[aprssig] Re: Bad Press in Wall Street Journal Sep. 6th 2005...

[Stephen H. Smith]

A favorable writeup of hams in the latest disaster:

    http://www.outlook4mobility.com/commentary2005/sept1205.htm

"Meanwhile, as happens in every disaster in recent times, the amateur 
radio community was immediately on the scene and ready. The Red Cross 
has, for a long time, worked with the ham radio community to provide 
communications to and from shelters and other locations where its 
personnel were deployed. The Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES) was 
also deploying hams with their personal communications equipment and 
controlled network communications into and out of the affected areas 
were on the air in short order.

As a side note but of importance, at least one wireless network 
operator, Verizon, has long recognized the emergency communications 
capabilities of ham radio. A number of its cell site technicians, radio 
engineers and other employees are ham radio operators who want to 
provide communications in times of disasters. Verizon's management 
realizes the benefit of ham radio and has promoted its use in 
emergencies by providing radio equipment and license training for its 
employees who are interested.

One reason hams can respond so quickly is that they can set up 
"infrastructure-less" communications. They hit the ground with their own 
equipment and can quickly and easily set up local, regional, national 
and even international communications."


" One of the stories I heard but cannot verify is that some of the 
people on the ground during the rescue operations "acquired" a number 
FRS radios in order to be able to communicate with each other. Some of 
them even started telling people to contact them on FRS channel 9, code 
11 (911). If this is true, it shows how inventive people are when they 
have to be. (Note: I am told that many ski patrols have adopted the 9-11 
family radio channel, just like CB channel 9 was monitored by some 
public safety agencies in the old days). I have several pairs of these 
radios and extra batteries ready to go in our emergency kits."



Stephen H. Smith    wa8lmf (at) aol.com
EchoLink Node:      14400    [Think bottom of the 2M band]
Home Page:          http://wa8lmf.com

"APRS 101"  Explanation of APRS Path Selection & Digipeating
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Updated APRS Symbol Chart
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New/Updated "Rev G" APRS     http://webs.lanset.com/wa8lmf/aprs
Symbols Set for UI-View,
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