[BARC-List] Hams help after Mumbai bombing

[Dan Malloy]

Most of you have heard by now of the terrorist bombings in Munbai, 
formerly Bombay, and the many deaths and chaos that followed.  Mumbai is 
India's largest city, and its financial and film (Bollywood) center, so 
this is a major city by any strech.  The poster of this message has a 
new meaning for"HAM."
73,
Dan

Posted by: "Alokesh Gupta" alokeshgupta at gmail.com   alokesh05
Fri Jul 14, 2006 11:15 pm (PST)
HAM bailed city out of mobile mess

George Koshy
CNN-IBN
Posted Thursday , July 13, 2006 at 22:26
Updated Thursday , July 13, 2006 at 22:40

Mumbai: Did you notice that your cellphone is not working when you
need it the most.
When Mumbai was attacked on 7/11, cellphone connections failed but
there was an alternative that Mumbaikars turned to - the Ham radios.
As the news of serial blasts across Mumbai trickled in on July 11,
the first reaction was to reach for the cellphone and ring up the
loved ones.
But with 85 lakh cellphones fighting for a small patch of bandwidth,
networks crashed.
"If the base station's capacity is less, even the network is probably
under-provided for. It is better therefore to try and send SMSes to
avoid putting any pressure on the network," says Secretary of Bombay
Telephone Users' Association, Achintya Mukherji .
Had the mobile phones worked in those crucial hours, maybe precious
lives could have been saved and precious time could have been saved.
If SMS was used instead of callling, six times more contacts would
have been made and networks would have stayed up.
Also it would have bee easier to reach outstation numbers. So maybe
that uncle in Bangalore could have passed on the message to mom in
Bandra.
But with mobile phones on the blink, it was the turn of a new set of
people to 'Help All Mankind'.
HAM radio operators dug out their walkie talkies and came to the help
of the city.
"I love Mumbai. We consider it a moral duty to sign on to the AIR
when disaster strikes. In fact, we carry our hand-helds and rush to
the nearest spot of crisis," said Zyros Zend, a Ham radio enthusiast.
Radio fans not only passed on news across the world to near and dear
ones, they also helped agencies like the BMC to pick up information
across the entire city.
While mobile operators keep promising updated infrastructure with
increasing consumer traffic, what every Mumbaikar can do is thank the
good samiratan, that lone Ham operator who makes sure the right
information reaches the right person when it is needed the most.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/ham-bailed-city-out-of-mobile-mess/15488-
3.html
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Alokesh Gupta
New Delhi