On Monday 05 December 2005 09:04, DuBose Walt Civ AETC CONS/LGCA wrote: > >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.
Yep, the professionals sure learned a lot from Katrina, didn't they? These people should all be given a copy of the QST where the FEMA guy had to go back to his hotel room to get his HT when his team found out that was the only reliable communication in New Orleans immediately after the disaster. And these are the folks we are depending upon to save us in a disaster? They can be the best trained emergency medicine professionals in the world but if they can't find out where to go because ham radio is all there is and they don't have that capability, they may as well have stayed home. Who's going to pull FEMA'S funding for decisions like this? Take our spectrum and the problems won't change. There just won't be a volunteer provided fall-back solution any longer. Someone needs a big boot up their hind parts, I'd say. tim ab0wr ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/ELTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Need a Digital mode QSO? Connect to telnet://208.15.25.196/ Other areas of interest: The MixW Reflector : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/themixwgroup/ Looking for digital mode software? Check the quick commerical free link below http://www.obriensweb.com/digimodes.html Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
