Once again, Amateur Radio has proven its value in an emergency. With
conventional telecommunication systems unreliable and power still out after
the Category 4 Hurricane Charley blasted across the Florida Peninsula August
13, Amateur Radio has proven to be a communication mainstay.

"The only reliable communication we have here is Amateur Radio," ARRL West
Central Florida Section Manager Dave Armbrust, AE4MR, told ARRL earlier this
week. He was one of the three dozen ARES volunteers at the Charlotte County
command post. "We're out in the field trying to handle so many different
things that it's almost overwhelming," he said five days into the
activation.

See more of this excellent article at
http://www.eham.net/articles/9084?eh...1d5551c910add7

In article ,
Mike Terry wrote:
Once again, Amateur Radio has proven its value in an emergency. With
conventional telecommunication systems unreliable and power still out after
the Category 4 Hurricane Charley blasted across the Florida Peninsula August
13, Amateur Radio has proven to be a communication mainstay.

The day that Charley blew through, I was watching the streaming
feed from one of the Orlando-area TV stations, and at one point,
one of the news people (they were doing continuous news coverage)
made an announcement that any amateur radio operator who could
help with emergency communications should check into the net on
146 something. The news guy said he didn't know what that meant,
but he was sure the amateur radio operators would. ;-) Anyway,
it was a nice surprise to hear one of the TV stations (they were
the NBC affiliate, as I recall, so they probably have a big
audience in that area) help round up hams.


Patty