I went to the Satern web site to read about past emergencies that they were involved in. I was surprised at the level of traffic. In most emergencies they were only handling a few hundred messages. I bring this up certainly not to minimize the importance of these messages to those involved, but to point out that voice is well suited to this volume of traffic, and there does not seem to be any real need for building high speed digital links on HF.
I worked full-time at K2USA handling CW, SSB and even some AM traffic on ham nets and MARS nets. Even then (we opened the station to handle AK Earthquake traffic in 1964), throughput on SSB was comparable to that on CW when the operators at both ends were skilled. I have no doubt that there are isolated instances when CW is the only mode to get through, but for the bulk of "first responder" traffic and Health & Welfare traffic, VHF/UHF FM is a far better choice. Eric KE6US www.ke6us.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of ron Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 6:52 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Elecraft] Emergency Nets As we all know, there is traffic on 14.265 with occassional inactivity (inactivity is good). I too, am surprised with the success of using phone. Satern uses phone and their protocols require use of phonetics when in doubt. They also require use of "pro-words" during traffic handling which works very well. Sometimes during an exchange, one can become emotional and the need to be clear is important. That is maybe why CNN was repeated phonetically. Protocol rules, do not "assume". The use of digital modes may work well, but you still need phone to originate the data. I find the very basics of ham radio always comes through when disaster strikes. Ron wb1hga "CW. an esoteric experience" _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] 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 _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: [email protected] 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
