Rod, it is really great that you are a member of both the amateur radio community and the public safety communications community .. It does amaze me to see some members of the amateur radio community start whining after public and/or private agencies officially recognize ***and support*** the value of the amateur radio service during disaster response and recovery operations, and then especially start whining when Winlink is being adopted as a redundant means for email communications. FWIW, our City of San Jose Office of Emergency Services has had HF/VHF/UHF radio communications equipment installed in both the main and alternate EOC locations since the early 1990's and has recently been upgraded with replacement equipment over the past two years. It also includes HF Pactor and VHF/220 MHz packet messaging as part of a County-wide digital messaging infrastructure. The San Jose equipment includes not only amateur radio equipment, but also commercial /\/\otorola, and Harris equipment that is used in the amateur radio service by our ARES/RACES volunteers. Elaine -- Patricia (Elaine) Gibbons Communications Services Manager City of San Jose ITD/Communications Division (now retired after 30 years in public safety comms) WA6UBE / AAR9JA http://www.qrz.com/wa6ube
_____ From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Rodney Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 8:18 AM To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [digitalradio] Re: Oregon Governor Allocates $250,000 for Digital Communications Network Jim, and everyone else, I am the Radio Tech for Clackamas County, Oregon and I KNOW the problems that the Hams have getting Digital communications going to and from a disaster scene! My experience with the ARES units in Oregon and our local County OEM is that the equipment that they, the "Government", buys for ARES use STAYS with and FOR ARES use! We have a VERY, VERY proactive EC in our District and trust me when I say that the County Goverments and the State OEM keep their hands off the Hams! After all, Hams are VOLUNTEERS and it wouldn't take much for the Hams to back off and let the State and County Governments to flounder and get a very BAD reputation! No, this money that our Governor has given the State OEM for this project is legit! Our Amateur Radio community has impressed him on more than one occassion and he's serious! Rod KC7CJO Clackamas County Electronic Services, Radio Shop . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=1871183/grpspId=1705063108/msgId =25787/stime=1199895502/nc1=4025338/nc2=4836042/nc3=4763757>
