Hams lend a helping hand (Amateur radio in the tsunami zone)

The Hindu ^ | 1/1/05 | SHONALI MUTHALALY

[BurbankKarl]

[BurbankKarl]

ping

[Flyer]

When we have a disaster here that wrecks the cell phone network we will all appreciate hams more.

[Leo Carpathian]

Hams in India have it tough, equipment is very expensive, government wasn't too concerned about supporting and helping hams since Rajiv Gandhi passed away.

It would be a big help from ham community to donate some transceivers to VU and 4S7 hams.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[First_Salute]

Bump.

[Leo Carpathian]

When we have a disaster here that wrecks the cell phone network we will all appreciate hams more.

Happened in NJ recently. Authorities were snubbing hams and playing down ham radio as obsolete and almost unneeded service. When Wayne floods took care of cell system, phone services, hospitals were served by "bunch of hams" and saved few lives. Hmmm, not so redundant. We gotta make more noise.

73 + HNY

[Flyer]

We gotta make more noise.

I'm not one of the "we", but I recognize the value of a communications network that can span the globe running on generator/battery power.

[ride the whirlwind]

Will show this to hubby who is a ham.

[spodefly]

Ham radio BTTT

[fso301]

bump

[HolgerDansk]

Worked the 1989 Loma Prieta quake in the San Francisco Bay Area as W6YX. Drove, then ran out to the station, we were on the air about an hour after the quake hit, and aftershocks were still frequent. My girlfriend (now wife) and I set up the generators, fired up the radios, and worked pileups for the next four hours, until the relief ops showed up.

Cellphones were useless; aside from the tower collapses, AT&T's primary route fiber out of San Francisco ran under the lower deck of the Bay Bridge, and was cleanly cut when that section collapsed.

[BurbankKarl]

I was listening to the WALA repeaters in So Cal on Tuesday night about the tornado coming ashore and hitting Long Beach. Too me it is amazing the information and resources of hams...I am a long time scanner listener...and have Icom and Yaesu radios to listen to railroad comms. Perhaps I will add my Technician license to my New Years resolutions.

[Moose4]

Several years ago I was helping my local radio club out with one of those 75-mile charity bike-a-thons, done by a charity that we had worked with several times in the past. Upon arriving, we were told that we were not needed, because the organizers and each rest stop had been given donated cellphones. Annoyed, our net operator managed to badger the organizers (who wanted us to just go home) to eventually place our people at each rest stop, in each "sag wagon," and with the organizers.

Three hours into the event, every cellphone had run out of juice. (This was around 1996, in the days of high-drain analog cellphones.) Every single ham stayed on the air until the end of the event four more hours later, and provided the sole means of communication for the balance of the afternoon.

Schadenfreude? Yeah, a little. :)

}:-)4

[BurbankKarl]

You want to hear something really sad...NEXTEL spent a lot of money to sponsor the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, and the Los Angeles County DCS and other volunteers were told they werent needed. I can't remember a time not hearing 145.300 not busy on New Years Eve and Day.

http://www.eham.net/articles/9781

[miele man]

"Perhaps I will add my Technician license to my New Years resolutions."

You'll be glad you did.

[BurbankKarl]

I have bought that book three times over the last 15 years....hahaha

[no_mm]

HAHA -good story there about you energizer bunny hams.

I am glad that THE HINDU published this article about hams, and that it goes to most of Asia as well...

73

[KoRn]

A question. Why do HAM radio operators continue when such things can be done by Internet? I'm not pro or con HAM radio, I just don't know much about it. It just seems to me anything that can be done with HAM radio can be done over the net.