[TowerTalk] Chicago Tribune news: Ham radio tower has the OKsignal

[dennis o'connor <k8do@mailblocks.com>]

Jim Lux: Certainly you make valid points about not hanging our hat on 
just one hook - emergency services - when we do many other things... 
But, your premise that state and local emergency communications are 
eclipsing ham efforts does not hold for major disasters, such as the 
recent hurricane devastated areas in the south... For days VHF and HF 
ham stations were/are the back bone of emergency communications in 
those areas...

Another arena where ham radio is the only dependable link is maritime 
mobile... Recent attacks by a  pirate boat (same boat description each 
time)  upon private boats in the area south east of the Panama Canal 
depended upon the Maritime Mobile Service Net for reporting and 
disseminating the information to the boating community, which was done 
in minutes, not the weeks to months that the formal governmental 
services would take for such information to slowly grind it's way from 
desk to desk, so that each bureaucrat could add his signature and get 
his portion of the public credit...

Another arena where we did good was the shuttle disaster, where 
recovery teams had to depend upon ham repeaters out in the boonies and 
down in the canyons, for communication...

Local emergency communication networks do function when we have minor 
problems, snow storm, single river flooding, forest fire, etc., but 
when the utility poles are tossed around like match sticks, the roads 
impassable, bridges over on their side, houses collapsed, High tension 
lines on the ground, municipal water plants dark and silent, sewage 
treatment plants flooded, Ma Bell silent, and the brown stuff has hit 
the fan, even in the 21st century Joe Ham with a portable radio is 
still the first responder... Don't sell it short...

Cheers  ...  Denny / K8DO

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