aircraft have a right to public airspace.  General aviation is currently fighting this same fight for survival.  I deeply fear that failure by Organized Amateur Radio to respond to this challenge soon will cause all of Amateur Radio to go the way of the CW test.

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Mike Sturm KA2E
http://www.mikesturm.com