[Elecraft] Elecraft Rigs as Public Relations Tools.

[Mike Morrow]

Ron wrote:

>About my KX1 I explained, "This little box that fits in my jacket
>pocket is a complete short-wave radio station that I built. I can
>throw a wire over a tree limb and contact other people over a
>range of hundreds of miles, thousands of miles, even half way
>around the world at times. It requires no satellites, no cellular
>towers and no telephone or power lines. It requires nothing at
>all but me and the other station.

Hi Ron,

That describes exactly the kick I get from operating out in the boonies on HF.  No infrastructure is required, just the radios on each end and the physics of wave propagation between them.

I enjoy reading my old 1930s QSTs where there are occassionally stories of amateur radio support in flooding, tornado, and other emergencies, using vacuum tube gear that was difficult to power, and Morse as the mode.  Today, I do have doubts about the practical value of amateur radio emergency communications in all but extremely rare situations.  The cellular phone systems in many places in the world are surprisingly robust and reliable.  I know I was able to keep in touch with my brother in Pensacola a few months ago with him using a cell phone all through and after hurricane Ivan, and I know others who did the same for other hurricanes last Summer.  All had lost power and landlines for days or weeks, yet their cell phones worked as long as they had charged battery packs.  Apparently the same thing has occured in Asia, except where there had been no cell coverage.  Impressive.

There were, I'm sure, isolated regions where ham radio provided help, and I suspect that in the USA those rural and wilderness area where cell coverage is still spotty (my favorite spot in the Arkansas Ozarks has no cell coverage except on high ridges, for example), HF ham ops still have some small potential for emergencies, especially if VHF repeaters are off air.

I somehow doubt the practical value of HF QRP and/or Morse operations in providing today significant emergency communications capability under most likely encountered conditions.  I believe that the design of any serious HF emergency communications system should include a 100 watt output rig capable of SSB operation in the 40m and 80m bands, with large deep discharge batteries for power and some sort of gasoline-powered charging system (no solar arrays), and a real antenna (No buddi-poles, miracle whips, MP-1s, etc.).  If I were organizing ham radio support on HF, the last thing I'd want is everyone showing up with 5 watt 20m CW rigs powered from AA cells.  But anything would be better than nothing in a last resort!

73,
Mike / KK5F