Thursday, June 3rd, 2004
Posted by: Purple Zero

I was reading some stuff on eham.net this morning and came across a pretty good article written by Jacob Gerrold
(KC0LTV). The article was on the pros and cons of the Internet as it relates to Amateur Radio. Not only did some of the article's responses contain some positive mentions of this site (which I was very pleased and surprised to see), it brought up some EXCELLENT points on the subject, something I'm sure myself and others have had on our minds for years.

The internet, for all the good it's brought us, has left a lot in it's wake. Some of you might remember BBSing, for example. I was a SysOp, as was Webmaster Bryan (He tells me he met his now ex-wife through his BBS. Geek.) I'm sure a great many of those reading this were involved in BBSing at one point. As soon as I started surfing the net close to 10 years ago, Qmodem and my directory of BBSes was forgotten about... words like "V.42 bis", "Zmodem", FrontDoor, Renegade (Hah! Nothing but a Telegard hack!) and 0-day warez were long forgotten in favour of being able to visit libraries in far-flung parts of the world. US Robotics stopped being the name on my modem, and started being the name on my Palm Pilot. The death blow to my BBSing days came when I got ADSL - my once coveted 28.8kps modem went in the garbage (I'm not even sure my computer will even support dial-up anymore). I was BBSing since the days of 300 baud acoustical cup modems, and I left it all behind for the Internet. Did the internet cause the death of BBSing? Perhaps, but I see it more as an evolution. BBSing had reached the limit of what it could offer us. Fidonet gave us the ability to exchange messages with people from around the world, and that was neat... even if the message you were reading from some guy in Mongolia took a week to get to your local node.

Now, Ham Radio faces the exact same issue. Before the Internet, the only way you could talk to that same person in Mongolia for free was through HF. Now, it's as easy as IRC, or a voice chat service. Some say that the internet is killing Ham Radio, but I'm with the author of the article on this one. In his words: "Ham radio isn't just about A-to-B communications. It's about the joy of bouncing signals off the ionosphere, the thrill of E-skip on 6, up-linking your own signal to an orbiting satellite, sending ATV from a helmet-mounted camera, or the friendliness of chats on the local repeater."

Cranium-originating Amateur TV is crossing the hamsexy line a bit, but you get his point. As I was told many times by my parents during long, boring car rides.. Getting there is indeed half the fun. It didn't make sense at the time, but I now see wisdom in those vain, desperate attempts to get me and my brothers to behave on mile 100 of a 2000 mile trip.

Despite the wingnuts, the nerds, the ARES freaks and the many, many poor souls that are usually associated with our much-browbeaten hobby, Ham radio is FUN. I carry a radio at work as a Paramedic, but I certainly don't consider it as part of my amateur radio hobby. You can use IRLP to talk to someone in Sweden and call it DXing if you want, but just as the author says - it's a lot more fun to talk to that person over HF rather than through the internet. The internet is here to stay, and it can only serve to enhance our hobby. Anyone who thinks otherwise is probably the same guy who still builds his rigs out of tubes and pieces of wood. Really... Its the difference between masturbating and making love to a beautiful woman. Both will get you off in the end, but man - doing it with Pamela Anderson is a lot easier to brag to your friends about afterwards... (Personally, I'd prefer Linda Park from Enterprise, but I'm just funny that way)

Now, why won't someone write an article on Hamsexy.com....... Or set me up with Linda Park... sigh.

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004
Posted by: Clyde

Good morning everyone! We'll start off today with a response to yesterday's letter "The Rescue, the Colonel and the DooDoo" from Mark:

Randolf was right.
 
No group, even ARES, owns the frequencies.  To make things substantially worse, Randolf was performing a needed task and had to suffer for it. (Alas, no good deed goes unpunished)
 
Had Randolf been treated differently, he may have felt that ARES performed a needed service and may have went on to become part of the group.  He may have brought some sanity into the group as well.
 
Randlolf used his radio to perform the consummate ARES function, to provide support to first response teams. 
 
I believe that the biggest problem with the ARES people that are so disliked by other responders is that they are using ARES to gain something.  For some it is power, for some it is recognition.  A perfect ARES member would be virtually unknown to the populace and respected by first responders.  ARES is meant to operate in the background so that the bulk of communications, most of which are secondary to the immediate effort, are handled and directed by them in an effort to take some of the load off the first responders. 
 
Our ARES group, MCARES, is far from perfect but we don't seem to have the issues that are so often a part of the Hamsexy musings.  We have worked hard for many years to gain the support of the first response community.  I was taken by surprise to see all the negative press about ARES based on their behavior.  I have discussed some of these stories with other ARES members and we are wondering why the management personnel does not take issue with this and address it. 
 
What truly upsets me is that I know that for the most part the ARES / RACES program is a respectable one and serves the public as intended.  As I said before, it took years for us to gain the trust of our served agencies and all it would take is one person with the wrong agenda to wash that trust away. 
 
These people do irreparable damage to the ARES / RACES effort.  I can't imagine what it would take to change someone's opinion of the entire group after encountering some of these individuals.  To make it worse, it appears that the local ARES management is not addressing the issue. Just look at the things Purple Zero writes about ARES.  His encounters with a local misguided ARES group have turned him against the entire organization.  Even if the group ends up realizing their place and gets trained to be excellent at support, Purple Zero will always have his experiences to temper any trust that may be gained.
 
I am proud of our ARES group.  I would love for anyone to see them in action and speak with our local first responders to see how we are viewed here.
 
I noticed that many of the posts come from Canada.  Do any of you like the Snowbirds?  This Fourth of July weekend in Muskegon, Michigan at the Muskegon Air Fair we will be the only US hosts of the Snowbirds.  Our ARES group will be there helping out.  One of our proudest efforts is Child Watch.  In a crowd of 30,000 people there are always instances when parents get separated from their children.  Our ARES group provides the communication and search personnel for the Child Watch effort at the Air Fair.  We are very proud of our successes and are humiliated by the misdeeds of anyone operating contrary to the ideals that our group is formed around.
 
Come see us at the Air Fair!

Thanks for the message, Mark... Its a shame that other ARES groups can't behave like yours. I would also invite those who are in the area to visit Mark at his event.

And no, only Webmaster Bryan and VE4UO is from Canada. Webmaster Seth, PZ and myself are all from the US. And I'm sure nothing is more American than celebrating the birth of our country than sitting back and watching a Canadian formation team (grin).

Thanks for your letter, Mark!!

Tuesday, June 1st, 2004
Posted by: Clyde

Happy June everyone! Sorry its been a week since our last update, but we've been pretty busy around here. Hamsexy is a volunteer-run organization, and when we're all busy, the site don't get updated!! We've also been rather.. well.... busy with websites that INSIST on directly linking our photos. The most recent offender, AMFONE.NET, had to have TUBGIRL unleashed on them... the idiot who stole one of our photos came back and re-linked it after we had denied him use of it. What balls... but he was dealt with. Just a warning.... Do a GiS on TUBGIRL if you want to know what you're in for.. althugh I really suggest that you don't. Bryan, one of our webmasters, said that Tubgirl "makes his soul cry". A few members of Batlabs saw but a glimpse of Tubgirl and ended up in the emergency room - she's that foul.
And look.. I know only retards and wannabe h4x0rz use words like "OWN3D!", but I felt it was rather appropriate considering the circumstances. And this one features Domo-kun. which only drives the geekyness factor up tenfold. I am truly sorry.

Anyhow - thanks to everyone who submitted photos from Dayton. We got a lot, and we thank you all for them! There are some TRULY scary people out there. I do believe that the "rollers" will soon outnumber the "walkers" at these things. I'd show you the "Hamabout" photo, but its been.. umm.. replaced.

Thanks to you guys, Hamsexy's become part of the Ham radio lexicon. People who have never even visited the site before know what it means. It's great!!!

Anyhow.. here's another installment of our "SCARY BUT TRUE A.R.E.S. TALES". This one's called "The Rescue, The Colonel and DooDoo". Enjoy!

One Sunday afternoon my friend Randolf and I went out driving around. We both had our Icom IC2AT's with us and low and behold there was a rescue in progress on the west slope of the mountain. The repeater located at the top was running its triple beep, meaning only traffic pertaining to the rescue should be on the repeater. We decided to drive up near the bottom to see with binoculars what was happening up there.

We were on a state highway about a mile from the base camp. We knew enough not to get too close to what was going on. Apparently some hiker broke some bones and needed to be airlifted out of there. This car pulls up to us, seeing the amateur radio plate on the back of my friend's car and us standing there with our ht's. Out steps a USAF Colonel with a motorola ht in his hand. He asked us if we could help him get in touch with the ARES/Search and Rescue people, as he was in radio contact with the helicopter and needed to direct it to the location of the injured party.

Well, being a good willing helper my friend was, he keyed up on the repeater and advised the net control that Colonel soandso had the helicopter coming and needed further directions. The net control was very nice and directed the colonel to the base camp they had set up. Before the short conversation ended up pops mister rescue superman himself DooDoo. Yes, the man who wears eight radios on his belt, including ones on the State County, and city police frequencies, ready to transmit. DooDoo drives a Bronco with light bars, siren,and about twelve radios installed. A gun rack holds loaded firearms for making citizen (I mean Amateur) arrests. He is out somewhere rescuing somebody, but of course, being the ever vigilant Amateur Radio Officer he is was quick on the PTT button for this one.

He ripped my friend up one side and down the other over the air. My friend wasn't a member of ARES, therefore he had NO right to transmit ANY message while the repeater was set to triple beep. He also ripped the net control for even talking to Randolf. Yes, all this and a Colonel who is looking at our radio and the crap coming out of it like we were from another planet. "Who the heck is THAT?" asked the Colonel. We don't know, must be some intermod! Somehow the perplexed Colonel managed to get to the base camp and got the Air Force helicopter directed to the hiker.

But not was all so well for poor Randolf.

DooDoo wouldn't let the mishap drop. He telephoned the FCC, the ARRL, and everybody who was on the board of the repeater club. Of course, the FCC wouldn't do anything and the ARRL referred him to the Section Manager, who was a nicer than heck guy who wouldn't hurt a fly. Well, DooDoo threw enough of a temper tantrum and the radio club censored my friend at their next meeting. A bunch of old farts who probably were more afraid of DooDoo blowing his top and going postal than doing what is right.

Well, my friend moved away, DooDoo pointed one of his guns at a police officer and was locked up in the mental hospital for awhile. Time marches on it seems, but some things never change.

Thanks for the story! We welcome any and all submissions at [email protected] - and remember... friends don't let friends join A.R.E.S.

Articles older than this one are in the archives... Click on the week number on the grey menu bar to access!! That's right!! Access!