In article ,
Phil Kane wrote:

Hurricane Katrina illustrated the frailty of
modern communications, but it also illustrated how things have changed
in the role of ham radio in disasters. We no longer are a significant
carrier of health and welfare traffic.

Or a backup for public safety or other "commercial" communications.

I think that depends, to a very significant degree, on how well
organized and trained we are, and how well integrated with the local
emergency-response community.

A randomly-selected gang of hams, with their radios but with no
specific tranining or organization or ability to work as a group, is
not likely (in my opinion) to be very useful in times of emergency.
They won't know how to figure out what the local governments need in
terms of emergency communications, they won't know where to go or who
to talk with, they won't be set up with any sort of predictable
communications plan in advance, etc.

If they show up at the location of a disaster or emergency, they'll
probably be treated as "loose cannons" by the police, fire department,
other government representatives, etc. and asked to go away and let
the professionals do their job. At best they'll be treated like any
other "convergent volunteers" of unknown capability and reliability.

On the other hand... I believe that local ham groups, if well
organized and trained, working in close cooperation with local
governments and emergency-response teams, can be a very valuable
asset, and see as such by government organizations.

I have the good fortune to live in a city (and county) which has some
very effective arrangements of that sort. We *have* been called out
by the county on at least one occasion in the past few years, to serve
as backup communicators for the police/fire infrastructure (somebody
sabotaged several fiber-optic cables and knocked out all of the
telephones and cellphones in south Santa Clara County back in 2009).
I still have a very nice thank-you letter from the city manager of
Morgan Hill.

One area in which our service has been particularly useful to the
cities is our ability to act as "eyes and ears" during the first few
hours after a disaster. We can provide the city emergency manager
with a quick overview of damage (e.g. after an earthquake, or during a
winter storm with flooding) throughout the city, within 15 minutes or
so, via neighborhood walkthroughs and "windshield survey" drive-by
summaries. This helps the city figure out where their (strictly
limited) police and fire resources are best utilized. It would take
the city hours, if not days, to do this just with their own
personnel... and the city governments view this as a very valuable
service for us to provide.

If hams want to be treated as being worthy of some special treatment,
then I believe that this must be earned, through practical
demonstration and through active cooperation and training. It *can*
be done, but it doesn't come for free.

It's not the "ham radio" per se that's important (although the
privileges are very useful)... it's the fact that we're trained,
dependable communicators willing to serve.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
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