[W1SMH] (no subject)

[Raycord at aol.com]

To the WinLink Team
and all other sane Hams
I am one of the "old farts" having been licensed since 1956.
I was a 16 year old kid who served as net control for a county wide RACES net
during the devistating floods in the Hudson valley during the Hurricanes
of the 50's. I have experienced the peaks and valleys of my ham radio 
carreer.
I expeienced the exhiliartion of two meter repeater operation with my 
converted 60 W
Dumont VHF mobile with a dynamotor that caused my headlights to dim on my 66 
Chevelle. I ran a Gonset 6m Communicator with a halo 6 when my wife to be 
refused
to share the front seat with the "GooneyBox"
I embraced AX25 packet as the wave of the future. I spent 25 years as a 
technician
even though my military MOS was 05B20"Intermediaite speed radio operator".20 
WPM. 
 When General privileges were enhanced, I got my General and enjoyed the 
fun of HF. DX , DXpeditions, and the like. I branched out into Vhf and HF 
SSTV
using the MSSTV program. I got into APRS thanks to WB4APR Bob and enjoyed 
many years of APRS activitry and public service tracking. During this time we 

continued to get our Emergency Management bulletins from the regional BBS,
got our WX warnings from the local SKYWARN net and had direct contact
with any EOC, or the local National Weather Service office when we needed it.
Even if the Fire Chief was fighting a brush  fire he knew he could ask me to 
query
NWS as to wind conditions.And here we are at almost the end of 2007,
 we have survived the worst terrorist attack on the US that anyone could 
imagine.
and we are still FIGHTING AMONG OURSELVES.
The latest greatest PEAK in my ham radio career was last week, when I loaded
AirMail into my desktop plugged in my KPC3 TNC into my Yeseau 1802 and 
sent an email via ham radio to my fire chief, the fire chief of an adjacent 
community 
and to the Dr. in charge of emergency response at our regional hospital.
We are our own worst enemy............POGO was right 
"we have met the enemy and he is us"
I cannot believe the stupidity of the questions that are fostered on the 
different
bulletin boards, websites. list servers etc.
God gave us 2 ears and 1 mouth.... that means if you listen you probably wont 

have to ask the question. Several times during the year I travel to Hamfests.
The talk in station is always besieged with requests for directions. You 
would
think that anyone listening would take advantage of the first requestors 
response
but God no... 3 or 4 more people have to request the same information in 
short order.l
Questions submitted to the FCC regarding what is appropriate in paid or not 
paid
operation is another example of not understanding the regulations.
And now we come to WinLink................Thank God their are people who have 
the
intelligence, education, where with all, resources but most of all TIME to 
spend to 
devolop and promulgate a program that will do so much for so many at so 
little
cost. 
I am SOOOOO tired of the monday morning quarterbacks and the Philadelphia 
Lawyers trying to tell me how my station should be run, how the new 
technologies
should be deployed and how we sholuld TELL Fire Chiefs, Police Chiefs and
EMA Directors how GREAT we are and what WE can DO for them.
I DO BELIEVE HOW GREAT WE ARE!!!!.
However!!!! We must sell this from the top down............
50 years of trying to sell it from the bottom up has not worked
MARS has accomplished more in 18 months than WE have accomplished
in 25 years. ARRL has MOU's with APCO .... have you ever seen any cross
training opportunities ?????  Supposedly,  there is a program in place to 
provide
an APCO-ARRL program exchange, I haven't seen it.
One thing we all must do is develop a reporte with our local Public Safety 
Directors
and make them feel comfortable that we are not just a bunch of "{Wannabees)":
that we can we really provide a service to them and free them from the 
mundane
and interoperability crunch.
We can provide technologies for free that many Public Service agencies value 
dearly
SSTV for damage assesment, APRS for vehicle or asset tracking, VHF/UHF radio
for non emergency communications,  AX25 packet for shelter to EOC 
communication, 
WinLink for email supplement when  internet is lost.
So my message is simple,.... we have a lot to offer............
It can get lost in the noise.......................
Stop trying to be a lawyer without formal training.....
Listen............You will be surprised what you can learn........
Just because you are an extra...... It doesn't give you extra brains
Do what you want to do in the ham radio hobby.........
Enjoy what you want to do in the ham radio hobby......
Dont let the nay sayers disuade you..,
HAVE FUN FOR CRIPES SAKES ITS A HOBBY!!!!!!

73
Ray Cord K2TGX
Deputy Director
Norton EMA CERT
Norton, Ma
K1SMH 147,195 R

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