One presumes that the big dish on the Army's van was pointed at a
geosynchronous satellite. It seems unlikely that anything we
conspire to do on HF will come within a order of magnitude of what
can be done with a broadband satellite link, Walt. What amateur
radio has to offer here is a geographically-dispersed pool of
skilled, dedicated operators; if you want to provide a "competitive"
service, you'll need to provide those operators with a lot more
bandwidth than is practical via HF.
As for this threat of frequency swiping you keep attempting to use
as motiviation, consider this (admittedly oversimplified) analysis:
The decision to swipe HF amateur frequencies will either be made by
a competent person, or an incompetent person. If the person is
incompetent, it doesn't matter what we do; our only defense is
the "hey look, the incompetent bureaucrats are screwing up the only
emergency communications that actually work" gambit, hoping that
between the media and the politicians someone sees red meat. If, on
the other thand, the decision is made by a competent person, then he
or she will quickly realize that HF frequencies are not the solution.
Walt, I suggest that you apply your considerable energy and
persuasiveness to obtaining access to a couple geosynchronous
transponders. Attempting to solve the problem with HF is, as Sagan
said, "Like trying to get to stars by climbing a tree. You can make
progress for awhile, but you'll never actually get there".
73,
Dave, AA6YQ
--- In [email protected], DuBose Walt Civ AETC CONS/LGCA
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Here are some excerpts from E-Mail between individuals deeply
involved in
> FEMA and NDMS communications.
>
> From a FEMA Incident Commander who is an active amateur radio
operator...
>
> "The subject of this email is Communications and it is from the
> Southern Mississippi FEMA Incident Manager. He was without cell
phone,
> and Internet capability. He cornered a State Police Car and asked
them
> to be his commo. They said fine but they had no commo too. Jim was
at
> wits end when an Army Captain came to him and asked if he had any
commo.
> Jim said no commo and it's a big problem. The Captain said no
problem,
> and got on his radio and ordered an Army Communications Van to be
placed
> at Jim's disposal. Two hours later a van arrived and it had 4 guys
that
> set up a big dish antenna and then asked Jim how many telephones he
> needed and what computers needed the Internet? Jim ordered 5
telephones
> and the Internet for his laptop. Soon Jim was on the phone to FEMA
> letting them know about the situation and giving them his telephone
> number. Jim was found by the Salvation Army. They said they can
set up
> 85 soup kitchens but needed $560,000 fast to stock the kitchens.
Jim
> called FEMA requesting the funding and the Salvation Army had the
money
> in 3 hours."
>
> "Due to this success story from Katrina, we are all told to use the
> Army for communications support and I have the phone number to
call when
> needed. I fear that what we can do with Ham Radio is too little
and far
> too late. We can help with Health and Welfare traffic which is not
done
> by the official part of an Incident."
>
> From an amateur radio operator who works closely with NDMS and on
a DMAT
> (Disaster Medical Assistance Team)...
>
> "Your posting this morning was most timely and coincided with a
FL3-DMAT
> team meeting I was attending. To underscore the points you made,
members
> of the Comms unit, all of whom hold an Amateur Radio license, were
advised
> this morning that NO Amateur Radio, FRS or GMRS gear may be
brought to a
> deployment, effective immediately. If any of the above is
observed by FEMA,
>
> the DMAT unit will lose its funding for the next twelve months!"
>
> "It is becoming more and more apparent the Feds are doing what
they can,
> short of taking our frequency allocations and licenses away, to
push Amateur
>
> Radio out of the picture. I fear once they have achieved success
doing to,
> they will use it to justify a revocation of spectrum and license
> privileges."
>
> This should be a wake-up call...amateur radio has less and less to
offer
> emergency and disaster relief communications.
>
> While I like nothing more than a good rag chew on 40 or 75 with my
amateur
> radio friends of 40+ years,
> I believe that those days of me being able to do so are rapidly
coming to
> and end.
>
> Today ones community service is evaluated as "value to the
community, state,
> nations." Funding for groups is based on that.
>
> With the money set aside for Katrina and Rita relief, you should
have been
> able to purchase complete new HF dual band stations of every ham
in Texas,
> Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida...plus a few other
states. But
> that is hardly the amount given to the ARRL.
>
> The more value you bring to the table, the better your position of
survival
> is. This doesn't make it right or anything else...it is just the
way it is.
>
> Survival of the "righteous and just" is not assured. Survival of
the
> "performers" is.
>
> What can amateur radio being to the table?
>
> No quick answers or answers at all...we just need to think long
and hard
> about how we can be of significant value to emergency and disaster
relief
> operations.
>
> 73,
>
> Walt/K5YFW
>
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