I am located in Central Texas near Fort Hood, 35 miles south of the Bush Ranch and 20 miles north of Jarrell(remember the 1997 F5 'Jarrell' tornado).
A little over a year ago we were given a grant to install an amateur radio repeater high up on a local TV station tower that gives it coverage of over ten thousand square miles. The repeater has been very successful in serving the NOAA SkyWarn program and but has not yet been needed for major disaster support.
About two months ago, I was approached by a Trauma Advisory group to see about installing amateur radio equipment in 13 local hospitals scattered over 7 counties. We are now in the process of making that happen. The repeater mentioned will be the tie that binds the different hospitals together.
Amateur Radio equipment must be operated by licensed amateurs who are not employees of the organization(s)involved even if they are off duty therefore one of the major tasks I face is training and getting new Hams in the service areas. I included that expense in my estimate of the projects cost.
I have a lot of experience teaching courses in another volunteer organization, The United States Power Squadrons, a boating education group. I believe that by using the manuals and courses available I can make the training interesting and challenging and have an end product of 40 or 50 new hams in the Central Texas area.
Similar activities are talking place in counties to my south (Williamson and Travis) and indeed across the state as some new capabilities have been made available to our emergency communications resources by integrating the Internets with the RF capabilities of amateur radio.
A ham setting in a Red Cross shelter that is otherwise disconnected from the world can now send and receiver email to anyone in the world with an email address. This is a big new capability...
We also use VOIP to connect distant locations to a repeater that is being used by amateurs in the disaster/weather event area. This was used extensively by the shuttle recovery project two years ago. The NOAA office in Fort Worth uses this facility to communicate directly with the 'Spotters' outside of the DFW area.
The tsunami event once again points out the need for those of us that prepare to be the 'last mile' in the communications network. On almost every news program, you will hear how there is no communication with the stricken areas.
There is a lot happening in the 'Ham World'.Want to know more? Contact your local ham group and become a part of this international resource. additional information can be found at
http://www.arrl.org/
yes we need to teach but we must have students also. Become one and do a little to help fight the terriorism threats.
BY THE WAY, MORSE CODE IS NO LONGER A REQUIREMENT FOR THE FIRST LEVEL LICENSE THAT ALLOWS PARTICIPATION IN 95% OF THE EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS EVENTS...