[BARC-List] Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: Hams on Alert

[Marc Stern]

> Ham radios may bring to mind images of basement
electronics
> fanatics or cold war bomb shelters. And, indeed,
cellphones
> and the Internet have rendered much ham-radio activity
> obsolete.

Isn't it wonderful how we now have a world full of instant experts? I wonder
where the reporter got this information.


WA1R
----- Original Message -----
From: <rhampton2@carolina.rr.com>
To: <barc-list@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2003 9:24 AM
Subject: [BARC-List] Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: Hams on Alert


> Forwarded Message:
> > From: wd8kel@arrl.net
>
> Thought you folks might enjoy this one.
>
> 73,
>
> Rick, WD8KEL
>
> > Hams on Alert
> >
> > June 1, 2003
> > By COREY KILGANNON
> >
> > ON the subway, Charles Hargrove of Port Richmond, Staten
> > Island looks exactly like the mild-mannered office
> manager
> > he is. But if disaster should strike, he has a ham radio
> > and enough electronics equipment in his briefcase to set
> up
> > a makeshift communications center almost anywhere in the
> > city.
> >
> > As the emergency coordinator for the city's Amateur Radio
> > Emergency Service, Mr. Hargrove and the group's 80 other
> > members handle communications between hospitals,
> shelters,
> > city agencies and emergency services units, in the event
> > that telephone lines and other radio services are down.
> > Sept. 11, combined with government terror alerts, have
> put
> > the city's hams on high alert.
> >
> > Charles Gallo, another emergency service member, carries
> > around a large green backpack loaded with 50 pounds of
> ham
> > equipment and survival gear, including a rain poncho,
> socks
> > and underwear, a Sterno stove, hot cocoa mix, a
> pocketknife
> > and saw, a sewing kit and duct tape.
> >
> > He now has a mast 20 feet tall that he can mount in less
> > than five minutes onto his pickup truck as an antenna,
> > instantly turning the vehicle into a mobile
> communications
> > center. The other day, in the driveway of his house in
> > Bayside, Queens, he showed off his mast, piecing it
> > together quickly, then holding it aloft triumphantly.
> > "There. What'd that take? A minute and a half?"
> >
> > The need for ham radios and their operators arises more
> > than you would think: consider the Staten Island barge
> > explosion earlier this year, not to mention sundry
> storms,
> > fires and blackouts.
> >
> > Ham radios may bring to mind images of basement
> electronics
> > fanatics or cold war bomb shelters. And, indeed,
> cellphones
> > and the Internet have rendered much ham-radio activity
> > obsolete.
> >
> > But hams take pride in telling you how useless cellphones
> > often become in emergencies, because of dead spots or
> > flooded circuits. Ham radios, by contrast, can run on
> many
> > different frequencies and provide an open network, like a
> > huge conference call. They are broadcast over hundreds of
> > repeaters mounted on tall buildings citywide, boosting
> > signals from individual ham radios to well beyond city
> > limits.
> >
> > Charlie Alfano, a telecommunications technician from New
> > Hyde Park, just over the Queens border, has five
> different
> > ham radios and a computer installed in his sports utility
> > vehicle, plus several extra car batteries, five antennas
> > and his own 10-foot mast. "I can set up a mobile command
> > station anywhere in Queens in 15 minutes," said Mr.
> Alfano,
> > who has worked the city's emergency airways since the
> > 1970's blackouts.
> >
> > But Mr. Hargrove tells members that they do not have to
> be
> > as gung-ho as Mr. Gallo or Mr. Alfano.
> >
> > "We still have some Rambo guys, but I try to tone them
> > down," he said. "If one of our members comes to a scene
> > with three radios squawking on his belt, the cops label
> him
> > a geek and say get the hell out of here.
> >
> > "We want guys with calm exteriors, but churning away
> > underneath."
> >
> > http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/01/nyregion/01HAMS.html?
> ex=1056076757&ei=1&en=8f726aecdd545bce
> >
> > Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
>
>
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