ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
from
The ARRL Letter
on
March 11, 2010
Website:
http://www.arrl.org/
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ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/03/10/11385/?nc=1 Senate
Bill 1755 -- The Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Enhancement Act
of 2009 introduced in October 2009 by Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT)
and Susan Collins (R-ME) -- has unanimously passed the US Senate and
has been sent to the US House of Representatives for consideration and
now sits in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The ARRL is
asking its membership to contact the leadership of the Energy and
Commerce committee, requesting support and action on moving S 1755
through the committee. S 1755 accomplishes the same things as HR 2160;
HR 2160 was introduced in April 2009 by Rep Sheila Jackson Lee
(D-TX-18). Since S 1755 has already been approved by the Senate, moving
it forward in the House will simplify the process. Click here
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2010/03/10/11385/?nc=1 for more
information, including instructions on how to encourage the committee's
leadership to support S 1755.
Source:
The ARRL Letter
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
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ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by NY7Q on March 11, 2010
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Why is the ARRL so intent on making a hobby into a federal arm.
We are hobby folks, and I don't want the feds making it into a commercial deal.
The hospitals and police depts can use the business bands as intended for hospitals and emergency concerns.
Leave us and our hobby alone.
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by W6OP on March 11, 2010
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I think you need to read what the bill really says. It has nothing to do with making us part of the government. It just tries to make us more valuable to emergency services and therefore able to hopefully get around restrictions local governments and HOA's put on us.
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by WA1RNE on March 11, 2010
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"It just tries to make us more valuable to emergency services and therefore able to hopefully get around restrictions local governments and HOA's put on us."
>>> Exactly how are hams deemed more valuable to emergency services operating from a house, condo or apartment - when 99.9% of the time, they are needed in the field, at an EOC or operating from a shelter?
The ARRL can twist this so called "bill" around all they want, but to any savvy Emergency Management official or Congressman who chooses to actually research this bill and ask some questions, it's all about one thing and one thing only:
>> Enabling hams to erect antennas in HOA restricted properties. Interesting how 3 out of 5 lines in the ARRL's agenda refer to that - but the first 2 lines start off with the EmComm justification:
# Identify unreasonable or unnecessary impediments to enhanced Amateur Radio communications, such as the effects of private land use regulations on residential antenna installations, and make recommendations regarding such impediments.
# Include an evaluation of Section 207 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Public Law 104-104, 110 Stat. 56 (1996)).
# Recommend whether Section 207 should be modified to prevent unreasonable private land use restrictions that impair the ability of amateurs to conduct, or prepare to conduct, emergency communications by means of effective outdoor antennas and support structures at reasonable heights and dimensions for the purpose, in residential areas. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall utilize the expertise of stakeholder entities and organizations, including Amateur Radio, emergency response and disaster communications.
This agenda is in my opinion disingenuous and coming from the ARRL, should be rather embarrassing for anyone who knows anything about Emergency Management communications.
...WA1RNE
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by EIRIKR1 on March 11, 2010
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by NY7Q on March 11, 2010:
:> Leave us and our hobby alone.
By all means let's get rid of the notion that amateur radio has anything to do with EMCOMM. Let 'em see it as a bunch of hobbyists / geeks tinkering with outdated radios bragging about the time they talked to Pakistan/China/Australia with only 5 watts, even though they could do the same with a cellphone or the internet.
And then when commercial interests see all that spectrum that could be used for commercial (paying) radio or wireless services or the next big thing (TM) instead of a bunch of geeks and their hobby, whatcha think is gonna happen??
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by WN9HJW on March 12, 2010
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>>> I think you need to read what the bill really says. It has nothing to do with making us part of the government. It just tries to make us more valuable to emergency services and therefore able to hopefully get around restrictions local governments and HOA's put on us.<<<
Actually YOU need to read what the bill really says.
This bill does nothing to "make us more valuable to emergency services".
This bill ONLY mandates a STUDY by the Department of Homeland Security of whether or not HOA antenna restrictions have any homeland security implications.
The answer could very easily be NO, HOA restrictions don't have a significant impact on homeland security.
This study, even if it turns out positive, only helps amateur radio if a series of rather unlikely events occurs, starting with two completely new bills making it through House and Senate in a future Congress, to actually ban HOAs from regulating antenna structures.
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by NY7Q on March 12, 2010
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I agree with NN4RH.
Well said.
I believe ham radio needs to hold onto its roots.
Experimentation, building, CW nets and ragchew,
and anything to do with electronics/communications as a hobby.
Whats wrong with collecting QSL cards??? or, shooting the breeze with someone in Slovnia? or talking to a buddy about a little circuit he/she has designed???
Why do we need this emmcomm stuff??
We don't...
It's the nerdy computer, 2 meter mentality that has gotten into ham radio and is ruining ham radio.
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ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by WS4E on March 12, 2010
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Just give me the same rights when it comes to my HOA as any bozo who wants to erect a TV ANTENNA from PRB-1.. is that too much to ask?
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by EIRIKR1 on March 12, 2010
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by NY7Q on March 12, 2010
>:
Well said.
>:I believe ham radio needs to hold onto its roots.
Experimentation, building, CW nets and ragchew,
and anything to do with electronics/communications as a hobby.
>:Whats wrong with collecting QSL cards??? or, shooting the breeze with someone in Slovnia?
You can shoot the breeze over the internet or just make a call on your cellphone like everybody else. Why should taxpayers fund you using public airwaves for it, when they could charge paying commercial outfits for the same spectrum? especially when the commercial outfits would actually be using it for something that serves a legitimate purpose...
>:Why do we need this emmcomm stuff??
We don't...
That emmcomm stuff is the only thing stopping the FCC from reallocating ham frequencies to a more productive purpose. Once the public catches on that it's just a bunch of geeks ragchewing on valuable spectrum instead of using the phone, say goodbye to your frequencies.
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by WA1RNE on March 13, 2010
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NN4RH said:
"This bill does nothing to "make us more valuable to emergency services".
"This bill ONLY mandates a STUDY by the Department of Homeland Security of whether or not HOA antenna restrictions have any homeland security implications."
"The answer could very easily be NO, HOA restrictions don't have a significant impact on homeland security."
>>> Really? That's not what the so called "study" says. If you extract the meat and leave behind the parlimentary "hear ye" rhetoric, you're left with this:
From S1755
(b) Scope of the Study-
(1) (A) ..."enhancements in the voluntary deployment of amateur radio licensees in disaster and emergency communications and disaster relief efforts"
Any "enhancement" equates to "value" or any of the countless other ways of wording this.
In the end, it intimates increasing amateur radio involvement in emergency services.
IMO, the ARRL's hidden agenda is in 2 (A):
"(2)(A) identify impediments to enhanced Amateur Radio Service communications, such as the effects of unreasonable or unnecessary ** private land use regulations on residential antenna installations ** ;"
This ploy by the ARRL is not new. For years, many but certainly not all hams applied for permits for antennas on the basis they are being used for emergency communications, when in reality that was far from the case. Many years ago, I saw this occur first hand in my home town.
Back in the day when cell and satellite phone services didn't exist, many hams ran phone patches during emergencies and assisted deployed servicemen in contacting their families which were extremely useful services to provide.
Today, hams in a house are of little value for emergency services. What SERVICE are hams going to provide Emergency Management officials while sipping coffee in a nice warm shack twirling their HF tribanders when what they need are boots on the ground at shelters, mobile command posts, mobile units and EOC's??
....WA1RNE
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by WI7B on March 15, 2010
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I am not anti-ARRL. But I am extremely concerned in what I have read in the April QST.
The Board of Directors of ARRL has voted to request the FCC make changes to Part 97.113 (Prohibited Transmissions).
They are requesting that the century-old prohibition on transmission for pecuniary interests be re-written to allow employees who are radio amateurs to act on behalf of their employers on the amateur bands during an emergency and in emergency drills.
73,
---* Ken
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RE: ARRL Requests Support for S 1755:
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by AA4HA on March 18, 2010
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Be careful of what you ask for.
When has the federal government ever removed one leash without putting a tighter one around our necks?
While I am certain that some hams like EMCOMM and it is the focus of why they are ham operators I do not wish to be exclusively painted with that brush.
I was an emergency manager for 15 years and took a great many resident classes at the FEMA Academy in Emmettsburg MD. I am not against EMCOMM as a sideline that "some" hams may wish to engage in. I just do not want it to become the focal point of our hobby.
Imagine it taken to an extreme; The spectrum gets sliced up into restrictive little channels like 60 meters. Net's dictate who and when you can communicate and you are expected to toe the line. In a national emergency we could be "pressed into service" if EMCOMM was the interpreted as the primary purpose of amateur radio.
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