EMC118  Interest or Committment?
To:   Emergency Communications Units - Information Bulletin
To:   Emergency Management Agencies via Internet and Radio
By:   Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) of the
      California Governor's Office of Emergency Services  

EMC118 Interest or Committment?      For release 2/9/98

Fascinating newsletters reach us, and we thank all who send
them. Here are two items from the Ontario RACES Bulletin,
Winter l994. The first by Robert Malaby, KC6KHA, titled 
"From the Desk of the Chief Radio Officer": (edited, ED.)

 "I recently came across a quote in Readers Digest by Art
Turock, 'There's a difference between interest and commitment.
When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when
circumstances permit. When you are committed to something, you
accept no excuses, only results'.

Overall we have a lot of potential because of the level of
commitment to the group by the unit leadership. We also have
good, dedicated leadership from the City level which makes a
difference when it comes to the questions which arise
regarding what we can do to give better service to the City.
When dedicated leadership is absent there is no focus for the
group and the organization flounders for lack of purpose. We
do not have this problem in organization because of the
commitment that we have from the Office of Preparedness. They
assist us in any way that is required to help keep us focused
on the right thing -- that of providing quality and
professional service to the City."

Another article in the newsletter was one by Derek Deason,
KD6NRC, Training Officer, titled "Call sign vs XRAY#":

"Your Amateur call (....issued by the FCC..) must be
transmitted at the end of each communication or at least every
10 minutes during a communication.... In addition, Tactical
calls are used such as "Chaffey High". The purpose of the
tactical call is to assist the Net Control station in knowing
where operators are located and to contact them without using
personal names or having to memorize Amateur calls and to
lessen the amount of radio traffic.

Tactical Calls should be used at all times except when the
Amateur call is required by FCC rules. An example would be:
'Xray 4 this is EOC' -- 'This is Xray 4, go ahead EOC' -- 'be
advised that 1840 is enroute your location with chief 1800' --
this is Xray 4, I copy. KD6NRC clear' -- EOC KC6KHA clear'.

 The above example took taken place in less than ten minutes.
IF it have taken longer, then the Amateur calls would have
been given at the ten minute mark and at the end of the
transmission, if for instance, it ran for a total of 11
minutes. So remember Tactical calls are not meant to replace
Amateur calls on the Amateur frequencies, only to facilitate
communication. They should never be used to solely identify a
station."    
                              ---
ACS Web page: http://acs.oes.ca.gov       FTP archive:
ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming for new
bulletins and ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/races for earlier ones.
Landline BBS: 916-262-0856 (graphical & standard interface).
OES ACS staff manager Stan Harter :Stanly_Harter@oes.ca.gov 
State Chief ACS Officer Cary Mangum: Cary_Mangum@oes.ca.gov
EOM EMC118