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.

A couple years ago for Christmas I got my dad a 2-Meter HT (Hand-held Transceiver) shortly after he received his Technician’s license (callsign KI4NDF) for operating a limited set of frequencies on Amateur bands. I had very little interest at that point, and was basically feeding his hobby. I saw modern day technologies as more interesting and my dad’s interest in repeaters seemed to be as close to talking on Skype or Ventrilo as anything else with a considerable less cost involved by using the latter. He has since tested for his General and Amateur Extra license and now has the callsign of AI4ZV.

It wasn’t until this past weekend that something actually piqued my interest… In helping my father teach the Radio Merit Badge it was mentioned that amateur radio can be used as packet radio or “PKT“. BANG! My interest was launched. It was then that I remembered stumbling across something awhile back mentioning amateurs had created a wireless network that (IIRC) spread over 800 miles from the midwest to somewhere here closer to the east coast. It was a fairly interesting read, and unfortunetly I have lost the article since. Packet radio is what’s likely going to be my demise into the world of Ham Radio.

I had stumbled across APRS articles before, which after getting some clarification from my dad as to their operation, kinda touch on my interest in GPS/hiking/geocaching with the hint of taking the Big Brother away from Big Brother (or at least put it into more trustworthy hands).

Another item I had stumbled upon in the past were EchoLink related articles before but it seemed like a cheaters way to do the long distance communications that some Amateur operators spend their time dotting up a cork board with all the places and people they’ve talked with over the radio. EchoLink is essentially a VoIP bridge to a remote repeater or uplink for use by Amateur operators. For instance, I could talk (once I get my liscence) to a repeater or uplink station in Ukraine, Australia, Yukon, or Denver via my computer without having the rigs that most amateur operators have that do that without the internet.

Looks like it was the third item that bridged me from modern interests to Amateur Radio. Amateur Radio is the open-source hardware of the terrestrial world. So, as I begin my studies for my Technician’s license (and likely my General) I’ll keep you up to date as best as I usually do.

If you have any tips or suggestions or wish to help me out, you can email me at n00tz-at-n00tz.net