ARES - Getting in the way?
The biggest thing (for me) that was not allowing the Amateur Radio Community to “recruit” me was the small but very public group of what I call “loonies”. The online ham community calls them “Whackers” or “Orange Vests”. These are the people that at any SLIGHT emergency will push themselves into the middle of the problem, often causing more harm than good. That is not the objective of ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services). ARES members are there to support the existing EMS/EMA in the case of malfunctioning or disabled communications systems. ARES drills may take place, but are planned in advance and coordinated as to not cause any portion of the pool of emergency resources to be strained.
What has become a bit of a joke with the online community is how often these “whackers” will cover their vehicles in antennas and fill their dashboards with various equipment much more than is necessary to complete the task. Hamsexy, the website and forums of those hams and citizens turned off from the “loonies”, has put together a few articles showing the extent of their craziness. People have echoed their views of ARES from the non-ham public with anecdotes explaining the extent of the Orange Vests’ involvement in where they aren’t needed.
To complete my post, I’m going to insert a log from a conversation I had with some other hams that hang out in an IRC room I’ve been attending for a couple days now. It has been insightful, I’ve received a bit of feedback on a couple of the hot issues in Amateur Radio currently (D*Star was yesterday).
(3:57:37 PM) M****: I used to be in ARES, but not now
(3:57:51 PM) KJ4IKD: the orange vest community turn you off to it?
(3:57:52 PM) M****: Too much bw
(3:57:54 PM) M****: bs
(3:59:04 PM) s*********: I’m a RACES member, I’m up to date on federal incident command structure, I help out with one parade a year with that group of people (St. Paddy’s parade, I’m usually shitfaced by the end of it), and that’s it. If the shit goes down, cool, I’ve got a county ID card.
(3:59:08 PM) k********: example: During the hurricanes a few months ago, the hurricane communications nets were hopelessly QRMd by both DXers and Contesters to the point they were nearly untennable
(3:59:27 PM) s*********: k********: yeah, where are the “OOs” then?”
(3:59:28 PM) k********: Mr. QST the contester actually had the gall to say that if it weren’t for contesters, those nets wouldn’t have been so successful
(3:59:49 PM) KJ4IKD: riiiight
(3:59:50 PM) k********: said that only contest ops could run a net like that and assist with the operation
(3:59:59 PM) KJ4IKD: GTFO the airwaves for emergency traffic
(4:00:05 PM) k********: zactly
(4:00:24 PM) KJ4IKD: All of the ARES nets around here are level-headed
(4:00:25 PM) k********: they were 1kHz on either side if not directly jamming the nets on frequency on all bands while they were on the air
(4:00:39 PM) P********: around here we have issues with people calling, 1″ rainfall, emergancy traffic
(4:00:40 PM) KJ4IKD: we don’t have any loonies or “Orange Vests” in our clubs
(4:00:53 PM) KJ4IKD: at least none that actually participate actively
(4:01:30 PM) KJ4IKD: they’ll probably show up to the Hamfests mainly just to stroke their orange-vest ego
(4:01:39 PM) KJ4IKD: and then go back into hibernation
(4:01:42 PM) k********: yeah we are missing out, no SkyWarn whackers on our machines or in the clubs
(4:02:02 PM) k********: I have my card as I went to the class out of curiosity…it was pretty silly
(4:02:11 PM) k********: “This is hail” tell us if you see hail
(4:02:14 PM) N5LX: true
(4:02:29 PM) k********: they have actually called me a few times, which I don’t mind
(4:02:29 PM) h*******: here here
(4:02:39 PM) Y********: its a good service
(4:02:42 PM) KJ4IKD: all of the skywarn/ARES guys around here do it out of legitimacy, and only when asked by NWS
(4:03:37 PM) T*****: I am NOT a Skywarn whacker!
(4:03:42 PM) s*********: skywarn is pretty useful… I don;t ever interact with them on the air though… if anything “interesting” happens, I just email NWS.
(4:04:08 PM) s*********: I’m not sure where amateur radio comes in with skywarn.
(4:04:17 PM) s*********: Maybe in areas without communications infrastructure.
(4:04:27 PM) T*****: S*********, it’s another reason to use the frequencies assigned to us.
(4:04:27 PM) k********: s*********: just so you can run a net and coordinate the reports from the field…at least ideally
(4:04:35 PM) h****: http://hamsexy.com/ARES1.jpg
(4:04:36 PM) h****: there you go
(4:04:39 PM) k********: then you have someone as net control making the reports
(4:04:55 PM) k********: h****: heh
(4:05:03 PM) s*********: k********: yeah, but no one on the net follows the whole guideline for reportable weather “oh, the wind is picking up here…”
(4:05:17 PM) s*********: “has it broken any branches off the trees”
(4:05:21 PM) k********: exactly
(4:05:23 PM) s*********: “well, they sure are bending a lot”
(4:05:25 PM) s*********: …
(4:05:26 PM) k********: so it is a comedy
(4:05:47 PM) k********: “Well Chip, conditions are deteriorating”
(4:06:06 PM) k********: “I just saw Stone Phillips sail down the street holding a stop sign”
(4:06:26 PM) s*********: last time we had a Real severe tstm, I just walked outside with a ruler, took a digital pic of the hail size, emailed it to NWS right from the blackberry.
(4:06:46 PM) k*********: or who is the TWC guy, Jim Cantori
(4:06:56 PM) T*****: anywhere he goes, King, there’s bad storms
(4:07:02 PM) k*********: heh
(4:07:24 PM) s*********: k*********: ok, seriously though, Jim Cantori has the best job of any weatherman. He’s paid to be a weather whacker essentially.
(4:07:31 PM) k*********: yeah exactly
(4:07:31 PM) N***: k*********: where are you located?
(4:07:34 PM) k*********: NJ
(4:07:39 PM) h*******: the problem with most of thse people is that they’re putting themselves into situations where they’re going to need help, rather than providing it
(4:07:42 PM) k*********: about all we get here are nor’easters
(4:07:55 PM) k*********: we don’t have ‘real’ frequent weather events like tornados etc
(4:07:56 PM) k*********: luckily
(4:08:06 PM) s*********: we get a little snow here
(4:08:16 PM) s*********: occasional funnel cloud
(4:08:24 PM) N***: Here is Louisiana, we get it all.
What are your thoughts, comments, questions? How do you view the Amateur Radio community from the outside? Feel free to add your commentary to this post with the comment section below.
Tags: Amateur Radio, ARES, Ham Radio, Loonies, Orange Vests, Whackers
Tags: Amateur Radio, ARES, Ham Radio, Loonies, Orange Vests, Whackers
When not spending time behind a computer screen bringing you his latest blog posts; you might catch him playing video games on his PC; eating/cooking something in the kitchen of his house in Northwest Georgia; watching movies from his Netflix queue; volunteering for the Boy Scouts of America; fueling his wilderness interests by hiking, camping, backpacking, rafting, kayaking; sustaining his established hobbies in Amateur Radio, videography, photography, or music; running his DJ business with his brother as a partner; or hanging out with his friends doing any number of fun activities. 
January 14th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
That guy souterrain is a shitbag.
January 14th, 2009 at 10:27 pm
I know a couple of hammers in Lookout Valley (father/daughter) and have listened in with them to the net each night several times. When severe storms rolled in through the spring and summer, it was interesting to hear some of the real classy guys come out of the woodwork. They would drive around random places and report “it’s windy” or “it’s coming down hard–I can barely see the road”. But the local net is full of good people and weird old guys that you picture in your head as the old man, living alone in a cabin a thousand miles from civilization. I’ll see if I can remember their IDs for you (the father/daughter, not the crazies).
January 15th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Garrett – Yeah all of the nets I’ve been in on around here appear to be populated by level-headed non-loonies. I’m KJ4IKD in the IRC excerpt above.
January 15th, 2009 at 6:21 am
Your article about the loonies brings back memories. Back in the 80′s there used to be a large group of CB’ers around here (Long ISland, NY) who banded together adorned with Orange Vests. They would periodically set up makeshift truck stops with coffee and cake on the side of the Interstate. Talk about disruption! Great Blog! Thanks for the article. My blog URL is ke2yk.wordpress.com
Regards, Gary – ke2yk.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:31 am
It’s those kind of people that create a bad image of the amateur community. CB’ers are still an unregulated (read: unlicensed) radio populace, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the loonies are more prevalent in their bunch. R.E.A.C.T. has the same loonies that A.R.E.S. attracts, I’m certain and they’re probably more common and less intelligent than who I’ve meet and QSO’d with in the Amateur Community. 73s!
January 24th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I volunteer with a local ACS. We do drills..and that’s about it. We have monthly meetings where people resolve to do small things and take a month or two to get them done. It took six months to debate ordering or making ‘A’ signs for public events, ordering them and then showing them off before putting any information on them. It’s a bunch of gray hair folks who mean well, but really don’t have any enthusiasm for emcomm or the hobby itself, it seems. Granted, we’re a suburb of a pretty large city. The city folks really have their shit together, it seems. We hear them during drills and their web site is pretty thorough, with very polished structures within the group itself. Seems to have their share of ‘Whackers’, too.