Romney "Disses" Amateur Radio In Televised Town Meeting (and why he won't get my vote)

Eastern MA American Radio Relay League ^ | Wednesday 16 November 2005 @ 15:48:10 | Eastern Massachusetts ARRL

[Rick.Donaldson]

Romney "Disses" Amateur Radio In Televised Town Meeting Posted on Wednesday 16 November 2005 @ 15:48:10

Governor Mitt Romney dismissed the role of Amateur Radio operators in emergency communications during a televised "town meeting" program last night on WCVB's "When Disaster Strikes: Segment Two." The program featured public safety and volunteer organization officials from across Massachusetts among its audience.

Host and moderator Natalie Jacobson asked an increasingly-agitated Governor Romney questions about communications interoperability, and communication without commercial power. Romney was next asked by Jacobson, "...so does it come down to ham radio?..."

The Governor replied in a disgusted tone, "No, we don't need to deal with ham radio operators..."

Embarrassed public safety officials later tried to put in a good word for Amateur Radio. National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Glenn Field was prepared to state the importance of Amateur Radio, when Salvation Army Colonel Fred Van Brunt was called upon. Van Brunt remarked about his organization's quest to improve its communications capabilities and how Amateur Radio has aided his organization. "The ham radio situation helps a great deal," he stated.

"I have already written and submitted a letter to the Governor's Office," wrote Eastern MA Section Emergency Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY. "I have also written an email to Natalie Jacobson."

ARRL Section Manager Mike Neilsen, W1MPN sent a section-wide email today to all Eastern MA ARRL members describing the incident along with actions he and his staff were taking to mitigate the situation.

"[Romney's] attitude about us sets an unfortunate tone within the state's executive branch," wrote Neilsen. "As a former military officer, I see this as a failure in leadership. My immediate concern is our working relationship within the [Massachusetts Emergency Management Team] environment." Neilsen intends to address the Governor's comments as "an urgent matter" at a meeting on November 17 with Don Carlton from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.

"I was very disturbed about what the Governor stated on the program," wrote Ron Wood, W1PLW, the section's Public Information Coordinator. "It does show that more work is needed by all hams in the section. It's a great idea to write letters explaining the good we do." Wood is attempting to schedule a meeting with the Governor's office tomorrow so that EMA ARRL staffers might discuss the matter further.

Tom Kinahan, N1CPE wrote that Governor Romney's comment has made "a PR problem" for Kinahan in his role as MA State RACES Officer.

"I've got a roster of over 150 Amateur Radio operators that support local communities, and those of us that directly support the state government. There are at least double that in terms of people that are actually out there that I don't have formal paperwork on that support Amateur Radio emergency communications in some organized manner... The Governor has said that he 'certainly doesn't need to rely on ham radio' -- where does that leave the RACES program now?"

"I am ashamed tonight that I am a Republican!" remarked one ham radio viewer. "[Romney] speaks in derogatory tones about hams. He certainly shows an ignorance as to what we do and are capable of. I suggest a grass roots campaign of local hams calling the State House and The Governor's Office to protest."

The television program can be viewed at http://www.thebostonchannel.com/video/5334306/detail.html.

[freebird5850]

And your signal here is 5-9.....thanks for posting...73
N7LRG.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

If myth is not aware of the absolutely indispensable contributions of amateur radio in emergency situations, what other fundamental knowledge is the nitwit lacking?

Or should I say the mitt Wit?

If he is the best the (R) brand can scrounge up, 4 more years of "the boy who would be king" is assured.

[JoeFromSidney]

if everything goes down the tubes to the point only ham operators are ‘up and running’ nobody but other ham operators will hear them

It doesn't work that way. Ham operators will be working with public officials, hospitals, etc., to link them together.

Just as an example, there's an annual half-marathon race run near here. Some years ago, one of the runners collapsed and there was no way to get word back to the race organizers. A Ham was asked to organize fellow hams to support the race. We now put operators at every water point, and communicate with race headquarters. The other people at the water points, the driver of the "sag wagon," and those at race headquarters, don't listen to the ham radios. Each is assisted by a ham operator who handles their message traffic.

The point is that ham operators handle message traffic for people who are not themselves hams, but who need to communicate. Supporting this race is simply practice for us hams, to be ready for a real emergency. We can provide communications even when everything else is down, because we have (and pay for) our own backup power, our own radios, etc.

[haroldeveryman]

International Regulators have been chipping away at ham radio share of the broadcast spectrum ever since commercial radio got going. The main reason it isn’t completely gone is that the old Soviet Union fought to preserve the ham spectrum every time the subject was brought up, because they relied on their amateurs for their own communications.

[George from New England]

My ham gear is in a copper room. It’s after the EMP that I remove it and power it up, and yes its all battery operated.

KJ4AQM