[Elecraft] Emergency Nets (was: Dropping the Code Test)

[Craig Rairdin]

> As a new guy, Tom, I was surprised to discover that despite poor 
> band conditions, the hurricane emergency nets are all using phone.  
? Does the availability of power make the difference?

On a related note, I've monitored several of the nets on 40M and 75M each
night this week and I've yet to hear any real traffic. The closest we came
was a guy who called in saying he had access to a survivor list. When asked
about it he told them it was at www.cnn.com. He then had to spell it
phonetically several times -- apparently nobody on the net had ever heard of
CNN.

There was a story on Fox News tonight about a ham who relayed a message all
over the place from someone needing evacuation, only to have the last
recipient get on the phone and call the Louisiana State Police, who solved
the problem. Why the Red Cross in Tulsa, who initiated the message, didn't
just make that phone call instead of involving a ham operator was never
explained.

Is Katrina the final proof that the Amateur Radio "Service" in the US has
outlived its public service raison d'etre? Or am I just on the wrong freqs?

Always the devil's advocate --

Craig
NZ0R
K1 #1966
K2/100 #4941