Ham, AmRRON Operators Save Another Life, Idaho Mountain Rollover Crash

Brilliant!

 

In Anchorage, you have KONR on 106.1 and; KHR-LP Holy Rosary Academy on 94.1

See the list: https://www.lpfm.us/?state=AK

Let's see. Just for fun, if you wanted to set up your own LPFM station in Anchorage (assuming you could get a license, for example) and you ran 5 hours a day, seven days a week (35 hours)...

You could run weather, hunting, fishing, local recreational conditions, 501(c)3 announcements (any/all churches, charities, and critter clubs) pieces about readiness and disease surveillance (Flu, Covid, Etc), prepping info, HS and college sports, running, biking, kayaking, sledding, fishing, shooting, hunting events, initiatives on the AK legislative and federal agenda, VA issues, Native issues, AK Pacific University programs, Charter College in AK programs, Elmendorf and Anchorage airport issues and announcements, and lots of music.

As long as it's not used for commericial purposes, you can run practically anything. Hooking up with a local non-profit would help get the LPFM license if there's a slot available. Much of the material is free on the Internet. Just needs an editor to string it together. A college radio station club would be ideal. In the "mission statement" there could be a section indicating that in the event of an emergency, the station would be dedicated to information necessary to disseminate emergency info. After the license is granted, you could get a grant for a 100' tower and 100 watt transmitter and computer to do the editing. (GoFundMe?) It would be a full time job, so it would be better to organize it as a club and training center for aspiring broadcasters.

AnchorageVA, AK Native Heritage Center, AK Pacific University, Charter College in AK, or some other college entity/club could provide you the staff you'd need.

LPFM Station Finder: https://transition.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/...t=73&dlon=149&mlon=86&slon=31&detail=1&x2nd=0

 

That's the real hero of this story.

 

Had it not been called in there would have been no EMT! Credit where credit is due.

 

No worries. I don't take that as a personal attack, nor do I intend any of my comments that way. Just hopefully clearing up some misunderstanding.
Here is the excerpt that covers encryption, under prohibited transmissions, 97.113(a)(4): Music using a phone emission ex-
cept as specifically provided elsewhere
in this section; communications in-
tended to facilitate a criminal act;
messages encoded for the purpose of ob-
scuring their meaning, except as other-
wise provided herein; obscene or inde-
cent words or language; or false or de-
ceptive messages, signals or identifica-
tion.
So I can't attest to how hard it is to get into a Winlink QSO that is not directed at you; the main issue for me is having them openly share said QSOs to anyone, including those who don't bother with their radio. I agree with you that anything on the ham bands should be decodable by hams that happen to be on the same frequency, but if I am on Contestia and an MFSK signal comes through, I'll miss it if I don't change modes quickly enough. However, the rules state that you are not to encode for the purpose of obscuring the meaning. You could even claim Morse code/CW as cryptic. Of course, that is ludicrous because Morse made the key widely available. I doubt he would have published QSOs on the internet.
I have gotten on 80m SSB and heard profanity. Whose fault is that? And for Winlink abuses, is it the fault of Winlink or the users?
As far as the paranoia is concerned, I can't speak for John Jacob Schmidt's reasons, only that he chose to use the operators' tactical call signs rather than their ham call signs and to omit the names of the minors involved.

 

I have more than a passing familiarity with 97.113, the entire section, and al I can say is if you think publishing a "key" and then encrypting a transmission is ok then go for it. Not my license and not my legal problem. The FCC has repeatedly shot down encryption requests, DA 13-1918 Direct link to the PDF to save you some time wading through the FCC system. The FCC doesn't have a sense of humor.

Winlink, the system, was not responsible for anything on the ham bands. Winlink only provides the software to access the system and the servers -- internet side-- but (you knew this was coming ) since the Winlink admins have gone down the path of enforcing FCC and other rules they are now responsible. To what degree their responsibility extends is up to someone else. Ask yourself why Winlink all of a sudden was worried about message content, station id (one that could be decoded), 3rd party messaging with countries not on the State Department list, callsign piracy and the QRM problem for failing to implement "busy channel detection" in their software? Winlink must have had good reason to try to clean up the mess they enabled. Like I said the FCC has no sense of humor.

The whole discussion may be moot depending on if and when the FCC acts on the multitude of outstanding amateur radio petitions. It's going to be an interesting ride.

73

 

While I do NOT support winlink, I do support AmRRON. They have a right to exist as much as any other law-abiding group. Those with prejudices need to stand back and think before speaking out. This applies to a few of my QRZ friends, too. Please!

 

Right about the above!

Regarding AmRRON: The org believes in privacy. It is very important to them. I understand this. Its decision to discontinue the use of winstink was wise and in its best interest. That's fine. It's right and good for them.

Eastern Washington and northern Idaho and many other rural areas of the West are beautiful. Many are still pristine, much like Alaska. I may retire there, if I leave Alaska. It fits.

 

It's all about presentation, attitude and perception. I have no problem with AMRRON as an organization but it's easy to form a negative opinion of the org after reading some of their press copies and web site. The current climate doesn't bode well for a group such as AMRRON, re:FCC warnings about proper use of amateur radio and other services.

 

Perhaps. As long as they follow the rules concerning each radio service they use, I have no problem with them whatsoever. Besides amateur radio (146.42 MHz simplex and certain HF nets), please note that they use CB, MURS, FRS (Ch 3 on these other services), cellular systems and smartphone software to accomplish comms. Of course, the Internet and email play roles as well.

Someday I'll have to listen an HF net or two.

 

Basically... these "new hams" were ambulance chasing per typical amrron fashion, got to play a little radio, and whacker control wrote up some "phenomenal" story.

 

WAY TO GO BEARPAW !!!!!!!

Catch ya on the air ....

oh, i dont think he will see this .. guess ill stop by his stand alone repeater ...

 

Agreed.

I wasn't there, but I'm sure that when operating over the air, those members of AMRRON probably used their ham call signs. They just don't want to be personally identified as AMRRON members, for their own privacy and safety.

The way people a few have acted on here on this site, I can see why AMRRON doesn't want their members mapped to their call signs. They are in the minority and I'm itching to hit that "Report" button.

 

Kudos to that Wahine Shannon and all who helped out !
Surely something like this should not be Politicized ?
G3SEA/KH6

 

Exactly! Agreed! The -> article <- does not post call letters. That in NO WAY implies or even slightly hints that they didn't use them at the time of the event. (Logic class talks about arguments from silence. Literature class also talks about context. Again, the article did not say or hint that they didn't use call signs or break any laws.)

Lives were saved! In an actual life-threatening emergency!

Judgmental people without all the facts immediately knee-jerk -- and they don't even know for sure if anything was violated at all. They just assume, want to control people, and are part of cancel culture.

Some people just hate people. Let's commit to Report people like this, on this site, and never to become like them.

Way to go, AMRRON - another life saved! I'm not a member, but mean people like this are making me more a fan of yours.

Who knows? Maybe AMRRON volunteers will save one of their lives, in the future. They probably won't apologize, and AMRRON won't worry about taking individual credit.... I can tell you which ones have the integrity and which ones don't.

Thank you for clarifying this, KI7PMQ. And thanks to QRZ for posting it.