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OK, yes another editorial....
I want to express a concern about EmComm and personalities. The two should not interfere, period! EmComm
operators should have the desire to provide "the service" during a time of need. If you are responsible for a task,
a duty, maintaining equipment or operating equipment, then you are being relied upon to perform. If your "feelings get
hurt" by another person involved, be a grown up! Suck it up and realize you are involved to help. Folding
up you "tent" or "taking your toys and going home" does nothing but reduce the capabilities of the effort. It also shows
you were involved for more for your ego and not primarily to help when needed. So let's all keep focused on why we are
EmComm volunteers and be professional and adult.
As most anyone that has talked with me knows, I am a firm believer in the fact that all EmComm operators be familiar
and comfortable with handling formal message traffic. When I say comfortable, I mean "comfortable" enough to know how
to format a message if you only have paper and a pencil (no blank form to use). In an emergency you may not have time
to search for blank forms for that one all important message. Just as important, during the actual emergency net is
not the time to have someone instructing you how to handle or format a message. While you're working on a message over
the air to "get it right", the net is being occupied and another possibly very important message is waiting. The idea
here is, "Learn how now, before the problems arise". Alot of the message traffic that different operators think are
nonsense messages are actually great practice and learning messages. Just like everything else, you need to keep familiar
so you don't forget. So, be sure to handle one of those so called "nonsense" messages sometime to keep your traffic
handling skills current.
There are numerous benefits to passing the "happy birthday", "your license expires", Net Reports and other commonly
heard messages. First and foremost, it keeps the operators passing and taking the traffic in practice. It also
allows other members of the net to hear, on the air, how traffic is to be passed. Something as insignificant
as a net report is great practice. This also adds to the traffic count reported each month, which shows the ARRL Section
leadership that our area actually uses our traffic nets for traffic and not just social gatherings. The fact
is, ALL of us need to continually practice our traffic handling skills so we stay sharp, when and if, we are called upon to
"get the message through"!
The next item is registration. Please do yourself and everyone else a favor and register with your EC if you plan
to help in emergencies. Everyone wants to assist when things go bad. It always happens that afterward, there is
someone who complains that they were either ignored or under utilized. Think about this for a minute....
We are all human and we tend to socialize and rely on people that we know and with which we are familiar. This
trait of human nature does not really change in an emergency. We count on those people we know and who's capabilities
we know. Anyone coming in to assist that is unfamiliar or who's abilities are unknown is not going to be asked to help
with critical items if there is another person of "known abilities" available. This is true even if the "unknown" person
is an expert in the field. Bottom line here is, become a "known entity", register with your local EC and participate
in drills and nets. This way the local EmComm group does know you and will utilize you to the maximum benefit of the
group and community.
Please keep in mind we are RADIO operators. Our focus is on doing what we do best, get the messages through using
our radio equipment and talents. There are alot of links and portals that interconnect radio and the internet.
This is a great use of technology and can be very useful. However keep in mind that during emergencies, one of the reasons
hams are asked to assist is because phones (both cell and landline) go down, public service communications are overloaded
and most other landbased comms are out. Do your community and radio group a favor, don't get in the habit of sending
your message traffic over the internet! We are amateur radio operators, your radio skills are not exercised by sending
your traffic on the internet. If the traffic can be passed over the internet, then the served agency doesn't really
need an amateur radio operator for that task... any typist can handle that duty freeing up the radio operator for other radio
duties.
While you may say that if the internet is down, you will be able to operate on your radio, remember about the familiarity
mentioned above. First you will not be familiar to the group on the air as far as your traffic handling skills and even
worse you may not be as familiar as you think you are with handling traffic on the air. It is alot different hearing
traffic and copying it, than sitting at the screen, reading it and printing. It also is different passing traffic
over the air to someone, compared to typing out the message. One very common error that people make on voice nets is
reading the traffic too fast. That really makes things slower, because the receiving station has to ask for repeats
and fills. The important point here is, don't rely on the internet for amateur radio traffic, unless all other
avenues are exhausted (chances are that the internet will not be available in the disaster area anyway).
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