Have any of you received this missive? Mr Knight is a member, at least until June 30. Bob ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Eric Knight <eknight@upaerospace.com> Date: Mar 5, 2006 3:24 PM Subject: I need your advice To: eknight@upaerospace.com Dear amateur radio colleague, I apologize, in advance, for the generic greeting. I'm sending this e-mail to about a dozen experienced amateur-radio leaders, hoping to get your advice on something that is rather important. A few of you have already given me excellent direction on this matter...*and I thank you greatly*! My name is Eric Knight, KB1EHE. I've been a ham for 32 years, and have always been extremely proud of the way hams volunteer their time and energy to help in disaster communications. Last fall (after Hurricane Katrina), me and some local hams came up with a way to help the public assist in their own recovery efforts. It empowers the people that are directly affected by the crisis at hand. And it weaves in the capabilities of amateur radio -- creating a communications conduit to rescue & disaster-relief personnel. The idea is starting to pick up steam. For instance, the Director of the U.S. Government's SHARES (Shared Resources High Frequency Radio Program * http://www.ncs.gov/n3/shares/shares.*<http://www.ncs.gov/n3/shares/shares.htm> htm <http://www.ncs.gov/n3/shares/shares.htm> ) program, John Peterson, believes it is a good idea, and has made excellent suggestions on how to build national traction (see some suggestions below). Emergency communication directors and planners -- coast to coast -- are supporting it...and *some are even implementing it right now*. And an entire, similar-idea organization -- DCERN (D.C. Emergency Radio Network) -- is *merging their entire membership base into our fledgling emergency-communications concept*! On top of it all, not only can this concept help save lives in a large-scale disaster, but it *can also bring new people into amateur radio*! The idea is called "NationalSOS" -- and it essentially creates a network of "listening posts" of hams throughout the U.S. that will perk up their RF ears to listen to 462.5625 MHz (the frequency of Channel 1 on FRS) if a disaster strikes. (BTW, contrary to some comments that have circulated on the Internet, it is *not* an always-on emergency network. It's a network that would *only* be activated during a declared emergency.) When AC power goes out, telephone lines go down, cell-phone service fails, and / or cell-phone batteries die, an FRS radio may be the only lifeline a person in a desperate situation may have. It's akin to firing a signal flare on a sinking ship. It can't hurt. And it just might help. The sheer volume of FRS owners in the U.S. (estimated at 100 million and growing at an amazing rate of 12.2 million *per year*), and the prevalence of hams in almost every community in America, makes this idea possible. The reality is that there are *FRS owners on almost every street in America*. And just plugging in even the smallest city or town into QRZ.com's online database ( http://www.qrz.com/i/names.html ) reveals the matching density of hams that can receive the public's FRS messages. That's the enabling factor of this concept. There's a more complete description on our simple Web site: www.NationalSOS.com <http://www.nationalsos.com/> *I need your advice and counsel on how this idea can continue to evolve*. Here are a few ideas that have been submitted so far: * Run "drills" in various regions, to demonstrate to the public the effectiveness of this emergency-communication tool. * Create centralized listening posts (such as at repeater sites) that can listen to a wide area during a crisis. The working name: H.E.L.P. (Ham Emergency Listening Posts). * Organize a coast-to-coast message "relay" -- a demonstration event where hams and FRS users would collaborate in the passing of a message. (Could be very newsworthy; the media could very well pick up on the national event.) Of course, under normal circumstances, hams and FRS owners can't directly communicate, as that is a violation of FCC regulations. However, hams can easily receive 462.5625 MHz at all times. And, in a declared emergency, hams could respond to FRS users. The goal is to somehow reach a minimum visibility threshold in which the idea would then percolate through the public on its own...in much the same way that the cell-phone "I.C.E." In-Case-of-Emergency idea rapidly spread around the world almost entirely via e-mail and Web postings. (As you know, I.C.E. began as simply the idea of one paramedic in the UK. Then, in just a matter of weeks, it was everywhere.) Please check out the suggestions -- and actual implementations -- that have been described in our public forums: http://nationalsos.com/ideas/viewforum.php?f=3 *Please help*. I need the ingenuity, open-mindedness, and creative-problem-solving ability that hams are legendary for. Jot me *any*thoughts (no matter how trivial they may seem to you). Or post a message in our forums. That would be wonderful! Together, we can find ways to help save lives. That's a worthy objective, in and of itself. Thank you so much! Sincerely, Eric Knight, KB1EHE