Hi Walt, > What can amateur radio being to the table?
Unfortunately, I think the answer is 'less and less' as time goes by. As communication technology advances, the simple fact is that people will grow more accustomed to reasonably fast Internet access connected to their commodity laptops, voice communications via cell phones, etc. All of this requires significant infrastructure (geosynchronous satellites aren't cheap!), and hence MONEY. There's no way for a bunch of hams who might be willing to spend a couple thousand bucks on gear for themselves can compete with multi-million dollar military communication systems. And when you think about it, since we -- the taxpayers -- are the ones paying for that infrastructure, shouldn't we fully expect that folks like FEMA or the Red Cross will be using it during disasters? I do encourage hams to do whatever they can to assist in emergency communications, and there's plenty of scenarios where they'll continue to be a great asset, but if I were a FEMA director I'd be pretty hesitant to have an official policy of relying on volunteers with little or no funding if I thought I could instead rely on the military. I don't think that the declining use of hams for emergency communication particularly threatens the bands themselves (i.e., the FCC taking the HF bands and reallocating them). Instead, I think the simple metric of whether or not the bands continue to be well used will have a much larger impact as to their continued existance -- a lot of the idealism of the amateur radio service somehow existing for the good of the public (rather than just as a cool little resource for a bunch of hobbyists to use for their own enjoyment) went away years ago (about the same time that people like Howard Stern started convincing much of the public that the FCC trying to regulate the content of the public airwaves was somehow an inherently bad idea). ---Joel Kolstad ------------------------ 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/
