"Why the SET is Irrelevant"

To conceptualize the SET or any other emergency capability of the Amateur Radio Service as "redundant" or "irrelevent" is to gut the ability of the Amateur Service in general to respond to any emergency, local, regional or national.

Despite the quoted multiplicity of other communications assets (SMR, Cellular, trunked systems, etc) we none-the-less have already seen numerous occasssions where Mother Nature has wielded her fury and leveled our vaunted technology.

Are the days of the noble telegrapher clicking away into the night gone, along with the acrid smell of spark-gap ozone...?? Of course. But any attempt to undermine the ability of the "everyman" communicator to be able to provide emergency communications of the most basic nature is foolhardy.

The first question one would have to ask is how much does it cost to train these volunteers? The answer is "nothing", or very close to it. So there is nothing to be lost by continuing to train these volunteers.

The second question is to ask what is to be gained? Perhaps nothing, but then again, what is the price of your life or your family's life? Perhaps a bit melodramatic, but the occassions where a lone Amateur Radio operator has literally saved the day numbers in the thousands. That's a very small price to pay for a very large dividend.

One can argue that "more efficient" means of communication exist. That is a given. But in a true emergency, one may have to count on the least common denominator, and in thousands of situations over the decades, that common denominator has been a trained Amateur Radio Operator dutifully serving his/her community, often at risk to thier own safety.

It cost's nothing. It can be the difference between communication and confusion in a disaster. Why then are we cutting our own throats over a misperception that "technology" will be the saviour? Mother Nature has proven time and time again that she has NO respect for anything manmade, and that includes fixed repeater sites, cellular towers, etc.

The continued implementation of emergency preparedness in the Amateur Radio Service is a cheap bet to hedge.

73 de K4YZ
Steve Robeson, LPN
Chattanooga, TN