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Steve Bonine · March 19th 07, 03:16 PM posted to rec.radio.amateur.moderated

wrote:

Things really aren't so scarce/rare insofar as comms
are concerned in this big city complex of 8 million plus.
It may be that much smaller areas have scarce
facilities but that is up to those locations. I'm proud
that this area I live in has beefed up its communications
in the 13 years since the Northridge quake hit. What it
has done can be a model of integration for other areas.

Just a view a bit different than most others in here.

I suppose that what I'm about to say will raise some eyebrows, too.

It strikes me that the contribution of ham radio operators in a disaster
is changing. Not so many years ago, it wasn't unusual for all
communications to be rendered inoperable when a disaster hit, and ham
radio was the only link with the outside world. We're proud of our
"When everything else fails, ham radio still works" abilities.

Then there are the organizations that are spending lots of money to
prepare mobile and semi-fixed facilities. Government agencies and NGOs
have equipped various types of vehicles to roll into a disaster and
provide communications using satellite and radio. They've installed or
staged equipment in strategic locations. Much of this work has been
done based on lessons learned during the Katrina operation.

The one thing that is always needed during a disaster is manpower. You
can stage a satellite dish, but you need someone who is trained to
deploy it after the hurricane passes through. You can equip a truck
with all the communications equipment needed to hook up an EOC with the
outside world, but who drives the truck into the area and sets up the
equipment there?

The amateur radio community is the ideal place to recruit this kind of
expertise. An alternative to doing things in the traditional way --
using your own equipment and communicating between hams using ham
frequencies -- is to affiliate with an organization that is going to
need manpower when a disaster hits. It's a different way of
accomplishing the same goal. As the requirements for communication
become more stringent due to pressure to prevent fraud and maintain
privacy, I think that this aspect will become more and more important.

I present this as food for thought and an alternative, not as any
criticism of current operations.

73, Steve KB9X

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