On 10/23/2011 11:55 PM, Art McBride wrote:
Greg,
It is the Amateur Radio Service. It does have 5 purposes as quoted in Part
97.1
If you buy supplies and work on something you enjoy doing it is called a
hobby.
If you do it to establish a business we call it work.
We are Amateurs because we receive no compensation for our efforts, not
because we are unprofessional.
So where is the conflict?
Politicians are famous for finding the facts to support their conclusions.
I prefer to have all of the cards on the table.
Art, there is no conflict in you using Amateur Radio as a hobby. The conflict
is in the exact "meaning" of each of the words in the subject line. The
capitalization of "Is a HOBBY", puts the emphasis on "is" and "hobby", which for
me says that there is no "other part." I enjoy many hobby parts of Amateur
Radio. But, I also believe that the service part is very important to my
community. I live in Oklahoma where 4 out of 12 months of the year we have
tornadoes as a huge threat, and 2 other months out of the year we have a chance
for huge ice storms. So, 1/2 of my year is subject to weather events that may
require some form of support for the Amateur Radio community. It's a big deal
for the local Tulsa NWS office, that we have built a large UHF linked repeater
system that covers pretty much all of their responsibility area. They can get
direct reports from the local EOC offices from their local spotters on their VHF
nets to confirm things they see on radar to be able to get a "Tornado Warning"
out ASAP. Every single extra second saves lives.
Thus, in my state, our club and its members can help by keeping equipment and
agreements in place so that this system can function. When it's not needed for
storm spotting, it works great for wide area bike ride support. We have about
10 different significant bicycle events with 100 mile rides in this area each
year. Those people are staying in good health and enjoying the out doors. I
like the outdoors too, so going out to help is not a problem for me. I've just
had family events with my daughters in Marching Band contests for the past 6
years, and that has kept me from being able to support the 3 big events of the
fall (MS-150, Tulsa Tough, Dam Jam) or the others in between. People are safer
because we drive the routes and provide transport of food, drink and broken
bikes and riders.
Sure, someone else could do it for pay, but why not exchange some services, for
a T-Shirt that you can wear around the house, and a good time using Amateur
Radio to talk to your friends, to boot.
Gregg Wonderly
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