Hams prepare for Irene

[JEV]

From http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/8/prweb8740448.htm

Hams Prepare For Irene - Getting Ahead of a Hurricane

From Florida to Virginia, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®) is preparing for Hurricane Irene.

Newington, CT (PRWEB) August 25, 2011
Amateur Radio operators (often called "hams") up and down the East Coast are being watchful as Hurricane Irene approaches. Their volunteer emergency radio skills may be needed very soon. For 75 years, their ARES program, part of the ARRL, the hams’ national association, has provided communications for many emergency response organizations. As Hurricane Irene grows stronger and comes closer, it looks like they will be needed again.
Amateur Radio operators already activated the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) for Hurricane Irene -- the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season – on Monday and now are preparing for her arrival this weekend. The volunteer radio hobbyists are supporting the National Hurricane Center staff with surface/meteorological reports from stations in the hurricane affected areas using ham radio's worldwide emergency capabilities.
ARES has formal agreements with FEMA, the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and many state and local emergency operations centers.
Amateur Radio operators have an impressive history of serving in disasters when other communications systems failed, were destroyed or were overloaded. Now hams up and down the East Coast are checking batteries, testing radios and antennas, finalizing plans made with local emergency responders, and placing themselves in “standby mode.” If the phones, Internet and other systems fail or get overloaded, the radio hams know they will become critical in getting information in and out of Irene’s disaster area. “We are not first responders,” said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. “We’re the people behind the curtain that make the heroes look good.” The services provided by volunteer Amateur Radio operators were life saving in Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese tsunami, Haitian earthquake, 9-11 and dozens more disasters.
As Craig Fugate, head of FEMA, stated on May 11th, “When everything else fails, Amateur Radio is often our last line of defense.... When you need Amateur Radio, you really need them.”

 

[muleman]

Folks these days rely on cell phones too much. The towers are susceptible to damage fairly easily and then they have no communication. Hams do a great job of relaying vital info in emergencies.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

I'm thankful of what ham's do during disaster responces but ares groups are finding it hard to accept new technoligy and all they can think of is hf there are other modes o operation that are much more predictable than hf also hf excludes manny new amitures from participating when needed around alaska we have a great voip system that is reliable and can be made to work with generators in time of emergancy ares fails to recognise this system when most of the time hf work accross the state is impossoble nevermind working the lower 48 hf is reliant on conditions and you cannnot engineer around that.

 

[JEV]

I'm thankful of what ham's do during disaster responces but ares groups are finding it hard to accept new technoligy and all they can think of is hf there are other modes o operation that are much more predictable than hf also hf excludes manny new amitures from participating when needed around alaska we have a great voip system that is reliable and can be made to work with generators in time of emergancy ares fails to recognise this system when most of the time hf work accross the state is impossoble nevermind working the lower 48 hf is reliant on conditions and you cannnot engineer around that.

We have some old timers in the club I joined that say the digital modes are NOT amateur radio, and they still are pissed that the code requirement was lifted. They are like the anti-automobile crowd that we just have to smile at and thank them for their past contributions, and move ahead with the new technology while leaving them behind. there is a place for new along with the old, but they won't accept that.

We had a Stormwatch event recently where the net controller used his online fax account to deliver reports to the NWS in Cleveland, reporting hail and storm damage as it was called in from Storm Watchers on the ground. An old time ham went on air and said he screwed up because that information was supposed to be conveyed on 6 meters or via telephone. Net control only had 2 meters and 70 cm available, because the 6 meter operator was not available. He couldn't manage phone calls and act as net control at the same time. He asked the old ham why he didn't volunteer to take the 6 meter responsibility, and he had no answer. The guy did the best with what he had available at the time.

 

[Snowtrac Nome]

that i sthe truth work with what you have the big arguement for irlp is what happens if the internet goes down? the internet does not go down your provider might but the net will always be there so all we have to do is find a way to access it also ares has this digital encryption and they talk about security when dealing with c government agencys ,first off why are our public servants trying to hide from us and secondly how hard can it be to encrypt a computer signal computer conections are secured all the time and also encrypted all the time this isn't rocket since its more of a power trip cause if the internet can work for the hams that is can work for releaf agencys. Ham radio is about experamentation not some kind of black opps agency and it's great when we all can step in to help