Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

getting tHe worD out on sustainability innovations – via amateur raDio 153
to amateur ‘ham’ radio communication systems and related community
service benefits. As such, I have come to recognize the prospective value
and importance of AR to individual, neighborhood, community, regional
and global efforts at sustainability.
I have been a licensed AR operator since 1990, and currently hold the top
U.S. Amateur Extra Class license. My home radio station is comprised of
both older and new equipment and powered by a solar photovoltaic system
I designed and installed to provide a redundant (and clean) energy source.
I am an accredited Volunteer Examiner (VE) to support testing sessions
for licensing new AR operators and co-direct Seattle Amateur Radio Training
courses. I also volunteer for the Auxiliary Communications Service within the
City of Seattle Department of Emergency Management and am affiliated
with many radio clubs and organizations.
Over the years, I have met AR operators from all over the world and
have learned much from them about their cultures, communities and
shared interests in sustainability and appropriate technologies – typically
over fantastic meals! So, along with the fun of the hobby, the advancement
of technical knowledge and the contributions to emergency services and
preparedness, new roles are emerging for the approximately four million
international AR operators and their skills. With scalable investments in
equipment and depending on license class (which defines privileges for
access to bands and modes of transmission), AR operators communicate
with others around the world (and around their local communities) using
voice, Morse code, and/or other modes of digital data including teletype,
fax, slow-scan TV and others.
Why Amateur Radio when we have the Internet and Cell Phones?
Amateur radio is a world-wide service like no other. Generations of radio
operators have been demonstrating leadership in creating relationships,
organizations and actual prototypes underpinning today’s common
communication systems. The term ‘amateur’ should not imply second
rate; the skills, services and technological developments of volunteer AR
operators are often equal to those expected of paid professionals. Their early
creations have included now-common tools as email and internet systems,
cell phone systems, computer and digital data technologies, among others.
Also, AR operators do not ‘broadcast’ to anonymous audiences (like
commercial radio stations); rather, they transmit person-to-person to other
licensed operators identified by their unique call signs. AR operators hold
on-air educational and public service nets, discuss science, culture, weather and
so on, but do not play music, conduct business or other activities as a commercial
broadcast station might. So, why should we consider amateur radio for
advancing sustainability when so many other communication tools exist?
AR can be usefully deployed in service of timely Transition Town
(Hopkins, 2008) efforts, where community sustainability programs are
coordinated for post-peak oil resiliency. Establishing reliable, decentralized