It looks like we have plenty of Board interest in this issue, along with some concern regarding what exactly Addy is doing, and for whom. I do not see very much good coming from his efforts, but I do see the potential for various problems. Is this an item for the E C to consider, someone at HQ, or perhaps P & S C? I do not believe that we can take the risk that inaction by the Board be our policy at this time. 73, Bob -- W6RGG On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 7:42 AM, John Bellows <jbellows@skypoint.com> wrote:
There is a typo in the last paragraph of my last posting. It should read:
“For what it is worth. If past experience is an indication Addy is UNLIKELY to draw volunteers from those who are currently affiliated with another emcom organization. Aurora, MN is a 4 to 5 hour drive from Minneapolis/St. Paul so you can do the math as to how many folks would be interested in traveling to operate at the NACEC location.”
73,
Jay, KØQB
-----Original Message----- *From:* John Bellows [mailto:jbellows@skypoint.com] *Sent:* Friday, March 26, 2010 9:24 AM
*To:* arrl-odv *Subject:* RE: [arrl-odv:18738] RE: [arrl-odv:18735] North American Center For Emergency Communications, (NACEC)
I little background on Ed Addy and NACEC from Minnesota.
Ed Addy popped up at the time of Gulf War I and formed an organization called Desert Voices. The group built a station, including several very nice rhombic antennas with the sole purpose of providing health and welfare traffic and phones patches for the benefit of military personnel stationed in the Middle East and their families. The station was located in Rosemount, MN. For the most part Desert Voices use amateur frequencies and relied upon local amateurs as volunteer operators. Addy was quite successful in obtaining donations of equipment for the venture. The operation was well received and successful. To the best of my knowledge when the Desert voices operation closed the equipment was all returned or donated as directed by the original donors.
Ed Addy is a “Type A” person and not shy about asking for help, equipment or volunteers. At least at that point in time his aggressive approach in “recruiting” volunteers wasn’t universally applauded in the local amateur community though I am not aware of any problems with the operation.
There was a brief resurrection of the Desert Voices activity for Gulf II but by that time Addy had moved to Aurora, MN where he had purchased a large tract of land for the purpose of establishing the North American Center for Emergency Communications (NACEC).
Since that time I haven’t heard much of or from Ed Addy until yesterday. There was a minor flurry of local email s from Addy about his interest in rising once again. Just as I was leaving the office yesterday I received a call from Mr. Addy. He said he had sent out a mass emailing looking for volunteers. It wasn’t clear what he planned, but it didn’t seem likely that there would be a lot of interest on the part of volunteers to trek to Northern Minnesota so I just listened.
Addy said he was concerned because in response to his emails he had received some replies that the recipient had checked with ARRL (I don’t know who) and was told they never heard of Ed Addy and NACEC. Addy wanted to know who to speak with at ARRL. I did tell him that the multi-section and regional Emergency Communications activities of ARRL had expended considerably since Katrina and ARRL has an Emergency Preparedness and Response Manager and associated structure so that the resurrection of NACEC could likely be duplication. I did give him Alan Pitt’s name as the current contact point at ARRL. Addy said he already had that information.
For what it is worth. If past experience is an indication Addy is likely to draw volunteers from those who are currently affiliated with another emcom organization. Aurora, MN is a 4 to 5 hour drive from Minneapolis/St. Paul so you can do the math as to how many folks would be interested in traveling to operate at the NACEC location.
If there is some further concern I would be happy to try and get more information from Mr. Addy.
73,
Jay, KØQB
-----Original Message----- *From:* Grant Hopper [mailto:ghopper@eskimo.com] *Sent:* Friday, March 26, 2010 12:12 AM *To:* arrl-odv *Subject:* [arrl-odv:18738] RE: [arrl-odv:18735] North American Center For Emergency Communications, (NACEC)
Funny thing. Jim Fenstermaker and I were JUST talking about this group. They have been aggressively contacting groups in my area and one local ham, knowing I'm a volunteer council as well as a radio officer forwarded the email to me. I did some digging and am a bit concerned by what I found, especially given that they seem to be targeting hams.
If there is interest, either on or off this forum, I'll be glad to share what found, but I do think some more investigation (at a more local level) is certainly called for before any action is taken.
73,
Grant
Grant Hopper, KB7WSD ARRL Northwest Division, Vice Director
-----Original Message----- *From:* Bob Vallio [mailto:rbvallio@gmail.com] *Sent:* Thursday, March 25, 2010 9:56 PM *To:* arrl-odv *Subject:* [arrl-odv:18735] North American Center For Emergency Communications, (NACEC)
I don't know if anyone has any knowledge of this organization, but this fellow is soliciting members of my Division to sign up to work for his group to provide emergency radio communications all over the world. Is there some action we should take to disabuse this fellow of continuing this tactic? In addition to reinventing the wheel, he appears to want to do it with our members.
73, Bob -- W6RGG
Edward Addy KEØEG, Executive Director North American Center For Emergency Communications, (NACEC) P.O. Box 174 Aurora, MN 55705 Ph: 218-305-4100 Web: www.nacec.org