[CW] cw future

[Thomas Beaudry]

>   How will your communication systems work after a Richter 9 quake
> 100 miles from your city?  What you say about CW not having enough
> operators to replace your fancy systems is completely true, but
> when you can't get a message through to the governor of your state
> with everything you have, ANY two gud CW operators will be able to.

I was in El Salvador just after the October, 1986 earthquake that 
devastated the country.  Most phone lines were down.  The few that 
survived weren't useful for communications out of the country because 
all international lines are via a satellite ground station which the 
'quake took out.  The US Embassy was severely damaged and as a result, 
unable to offer communications assistance.  All the ham phone operators 
that spoke English were off the air when their towers came tumbling 
down.  As I understood the situation, the only communications out of 
the country for the first week or two were CW ops with hastily erected 
dipoles.  Then the international relief organizations got their 
communications setups going.

-- 
Thomas M. Beaudry
k8la / ys1ztm
K2 # 3422