On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 20:11:48 -0700, Cmdr Buzz corey
wrote in :

Bob wrote:
Saw this morning a brief mention on Fox News about hams doing health
and welfare emergency traffic for New Orleans. "Only reliable
communications in the area". They showed a few ham transcievers, one
displaying a 70cm band frequency, another HF rig on 20 meters in the
phone subband.

This is the sort of disaster that ham radio handles well. Cell phones
are mostly out,


No no, just can't be. There are those on this group that swear cell
phones are very reliable in emergencies. Much better than ham radio,
after all, almost everyone has a cell phone but not a ham radio. But if
the infrastructure that supports cell phones is out of operation........

as well as most any other comm system that needs
physical infrastructure to function.

Yet there are those that claim with today's technology that kind of
thing just can't happen, thus there is no need for ham radio to play a
part in emergency comms anymore.

Yet official emergency plans include plans for the use of ham radio if
necessary. Cell phones and cb aren't.


Official emergency plans don't include cardboard signs and spray paint
but they are being used anyway.


This is just the kind of thing that makes folks like lennieboy cringe
with envy. They like to downplay the role of amateur radio in
emergencies, say it is outdated, modern technology can do much better
and is more reliable, all in an attempt to cover the fact they can't be
a part of it.


Yep, all those people holding up cardboard signs and spray-painting
"HELP" on their roofs are the hams doing what they do best -- using
low-tech communications!








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