NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 17, 2003--The ARRL is offering a new video presentation, Amateur Radio Today, that tells Amateur Radio's public service story to nonhams. The video presentation, directed by Dave Bell, W6AQ, and narrated by former CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite, KB2GSD, runs approximately six minutes.
"We wanted to have something for people to take to nonhams and civic clubs," said ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP. Haynie also anticipates that the CD-ROM production will come in handy during his visits to Capitol Hill. The presentation focuses on Amateur Radio's role in emergency communications.
"Dozens of radio amateurs helped the police
and fire departments and other emergency services maintain communications in
New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, DC," narrator Cronkite intones in
reference to ham radio's response on September 11, 2001. "Their country asked,
and they responded without reservation." Amateur Radio Today also highlights ham
radio's part in helping various agencies respond to wildfires in the Western US
during 2002 and mentions ham radio in space.
 ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, delivered initial copies of the Amateur Radio Today CD-ROM to ARRL Headquarters this week. Haynie was in Connecticut for the January ARRL Board of Directors meeting. |
Haynie said he and Bell discussed the project, and Bell agreed to take it on. Alan Kaul, W6RCL, authored the script, and Keith Glispie, WA6TFD, edited the production at Suite Sixteen, a production facility in Burbank, California, that he co-owns. Haynie said Bell, Kaul and Glispie donated a lot of their own time and effort in making the the video presentation a reality.
"Someone once said, and it's probably true, that Amateur Radio is the only fail-safe communications system in the world," Cronkite says in his final remarks, noting that he has ham gear aboard his sailboat. "It really is the best back-up communications system in the world," he concludes, adding, "and that's the way it is." That phrase was the one Cronkite always used to close out his nightly newscasts during his tenure with CBS.
Individuals may order a copy of the CD-ROM from the ARRL on-line catalog. Plans are under way to also make Amateur Radio Today available in VHS videotape format.
Haynie says Amateur Radio Today will be the first in a planned series of at least three presentations. The second will point up the "fun" aspects of Amateur Radio. The third--but not necessarily the last--will offer a tour of ARRL Headquarters and its activities on behalf of ham radio.
Bell, a Hollywood TV producer, is a past
chairman of the ARRL Public Relations Committee.