Doug wrote:
>That is a lack of a job to do. Fortunately
>communications emergencies are rare events.

I disagree. With a little effort, hams COULD have important jobs to
do on a week-to-week basis. There are potential clients that will use
us. It may be true that "all else fails" events are rare, but
communications disruptions do occur regularly. If hams are ready and
callout systems are in place, we can serve agencies in these
emergencies, getting valuable on-the-job training and developing
excellent rapport with agency leaders.

Take a look at www.hdscs.org

This ARES group has never had an "all else fails" disaster, but in 25
years it has responded almost 100 times to provide valuable service
when hospital patients' lives were at risk due to comms interruptions.
Ask any hospital disaster planner or Emergency Medical Services
Agency person in Orange County about ham radio and they will have
plenty of good things to say because of this continuous level of
preparedness and service.

That brings me to my beef with ARRL leadership -- it has been too
focused on "all else fails" Katrina-like disasters and has not paid
enough attention to hams' providing valuable support in the "little"
emergencies that will cement our bonds with agencies and get us ready
for the really big events.

73,
Joe Moell K0OV
Assistant Coordinator, HDSCS