Faking it! or how to look good when the press comes to your shack, during disaster or emergency communications, and not violate any FCC rules. Are you a PR active Ham? You know, one who would like to help the PR effort if you can. Giving a story to the press or media or getting interviewed on TV or Radio. Here are a few tips to help you. During a recent hurricane I heard a ham in the disaster area transmit an extremely interesting situation report to another ham. He had an excellent signal and was very easy to understand. He gave a first hand account of what happened and then he described the current situation. Next, a PR active ham station got on frequency to ask the Ham if he would be around later to repeat his information when the News Crew and cameras arrived. And an hour or so later when the News Crew arrived, the ham in the disaster area was busy with traffic and QRM had increased - when the PR ham tried to get the disaster ham to give another report, "for the news crew" he was given a hurried report - intermixed with well meaning "ham-policemen" who wanted to argue about News Gathering on Ham radio. There was a lot of QSB too and without "low-band" ears much of the communication was missed. The PR ham BLEW IT! All he could do was apologize to the news crew and wish they were in his shack just an hour ago to have heard the nice report earlier. The PR ham should have "FAKED IT". The earlier report was perfect (based on that, the PR ham called the press to come to his shack). So why didn't the ham RECORD the earlier report and then play it back for the news crew? The camera crew is interested in seeing your shack and hearing the information you got from your radio. They do not care to watch you try to break through a net and wait your turn for a response and then hope it is QRM free! So - here's what you should do to make the news crews visit a successful one and insure that your segment is included in the newscasts. With rare exceptions I would expect that the crew will video tape your activities rather than schedule a "Live, on-their-air" remote shot. Record the disaster communications (see section on basic audio). Once you have (in your possession) a 'newsworthy' segment you then call either the area PR coordinator or the local stations (or networks) and tell them what you have. Based on their response you may even want to play the tape over the phone to them (just the informative report part of the tape - use a phone patch, don't just hold the phone up to the speaker!). If the camera crew comes to your shack you should be ready for them. Have your tape "cued up" to the right point (meanwhile you are recording the disaster frequency just in case another 'newsworthy segment' comes along). Don't be fumbling around for tapes, cassettes or connectors. Explain that you have a tape from an hour ago with a very good description from the affected area. Remember, you recorded the disaster ham talking to someone else, and you have NOT used your ham transmitter...but the News Crew doesn't care about that aspect, they want their story! (more, see pg 2) Faking It pg 2 Now you sit in front of your rig, camera medium close on you at the mic. (with an Amateur Radio sign up in the background of course). You key down into the dummy load (or otherwise "fake' transmitting by pushing some button and muting the receiver sound) and say, "DX2CQ in (QTH), this is Amateur Radio Station (your call) in (QTH), would you please describe the situation for us (call him by name)...Over... Then you push a button (anything looking like a TX/RX switch - even if you use VOX, push some button) and play your tape! While the tape plays, the camera may get a close-up of your rig (with the lights and dials and s-meter movement) or they may zoom in on the location of the disaster area ham on the world map you have in your shack or their news reporter listening attentively to your 'rig' or any number of things. They may even edit in shots of the disaster area that they get from other sources. Then, when the tape is done you could again "push a button" mute any audio and thank the disaster ham for the report and wish him well from the people in your local area (i.e.: The thoughts of all of us in Boston are with you and your countrymen tonight ....(call him by name), 73 from Amateur Radio Station (your call and QTH). The news reporter then may ask you a few questions and conclude his report. Wow! That will make a SUPER story on your area TV stations and even networks! If it is a major story they may even use little 'snippets' of you at your station for their news Teasers (those little mini previews of what's coming up on their next newscast). "We'll get the latest report via Ham Radio from the affected area at 6PM" and similar. They might even imply that you talked directly to the disaster station...and we all know you could have. But you say, won't it look foolish for the camera to see me switch on my cassette player? Yep it would, but they won't show that part! They'll edit it and only join those segments that look good together. They may WANT it to look like you are talking to the other ham, so they'll edit it to look that way. Ask them - briefly explain that this is a recording from an hour ago - they will understand. And if you are clever, you can have your cassette wired to your rigs speaker and started via a foot switch or hidden hand switch so that they don't even have to edit...it will look smooth in one shot. On the other hand, some reporters might want to be 100% precise and report that you 'monitored' the disaster communications - it depends on the reporter and station. There are no hard and fast rules in these matters. Every individual, reporter, TV station and communications situation is different so govern yourselves accordingly. Just remember that a TAPE recording (or digital recording) can be important to your successful PR. That's an example of Faking It. The newsperson will THANK you for providing him with the material for a real good story! They will not care that you actually did not talk directly to the ham...it looks like you did and makes for a more interesting presentation. (more, see page 3) Faking It Pg 3 From an Amateur Radio standpoint, I prefer the "faking it" method to attempting to get an acceptable story "on demand" in real time. Lets face it, as more media become aware of Ham capabilities in disasters, the more they will seek local hams to provide information. If 1 or 2 hams in every state gets contacted by the news and then tries to break into disaster nets to get a report for their interview on a local TV station, the frequency would go nuts! Not to mention how 100 breakers could interfere with "emergency or priority" traffic - Or the disaster ham may put you off until the traffic is passed (and the news crew has had to leave!) - That's not good! We want our PR effort to help ham radio and promote our hobby - we do NOT want to impede the emergency communications in progress or violate FCC rules and regs. We do NOT want the news crews to be disappointed. We want to enhance their opinion of Amateur Radio! Remember that since you did not use your transmitter in our example you can not possibly violate ANY FCC rules and regs regarding newsgathering or business communications via Ham Radio! No arguments about "if it's legal" ... No discussions about the INTENT of your communications - did you ask for the info during a QSO between you and another ham, OR are you conducting the business of the TV station by interviewing a disaster area ham via your ham radio! All you have to know is that there is NO privacy act regarding Amateur Radio communications - Anyone can listen to Ham frequencies and tell others what they heard. Any broadcast station (AM + FM radio, TV or cable too) can rebroadcast Amateur radio communications at the discretion of the broadcast licensee (not the HAM). And since in our example you have NOT transmitted (except maybe into a dummy load) there just is NO question of which side of the 'fine line' between permitted and prohibited communications YOU are on. From where I sit, Faking It this way helps EVERYBODY! The news crews get a real good story, Hams get great PR, the public gets first hand information and our efforts have not disrupted the disaster and emergency communications! (Note: Some TV camera crews are set-up to accept 600 ohm balanced audio - some HAMS may wish to have impedance matching devices to provide a direct connect from the HAM audio source to the TV crew recorder. Often a "Cannon 3 prong female" connector is what THEY have on their TV recorder.) de Al Carp, K1HLZ, ARRL EMA PIC (617) 437-0111, Box 545, NeedHAM, MA 02192 rev 3/90