Ward Silver, NØAX, the ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator for Vashon-Maury Island, WA, submitted this provocative thought to the ARRL’s ARES E-Letter. Can anyone besides me remember when broadcast radio stations were required to compensate the citizenry for the use of OUR frequency spectrum by operating “in the public interest, convenience and nessesity” and actually had news departments? That loss is just another part of the so called Reagan Legacy. The attitude of “if you can’t make a buck at it — don’t do it.”
I’ve been trying to track down whether there will be an "in the clear" audio carrier available after the switchover from analog TV next February. It doesn’t look like it since encoded audio is the standard. Not being able to listen to the TV stations will have an impact on emcomm teams, since local broadcasts are a prime source of information.
For example, all of our VHF/UHF handhelds are programmed with the FM audio carrier frequencies for the major local TV stations. I suggest that we publish a reminder to the teams that they should add some portable HDTV-compatible receivers to their kits.
SOURCE: Ward Silver, NØAX via the ARES E-Letter
My name is Bob, and I am a ham radio operator, freelance web developer and a retired commercial radio personality. It turns out that I also enjoy blogging...
