Amateur Radio Operators Are Silent Heroes

Do you think that sometimes television is shameless? That the medium, which was actually introduced almost 100 years ago (the first photos were sent over the air from an amateur transmitter to an amateur receiver around 1921) made its professional debut with the 1928 election when the victor’s speech was broadcast.

Early broadcast pioneers such as Gen. David Sarnoff, who heard about the plight of the HRMS Titanic when it sank in 1912 because he did not have a license allowing him to broadcast (he soon remedied it), later founded the National Broadcasting Co.

Lee deForest invented the “valve” (triode tube) which enabled the miniaturization of the radio, he was an electrical engineer who wanted to see what would happen when he added a grid plate to a standard diode tube and the amplifier circuit was born. He allowed big stations to put music and drama on the air. Almost immediately, networks such as Sarnoff’s National Broadcasting Company (NBC) began to generate advertising revenue lavishly as quatrodes and pentodes were developed.

Commander Edwin Armstrong, the “father of FM radio,” figured out how to modulate the main frequency and put large amounts of information on that frequency, adding real sound. None of them were in it for the money, at first.

1. They were in it for: The excitement they got from seeing if they could do something that no one else had done before.
2. The ability to develop new technology from older technology and then use the newer technology to develop even newer technology (the transistor would never have been developed without the work of deForrest and the work of RCA and Motorola and we never would have had the computers laptops or desktops that we take for granted every day
3. To assist the federal government with public safety work.

In fact, in the mid-1920s, people were asking for licenses for amateur radio operators who:

• Provide a trained group of operators in case of war.
• Provide a skilled technology base to advance technology.
• Beyond the radio arts
• Beware of their families
• Assist the government in times of need

Not the most moving of creeds, is it? However, all 1AW amateur radio operators (Hiram Percy Maxim, who founded the American Radio Relay League) in the early 1920s, to this day, are prepared to provide service and support to town authorities, cities, counties, states and federal.

In fact, the mission of the amateur radio operator has expanded since the tragedy of September 11, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) named them official first responders. This was just the highest recognition the Amateur community could receive.

It’s not like radio amateurs are sitting by their radios waiting for new contests and contacts (there are some who do that, but when the time comes and a lot of information has to be moved in a short amount of time, a skilled contestant can move a lot of information in a while). relatively short and they use a microphone to do it.

There are those in the amateur world who believe that using a specialized software keyboard is the most efficient way to move traffic, and there are those who believe that Morse code is still the best way to do it.

Each one has its place in the world of the answer; however, Amateur Radio now works regularly with:

• Military backup radio system, which acts as the Army’s main high-frequency backup network, in case the Army system fails. The same goes for the new mission of the Marines, Navy and Air Force.
• Radio amateurs have working relationships with the National Hurricane Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to put observation “boots on the ground” through a trained cadre of Skywarn observers, at each weather service headquarters. In fact, a radio amateur, Rob Macedo, KD1CY, from Massachusetts, runs a major information retrieval and reporting system and makes sure it interacts cleanly and runs smoothly, reporting directly to the director of the Hurricane Center.
• The radio amateurs have also had working relationships with the American Red Cross and worked tirelessly when two terrorists tried to weaken our resolve by blowing up a couple of buckets of nails at the Boston Marathon. They ended up taking the lives of three young men and we will never know if any of them may have found the cure for cancer or diabetes, but the culprit (more like the cowards they were), but it just ended up showing the world that our backs are on made of steel when we came under attack when the Boston community came together to help.
• Radio amateurs were there during the race and directed runners to buses so they could be picked up and delivered to their loved ones.

The list goes on and on and here’s the kicker to this piece, radio amateurs use their own equipment to do this “job”. “In fact, you want to know something that we don’t consider this job, at all. We’re just helping, giving back to the community the ability that we’ve been given to enjoy a hobby and a necessity like ham radio,” said a local. Amateur.