I belong to a fire dept and I am looking for some good suggestions that I
might be able to
incorporate in a letter to the board to be able to start a "HAM" club at the
fire house and train all of the members that wish to be trained.

TIA

73's de Howard W3CQH

Howard W3CQH wrote:
I belong to a fire dept and I am looking for some good suggestions that I
might be able to
incorporate in a letter to the board to be able to start a "HAM" club at the
fire house and train all of the members that wish to be trained.


Not a bad idea at all, but some caveats are in order.

The ARS would be a communications avenue that you and your fellow
firefighters could use if your normal assigned communications fail. That
would be how I would approach it to your board of directors. It's not a
bad idea, but here come the caveats.

There has been a misconception among a lot of emergency service
providers that the ARS is going to be another tool in their belt. IOW,
all the employees are going to get their Technician license, and will
use the local repeater in their work.

We'd seen a this in our area, where some folks who have no interest in
Amateur radio, or any kind of radio for that matter, have come in and
started telling us what we have to do.

We've been working hard at trying to get everyone on the same page
here. It hasn't been easy though. We run into a lot of "Everything we do
is a matter of life and death, so by definition, we can priority use
your system at any time we wish." That is one of those things that is
true on a very broad scale, but not true in the details.

In other words, don't try to sell them the idea that Ham radio is
going to be a back channel for the department, or that this is new
communications channels that are opening up for them. It's for emergency
use only, (when operating as you are working) and used in its proper place.

Note this isn't to say that the new hams can't get on the repeater and
chat like the rest of us do!



- 73 de Mike N3LI -

On Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:20:24 EST, Michael Coslo wrote:

In other words, don't try to sell them the idea that Ham radio is
going to be a back channel for the department, or that this is new
communications channels that are opening up for them. It's for emergency
use only, (when operating as you are working) and used in its proper place.

And the other half of the equation is "when there are no other means
of communication available". That includes other radio channels,
cellphones, landlines, and (figuratively) smoke signals. Very few
instances of claiming the exemption turn out to be justified.
--

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon

e-mail: k2asp [at] arrl [dot] net