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IN THIS EDITION:
5th ANNUAL NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS MONTH
COMING This SEPTEMBER
SIGN UP YOUR CLUB ARES GROUP NOW! Groups and individuals can register to become members by visiting www.ready.gov, and clicking on the National Preparedness Month banner.
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced today that more than 1,200 national, regional, state and local businesses and organizations have pledged their support and joined the 2008 National Preparedness Month Coalition. Sponsored by the department’s Ready Campaign, National Preparedness Month helps to raise awareness and promote action by Americans, businesses, and communities on emergency preparedness.
“As we approach our fifth National Preparedness Month, I want to thank the hundreds of coalition members who are making a difference in their communities by helping raise the basic level of preparedness in our country,” said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “Individual preparedness is the cornerstone of emergency preparedness. Experience shows that if Americans take steps ahead of time, they stand a much better chance of coming through an emergency unharmed and recovering more quickly.”
The Ready Campaign and Citizen Corps (www.citizencorps.gov) are specifically encouraging individuals across the nation to take important preparedness steps. These steps include: getting an emergency supply kit, making a family emergency plan, being informed about the different emergencies that may affect them, as well as taking the necessary steps to get trained and become engaged in community preparedness and response efforts.
National Preparedness Month Coalition members have agreed to distribute emergency preparedness information and sponsor activities across the country that will promote emergency preparedness. Membership is open to all public and private sector organizations. Groups and individuals can register to become members by visiting www.ready.gov, and clicking on the National Preparedness Month banner.
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joseph I. Lieberman and Ranking Member Susan M. Collins, along with House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie G. Thompson and Ranking Member Peter T. King, will serve as honorary Congressional Co-Chairs of National Preparedness Month 2008. Together, they will lead the effort to increase public awareness about the importance of emergency preparedness on Capitol Hill and throughout the country.
For more information on the Ready Campaign and National Preparedness Month, please visit www.ready.gov or www.listo.gov. Information is also available by phone at 1-800-BE-READY or 1-888-SE-LISTO.
February 2008 marked the Ready Campaign’s fifth year at the Department of Homeland Security. Launched in 2003 in partnership with The Advertising Council, Ready is designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks. It has proven to be one of the most successful campaigns in Ad Council’s more than 65-year history. Since its launch, the campaign has generated more than $703.2 million in donated media support. Individuals interested in more information about family, business and community preparedness can visit www.ready.gov or call 1-800-BE-READY to receive free materials.
A RESPONSE TO THE EULOGIES FOR HAM RADIO
This fine message comes from Don Mehl, W5BB:
When I received my amateur radio license in June 1940 I was told that “Amateur Radio was dead” because the radio pioneers in the 1920's and 1930's had developed and discovered everything in radio and now it was in the hands of commercial radio manufacturers. There wasn't much more that Amateur Radio could contribute they said.
The 50,000 amateur radio operators at the time formed the nucleus for the desperately needed communications required in World War 2. About two-thirds went on active duty and the rest worked on the home front in manufacturing and training.
After the war Amateur Radio operators returned to develop civil emergency communications, operating techniques and advance the VHF, UHF, and SHF equipment and propagation technologies. Wartime communication experiences motivated many to obtain advanced degrees using the GI Bill Of Rights educational benefits and then used this education to develop the advanced high tech electronics of today.
Today’s Amateur Radio operators have pushed radio communications into advanced digital modes. Such technology, first developed for Amateur Radio, has often been incorporated into commercial technologies and applications.
I have seen this happening during my 68 years in Amateur Radio and commercial electronics and communications.
What will happen in the future our imagination cannot foresee. But what I am sure of is that there will be a place for Amateur Radio enthusiasts in the future of electronics and communications.
Don Mehl, W5BB
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And, just who is Don Mehl, W5BB? Don is the author of a couple of extremely interesting books on cryptological and digital communications in WWII.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3926/is_200004/ai_n8893708
A description of the systems, as well as background on development, deployment and operation, is available in a document entitled The Green Hornet...America's Unbreakable Code for Secret Telephony. This study was authored by Donald E. Mehl and was published in 1999. Copies are available for study in the library of the National Cryptologic Museum.
What does news media want? Simple!
ARE vs. WERE
Hams ARE doing this – that’s news.
Hams were doing that – that’s just old history.
Would you like a Media Hit? Possibly regional or even national news coverage of your group aiding the community? Would you like an AP reporter or network camera crew to come see you? It can happen! BUT – not unless you let people know what’s happening right now!
Unfortunately, despite all our claims about communications options, the one piece of equipment often appearing to NOT be working in a crisis is our “PR brain.” Again and again ARRL headquarters gets “after action reports” days or even weeks after the fact. For news release uses in the modern 24 hour cycle, these are worthless. But the rare call telling us that “hams ARE doing _____” is a true jewel. Those are the ones we can act on, and if appropriate we can call up the reporters and push the story.
Give us a decent “Hams ARE…” plus a good quote and a contact or two and things can happen!
Give us a slow “Hams were…” and sadly listen to the sounds of silence.
And again, and again and again and again and again and again and again
How one media hit covered a whole state and eight radio stations:
“Being a Skywarn spotter and net control operator for the Bloomington Communications Group, I keep our newsroom updated on potentially hazardous weather not only in the metro, but in outstate Minnesota as well. Our news director, Stan Turner, asked if I had any ideas for “Minnesota Matters” – a thirty-minute public affairs program that we distribute to our affiliated radio stations each weekend. Of course, Skywarn and Field Day came to mind. So – I put together a program with an NWS meteorologist, Karen Trammell, and two Bloomington, MN Communications Group members – Mark Bloedow (a Bloomington, MN Public Safety Dispatcher) and Ed Jacobson – a Lead Volunteer in the Bloomington Skywarn Team. The program was fed via satellite to our affiliates on Saturday June 21st – one week ahead of FD.
“For 26 minutes we talked about Skywarn - I was able to secure a recording of the net from May 25th – when a tornado tore through Hugo, MN killing a two year-old boy and devastating a community. We also talked about ham radio and the services that we as amateurs provide. We talked Field Day – and were able to put the ARRL website on the air so people could find their local ham radio clubs. It was a great show and very well received. Our records show that at least 8 radio stations in the largest of the Minnesota markets carry the program – including: St. Cloud, Rochester and Duluth, MN.”
So who did this and how was it accomplished? Keep reading!
By Michael J. Ostlund, CBT – N0ANP
“…so, who’s in your network?” asks the television ad for a cell phone provider. But the question that YOU as a PIO should ask is, “who’s in MY network”. I’m not referring cell phones, but instead your state radio network. Almost every state has a state radio network – an organization that provides news and information, in one form or another to radio stations around their state. 31 states are part of an association called NASRN – National Association of State Radio Networks. (check out statenets.com)
As the Operations and Engineering Manager of the Minnesota News Network, I help provide news and information services to over 80 radio stations in the upper Midwest. And as an amateur radio operator, I help keep our newsroom in tune with amateur radio. Since getting my tickets in the past two years and becoming a trained Skywarn spotter, I’ve become the ‘go-to’ guy for severe weather at MNN, which has helped keep ham radio, Skywarn and the services we provide front and center in the newsroom.
While I started in broadcasting over thirty-five years ago as a disc-jockey in Wisconsin, I’ve joined the ranks of those operations and engineering guys who still find it a challenge to get out from behind the workbench do an interview for broadcast. This past Field Day, I worked with our newsroom to produce a thirty minute program called, “Minnesota Matters.” This is a weekly public affairs program that is fed to our 80 station network via satellite and FTP system.
The Minnesota News Network, like many other state radio networks, delivers news and information to affiliated radio stations via satellite. MNN produces 28 newscasts and 5 sportscasts every day. Plus, we distribute the Minnesota Twins Radio Network, the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, and U of M sports along with a data wire service. While the amount of news and information a state radio network provides varies, there is plenty of opportunity to promote amateur radio on a statewide basis. You just have to get in the door, and that’s the hard part, right? Not necessarily so.
So to ask the question again, “…who’s in your network?” The answer might surprise you. If you can’t seem to get past the front desk with the press release or news event, instead of asking for the news director, how about asking for the chief engineer. While we sometimes think in the left brain – right brain domain, engineers get ham radio. And you might be surprised to learn that the engineer, while not necessarily part of the newsroom, might just have the keys to the newsroom.
Michael J. Ostlund, CBT – NØANP – is the Operations / Engineering Manager for the Minnesota News Network in Minneapolis, MN
Bill Morine, N2COP, of the national PR Committee comments:
“Another option is www.statenets.com. I’ve had tremendous success with getting radio spots on the North Carolina News Network, one of the www.statenets.com members. It typically airs on small AM stations in rural areas, but that’s 100% okay with me. This is a very underutilized resource. They’re especially hungry for news on weekends and will air about anything of statewide interest. I have my success hitting them up Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. We’ll record a :10-:20 telephone actuality with me, then place a ::30-40 wrapper around the interview for about a :40 to one minute story that plays many times all weekend long. Sweet!”
Are you involved in an interesting new technological area? Does it relate to Amateur Radio? If so, you may be able to help us keep the new www.WeDoThat-Radio.org website fresh and interesting.
We’re interested in showing the new technologies which are being developed, especially in wireless communications, and their relationship to hams and our Service.
The goal is to give the readers information:
a) This is NOT about your granddaddy's era ham radio
b) Amateur Radio leads to many interesting science areas to explore
c) This is fun – and can even lead to careers
d) Why not join us?
What would be involved for you is pretty simple. I am looking for sets of materials on new (Amateur Radio related) technical experiments or developments or applications including:
what it is about and what it does targeted to NON-hams
where to get more information about the topic
(hopefully showing the equipment used)
talking about or demonstrating it for non-ham
explaining it to a non-ham
Obviously not all of the topics sent to us are used. Each of us has one or more “pet” modes or ways to do things and if it is not something fairly new to the technology scene, it probably is not appropriate for the purpose of this site. But, if you have information on a new dongle, Asterisk, whiz-bang, phizzy or some other way in which ham radio experience is opening or paired up with a new technology, then we would like to hear about it!
PR is a participatory sport. All the great ideas and opportunities are worthless unless they lead to action by PIOs in getting our message out in their home regions. This really is not a hard action to do and there’s lots of help available. But it does require volunteer action. PIOs cannot be mere spectators.
In this issue are two very good ideas. The first, linking up with the Ready.gov people and participating in September’s National Preparedness Month, is an easy win. The federal people are already doing all the hard work. All you really have to do is sign up. Most clubs and ARES groups are already doing activities which fit into their structure, so why not get credit for your actions? Of course if you do something more with this opportunity, so much the better! But you have to sign your group in and no one can do that for you. There are hundreds of ARES groups in the country. Wouldn’t it be fun to have even 70% of them sign up and get noticed?
The second idea is exploring your state or regional radio network. Is there a ham embedded in their staff? Or look at http://www.statenets.com . A major hit may just be a phone call away – but you have to make that call.
And what do you get for your effort? Pride, accomplishment, satisfaction. There’s something really pleasant about seeing your work show up on the air, screen or in print. Just see the smile on a new PIOs face when they get their first hit. Even if it is only in the “announcements” page, they own that ink and grin. That initial joy mellows over time with more articles, but only gets better. In short – it makes you feel GOOD. Not only have you helped promote Amateur Radio for everyone of us, but you scored a personal victory. Maybe it is just an ego thing – but it is an ego thing that a “spectator” will never know. Real PR is a participatory sport.