HAM radio Speech

[KC9IZF]

Hi everyone,

I am doing a speech for school on HAM radio. It's a human interest speech and i'm looking for any stories on how HAM radio has helped them or other people by way of helping at parades, Weather Spotting or even any about people talking to troops over seas.

If anyone has some nice stories and I can use them in my speech I would be appreciative.

73, KC9IZF
Andy

[w4hwd]

The first thing you can do is write a paper on the fact that it is not HAM radio and include a history of when people started incorrectly capitalizing HAM radio. You might also research what HAM, now erroneously capitalized everywhere, actually stands for.

[KE5FRF]

Quote[/b] (w4hwd @ Mar. 29 2006,23:49)]The first thing you can do is write a paper on the fact that it is not HAM radio and include a history of when people started incorrectly capitalizing HAM radio. You might also research what HAM, now erroneously capitalized everywhere, actually stands for.
Harry, sir...this is a KID, go easy on him! Yes, correct him, but at least provide a tidbit of useful information too!!!!

[K9STH]

Suggestion:

Take a portable or other small operating unit and use it as a working visual aid. Make sure and have a schedule set up so that there will definitely be someone to talk to. I used a Heathkit "lunchbox" (10 meter version) as a visual aid in a high school speech class back in the Spring of 1960 but didn't do an actual demonstration. The teacher made me do a 2nd speech the next day actually demonstrating the unit. This was just after the best in the century peak of the sunspot cycle and during my demonstration (with an 8 foot piece of wire plugged into the unit) I gave a test count and a station in Brazil came back to me! This was with a transmitter than ran about 1.5 watts output on AM. There was no way that I could have "planned" this but the teacher was definitely impressed.

There have been all sorts of people that have been rescued on both land and water from the use of amateur radio. I know several "true stories" ranging from World War II onward that deal with all sorts of things, not just rescue operations. However, they are quite dated and might not "click" with the younger audiences of today (i.e. how amateur radio saved the life of an American who was imprisoned in a Japanese POW camp during World War II).

As far as "ham" radio goes, I NEVER use the term (and haven't for the almost 47 years that I have been licensed). I am a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. Make sure and note the difference between amateur radio, Class "D" Citizen's Radio Service, and "freebanding". Most people consider all 3 to be "ham" radio.

Glen, K9STH

[kf6rdn]

Might want to check the ARRL site, they may have some videos to use.

Also look up that video that was on Jay Leno's show, with the CW vs SMS messaging contest.

And frf, since when do you capitilize KID? http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[ae6yd]

I second STH's suggestion. Take a small rig to school and schedule a demonstration QSO with somebody. If you're a tech-plus, perhaps a 10-meter or CW contact. If you're not, a local Echolink node might provide some "wow" factor. (*dons asbestos suit* Keep in mind, explain what EL is and how it's not all RF.)

Also, you might want to talk to your local organizations about amateur service in your area. I know it'd be a lot more impressive here to say "Riverside native Joe Blow was saved by ham radio" than, oh, say "Chicago native" or "Alabama resident". Look up your local ARES/RACES/SKYWARN/SATERN guys, I'm sure they'd be happy to help.

[ka9inv]

Quote[/b] (w4hwd @ Mar. 29 2006,15:49)]The first thing you can do is write a paper on the fact that it is not HAM radio and include a history of when people started incorrectly capitalizing HAM radio. You might also research what HAM, now erroneously capitalized everywhere, actually stands for.
I'd love to see what you're like in person, because I bet you don't have the guts to act like a total ass to anyone's face. So have fun hiding behind that keyboard of yours, pal... nobody's impressed.

[ka9inv]

Quote[/b] (KC9IZF @ Mar. 29 2006,14:00)]Hi everyone,

I am doing a speech for school on HAM radio. It's a human interest speech and i'm looking for any stories on how HAM radio has helped them or other people by way of helping at parades, Weather Spotting or even any about people talking to troops over seas.

If anyone has some nice stories and I can use them in my speech I would be appreciative.

73, KC9IZF
Andy
Look a bit around these forums... I know there have been articles posted about ham operators aiding in Hurricane Katrina and in the tsunamis late last year. Ask the local club about what volunteer activities they do, too... I'm sure they do at least one or two events per year.

I third the HT idea... I talked to a guy in Antarctica over IRLP during a class demonstration I did once, and noted that while that technically doesn't count as much of a contact and most hams don't care for it, the potential exists to make contacts like that to distant places with small amounts of power and minimal antennas. People were definitely interested after hearing that.

[KI4ENY]

Quote[/b] (ka9inv @ Mar. 29 2006,22:22)]Quote[/b] (w4hwd @ Mar. 29 2006,15:49)]The first thing you can do is write a paper on the fact that it is not HAM radio and include a history of when people started incorrectly capitalizing HAM radio. You might also research what HAM, now erroneously capitalized everywhere, actually stands for.
I'd love to see what you're like in person, because I bet you don't have the guts to act like a total @$$ to anyone's face. So have fun hiding behind that keyboard of yours, pal... nobody's impressed.
Thank you-somebody had to say it.

[KI4ENY]

I fourth the opinion that you should take a portable or hanheld to demonstrate. #People tend to get bored and fall asleep without any action, especially when they are learning about something unfamiliar. #it does not matter if you use Echolink or repeaters-just do something that will keep your audiance awake. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I have made a couple of speeches about ham radio in the past, and I can tell you that you need to include information that holds the interest of the listeners. #For instance, while talking about the many ways in which ham radio can save lives and provide assistance during emergencies, insert some general ham radio history and examples that can be gathered from anywhere. #Then provide a short demonstration of your radio. #Like others have already said, arrange a schedule on the air with a fellow ham so you can make sure you have someone to talk to when the time comes.

Best of Luck.
73,
de Chris, KI4ENY

[VE7NOT]

It's HAM radio.... HAM radio. - "If you don't like ..thank you...." -Hank Jr. in Young Country. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Who cares whats its a called or how it capatalized?

That's like the kid picking up a d-104 or somethign and saying: "This is a an audio pickup unit that vibrates and creates and eletromagnaectic charge in relation to the driving sound which then... " http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/laugh.gif ... or maybe he could say... "A mike"

Please we are not all rocket sceintists here and i have no idea what HAM stands for myslef nor do I care since on this island the words ametuer radio, ham radio, HAM radio, shortwave experimenters etc... they are the same...so let it be written, so let it be done http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[k0cmh]

Lets see if I can give you some specific information.

Tornados came through eastern Missouri and Western Illinois, In about a 15 county area around St. Louis. I was working with a number of weather spotter radio nets.

The various SkyWarn weather spotter radio nets were up and running as the storms came through. These nets are operated by Hams, using their radio equipment, and who are training in weather spotting and reporting.

Numerous times those two nights, the National Weather Service (NTS) radar center at St. Charles, MO would call into one of those nets, to either get confirmation of what they were seeing on their radar, or to determine just what the radar was indicating. All the NTS radar stations in the country have employees who are also Hams, so that they can communicate directly with Skywarn spotters.

The activity greatly helped the NTS decide when and where to issue tornado warnings. Most county Emergency Management Offices either have employees who are Hams, or have a Ham volunteer report to the facilty during bad weather or emergencies.

Many times during those two nights, the NTS, the weather spotters and the county Emergency Management Offices were all on the same net, hearing the same thing. Numerous times, the fellow at the NTS would get his information from the spotters and then immediately tell the county Emergency Management Official to sound the warning for his area. This is before it even got on the NTS weather radio station. We believe many many people were saved by this immediate interaction between spotters, NTS and county agencies that was supplied through the Ham radio operators.

Do a google search of the ARRL web site (arrl.org) for Hurricane Kitrina. You will find an article about 15 people stranded in an attic that was flooding. One made contact with a Ham, who was able to relay the message until it got back to local emergency personnel. 15 people were saved that night.

Try a google search for "SkyWarn". You should find some good information there.

Both the Red Cross and the Salvation Army have emergency communications groups that are staffed by volunteer Hams. A google search on both groups should find the information. I believe the Salvation Army group is called SATERN and this should be a link:

http://www.satern.org/

While at the arrl.org web site, check out their national emergency communications groups, ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services), or try this link:

http://www.ares.org/

I think you will find the Kitrina story there.

We had a fellow from my local ARES group go with a group to the Mississippi part of the Kitrina disaster aera. He reported to us when he got back that his group ran all radio communications for the whole county, because all their towers and equipment had been destroyed. This included fire, police, Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. They were there for two weeks. The radio communications used 100% volunteered Ham equipment.

Hope these help. Good luck. And I challenge my fellow hams to come up with more specific information for you to use. Come on guys, step up to the plate.

[KC9IZF]

I really don't care to be honest if HAM should or shouldn't be capitalized cause it doesn't really matter. Plus don't we make HAM and amature to be the same thing? Just a thought on my part.

I am also going to talk to people in the local club to ask them on anything that I could use. I have also thought about using an HT to make sure they don't get bored.

And yes to you I am just a kid so be nice to me http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

[AG3Y]

Enough with the capitalized or un-capitalized words, already ! We don't want to scare him off ! http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif

Being a great fan of digital stuff, I would certainly advise you to include some quick examples of MFSK audio being turned into text. The sounds of the tones will certainly be enough to draw at least a smile from the most dis-interested teenager. I can remember back in the 70s when NASA used audio from satellites to start their weekly news feature on a station I worked at ( Willard Scott reporting ! ) and it sounded very similar, and more importantly, it caught your attention !

SSTV ( that's slow scan television ) might be an attention grabber, too, since there is more than just audio or written text, and if the local radio club has an Amateur Television Group, you might even be able to put on a demo of actual "live" television!

As with the hobby, the possibilities are endless. Good luck, and don't let the petty arguments here drive you away.

73, Jim

[AK7V]

I say hAm rADi0. Got a problem with that?

[k4lem]

Quote[/b] (KE5FRF @ Mar. 29 2006,23:55)]Quote[/b] (w4hwd @ Mar. 29 2006,23:49)]The first thing you can do is write a paper on the fact that it is not HAM radio and include a history of when people started incorrectly capitalizing HAM radio. You might also research what HAM, now erroneously capitalized everywhere, actually stands for.
Harry, sir...this is a KID, go easy on him! Yes, correct him, but at least provide a tidbit of useful information too!!!!
[QUOTE]

Has he had his MALOX today?



http://i2.tinypic.com/smdj5i.jpg

[k4lem]

Quote[/b] (KC9IZF @ Mar. 29 2006,22:00)]Hi everyone,

I am doing a speech for school on HAM radio. It's a human interest speech and i'm looking for any stories on how HAM radio has helped them or other people by way of helping at parades, Weather Spotting or even any about people talking to troops over seas.

If anyone has some nice stories and I can use them in my speech I would be appreciative.

73, KC9IZF
Andy
Andy, one aspect, which historically used to be very important, was phone patching US Military personnel to their loved ones. This was done by a number of operators during the Viet Nam war. (I with hold my political views of that war)


The late K7UGA, and Senator, Barry Goldwater, used to do this from his ranch in Arizona.
However, there were many others also.

In more recent times the proliferation of high data capacity satellite (non amateur) networks has more or less made this public service a by-gone activity.

Good luck on your speech, Kido!
http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[k0cmh]

Someone mentioned SSTV (Slow Scan Television).

I understand that within the last 12 months, once or twice Hams have been requested to assist with traffic control during local emergencies. They were asked to go to critical highway intersections and every 10 or 15 minutes, send a picture of the traffic conditions to the Emergency Operations Commander (EOC). They used their digital cameras, downloaded the pictures to a laptop computer. The laptop computer is interfaced to a Ham radio. The computer program turns the digital picture into a shifting audio tones and sends this through the radio. The receiving Ham radio at the OEC receives the signals, sends them to a computer there, the software turns the signals back into the digital picture, which you know can be displayed, printed, etc. This way, the EOC could actually see the traffic situation. This freed up police officers that would have usually been assigned to park in their patrol cars and radio in reports. But they were free to work the actual emergency.

Unfortunately I cannot find the link to this report. If you have time, you may find it on the ARRL web site or the ARES web site.

[wa4brl]

A few years back there was a case that might prove interesting for the report. #A family sailing their ocean-going sailboat was attacked by pirates. #No doubt the plan was to kill the occupants and steal the boat. #The family was able to foil the attack, but their son was seriously wounded by gunfire. # Via Amateur Radio, they were able to contact a doctors who helped them save their son. #They were also able to report their situation to authorities of the local jurisdiction and arrange to report the attack and get help. Here's the complete story:
Piracy Incident (http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/00/0331/#rescue)

A second incident (http://www.arrl.org/arrlletter/01/0323/)

[wa4brl]

Also, QST, World Radio, and other amateur radio magazines have been reporting the volunteer efforts of amateur operators who traveled from all areas of the country to help in the aftermath of Katrina. #The regular newspapers, magazines, etc. have also had many articles about this. #The ARRL has a lot of this online: #ARRL Katrina articles (http://www.arrl.org/search/?exp=1&q=katrina)

Utilize Google and see what else you can find, Andy.

[wa4brl]

Regarding the use of television: #An Amateur Radio club in California used to provide communications assistance for the Rose Bowl Parade. #This included regular voice comm AND fast-scan (standard broadcast type) color TV from locations along the route to help the organizers see where jam-ups and slack points were occurring in real time. #This club even used portable camera/tranceiver units so they could walk or run to trouble spots to provide live video. A cell phone company took on sponsorship of the event and nixed the use of Amateur Radio asistance at the parade in favor of their phones for the last two years. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

Other Amateur Radio clubs around the country provide public service with THIS unique Amateur Radio capability too. #Here's a link to one:

Baltimore ATV Club (http://www.bratsatv.org/overview.html)

[ae6yd]

.

http://www.delta-sky.com/2006_02/RolePlaying/index.html

Here's a good article from Delta's in-flight Sky magazine on amateur radio service in Katrina. The ARRL has a ton of them. You might also want to cite the official report to the US Congress, A Failure of Initiative, for it's kind words about amateur radio.

Oh, and as far as ham radio goes, the prevailing explanation that I can find says that the word came from commercial wireline telegraphers who moved to wireless. In their slang, "ham" was roughly equivalent to "lid", and was used frequently to express their displeasure at radio amateurs operating in the area (since everyone was on spark-gap, there was no QSY'ing). Amateur operators, unaware of the meaning, picked it up and used it to describe themselves. Thereby, it doesn't stand for anything and you should probably not capitalize it, though in an academic situation I suggest you use "amateur radio" anyway. http://www.qrz.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Moderator's note: Edited to make the link work.

Glen, K9STH
One of the QRZ.com moderators

[kf6rdn]

My son was actually quite fascinated by CW, and thinks my key is "cool". #Not enough to get into it, but as part of it you could key out a quick message. As part of it, give the this is the original digitial mode, and then play back some psk tomes - this is the new digitial. #That kinda thing. That by way of intro, and then go on with the gist of it. (How it's helped).

[WA2ZDY]

One of your local hams likely has a small shortwave receiver that will copy SSB. A short piece of wire around the classroom will be a decent enough antenna and you can tune around 20m for something to have on as background atmosphere. And if you have an interface and software, use that receiver to show the digital modes and SSTV on 20m.

Sounds like a great project and I'm sure you'll do fine.

On the subject of kids since RDN brought it up . . . Wendy's kids' meals this week have a "Stuart Little 3 movie" premium they're giving away. Included is some cub scout type info, mostly authentic, and a morse code chart with usage ideas. Ham radio isn't included but this week millions of kids are being exposed to the code.

My 7 year old, now that he's reading, is even more interested than he was because now he understands the concept.

[wa4brl]

Here's another interesting story. #The late King Hussein of Jordan (SK 1999) was an avid Amateur Radio operator. #His call was JY1. #He was often on the air on various HF frequencies chatting with amateurs of all nations. #He befriended many the world over and kept schedules for contacts with several of them.

In 1958, his reign was challenged in an attempted coup d'et tat by some disloyal officers in his military. #The initial battles were won by the rebels and they soon had the royal palace surrounded with King Hussein holed up inside. #The palace suffered repeated attacks and bombardment, and nothing was heard from the King for many days. #The rebels held the Radio and TV stations, preventing Hussein from speaking to his people, so it was easy for everyone to believe the worst. #As the world's nations and press organizations watched closely, the rebels celebrated their claimed victory. #There was no word of what had become of the King. #After about a week, JY1, Hussein, poped up on 20 meters for a schedule with a friend in England as if nothing had happened. #They chated casually about everything but the ongoing battle. #The news that their King was alive and well gave new hope to his loyal troops and the rebellion was turned back. #

That one contact did far more than communicate to the world that Hussein was alive and well. #His casual tone made the celebrating rebels look like fools. #This was a #major factor in bringing other troops back behind the loyalists. #Score a big one for Amateur Radio! #

I couldn't find the original article from which I learned of this event, so all of the above is based upon my memory of it. #The details may lack accuracy, but the story is true. #

I heard JY1 Hussein on the air several times in the 70's and 80's, but I never made a contact with him. #Each time I heard him he was just making casual contacts, sounding amazingly friendly and open and upbeat in his conversation. #He was a wonderful ambassador for his country, Amateur Radio, and all of humanity.

The article at the following link does not recount the story above, but it is a fitting tribute to the man.

JY1 (http://users.skynet.be/on1cau/k_hussein.htm)