Well, CW or Phone, to the recipients of help it doesnt matter. So in that light I would like to pass along the following URLs and also an article that a ham from my former club sent to the clubs reflector. Hope you enjoy these. The main page of the AARL site has a nice list of stories to follow up on as well.
Cheers, -rick, K7LOG >From Computer_World_Wrapup * Ham Radio Volunteers Help Re-establish Communications After Katrina http://www.computerworld.com/newsletter/0,4902,104418,00.html?nlid=PM >From a posting to the local VHF reflector up here. A nice story about a ham in Portland saving 15 lives. http://easylink.playstream.com/katu/050831ham_operator_530pm.wvx >From another mailing of Computer_World_Wrapup a story of Dennis Motschenbacher, Marketing Manager (I think) for the ARRL. * Ham Radio Operator Heads South To Aid Post-Katrina Communications http://www.computerworld.com/newsletter/0,4902,104446,00.html?nlid=PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Highlights from a story in today's Wall Street Journal, As Telecom Reels >From Storm Damage, Ham Radios Hum: >>> With Hurricane Katrina having knocked out nearly all the high-end emergency communications gear, 911 centers, cellphone towers and normal fixed phone lines in its path, ham-radio operators have begun to fill the information vacuum. . . . In an age of high-tech, real-time gadgetry, it's the decidedly unsexy ham radio -- whose technology has changed little since World War II -- that is in high demand in ravaged New Orleans and environs. The Red Cross issued a request for about 500 amateur radio operators -- known as "hams" -- for the 260 shelters it is erecting in the area. The American Radio Relay League, a national association of ham-radio operators, has been deluged with requests to find people in the region. The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for hams to help with its relief efforts. Ham radios, battery operated, work well when others don't in part because they are simple. Each operator acts as his own base station, requiring only his radio and about 50 feet of fence wire to transmit messages thousands of miles. Ham radios can send messages on multiple channels and in myriad ways, including Morse code, microwave frequencies and even email. Then there are the ham-radio operators themselves, a band of radio enthusiasts who spend hours jabbering with each other even during normal times. They are often the first to get messages in and out of disaster areas, in part because they are everywhere. (The ARRL estimates there are 250,000 licensed hams in the U.S.) Sometimes they are the only source of information in the first hours following a disaster. "No matter how good the homeland-security system is, it will be overwhelmed," says Thomas Leggett, a retired mill worker manning a ham radio in the operations center here. "You don't hear about us, but we are there." <<< While the Wall Street Journal Web site is by subscription only, the article is also posted on Boston.com at http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2005/09/06/as_telecom_ reels_from_storm_damage_ham_radios_hum/ _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
