Greetings everyone, welcome to "Dale's Tales"
for October 2017.
Note especially Tom's Comments:
TOM'S COMMENTS:
Comments from our Vice Director Tom Delaney W8WTD
When the first of many disasters hit a few weeks ago, I
began thinking about disaster response and what I could say. Having spent many years on planning
committees, I was reminded at the time of the saying that we are best prepared
for the “last” disaster, meaning that we know what we did last time, and would
be more than familiar with what it would take to stage the same response. The problem, of course, is that disasters
don’t often repeat themselves, or they come with strange twists we haven’t seen
before.
From what I can tell, in the Texas and Florida disasters,
a different kind of communication was taking place. Devastating as the hurricanes were, they
didn’t affect communications infrastructure so much, and people were using
“social media” in all sorts of new ways.
So the hams had to adapt, and for many, the usual 2-meter FM
communications as the only local communications was not the case. They responded, but didn’t seem to be as
needed.
Up here in the Division, we’re not likely to see those
kinds of disasters. While
we need to be ready for anything, we need to learn from what else has gone on. Those of us who have been involved in
disaster communications know what needs to be done, but it is all going to
depend on what the needs are. And that’s going to change from situation to
situation. We need our new technologies,
because they’ll be helpful. Let’s
remember that it’s not the internet that goes down, it’s local access to the
internet. So if we have ways to work
around that, we will still be able to communicate when others can’t.
But now there’s Puerto Rico. Back to nothing, and ham radio steps in.
You have probably
seen that over 50 hams from around the country volunteered through ARRL at the
request of Red Cross to go in and basically set up some ham communications
where there are none left. We wish them
the best. Many of us would have liked to
go, but for various personal reasons, could not volunteer. What’s there for us to do?
Well, let’s keep the HF frequencies they need clear for
them. And if you can spare a few bucks
or
On the one hand, disaster communications is simple. Provide help where needed. In practice, it is often a balance between
need and available resources. What can
we do to help? If it’s not just what we
trained for, there may still be something else we’re good at that we can bring
to help. There’s an SET coming up. Practice is essential. We may not be doing the same things in a real
disaster, but if we’ve practiced, we know our gear works and we can figure out
the needs of the moment.
73, Tom W8WTD Vice Director, Great Lakes Division
What more can be said?
Ham radio is doing what we do so very well. We can get on the air when other systems fail, because we
know how to do it! Our Field Day
and DX-peditioning experience pays off.
Our ARES, NTS, QRP, DX and Work-it-through-the-doggone-QRM
operating experience pays off. Our
technical expertise and our hang-the-antenna in the wind, snow, rain or sleet,
experience pays off.
This emergency is ongoing, and will remain so for months
to come.
People are hurting and they need our help. Please consider what you can do; in a big way
or a small way, we need to step up to assisting. If you cannot help via ham radio, perhaps you
can assist financially, or through a material donation. Speak with your community officials, Red
Cross, Salvation Army or similar civic organization, but please lend a hand.
This is a proud moment for amateur radio, one not to be
overlooked.
These major disasters will cause many of us to renew our
interests in emergency communications and renew our skills in that area. And,
surely as I sit here, in three years, much of the current interest will have
waned because we soon forget the details of what happened. You have seen it happen, I have seen it
happen, we humans trend towards complacency. Yet
we must change our thinking, we need to remember the lessons learned and prepare ourselves for the times we
will be needed again. Let's all look
ahead and practice with our ARES groups, train for disaster deployment, prepare
for dealing with potential threats and stay at it. Look at our Simulated Emergency Test
After-Action-Reviews (you do review, don't you?) and refine all of our methods
and procedures. We need to reduce,
actually, we need to eliminate our complacency and remember, each of could face
a disaster as serious as those faced today by our friends in Puerto Rico,
Dominica and the US Virgin Islands.
GREAT LAKES HAMCON: it just is a week away. Check out the details and schedules on the webpage at GLHAMCON.ORG and plan to
join us for this inaugural event. As a
resident in the Great Lakes Division, this truly is your Convention and
Hamfest. Last month's Dale's Tales
highlighted all 16 of the forums and the other planned events. Join us on October 7 & 8 at the Michigan
International Speedway in Brooklyn, MI!!
HAMFESTING: Of
special note to all of our Hamfest Chairpersons: be certain to open and examine
the package your group receives from ARRL Headquarters. It is addressed to you, be sure you open it
as soon as it is received.
We have approximately 65 ARRL hamfests each year in the
Division. I do encourage each Hamfest Chair to register early for ARRL Sanctioning.
Be sure to invite your ARRL Officials as soon as your date is set. Here is the current Great Lakes Division ARRL
Sanctioned Hamfest Schedule covering the remainder of 2017. These swaps have received their sanctioning
approval from ARRL HQ at the time of this publication.
10/7/17 Cave
Run Hamfest Moorehead,
KY
10/7/17 Vette
City Bowling
Green, KY
10/7 & 8 Great
Lakes Div. Convention Brooklyn, MI
10/7/17 Scioto
Valley Chillicothe
OH
10/15/17 Conneaut
Hamfest Conneaut,
OH
10/21/17 Muskegon
Color Tour Muskegon, MI
10/22/17 Kalamazoo Kalamazoo,
MI
10/28/17 Hazard Hazard,
KY
10/29/17 Massilon Massilon,
OH
10/29/17 USECA Madison
Hts, MI
11/4/17 Grant
ARC Hamfest Georgetown,
OH
12/3/17 Lanse
Creuse Madison
Heights, MI
Be sure to check your Section's news pages for the latest
local happenings, club and net information.
73, Let's be radio-active.
Dale Williams WA8EFK
Director
Great Lakes Division
