Bringing In New People To The Hobby

[alcahuete]

I may have to take exception with this comment

Although my memory is fading a bit, I can remember that ham radio augmented 9-11 communications for a few days. The towers contained NYFD repeaters and cell phone sites. Hams were being used to relay messages for the FD for a short time.

One I do remember more clearly. When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, hams were the only communications for awhile. Hams were relaying police and fire calls for a week while public service radio was down:

Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico one transmission at a time | CNN

When Hurricane Maria knocked out power and phone services, volunteer "ham" radio operators lept into action to support rescue and recovery communications.

www.cnn.com

Take exception all you want. I was there...on the ground, in Puerto Rico, in a disaster recovery role for a federal agency. That article, which the ARRL and others cite regularly, is an exaggeration at best. What the hams did was augment communications for the Red Cross and the like. They were not handling first responder traffic, nor were the first responder "networks" down. Where a repeater or two might have gone down and the backup generators didn't kick in, simplex/talkaround was used effectively until they were brought back online, very quickly. Public service radio was not down for a week or anywhere close to that. Absolutely ridiculous claim.

 

[WRQI583]

Reading all these replies won't attract anyone new to the hobby

That is very true, but how about telling the truth about the hobby? As long as all the cards are laid out on the table, at least people wont get into something they dont want to be in in the first place.

I always sorta laugh every time I am watching a YouTube video and that advertisement comes on with the guy in the pickup truck with a storm brewing behind him, and he pulls up with his truck and in his hand is some cheap 2 meter walkie talkie and he starts talking about how he keeps that radio on him for emergencies or something. Then I look at the many who have taken their test and gotten a license that were lured in with that. They get on a repeater or simplex and think there is this huge community out there doing emergency communicating and either they get crickets or an HF salesman trying to lure them into upgrading to get on HF and do some contestin and talkin round the world. I just laugh but in a way, I feel really bad for those who got into for any reason other than HF and you watch them toss the walkie talkie in the closet and let their license expire.

There are many in my county and back in my home state that did that. I recently was going through all the Ham Calls in my county the other day to make a list and see how many there are active that I have heard and there were many that just got their license and 10 years later the license was expired. I don't know why they did it but seeing what I have seen, I could only imagine. Being truthful is a much better route to take, even if it kills the hobby. Hams make the hobby what it is, not the equipment or the abilities that the hobby provides. Only Hams.