FEMA wants teens to apply #hamradio #ARRL

 Does your radio club or community have any talented young folks who need resume material?

Do you know a teen who has a passion for preparedness? FEMA is accepting applications for its 2021 Youth Preparedness Council (YPC). Since 2012, FEMA has brought youth from across the Nation together. Each year, teens apply to the YPC for an opportunity to join FEMA in encouraging emergency preparedness. Teens serve on the YPC for two years.

As part of the YPC, members can build leadership skills and represent their schools and communities. They also share their perspectives, feedback, and opinions with FEMA. The YPC gives youth the chance to meet peers from across the country and work on projects, such as preparedness fairs for their communities. A virtual summit in July gives members a chance to meet each other and hear from FEMA experts.

The application period is open to teens in grades 8-11 until March 7, 2021. Learn more on Ready Kids and apply here!

Well almost #ARRL #hamradio

 The League wishes we were an emergency communication service. 

ARRL on the Purpose of Amateur Radio For over 100 years amateur radio and ARRL — the National Association for Amateur Radio® — have stood for the development of the science and art of communications, public service, and the enhancement of international goodwill. Amateur Radio’s long history and service to the public has solidified the well-earned reputation that “Amateur Radio saves lives.” Amateur Radio Operators, due to their history of public service, their training, and the requirement that they be licensed by the FCC have earned their status as a component of critical communications infrastructure and as a reliable resource “when all else fails." Amateur Radio is about development of communications and responsible public service. Its misuse is inconsistent with its history of service and its statutory charter. ARRL does not support its misuse for purposes inconsistent with these values and purposes. Except the FCC raised your license fee because you are not   Do something about it and don’t break the law doing it.

Home owners associations and antennas

 During the last year, residents of home owners associations asked for solutions to the association’s anti-ham stance. 

To restate, don’t sign an HOA. There must be a better place to live. 

However, one couple found a solution for a different matter. The couple wanted a cross in their yard for Christmas. HOA said no. Court said yes. 

Apply this to ham radio. 

Can the HOA reduce your First Amendment right to free speech?  Take them to court and find out. Maybe there’s a ham radio attorney willing to take your case or a class action against every HOA, ever. 

The worse the court can say is No  

Talk about numbers #ARRL #hamradio

The Federal Communications Commission supplied you with an increase from zero to $35 for 2021.  

At the same time, the service is determined that Emergency communications, for example, are voluntary and are not required by our rules.

Looking at the numbers, the FCC is correct.  From the American Radio Relay League's own annual report, “The Report summarizes a raft of responses to emergencies and disasters by Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) volunteers. ARES membership grew by 3,130 in 2019”

There are 771, 938 amateur radio licenses in the USA. There are 156,775 ARRL members. There are 31,641 registered ARES members. That's not enough to justify calling it an emergency communications system.

But wait ...

Part 97 says 97.1(a) ... (a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications. 

RACES (radio amateur civil emergency service). A radio service using amateur stations for civil defense communications during periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies is still in Part 97.  Yes, Emergency Management still use RACES.

Obviously, the FCC can't call it a voluntary service with respect to providing emergency communications and then say hams are not part of the emergency communications effort.

Congress provided this unintended action.  It's time for Congress to correct this.  ResistBot gives you a FREE platform to freely contact Congress with encouragement to direct the FCC to change the fee from $35 back to free.

While you are thinking about this, join or renew your ARRL membership.

y our rules.

What is #Skywarn #ARRL #hamradio

Once upon a time in the west, Skywarn relied on amateur radio operators, almost exclusively.

Nowadays, however, because of social media (especially because of Virtual Operations Support Teams lessons applied), NWSchat, and a host of other reasons, Skywarn is blossoming to include the everyday citizen.  

If you lack NWSchat access, one can monitor the IEMbots on Twitter. For example, The National Weather Service office in Norman, tweets NWSchat information. 

Many Skywarn operations, such as the Voice Over Internet Protocol net gather reports meeting Skywarn criteria to relay to the appropriate NWS office using NWSchat, Twitter, and even the old fashioned telephone.

Each Weather Forecast Office may have a different information item and may also change the request, depending on the weather day.  For example, the hail criteria usually is quarter size or larger but hail covering the ground an inch deep might be noteworthy.  

The best way to know what the local office is expecting is to attend a spotter talk given by that local office.  

The recent Skywarn Recognition Day produced a number of registrations (over 700) and contacts from the various offices and spotters.  Some of the contacts were on Winlink.  Some were monitoring APRS. 

In short, Skywarn is not JUST ham radio but ham radio operators are using other tools to give the NWS offices the best picture of the events, be they tornado, flood, ice, wildfire.

Skywarn has always been about your local community, serving your neighbors in the area you live, work, attend church, do Field Day, etc.  The link, in this paragraph,  is to a moderated email list.  You are welcome to join it.

For IEMBOT to work, you will need the three letter 

designator for the WFO you are serving.  

WINTERHEAT runs Simplex all through January #ARRL #Hamradio

 WINTERHEAT 2021 - Month-long Simplex Event/Contest is running this month. 

While it’s centered around Illinois, it’s open to anyone operating simplex. There’s even a Voice over Internet component.