[TowerTalk] Re: Importance of Amateur Radio Emergency Comms

[Jim Lux]

----- Original Message -----
From: <wf3h at ptd.net>
To: <w2ml at arrl.org>; "Steve Mendelsohn, W2ML" <adam77 at earthlink.net>;
<towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 4:47 AM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Re: Importance of Amateur Radio Emergency Comms


> Ham radio is, contrary to some opinions, still necessary for emergency
> communications.  I have sitting on my mantel a certificate from the
American
> Red Cross thanking me (with many other hams) for our work in  NY after the
> terrorist attack on 9/11.  We staffed the shelters housing those who lost
> their residences in the attack.  Hams were on-site at ground zero as well,
> supporting emergency communications.

Today this is true.. but in 20 years?

People making studies of emergency comms tend to take the fact that hams
were needed as evidence that the official system is deficient in some way.

Also, the "tower in backyard" has a very tenuous connection to "skilled
communications operator", unless you're approaching as a sort of quid pro
quo argument... I'll be available as an operator (something YOU want) in
exchange for you letting me have an aesthetically undesirable tower
(something I want).  One could make the argument that you'd be an even more
skilled disaster operator if you were prohibited from putting up a tower and
big antenna.  You'd be operating closer to what would be available in the
disaster if you claimed that Field Day ops should be permitted.


>
> I just got approval from my township for a tower.  The emergency
management
> director told the zoning board that my tower could be used as a back up
for
> the township if their tower failed.  The fire chief has also told the
> director he could use the tower, if needed, for communications equipment
if
> the need arose.  The director said that he was aware that hams are
> communications experts and that we could be very useful in an emergency.
>
> The fact is that the greater the emergency, the more we will be needed. In
> the event of a major emergency, official communications are going to be
very,
> very strained, or, perhaps, non-existent until backups are brought in.
That's
> a fact of life.  Hams are widely dispersed and are a reservoir of skill
and
> equipment. That's why we're needed.