"Jerry" wrote in message
. ..
wrote in message
oups.com...
From: Dan/W4NTI on Sep 1, 5:26 pm
I hope you folks can give a listen to HF during this disaster. It is
amazing how Ham Radio has stepped up to the plate and is providing
Communications where the Commercial infrastructure is destroyed.
"Commercial infrastructure" is defined as anything non-amateur?
Strange, I still see rather "commercial" and "military"
infrastructure radios very much at work on TV news, along
with lots and lots of "infrastructure" personnel.
Flood conditions high enough to inundate "commercial
infrastructure" equipment will ALSO inundate amateur
equipment and render it useless as well.
The relief efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi are being
handled by MANY, MANY different volunteers and MOST of them
do not appear to be or are identified as amateur radio
operators.
7290, 7285, 14.265, 3935, 3873, 3965 and many others I am sure.
Those networks are operating OUTSIDE the flood regions,
have NOT been inundated with flood waters.
I'm listening to a young lady right now with the Baptist feeding unit in
Biloxi Mississippi on the Alabama net frequency of 3965 passing messages
to
family and friends outside of the disaster area.
Then that young lady is NOT under water and has gotten to a
location that is NOT under water or destroyed (somehow, you
have not specified that transport) and has the help of
an amateur radio station set up for this purpose on DRY land
(some place unspecified).
Such as "Daddy were alright" Don't worry have not been able to call
before.
That is excellent service that is provided (partly) by amateur
radio. "Daddy" somehow has gotten the news and that probably
is completed over a telephone circuit...a telephone circuit of
the evil "commercial infrastructure" that was NOT destroyed.
And this is for you Len Anderson......take your anti-ham crap and shove
it.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. I've NEVER been "anti-ham." What I HAVE been
against is the morse code test for any amateur radio license.
What I HAVE been against is the braggadoccio of morse code mode
over and above any other mode in effectiveness. What I HAVE
been against is that morse code mode is the "only" mode possible
in emergency communications.
And what I HAVE been against is all you PCTA emotional retards
who think/state/live the notion that U.S. amateur radio is ONLY
about morse code mode, morsemanship, and neglecting the majority
of licensed radio amateurs who do NOT agree with you waving the
ham flag as ONLY yours and ONLY that of the morsemen.
You greatly confuse all of "hamdom" as having YOUR personal
opinion. You don't understand that someone having opinions
contrary to YOURS does NOT act in any "anti-amateur" manner.
Back to work, thanks to you all for the help you are providing.
Dan, go to the grill and fork yourself. You're done.
This is from the Sunday Pensacola News Journal:
Ham-radio operators
assist in rescue fforts
Tallahassee ham-radio operators guided emergency workers through daring
helicopter rescue :, Friday of 1 ,500 patients and staff from two New
Orleans hospitals besieged by darkness and gunfire.
Urged by rapidly rising water 8 feet deep in places and the growing
reality
that New Orleans had become a drowning pool, the operators fashioned a
satellite receptor atop an 8-story building in downtown Tallahassee.
Three of them - Theo Titus, Gene Floyd and Bill Schmidt - boarded a
helicopter in Tallahassee on Wednesday and headed for New Orleans.
Atop the garage at Tulane University Hospital and Clinic, they set up a
generator-powered .. ham radio with a satellite uplink.
The men used that communication to direct pilots through the near-war zone
as they evacuated decimated hospitals. "There were a lot of heroes in this
operation," said operator Chuck Hall. Hall said the rescue was a small
victory, but bigger obstacles remain. Hospitals have to be rebuilt.
Patients
have to get well, and New Orleans still faces months of recovery. "We had
to
overcome some small hurdles today, but the big hurdles are in front of
us.".
If THAT isn't in the thick of it, I really don't know WHAT you really
want. I recall a thread recently where you insisted that Amateur Radio had
no "real" part in emergency operations and that most such communications
was handled withOUT the help of Amateur Radio. Yada Yada, Yada. Much will
be done by MANY agencies and groups-even people lending backs and hands
or a mere handkerchief to the effort. *Some* may be by Morse; much of it
not. Some will handled by satellite and other data links as can be
established like the gentlemen in the article. I am seeing PLENTY of
articles on TV and radio about hams in the thick of the action--Even Larry
King Live mentioned! The crux of your angst was not the Morse issue, but
the viability of Amateur Radio itself as a vital part of our nation's
communications infrastructure, which it is HAS been since the beginning.
Nothing puts the lie to your
ham-radio-is-not-vital-to-emergency-communications diatribe than this
horrific tragedy. NO! It is NOT the onlyone--no one's saying it is--but it
is certainly doing what it does best; serving the community and nation in
anyway it can. And there are thousands staying out of the way until the
phone rings, "Can YOU come and do......................."? Or relaying
messages into and out of NO and other stricken area. MOST amateurs that
respond, whether it be some heroic effort or merely letting a daughter
know that her Daddy is safe via HF radio will do so without expecting or
receiving so much as a quick "Thanks, man". They wouldn't have it any
other way! 
J
At the probability of getting accused, again, of boasting.....I am happy to
read of the success of the chopper flights.
The Alabama Emergency Net responded to a extremely weak station requesting
to contact Tallahassee Fla hospital and ask them to come up on VHF. We
passed it via several relays.
Then heard nothing more. I sincerely hope we helped in a little way.
Dan/W4NTI 3965