Heart Saver AED Course

The West Tennessee Amateur Radio Society (WTARS) and the Jackson-Madison County Emergency Management Agency will be co-sponsoring the following class. Instructors will be Phillip Julian (KG4NVN) and Marty Clements (KI4EIV) J-MC EMA Director. The course will be held on Saturday August 2nd, 2008 (location to be determined but either Jackson State Community College or the Jackson-Madison County EOC). The course is FREE with the exception of a $5 Certification fee for the American Heart Association for your Certification Card.

The class is almost full. If you would like to register, please contact Mike-Ki4lmz at ki4lmz@bellsouth.net

HEART SAVER AED

This course is a four hour skills based program with instruction and practice in performing CPR (Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation) and hands-on practice with AED’s (Automatic External Defibrillators). Upon completion of this course, the participant will have the needed knowledge to effectively administer CPR and/or use a commercial AED device.

This course is provided by the American Heart Association and is based on the current recommendations in delivering emergent cardiac care to individuals suffering from a cardiac arrest. Additionally, barrier devices will be used and instruction on how to relieve choking in adults will be covered. If time allows, child CPR will also be covered within the program.

Automated External Defibrillator is a computerized device, which has the capability to:

• Analyze the heart rhythm of a person in cardiac arrest.
• Recognize a shockable rhythm.
• Advise the operator whether the rhythm should be shocked.
• Save many Lives, if used within minutes of an arrest.

This gives you three of the four links in the Chain of Survival

Facts about the AED

• It can increase survival rates to as high as 50%
• They are relatively inexpensive
• They require little maintenance
• They are accurate and easy to operate
• Training is easier than CPR Training

ARRL Tells Red Cross of Remaining Background Check Policy Concerns

From ARES E-Letter for July 18, 2008

ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, has written to Armond T. Mascelli, Vice President for Domestic Disaster response for the American Red Cross (ARC), to identify the ARRL's remaining concerns over the background check policy for ARC partners. Harrison emphasized that the commencement of negotiation of a replacement Statement of Understanding (SOU) between the two organizations should not be further delayed while these concerns are resolved, and that he looked forward to signing a new SOU once additional edits to the background check Disclosure Form and clarifications of the background check Authorization Form are in place for those radio amateurs who volunteer their service to the Red Cross.

Harrison first wrote to Mascelli on November 28, 2007, setting out the ARRL's concerns with the background check procedures recently implemented by the ARC. ARC now requires a background check for amateur radio volunteers seeking to support a Red Cross disaster relief response for more than a seven day period. In the ARRL's view, amateur radio volunteers were being asked to consent to a more intrusive background check than was necessary or appropriate.

Mascelli's reply on May 8, 2008, addressed some of the ARRL's concerns, and Harrison's latest letter to the ARC - sent on June 30, 2008 - recognizes considerable improvement in the forms related to the background check procedures that are linked via the ARC's Web site. However, Harrison also states that analysis of the forms has revealed two continuing problems:

* The Authorization for Background Investigation consent form still contains "some highly equivocal and broad language which, because of its ambiguity, will inevitably discourage substantial numbers of radio amateurs from participating in the background check process."
This form was not included with Mascelli's reply and was not seen by the ARRL until later.

* The "Disclosure Regarding Background Investigation" can still be construed as overly broad, although this can be corrected by fairly simple edits.

Harrison told Mascelli, "We do not want the implementation of these additional changes to further delay the negotiation of the terms of a replacement SOU. A new SOU is, in my view, a critical and urgent matter. Because the old SOU expired on September 16, 2007, the vacuum thereafter has served neither ARRL nor ARC well." ARRL and ARC staff are ready to work on a draft replacement SOU, the text of which will be reviewed by the ARRL's Programs and Services Committee and approved by either the Executive Committee or the Board prior to completion.

Harrison concluded, "We look forward to continuing to provide seamless disaster response communications by Amateur Radio and to enhancing and expanding ARRL's proud partnership with the American Red Cross. I look forward to meeting with you and executing the new SOU once additional edits to the Disclosure Form, and adequate clarifications are included in the Authorization Form that appears on your web site for partner organizations are made, and when the new SOU terms are agreed upon."

Top 25 things vanishing from America: #16 -- Ham radio

Tom Barlow

This series explores aspects of America that may soon be just a memory -- some to be missed, some gladly left behind. From the least impactful to the most, here are 25 bits of vanishing America.

An easy way to prolong a disaster is to have the respondents use dozens of different, incompatible communications systems, or operate them with no protocol. Yes, I'm thinking about Katrina. I'm also thinking about a vanishing American treasure, the amateur radio operator. In the past five years alone, the number of people holding active licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse Code is not longer a requirement.

Many think of a ham radio operator as a tubes-and-wires geek, and there is a certain truth to that stereotype, although today's ham is more likely to be computer-savvy and involved in cutting-edge technologies. However, from my personal experience, I know them to be among our nation's best trained and most capable respondents to disasters. In the hands of the amateur radio volunteers, disaster communications become orderly and prioritized, as they employ the protocols and training received in gaining their licenses. As director of one of the nation's largest week-long bicycle tours, I watched the ham community deal with countless challenges with imagination and expertise, whether it was assembling a portable tower and repeater in the field, coordinating emergency medical transport, or organizing the search for a lost child. I saw them sit for countless hours patiently looking out for the safety of thousands of people that would never know of their efforts.

As cell phones and the Internet siphon off much of what once attracted people to amateur radio, the nation's ham radio population is graying rapidly. Given the cash value of the radio bands allocated to amateur radio, there will be relentless pressure on the government to take back those bands so they can be sold. All these elements speak to a long, slow diminishment of a pastime that began with Marconi.

When amateur radio as we know it disappears, it won't be the radios we'll miss. We'll miss the operators. 73's to a national treasure.

Tom Barlow, N8NLO