[Amps] Entry level license

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2017 11:39:00 -0500
From: Rob Atkinson <ranchorobbo at gmail.com>
To: "amps at contesting.com" <amps at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [Amps] Entry level license

>>And her only interest in the license was for emergency communications in our mountain community that has no cell service, not enough motivation to cause her to persevere. :)


<Which is perfectly fine but it underscores my opinion that there
<should be established a two way or land mobile radio service for
<people who have no interest in the radio art but want to be able to
<operate a two-way voice mode transceiver for utility communications
<such as balloon chasing, severe storm spotting, marathon coordination
<and emergency or service coordination.

<The ARS should be for people interested in radio for the sake of
<radio, with a secondary emphasis on service such as long distance
<traffic handling and health/welfare communication in and out of
<widespread disaster areas devastated by "acts of God" such as
<hurricanes.


73

Rob
K5UJ

##  I was gonna suggest 144mhz....aka 2m CB band.  No cw requirement, and any 
idiot can study + pass the test in one afternoon.  Heck, the volunteer examiners never 
fail anybody.   The lady across the street from me works for the provincial govt, same as
a state govt in the usa.   Her ENTIRE dept  was required  to take the amateur radio
course..and pass it.   So they had an instructor come in..and they all took the entire
week  to study and pass the course.    All done on company time, normal wages etc,
all paid for by the taxpayer.  Then you get your piece of paper that sez you passed the
course.  Now if you want to use that piece of paper to apply for a VE7 callsign, then
you can do that too.   Most did not. 

##  they were all told that it was for...emergency communications.   And apparently the
govt wanted their own employees operating their own govt back up ham radio system. 

##  On a similar note, big article in local paper about a couple of hams, who run the local
emergency program..paid for by the mayor and council..for the local municipality.  Its
all up on 1296 mhz..and its all data, no voice.   They have their own 1296 mhz fixed links
established between city hall and several outlying city owned sites, like the public works yard,
cops, fire dept, etc.   The 2 hams  were former 11m ops..who are both pc and data geeks. 

## Then city hall drops another $20k on the ultimate repeater, irlp, echo link, phone pactch, rvs patch, etc. 
Mounted ants etc, on top of the local city hall owned cell  site, on the  tallest hill,,2 km  from me. 
At the telco I worked for, we paid $35K per year, to lease space on the same tower, and also the equipment
building and back up generator.  Hams got it all for free.  City hall wants lots and lots of 2m hand helds,
and lotsa batteries. 

## they have no use at all for HF..and are severely down on any ham trying to install a tower or hf 
setup.   Myself and a buddy offered to join their group and if we could be of help.   We were both
told that we were of no use, without taking the 4 week complicated data course 1st.  Followed by 
3 other courses.   But we were both offered a job, in a ...reception area, during the big earthquake,
handing out milk + cookies to the 29,000 local residents in my area... who, somehow, are all 
supposed to walk 4 km to the local rec center, and cram into a hall that is only sized for 350 folks.  

##  we politely declined,  and started our own  HF emergency group, with just 2-3 of us. 
I define an emergency as running outa coffee and cigarettes. 

later... Jim  VE7RF