[HCRA] An item of interest.

[Jim Harrington]

Hi All;
    Eric Tuller sent this out to the Skywarn group but I think that all 
Ham's can benefit from the information within.
I'd like to take a second to remind anyone that hasn't renewed your HCRA 
membership October is the Time to do it. You can come home with a nice 2 
meter radio. Just renew or join by the end of the October meeting on 
October 7th and you have really good odds at winning a radio.
Jim KB1JVF

Eric Tuller  N1QKO
Assistant SKYWARN Coordinator for W.Ma.     Ware Emergency Management
Communications
Emergency Coordinator for the MTARTA    KB1HGK Radio Operators for
Missing Children
CT+ MD+ VT+King Richards Ren Faires

In case you missed it:

The collapse of the Minneapolis bridge brought media comments about 
Amateur Radio.  This time the stories were in reaction to the 
inability of cell phones in the area to handle all the critical 
messages.  Preparing for a recent article in CONTACT! found that most 
cell systems can actually carry fewer than 5% of their customers in 
voice messages at any one time.  Some systems were found to be a lot 
less robust.  MSNBC noted this on August 2 in their story by Alan 
Boyle who interviewed ARRL Section Manager Skip Jackson, KS0J.  While 
emergency communications worked well, civilian communications were 
called "inadequate."  John Biachtal of Wired News (USA) also wrote 
about the cell phones being overwhelmed.  His advice to the readers 
was blunt and to the point - "Get (ham radio) licensed and join an 
emergency communications group."

from "Media Hits", October 2007 QST

Thank you Eric!