PR Failure -- Again!

With the sterling efforts being made by Hams in Florida (since Charlie struck, Amateur Radio has been for many areas the only available means for disaster relief communications), we have on our hands a public relations dream -- a potential goldmine of publicity for our hobby.

However, I read with growing incredulity news stories from the disaster area. Stories about the Red Cross and the number of mobile kitchens they have deployed and support units too, and how many meals they can serve per day. I read all about the helicopter ride by the brothers Bush, about the FEMA Chairman's speech, the urban rescue teams, the police, the fire department, the Coastguard, the National Guard, the Salvation Army, local church volunteers, clean up crews, even the insurance loss adjusters, but not one word anywhere about Amateur Radio?

The Red Cross say it is their biggest deployment since 9/11, but it is not so big that they don't have time to put out a media release.

News is only news while it is happening. There is little point in tooting horns next week when it is all over. The hurricane will be yesterday's story and the news media will have moved on to pastures new. Using the pages of the next issue of QST to tell ARRL members in smug self-congratulatory tones what they already know is hardly comparable as an objective to making full use of this PR opportunity to bring enlightenment to the huge and uninformed majority of the American public.

Going back to the aftermath of 9/11, how many folk, outside the ranks of Hams and disaster relief agencies, are aware of what really happened during the communications meltdown, and the problems of inter-agency communication or lack thereof? Another major missed opportunity!

Will we never learn? Doing is no longer enough. We have to be seen to be doing too! If we don't tell it, nobody else is going to tell it for us, and in years to come, when some major disaster relief effort goes belly up because of the on-the-air bedlam from a local BPL system, the refrain from politicians will be - "but we never realized this is what you guys needed the HF spectrum for - why didn't you tell us?"

Shouldn't the senior PR person from ARRL HQ be put on the first available flight to any major disaster area, with the sole task of liaising with the media, to tell the stories that must be told - about the heroic efforts of our Radio Amateur volunteers in their key role of helping with the disaster recovery effort.

At this time when our hobby is under threat like never before, Amateur Radio should be making the most strenuous efforts to rid itself of the stereotyped images of sad, lonely, dysfunctional and balding operators playing around with antiquated equipment in their basements. The BPL industry takes full advantage of this with its vile and disingenuous campaign to disparage us and steal our spectrum.

How much harder for them to hit out at what is known by everyone to be a vital link in disaster recovery operations -- dynamic folk who are prepared to donate their time at the drop of a hat, and who tirelessly labor for long hours in the most trying of circumstances to help insure the safety and well-being of their fellow citizens, and the ultimate success of disaster relief efforts whenever and wherever the need should arise?

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