Public Service and Amateur Radio
Amateur Radio (also called "Ham Radio") is a radio service regulated
by Part 97 of the FCC's Rules and Regulations (47 CFR 97) available to
persons interested in radio technique with a personal aim and without
pecuniary interest. Amateur Radio has a long history of public
service in the areas of emergency and public service communications.
The FCC's Part 97 Rules recognize and codify this tradition as the
first principle under "Basis and Purpose" of Amateur Radio:
"Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public
as a voluntary non-commercial communication service, particularly with respect to
providing emergency communications."
Local amateur radio operators (including some from AMD) have participated
in many public service activities over the past years including
- Jarrell Tornadoes, May 1997 - only ham radio worked for the first 3 hours
- Flooding, October 1998 - on site flooding and safety reports
- Capitol 10K Run - communication support
- NWS Weather Spotter - ground "truths" relayed to NWS
Amateur Radio at AMD
AMD Austin has an active ham radio club with more than 20 members from all
parts of the company. The monthly club meetings often include discussions
on topics including basic radio how-to, public service opportunities and
work related issues. The club holds the callsign "K5AMD" from the FCC
and this callsign is used to identify the club on the air. There are two
other AMD ham clubs, one in Sunnyvale (callsign K6AMD) and one in
Germany (callsign DL0AMD).
AMD's Role to Facilitate Public Service
Although Amateur Radio is an individual hobby, corporations have an
important role in facilitating Amateur Radio public service communications.
Forming an effective communication team requires a collection of like
minded individuals, a physical location in a densely populated area and the
resources to build a club station. Few individual hams have the ability to
bring all three of these things together. AMD already has the people and
the physical location.
As the largest corporation in this quadrant of Austin, AMD could make a
difference in their neighborhood in the same way that Motorola and 3M have
done through their support of their Amateur Radio clubs.
By law, Amateur Radio is prohibited from carrying non-emergency business
related communications so AMD's support of a communications facility could
not be viewed as a business expense. By convention, Amateur Radio is also
(mostly) free of religious and political messages so it would not violate
any corporate giving programs that prohibit such.
For all of these reasons, I request that you review our needs for funds and
consider supporting the AMD Austin Amateur Radio Club to build an emergency
communications facility at the South Austin plant site.
Brian D. McMinn x55389