M.E.T.E.R.S. Newsletter -
August 2005
A monthly publication of the Middle East Tennessee Emergency Radio Service, Inc.
(METERS is a registered non-profit service organization based in Knoxville, serving all the surrounding area.)
Meetings are held at 7 PM, the 4th Tuesday every month, at the Red Cross Building, 6921 Middlebrook Pike, near the Weisgarber Rd. Post Office in Knoxville, TN. Licensed Amateur Radio Operators are invited to join METERS and assist in meeting the needs of our served agencies. Club call sign is KG4NLF. Website: www.metersinc.org
Members’ submissions are invited for this newsletter, in
.rtf, .doc, .wps and plain text formats, subject to space available and
editing. Editor: Larry Osterman, W8JYQ, e-mail to w8jyq (at sign) arrl dot
net.
Presidents Statement for
August 2005
By Gary Buczkowski, AG4XO
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but
what you can do for your country." Those words, spoken by President
Kennedy more than 40 years ago, still resonate today. The problem is, however,
that they seem to be drowned out by sound of Americans pursuing their
individual dreams of happiness. I suspect that if President Kennedy were alive
today and spoke those very words, we would simply dismiss him as hopelessly
naive or worse, as being just another blathering politician wanting his sound
bite on TV.
We are in danger of forgetting the very spirit that
made this country great. It is now a cliché that we have depersonalized our
world to the point that we no longer even know our nearest neighbors. It is
time to change our inward focus. It is time to help our country. It is time to
act. Doing so is easier than you might think. It is not hard, and it does not
take a lot of time or effort. We can start with our own community.
Our community needs us, and it needs our communication
skills. Our families and our neighbors need us to improve our skills. We need
to prepare ourselves to use the hospital radios when needed by going once a
month to check into a net from the hospitals. Your METERS teammates need you to
be there for them. We can't do our job without you. Only you can make a
difference. Only you can make all our efforts a success.
Don't forget that the first CERT class is scheduled
for the evening of August 30. If you haven't done so, please sign up right away
but contacting me at ag4xo(at-sign)metersinc.org or by calling me at
865-966-8223. (Place and time for the first session will be determined soon.)
Please come to the next METERS meeting, Tuesday,
August 23, 2005. Our nominating committee will present it’s slate of candidates
for officers.
Thanks and 7 3,
Gary/AG4XO
What is “Emergency
Communication Commitment” ?
By Buddy Sumner, KI4DIW,
METERS Membership Chairman, KI4DIW@comcast.net
The idea behind the
statement:
"Amateur Radio is the Hobby. --
Emergency Communication is the
Commitment."
is that too many “hams” will not spend the time
to learn proper “Emergency Communication“, and when urged to do so will reply
with, "It's just a hobby."
The hobby is Amateur Radio
and we EXPECT people to treat the hobby portion as a hobby. The difference
however is simply that when you volunteer for ARES, RACES and METERS you must
understand that this IS a serious commitment. That means that if it is humanly
possible you will support and participate in Training, Public Service Events,
AND (notice the big "and" there) Emergencies. (This is the
heart of our ‘ham’ reputation as public spirited communicators. -lao)
Does that mean or imply that
any one person will support all of these activities? No! But it DOES mean that
each person will support as many activities as their other commitments will
allow. It does mean that you WILL make an honest assessment of how much time
you can contribute, and should that time be less that Twenty hours per year,
you might consider going back to the Hobby.
Let me assure you that not
one served agency will call us a second time if our reply to their request for
aid is "We'll be there if we can find someone who can make it." They
clearly understand that we have people who will be unavailable for family or
job reasons, but they
expect, and I say reasonably,
that we will have some people available in times of need. Does that mean
everyone in METERS? No, but it should not have to be the same few all the time.
There are many ‘ham’ radio
districts with over one hundred amateurs on their rosters that have
consistently failed to field more than thirty people, even in times of
emergency. Why are these people on the roster if they fail, year after year, to
do ANYTHING? No one will say it over the air but many will comment, when they
think no one is listening, "Gee, I didn't know I would
actually have to do
something." Or you will hear people complain about the Board members
"Not being responsive" or 'In Touch' with the membership, yet when it
comes time for elections, or when it is time to take a stand on an issue, or be
tough on members not fulfilling their COMMITMENT, those same ones will suddenly
become invisible or be "Unavailable" There are far too many people
who only want their names on a list. We do not need peoples’ names on a list,
we do need ACTIVE PARTICIPATING MEMBERS!
If you can only commit to one
net per month, and attend 4 meetings a year (That's 20 Hours total), that
qualifies you. Even if you are unable to attend meetings for extended periods
of time you can remain active simply by being active on nets, (not just "Check
me in and Out") and by studying and working on the required lessons for
ICS, NIMS, and EmComm certification. That IS participation, and can contribute
directly to your membership points. You are enhancing your raining, polishing
your skills and actively participating. That is part of our COMMITMENT!
BACK TO BASICS - Net
Precedence
By Tyra Buczkowski, AI4KG, METERS Treasurer
An Emergency Net takes priority over a Routine Net.
This means that an Emergency Net in progress on a frequency and at the time
that another net is scheduled, should not be interrupted. The NCS of the
regularly scheduled net should start that net on the backup frequency. The NCS
may also wait until there is a lull in activity on the emergency net and ask
the emergency net NCS to allow an announcement that the regularly scheduled net
has been moved, as long as this announcement does not interfere with the
emergency net.
Nets have "precedence’s" analogous to
message precedence’s. Just as message precedence’s are emergency, priority, and
routine, net priorities are Emergency (SKYWARN or METERS emergency nets),
Emergency training (the weekly METERS emergency training net or other local
weekly training nets), and Routine (such as radio club nets or rag chew nets).
Please always remember to be
considerate of the Emergency Net NCS because he/she will be dealing with an
extremely stressful situation in which lives and property may be at risk.
Maintaining the Web Site
By Jim Purvis, KG4TSE, METERS
Secretary and Web Master,
Please NOTE that the METERS
Web Page (www.metersinc.org) has had many changes made on it, and continues to
have on-going enhancements made. Some of the new topics which may be quite
useful are the Knoxville Traffic Cam's where you can watch live traffic around
the city of Knoxville. Take a peek before you head out on the freeway, might
save you some time. There are also many different weather radar sites listed on
the web page to keep you up to date on what is happening with the weather. I
have also included the newest Experimental Weather link that the weather
service has been testing for a while.
You can also find information
on what is happening in Homeland Security by going to the “National Terror
Alert” link which is on the scrolling message panel to see some fascinating
information about various terror alerts going on in our country, many that you
never hear about on the 11:PM News.
For those of you that want to
take the NIMS700 Course - we now have a link on the web page that will take you
right to that page where you can download the course as well as take the test.
Please check these items out,
and also let me know what else may be useful to all of us, so I may investigate
adding links for those topics as well.
THUNDERSTORMS - Basic Refresher
By Tyra Buczkowski, AI4KG, Meters Treasurer
Thunderstorms are common at this time of year and we
should be prepared particularly for flash flooding. A thunderstorm needs
moisture, unstable air (usually warm air that can rise quickly), and lift
(something that lifts the air to form the thunderstorm such as mountains or
cold and warm fronts interacting). During summer in the Southeastern US we have
all three in abundance as evidenced by the NOAA weather radio alerts for severe
thunderstorm warnings for our local area every other day or so.
A severe thunderstorm is a thunderstorm that has winds
of at least 58 mph, or produces hail at least .75-inch diameter, or produces a
tornado. There are about 10,000 severe thunderstorms in the USA each year!
Many thunderstorms cause flooding and flooding kills
more people in the US than any other type of severe weather. Most of these
fatalities occur at night with the victims trapped in their vehicles.
If you can't see the road
because it's covered in water, stop, back up, and turn around. Never drive
through flowing water. Be careful in low-lying areas and underpasses that are
prone to flooding. Two feet of water will cause most vehicles to float and as
little as six inches of fast-flowing water can knock you off your feet.
Remember, turn around, don't drown.
Special Notes for August
2005
a) Code!! Have you noticed the latest
news from the FCC reported in QST this month? FCC no longer sees the value of a
code requirement for any class of operator. How sad that is, considering the
preparation many of us have put forth to learn and enhance our code skills. It
is too early to say if this NPR will pass into the Rules, but I wonder how many
messages won’t go through in the next big hurricane or natural disaster because
of loss of this skill? Is there any other transmission mode so reliable as CW
when the atmosphere or other interference closes down voice and data modes? I
wonder if the military is also doing away with code for their radio
operators? -ed
b) Terrorists are usually thought to be
from some other culture or country, but you may have noticed the 8/15 US News
& World Report account of William Krar of Noonday, Texas who had a house
full of pipe bombs, sodium cyanide and other chemicals, a few suitcase bombs,
and over 500,000 rounds of ammo. Mr. Krar is now in jail on some other charges,
but he is/was a long time member of right wing extremist groups, and could have
been a lethal operative in his own right with the ability to do great damage.
Some civil rights groups monitoring these activities say there are now 762
known active groups on the right, some with plans to use McVeigh type tactics.
(If we count the gamut of
bomb makers, religious, left, environmental - Big trouble ahead!) -ed
c) Speaking of foreign sources of terrorist activity, which we are aware of, but may lose track of from time to time, here’s something of interest which kind of supplements news accounts of Hamas in Gaza growing into a more lethal operation. (From WorldNewsNet - via AG4XO))
* Iran is taking great
interest in Gaza as the Israelis prepare to disengage. It is funding plans for
a flotilla of ships to repatriate the territory with Palestinian terrorists,
working with Fatah dissidents to undermine the Palestinian Authority and
spearheading an effort to make the Gaza Strip a beachhead of Islamist terrorism
within six months.
U.S. military sources tell
Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin (on WNN) that American Civil Liberties Union
attorneys have been permitted to advise Guantanamo Bay prisoners, including
Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives, that they have the right not to answer the
questions of interrogators.
In addition, the Pentagon has
brought in a veteran staff attorney from the ACLU to serve as chief defense
counsel in future military tribunals. (They will likely be advising Muslim fundamentalists in US prisons of their
rights also, as they prepare to go back into society to form “action” groups.
-ed)
d) Solar panels, free
standing, and on backpacks, are starting to show up as adjuncts for wifi
computer hookups. That’s good news for us since we may be able to maintain our
HT battery charge at a lot lower cost if these things come out in high
quantity. Some of them assembled in backpack format are featuring a 12 VDC
receptacle compatible with auto auxiliary power plugs. As you come across these
in our local office supply and computer stores, please send me an e-mail telling what and where, and I
will compile a list of prices, places, and descriptions, for an upcoming
newsletter. Thanks. -ed