Today’s bit of discouraging news comes to us courtesy of the Ottawa Citizen (daily newspaper)…
Its discouraging because its showing Driving while distracted in a bad way… Another professional who can’t follow the rules…
It takes away a little more public support and we did not have much to start with…
How are your attempts at getting your local officials to send a letter to the Provincal Goverment asking them to give Amateur Radio an exemption going? As I have mentioned previously our local MPP is not going to go to bat for us on this one as the bulk of his constituants do not know the difference between a smart phone and my Yaesu VX8Gr or my Yaesu FT2900.
However your local EMO official might know the difference and also know the value of Amateur Radio in that real emergency situation… He should know what the local community could lose once we can no longer operate mobile in an unrestricted way…
His letter (along with others) stands a chance of getting either an exemption or an extension of the current exemption but right now time is running out… Less than 2 Years to go and we have lots of work to do yet…
To win this we need an effective lobby effort!
Also the people we assist with Comms for Car Rallys, Bike Tours and walkathons…. They might want to send a letter to the Minister as well… What about the local Police Department when we assist them with Communication for a lost child or when your ARES group goes out on the Pumpkin Patrol??? Perhaps they might want to help us as well…
Take the time to read the article then you will be (might be) motivated enough to think about who we can get on our side for this fight…
Driver didn’t get the message.
73bob
Tags: amateur radio, Driving while distracted, OC Transpo, Ottawa Citizen
February 3, 2011 at 7:20 pm |
The exemption for Amateur Radio expires Jan 1, 2013 – we still have a year and approximately 11 months left.
February 3, 2011 at 7:57 pm |
Tim:
Thanks for catching me on that one…. I coulda sworn it was a two year exemption but you are right… Its a 3 year exemption… So we have just less than 2 years to get this mess settled…
Thanks for your comments and your visit
73bob