Subj : Newsline Part 1
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Feb 03 2017 09:27 am
Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2049 for Friday, February 3, 2017
Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2049, with a release date of Friday,
February 3, 2017 to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.
The following is a QST. Radio amateurs help out during Inauguration Week.
On Maui, a Volunteer Examiner hits the milestone of 100 license exams --
and World Radio Day is coming! All this and more, as Amateur Radio
Newsline Report 2049, comes your way right now.
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BILLBOARD CART
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IN WASHINGTON, D.C., HAIL TO THE HAMS!
ANCHOR/PAUL: We begin this week's report with a look back at Inauguration
Week through the eyes of some amateurs who were there in Washington,
helping manage communication and crowds. Amateur Radio Newsline's Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG, spoke to two of them.
NEIL: Jeff Dahn, KB3ZUK, of Rockville, Maryland, activated every National
Parks On the Air location in the Washington, DC area last year. That,
combined with his prior law enforcement experience, landed him as a radio
operator for the National Park Service during the presidential
inauguration, as well as the Women's March on Washington. A net control
site was needed on three days notice, and Dahn was able to designate his
club's W3HAC facility to serve as the net control station site for
Amateur Radio operators helping those arriving for the Women's March.
They connected the club's command post with the National Park Service
Incident Command Post via ham radio.
Art Feller, W4ART, was the primary net control at W3HAC.
ART: In a population the size of a good sized city, you expect normally
problems to occur. And in fact, they did. There were times that the crowd
got so dense, that we got a call from the National Park Service saying
please spread them out, and they took care of that. So mostly, well it's
entirely, looking after people, and helping the managers keep everyone
healthy, safe, and well.
NEIL: Jeff Dahn noted that ham radio was an essential means of
communication for the march.
JEFF: There were things that happened that just simply would not have
happened without the service of the hams. And even the march organizers,
and things; that was their only way to communicate many times was because
they had a ham radio operator at their hip. At one point they said, you
know, "We're gonna march!" And then another time they said, "We're not
gonna march. There's just too many people." And then the mayor of D.C.
showed up and said, "No! We are gonna march! We didn't come here not to
march." So there were all these start again, stop again things. And, all
of these things happened; that I mean I could go on and on. I was there
for 32 hours between 3 days. But, particularly like I said, there was a
lot of involvement that the ham radio operators did.
NEIL: The crowds grew, which created a safety concern.
JEFF: At one point, the crowd was so large that we were notifying people
just for officer safety and first responder safety that if they going to
go into those areas, there was a strong likelihood that they may not be
able to get out quickly. So we passed that information over to the W3HAC
command center and to the net control so that their folks could pass that
on to the volunteer march marshals and volunteers.
NEIL: Despite cellular telephone services bringing in additional networks
to attempt to handle the communications of the crowd, the phone system
became overloaded. Hams were there to communicate when all else failed.
JEFF: You know, we as hams; we know what we do. But the general public,
they just don't understand how valuable it was. And when you double the
size of a city in a day, you know; typical resources that are there to
deal with that, are just not available. And that's where hams step in and
fill the void. And it's just amazing what they do.
NEIL: For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
**
SILENT KEY: NYC MARATHON'S ALLAN STEINFELD W2TN
ANCHOR/PAUL: Allan Steinfeld W2TN never ran the New York City Marathon,
but he was always with its athletes every step of the way. The longtime
radio licensee, who was the marathon's former race director, became a
Silent Key on Tuesday, Jan. 24.
An avid athlete himself who had run in the Honolulu and Boston Marathons,
Steinfeld worked alongside New York City race founder Fred Lebow, starting
as technical director of the marathon, and later as its president. The
race had a significant amateur radio component since the 1970s, when the
late Steve Mendelsohn W2ML, formerly WA2DHF, mobilized a team for radio
support. Allan, licensed since 1959, upgraded to Amateur Extra in later
years, and chose W2TN as his call.
A sprinter more than a long-distance runner, he never took part in New
York's own famous race. But he served the race over the years as
timekeeper, president and then CEO, stepping down in 2005 for health
reasons. Runner's World magazine described him as an "innovative technical
genius." He had been responsible for the amateur radio communications
network that served the race's 26.2-mile route.
