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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."
Even though we have had so many advances in technology over the years, its the good ole HAMs that come to our rescue during times of trouble or disaster. Even during the recent blackouts in NYC, they kept in touch & relayed messages back & forth. Often there's just one link who keeps the messages going up & down.
Hats off to you people & thanks for the wonderful job you do!
It will be interesting to see if any building-to-building WiFi links or other wireless networking tech can operate in a hurricane. I'd bet that high rain, very wet vegitation, and the odd flying bit of sheet metal will kill reception or reduce reliability. Also, external high gain antennas will be prone to wind-induced misaligment and damage.
Isabel should be an interesting test of any mesh networks in the area -- assuming that they have independent power sources, of course.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
Most Hams ( myself included ) have probably already lowered their "monstrously huge" aerials and put up the 'emergency' antennae. My emergency kit consists of a handheld VHF radio, a backpack HF radio ( 20 watts, about the size 5 CD jewel cases stacked on top of each other ), a folded dipole antenna which is made of 300 ohm tv antenna cable, a 12 V gel cell, and a Solar Panel for recharging the gel cel when the sun does come out. It all fits in a small ruck sack and can be setup anywhere in minutes.
Does anyone (apart from truckers naturally) use CB radio anymore? Is it ever used in these sorts of scenarios?
The last thing we need in Ohio is more rain (we're already over 9 inches above normal for the year), and Isabel threatens to add more precipitation to our area. Since we're so over saturated, nearly every time it rains, our areas go into automatic flood watch. As amateur radio operators, my wife and I provided communications for the American Red Cross for flood victims in the Stark County area in late July. Looks like we might be called to action again.
73 de KC8WVJ (and KC8WVK - my wife)