[BARC-List] During Blackout, Ham Radio Shined

Thu, 21 Aug 2003 13:00:38 -0400

Gang,

Please be on the lookout for any articles of this ilk and forward them to me.  (Arthur, thanks for sending the New York Times articles.)  I'm using them to push the "Hams in Hospitals" ideas.  Everyone I'm dealing with still
believes in the program, but economy/budget issues are postponing implementation and I don't want to loose any headway.  By the way, link #1 is the really good one.

Thanks,

Rick Hampton, WD8KEL
Wireless Communications Manager
Partners Healthcare Systems
Boston, MA

Phone: 617-726-6633
Cell: 671-968-2262

P.S.  I'm sitting in an empty house in Charlotte as I type this.  My family will FINALLY be making the move up there this weekend to be with me.  Don't be surprised if you start hearing Beth, KG4GMJ, Kara, KG4GVS and Matt, KG4QKX on the radio more often.  (Not surprisingly, 2 meters and 440 are better links between my office in Charlestown and Londonderry, NH where we will be living for at least the next year, than cell phones.)

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2003 6:35 AM
To: Hampton, Rickey L.
Subject: [Slashdot] Stories for 2003-08-21
+--------------------------------------------------+
| During Blackout, Ham Radio                       |
|   from the breaker-breaker dept.                 |
|   posted by timothy on Tuesday August 19, @23:52 (wireless)|
|   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/19/2223242 |
+-------------------------------------------------------+

[0]Mark Cantrell writes "An interesting bit on [1]AP through Yahoo today.  Seems that ham radio (which recently had a bit of [2]backlash here on Slashdot from a few people thinking it was useless, outdated technology), really shined through during the blackouts. When the power went, ham radio operators, using battery backup power, were able to help coordinate emergency workers while the cell phone networks were overloaded. For anyone wondering why [3]interference due to power line broadband is considered a bad thing, well, there ya go."

Discuss this story at:
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=03/08/19/2223242
Links:
  0.. http://www.nwinfo.net/~mcantrell/
  1.. http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&ncid=528&e=1&u=/ap/20030819/ap_on_hi_te/blackout_ham_radio
  2.. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?cid=6651327&sid=74100&tid=193
  3.. http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/08/08/2/?nc=1