SPARCS Ham Radio Emergency Communication

EmComm, It’s What Ham Radio Is All About

This last month’s QST magazine (Sept 2007 Issue) was a classic issue for all times if you missed it. All about Emergency Communications. If you don’t think emergency communications is important, watch how long Ham Radio survives as we know it today, or survives period without somebody continuously publisizing our efforts of providing radio communication links when all other infrastructure has failed.  Down here along the Rio Grande River of Texas and the Texas Gulf Coast (an 8 county area) we can’t get but 33 hams to sign up for emergency communications duty out of well over 700 licensed ham operators in just a two county area. It’s turned out to be quality over quantity.  Many sit around and gloat over “lost power” as I read in one email last year when what they should be focused on is the next disaster and where and on what ARES team they can help the most.  What kind of “power” can any Amateur Radio “District Emergency Coordinator” or County EC possibly have? Our local problems go back much farther and deeper than that. We need Emergency Communicators.  We don’t need rumor mongers and fire starters and our area is sick of people with ham radio licenses that continue to do so. Silly people. Silly Hams. Still, our local ARES group is the most active, skilled, reliable and knowledgable ham radio emergency communications group for a couple hundred miles.  And it always will be. If you haven’t had a chance to read the September 2007 QST magazine on EmComm, and if you aren’t a member of the ARRL and don’t get QST Magazine, or maybe have let your membership lapse then why not join today? You can sign up or renew right now at the ARRL membership web site!