Every week while sitting in the studio where
Melanie takes her violin lessons, I usually read technical and hobby magazines,
but at the time I was been studying the ARRL
General Class License
Manual in preparation for taking the written exam in a couple months. One
time a lady saw the book title and remarked, "I didn't know ham radio people were
still around." Wow. It would be tempting to blame her for being ignorant, or to
blame the ARRL (American Radio
Relay League) for not adequately getting the word out, but the reality is that for
the most part the mass media does not consider Ham radio's contribution to be significant
enough to cover in news stories. Amateur radio operators perform a mighty public
service in times of trouble, but they do it so efficiently and effectively, without
actively seeking credit, that their efforts are lost in the noise*.
Ham radio operators have been on the front lines of national and civil defense
since World War II and even a bit before (see links below). So important have
been the contributions of Ham operators that the
FCC (Federal
Communications Commission) has consistently protected the very valuable spectrum
reserved for amateur radio. In fact, so highly regarded are licensed amateurs that
while a bevy of requirements are set forth in Part 97 of FCC regulations regarding
legal operation on the amateur bands, many areas defer to the operators' judgment
in applying the standard of "best practice." Individual amateur radio station installations,
aka 'Ham shacks,' are subject to inspection at any time, but do not require that
a government official sign off on every transmitter, receiver, and antenna setup
as is the norm for commercial stations.
Isaac Newton's first law states that an object in motion tends to remain in motion,
and an object at rest tends to remain at rest. The more massive the object, the
harder it is to get it started or stopped. Because amateur radio operators are not
hindered by the hideously massive monstrosity that is a government bureaucracy,
they are almost always first responders on the scene of civil disasters. In the
cases of hurricanes Katrina and Sandy,
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) was famously slow at
providing emergency communications needed to coordinate search and rescue; food,
water, and clothing; weather reporting; relaying status messages to family members;
and a host of other services not even related to communications. The same was true
when Muslim extremists attacked America's homeland in 2001. When
tornadoes
decimate towns across the Midwest and the South, Amateurs in the communities prepare
for the onslaught. They have trained regularly for such situations. After the trauma
they are ready to go. In really big disasters volunteers from all over the country
pack up their equipment and head to the scene. Do you recall in the many thousands
of on-the-scene reporting episodes a single segment focusing on the effort of Ham
operators? That's not to say there were none, but they were so scarce that most
people never saw one.
Serious efforts are put forth by Amateur radio operators in training for their
roles in emergency response processes, including training and the assembly of equipment
able to be mobilized on short notice.
ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Communication) and
RACES (Radio Amateur
Civil Emergency Service) are designed to provide structured programs to help assure
mission success. Per the ARRL website, "ARES is activated before, during and after
an emergency. Generally, ARES handles all emergency messages, including those between
government emergency management officials. RACES, on the other hand, almost never
starts before an emergency and is active only during the emergency and during the
immediate aftermath if government emergency management offices need communications
support. RACES is normally shut down shortly after the emergency has cleared." Unlike
FEMA and other federal, state and local emergency response units, Amateur radio
hardware and expertise is provided at no charge. Costs are not even tax deductible
for participants, although there are some operations classified as
501(c)(3) charitable organizations where donations can be deducted.
I am not recommending it, but if you really want to see the value of the Amateur
Radio community's contributions to society, have them all sit out the next major
disaster and see how the government takes care of things. If it did happen, you
can bet lawyers would be retained by victims to sue private citizens (Hams) for
having the capability to assist but electing not to provide the service. Then you
would finally get some major network news coverage and people would not be in the
dark about Hams (although they might be in the dark for other reasons).
* There is just the tiniest possibility, too, that being ignored is due in part
to the typical Ham operator's demographic profile. I'm just saying...
Posted October 26, 2021 (updated from original post on 12/4/2012)
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