[CC-ARES-RACES] Orlando Sentinel - Seminole County News - Amateur radio keeps lines open...

[Jim Dunn]

An interesting article. Jim.
> 
> AMATEUR RADIO KEEPS LINES OPEN WHEN NEEDED
> 
>  By Susan Daker | Sentinel Staff Writer
> Posted March 9, 2003
> 
>  SANFORD -- At a card table set up alongside an
> airport runway, Don Everett
> worked the hand-held radio, trying to get word from
> those closest to the
> scene about the condition of the victims of a plane
> crash.
> 
>  BY his side, Charlie Crook quickly pecked at the
> keyboard of a laptop
> computer, dashing off e-mail to relay the
> information to a nearby hospital.
> 
>  CROOK and Everett could have played a critical role
> in helping rescuers --
> if the emergency had been real.
> 
>  THE exercise at Orlando Sanford International
> Airport recently gave the two
> volunteers with the American Radio Emergency Service
> a chance to test their
> ability to bridge "the last mile" -- the area where
> conventional
> communications, especially phone lines, have been
> totally disrupted or
> overloaded by the emergency situation.
> 
>  THE laptop Crook used sent his e-mail through a ham
> radio powered by a
> 12-volt marine battery that can last for two days.
> Another ham radio hooked
> to a server received the signal and converted it to
> e-mail.
> 
>  THIS technology can be used to send messages to any
> e-mail account, said
> Bud
> Thompson, a Deltona volunteer who was stationed at
> Florida Hospital
> Altamonte Springs during the exercise to receive the
> e-mails Crook sent.
> 
>  THE technology originated as a way for recreational
> sailors at sea to read
> their e-mail without needing a phone connection to
> the Internet. Now, it is
> being explored as a way to help respond to
> disasters.
> 
>  FOR decades, amateur radio operators have used
> radio-to-radio
> communications
> to help during emergencies, said Mary Hobart, chief
> development officer for
> the American Radio Relay League. The FCC-licensed
> radio operators can talk
> with people all over the world and even astronauts.
> 
>  WHEN communications around the World Trade Center
> were knocked out after
> the
> terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, amateur radio
> operators helped the American
> Red Cross and other agencies whose communication
> systems were overloaded.
> 
>  THE American Radio Relay League received $181,900
> in federal money to boost
> homeland security, partly because of ham radio's
> role in Sept. 11, Hobart
> said.
> 
>  THE grant was used to start classes, available
> online, to teach ham
> operators how to deal with emergency situations.
> 
>  "THE consciousness was raised by 9-11," said
> Hobart, who helped the group
> apply for the grant.
> 
>  THOMPSON said that he was happy with the ham
> volunteers' performance at the
> airport on Tuesday, but he said there is always room
> for improvement.
> 
>  A ham radio operator for more than 50 years,
> Thompson said things have
> changed since he received his license as a
> 14-year-old boy. Now 65, he ends
> his e-mails with 73 -- radio code for best regards.
> 
>  "I'M really personally caught between the old and
> new way," he said.
> 
>  JAY Shanley, fire chief at the Sanford airport,
> said he was impressed with
> the ham radio operators' ability to send e-mail.
> 
>  "I heard that they were Johnny on the spot,"
> Shanley said.



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