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Amateur Radio Braces for Hurricane Isabel
TaxSlave writes "Amateur Radio operators in North Carolina and elsewhere in the projected track of Hurricane Isabel are getting ready for action. ARES has been activated in many areas, and hams are recommended to be ready. NC ARES has an information page for the storm and Hurricane Watch Net has a good info page as well. Even outside the major storm area, hams are posted at shelters which are filling up with storm refugees."
My boyfriend is in his 20s and is a ham. People might think hams are a bunch of old farts, but that's not entirely true. When the grid is down, you can always count on hams to be there to help!
It's good to see that the Hams are in action and all, but do you think it's very responsible to be slashdotting the servers of organizations providing emergency services in a disaster?
Eh?
... unless you really need to. The last thing the HAM radio folks in NC need is the slashdot effect.
get real time reports on condition in the affected area. Net control is actually in Austin TX.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Ha. Can you hear me now? Nope? HOw about now? NOpe... da-dit-da-da-etc... Yep, heard that.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
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We've got cellphones! Everyone knows how great cellphones work in an emergency. Viva la cellphone!
Ham radio is antiquated. I can buy 2 FRS radios at Wal-Mart for 30 dollars and will be able to talk a whopping 1/2 mile.
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And when Isabel destroys many of the cell towers, where will you be then? Unless you have a satphone your Aunt Tilly in Burbank won't know what's become of you. She could get a message relayed via ham radio, with a response to find out that you are ok, although maniacally clutching your cell phone.
Also, FRS radios and Ham Radio are not the same thing, by a long shot.
Cellphones relly on infrastructure....
A shortwave radio can communicate with somebody litterally on the other side of the globe without any additional infrastructure.
Jeroen
Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
and 50 million people won't be shafted again when Isabel knocks out power across the eastern seaboard, tripping power grids thousands of miles away?
because i'm in detroit, and I don't exactly have the utmost faith that they've corrected the problem already. particularly since they haven't even identified it yet.
at least i'm all stocked up again.
unfortunately my generator hasn't arrived yet.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
I agree that current casual applications of wireless networking mean that few will care about the reliability of these networks. Yet proponents of the technology would have us use wireless in more intensive and all-encompassing ways.
Today, nobody really cares if the laptop in an empty and dark executive office becomes disconnected during a hurricane. Tomorrow, we may care a great deal if our phone/data networks or municipal services control systems are knocked offline because an underlying wireless network failed.
Personally, I suspect that wireless is more robust than wireline because physical wires are so prone to flooding or downed trees. But I would like to see examples, like those provided by Isabel, on how these systems operate during and survive natural disasters.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Should have been modded Insightful, not merely Funny.
CW (Morse code) is often the only way to get a message through when all other methods fail. All you need to be able to do is switch a carrier on and off. And it can be done with very low power.
And to think the ITU now allows countries to do away with the Morse requirement for operation under 30 MHz. (There are petitions before the FCC to do this in the US.)
I was down in the Homestead area about 8 hours after Andrew blew through... My cellphone stopped working somewhere just south of lake Okechobee and didn't start to work again for over 10 days. I worked with the Red Cross, SATERN, and other groups for close to 3 weeks.
As I have said before, to many "cellphones are the answer" kinda people, cellphones do not work when their towers are laying on their sides.
On the other hand, last June, during Field Day, we got hit with a particularly violent thunderstorm that knocked one of the local clubs completely off the air (http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2003/07/02/1/?nc =1). We were a few miles south of that group, but also lost an antenna, a tower, and half-way submerged a generator in the storm. However, we were back on the air with batteries and wire antennas in about an hour.
Amateur radio may not be "modern", it may not be fast, but one thing it is, is RELIABLE. Any time, any where, "When all else fails".
73 de Paul, KC4YDY
The number 1 problem of working in a cubicle - 23 power cords, 1 outlet...
Instead of spouting mean-spirited, inhumane threats, why not be proactive and try to inform people about the nature and status of ham radio in the modern world? Seriously...aside from posting on Slashdot, what are you doing to alert your community about this issue?