Marcia Forde, KW1U, writes on the New England Traffic Handlers Facebook page:
Hey New England Traffic Handlers:
I’ve not been much of a poster on FB but there are exciting things happening in the traffic handling world and at ARRL.
Did you notice in July QST the comments from ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA? He acknowledged the ARRL had not taken the lead it should in emergency communications in the last decade. However, now with the creation of a new standing committee, Emergency Communications and Field Services Committee (EC&FSC), there is, I believe, a renewed interest in turning this around. A subgroup of that committee has been working for the past few months on identifying what in NTS needs updating and how NTS can, in the future, be a real asset to public service agencies in their emergency communications. This group has been spearheaded by our New England Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, in conjunction with W2RU, KW1U KC1OIP and KE5MHV (Emergency Communications Manager at ARRL).
We believe we have some great ideas and a vision for NTS 2.0 which has received positive response from the EC&FSC members, and we want to start sharing this with the traffic handlers community. We will be looking for input but perhaps more importantly for help on one or more of several implementation teams. Contact any one of us if you are interested in learning more and potentially helping out and we will arrange for Zoom meetings to share and explain the work that has been done so far.
I think this is a great opportunity to help make a difference in promoting the value of Amateur Radio to the public and to those agencies that serve the public in times of emergencies.
73, Marcia KW1U