Subj : Arkansas Section News To : All From : Daryl Stout Date : Wed Mar 09 2022 16:04:56 Wednesday March 9, 2022 Greetings fellow operators, My very smart friend, AB5N, made a Facebook post a short time ago. The first two sentences in that post say a lot: "I know how uncertain these times are. We Ham operators exist to provide emergency communications when all other systems fail." I happen to believe he is exactly correct. In preparation to get your license you studied theory, learned about the Part 97 FCC rules, and a lot of other stuff. That was the first step in your ham radio journey. Now, it may not be your intention to ever do any sort of emergency communications, and that is perfectly fine! There are about one million different fun things to do with ham radio. But if you are so inclined, your communities need you to be ready, just like you were when you sat down to take that first exam. There are many entities and agencies that love willing volunteers. I don't know of any Volunteer Fire Department that has enough personnel, or any homeless shelter that couldn't use more caregivers. Even Garvan Gardens uses volunteers to guide visitors. You know what all these examples have in common? Every volunteer has to be ready to do that job to a satisfactory point. That point may be a little more than the volunteer knew when deciding to be of service. As I have said many times in the past, satisfying requirements, training, and building relationships are some of the things we must do in order to be ready. All I ask is that you be willing to be ready for whatever job presents itself. Anything less is a disservice to the very people that needed you, but you know that already. By now, most have heard that our Section Manager James Ferguson, N5LKE, and the Director of the Arkansas Division of Emergency Management, AJ Gary, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU can be found here: http://www.neaham.org/ADEM/MOU.pdf . It's been a long time coming, and I am very glad to see it back in place. It helps cement the relationships, and lays out the basic requirements we need to meet uncertain times. Here is a link to the press release: https://fb.watch/bEuaRk6LIR/ Please let me know how I can help you be ready to be of service to your community. 73, J.M. Rowe N5XFW Arkansas Section Emergency Coordinator Contact me at one of these emails: n5xfw at arrl dot org, n5xfw at arrl dot net, n5xfw at yahoo dot com -------------------------------------------------------------------- ARRL Arkansas Section Section Manager: James D Ferguson Jr, N5LKE n5lke@arrl.org -------------------------------------------------------------------- --- SBBSecho 3.15-Win32 * Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (618:250/33) .