[prisoner6]

I don't quite understand the cell phone thing. It's probably good to get it up and running, especially to keep communications with rescue crews. BUT I would think rescue crews would be better off with radio comms. Plus how do people who stayed behind with cell phones get them recharged?

FWIW I still use CB (it's better now that most of the nutz are gone. Kinda like the way it was before they came.) and my family uses FRS for low level comm, although it isn't as good as some claim.

The Wife and Kidz are also familiar with shortwave. Although we aren't hams we still use an old RS DX150 receiver and sometimes check in with the local hamfests.

prisoner6

[hedgetrimmer]

Shortwaves are great for communicating during and after natural disasters. There is probably a shortwave radio relay running out of the hardest hit areas, I know there were radio relays running out of areas hardest hit by the 1989 earthquake in California. I would be very interested to hear of any freepers are participating.

The coastguard auxiliary assists in critical communications by running shortwave relays in disaster areas. Its possible there one running out of New Orleans.

[BurbankKarl]

well, it takes a while to replace trunked radio systems....I think everything west of Kenner on the La. State system is gone.

Putting up temp cell towers is a lot quicker....that is what I heard on the SATERN net this afternoon...(Salvation Army)

There is also supposed to be 270 hams on the air soon.....mostly shadowing the Red Cross shelters/locations (240 of them) so you are going to have more information flow....

There was ONE ham in New Orleans today on the air....on battery power....

[FD_Pilot]

When the cell towers loses commercial power.. it has at the most a handful of hours of battery back up. Then you have to haul a generator out to the site. With a big fuel bladder.

[ARCADIA]

I don't quite understand the cell phone thing.

The handset is only a small part of the system. The cell sites are designed with 4 to 8 hours of battery backup, so they will only last a few hours in the event of a complete power failure. The local operator may store a few trailerable generators to suppliment that, but without road access you can't do much.

[miele man]

"I don't quite understand the cell phone thing. It's probably good to get it up and running, especially to keep communications with rescue crews. BUT I would think rescue crews would be better off with radio comms."

Problem with radio comms would be frequencies. Not all radios would have compatible freqs. Cells would permit emergency personnel to speak with whomever they had numbers for; i.e, much more flexibility. Assumption is they can also recharge them. Possible with generator power.