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height in his neighborhood and the local
authorities have ignored the FCC
on the matter. He wrote to the ARRL
and got sttrted. He wanted to know
whatI'd suggest he do. The local hams
are at their wits' end,
I wrote , saying, " Yes, the ARRL certainly
should do something about your
lousy situation. ThaI's what a real national
ham organization should be set
up to help with . The fact is that the
League has been very reluctant to
tackle legal cases to help hams, When
I mention this I get angry tenars Claiming
I'm allacking the League. No one
ever tries to tell me it isn't true; it's just
that I shouldn't mention it.
" Now, what to do. First , I recommend
you start a peuuco around and
get signatu res. Get hundreds. What
should the petition say? How about
pointing out that in times of emergency.
such as hurricanes, which are not
unknown in Florida, the only pract ical
sou rce for emergenc y communications
is amateur radio. You can quote
from my editorials about the FCC's
Long Range Planning Committee,
whi ch determined this was an absolute
fact.
" To provide the needed emergency
communications infrastructure, a service
must already be in daily use-and
this means antennas and towers. The
beauty of amateur radio as compared
to any other communicat ions service is
(a) amateurs are everywhere: (b) they
fund their own equipment; and (cl they
can provide long, medium or snort
range communications, as needed. I' d
include some pictures of ham club
communications buses and vans,
" Then get the signatures at every
hamfest and other event. Don' t let one
single ham get away from Dayton without
gelling a signature. Get the manu,
tacturers and dealers to cooperate with
petitions at their booths.
"Politicians react very positively to
long lists of signatures. That's what I
brought to the FCC in 1973 when I initiated
the biggest set of rule changes in
the FCC's history.
" Find out who your enemy is. Which
specific politicians are doing this?
Then do whatever it takes to get them
unelected. Make their lives miserable.
Organize public confrontations, complete
with the media invited. Picket.
" Who is the chair of the Florida
League of Cities? Go after this person
where he or she lives. Get tocal hams
TALK WITH T HE KNOWLEDGEABLE PEOPLE AT
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76 73AmafeurRadioToday • June, 1991
1000 S. BASCOM AVENUE
SAN JOSE, CA 95128
Call us at (408) 998-5900
Since 1933
CIRCLE 132 ON REAPER SERViCECARP
American Heart .
Association V
to picket this person as not caring
about lives and families. Cite discrimination
against technology. When a
hurricane comes and tives are lost, and
medicine and food are not available,
then will the people who are supcortmq
this monster put on some pressure?
" How about gelling a video camera
and staging some Mike Wallace-type
live inlerviews with the offending politi­
Cians? You'll drive 'em crazy and get
wonderful material for club meeting
showings.
" I hope that is enough to gel you
started."
When you're faced with a problem
like Ihal, be creative , There's always a
way to solve problems . . . even when
you're dealing with the government.
Well, almost always ... there's always
the lAS ..
Kids
Have you been doing your nomework
like I asked you , . .or have you
been doping off again? Well , while you
were silt ing there with a cold 807 in one
hand watching a ball game, I was out
there in the trenches for you ...facing
the enemy.
Wa il'lI you stand Ihere, facing a
whole room full of 1D-year-olds, trying
to explain amateur radio to them .
You're not going to try and tell me that
your local school isn't going to let you
come in and talk to (with) the kids, are
you? Give me a break! They'll be delighted
and you know it. It's just that
you haven'l bothered.
Well, I put crt some meetings at what
I smilingly call "work" and had at a
bunch of the local kids. I worked 'em
over and got ' em all fired up. Now
they're anxious to set up a station so
they can get on the air and talk. What
are you going to do about it?
You know as well as I do that you've
got an old rig in the closet somewhere
Ihat you aren't going to use again.
Even if it doesn't work very well (or at
all), the kids will go bananas if they can
get it and fix tt. This is a lot better use
for il than lugging it 10 a flea market and
getting a few bucks. The money will
soon be wasted on food and you'll have
nothing to show for it except a lillie
extra poundage on the scales. Well. I'll
get you a leiter from the kids lelling you
how much you've helped them ,
Coincidentally, the same day as I
talked with the kids in Antrim (NH), I got
a call from Ihe nearby crorcheo Mountain
Foundation. This is a rehabilitation
center and special school for handicapped
children, They're going great
guns in gelling their kids interested in
hamming and they desperately need
some gear for their staten.
Kenwood, tCOM and vaesu gata hundred
or so requests for tree rigs a week ,
so that's not where you tum. The real
ham gear mother lode lies in your house.
There are tens of thousands 01 old rigs
out there with their etectroiytrcs drying
up and their transformers rusting.
A good friend of mine got the idea of
collecting old, no longer needed oscil·
loscopes from tabs and gelting them to
schools. This has almost turned into a
business for him.
Well, I've got a lillie room left in my
barn to store a few rigs so we can get
them 10 schools that need them. I
haven't got much room because we
just cleaned up Ihe barn and made
enough room to build a state-of-the-art
recording studio and that's filled a lot of
the back of the barn.
The best bet will be for you to drop
me a note teiling me whal you've got
available in old ham gear. I'm starling
with two local schools that need rigs,
but I'll bet I'll get a hundred lette rs from
other schools when fhey read this. I'll
try and match your gear with a school.
That way you'll know where it's gone .
If you'll stan giving tens about how
much fun amateur radio is 10your local
school kids , you'll get a real kick, They
love the idea of talk ing to the world .
They're exc ited about packet and talking
with Mirand via our other satellites.
They can hardly wait to start building
things.
One of Ihe projects I've got scneouied
for my new recording studio is to
start reading some books onto tape so
we can put out books for kids on CDs
and cassettes. I was amazed to find
thai almost 100% of the kids I was talking
with are avid readers. Yep, they 're
actuaily reading books!
They 'd all heard about the " Wizard
of Oz," but most of 'em didn't know
there are 13 Oz books. I'm planning on
recording 'em all. When I was their age
I read 'em all and loved'em,
None of the kids (or teachers) had
heard of Ernest Thompson Seton, so
they've got e fantastic surprise coming
when Ihey hear me reading his books . I
read 'em all when I was a kid. Over and
over, They're wild animal stories told
from the perspective of the animals.
I was surprised, 100, that so many of
Iheir parents lake time to read to their
kids, Perhaps New Hampshire parents
are different, but half 01 the kids in the
class said their parents regularly read
to them , That's what got me interested
in reading. When I was young mymother
used to read to me every noon when
I was home from school for lunch.
For older people (and kids, too) I'm
go ing to start reading the Kai Lung
books by Ernest Bramah. Too bad i1
you don 't know how wonderful they
are, Maybe I'll get you 10 try a CD or
cassette.
I'll be reading some poelry, too .
probably starting with Eugene Field
and his "Poems of Childhood." I've
been surprised to find Ihat many
people aren't familiar with Field. Tsk.
It's fun to share enthus iasms with
people . That's mainly why I'm into publishing
, I'm sharing my love of music,
poetry, books and amateur radio. You
can share your excitement over amateur
radio with the kids in your local
schools. Help 'em get a club going. I'll
see if I can round up some equipment
from 73 readers to help. Let's dig out
some of those old rigs , dust 'em olf and
see if they're working.
Send me a note telling me what
you've got available . . . send it to: Rigs
for Kids , 73 Amateur Radio Today,
Forest Road, Hancock NH 03449. 11I