Ham Radio Fills Communication Gaps In Nepal Rescue Effort

itwbennett writes: Amateur radio has stepped in to fill communication gaps in Nepal, which is struggling with power outages and a flaky Internet after a devastating earthquake on Saturday killed over 5,000 people. Though 99 persons have ham licenses in Kathmandu, about eight use high-frequency (HF) radios that can transmit long distances, while another 30 have very high frequency and ultra high frequency sets for local traffic, said Satish Kharel, a lawyer in Kathmandu, who uses the ham call signal 9N1AA. The hobbyist radio operators are working round-the-clock to help people get in touch with relatives, pass on information and alert about developing crises.

Comments

Again?

[StikyPad]

Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster? I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication. "People communicating by any means possible," is not news.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster?

Yes. Because it's great to hear about geeks helping people. And it's wonderful to see technology used in positive ways. I love seeing people being nice to one another. These are heroes: not the assholes shooting. Any asshole thug can pick up a gun or bomb, but it takes skill, kindness, and bravery to help people you don't know to contact others.

We need to see and hear more of this in the violent shitty World.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we do, but why? It's educational for the younger audience. I would have never known of ham radios and their usage during disasters if not for slashdot. We get new and young readers now and then. It's good for them, but maybe not for you.

Re:Again?

[LVSlushdat]

Hey Sparky.. you don't like an article?? easy fix... Dont READ it... Some of us like to hear about ham radio being used for critical stuff... geez.. What a specail snowflake.. just because he doesn't like a story, nobody else here should be able to read it either.... .

Re:Again?

[MightyYar]

Do we really need stories about rescue efforts after every disaster?

No, but some of us like the news - even that which you find repetitive. I find it interesting that, with all of the modern technologies now available, old-fashioned ham is still useful. Every time a disaster happens, even more time elapses and ham gets even older - and so the news is even more interesting. To me, this is just as anachronistic and interesting as if amateurs were using hot-air balloons to effectively deliver rescue supplies.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we really need to hear you whine about stories you don't like? How is it worse than the shit you've posted? Your political tripe has about as much use as... some useless thing.

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[Dr. Zim]

How is this insightful? It's someone moaning about the fact that they don't like a type of article. The only insight here is StinkyPad is a whiney little bitch.

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[nimbius]

Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster?

Yes, because its an efficient indicator of the immediate scope and nature of a disaster. if the most critical and arguably resillient communications systems have finally failed, Ham is your red-flag indicator that the situation is dire.

I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication.

Thats exactly the point. Ham is being used because Official or commerical communications systems are either damaged, destroyed, or overwhelmed beyond inteded or effective capacity. If you're in the united states the equivalent official communication would be the Emergency Alert System over a VHF repeater, if ones still standing. If not, Hams take everything from presidential to local law enforcement messages to where they need to go in a structured, orderly manner.

"People communicating by any means possible," is not news.

People communicating by any means possible is a normal society with twitter, cellphones, and wifi. People reliant upon analog and digital communication outside thestructure of a commercial ecosystem and in lieu of direct government correspondance is news. Ham operators build and run antennas, configure messaging relay and repeater systems, repair existing infrastructure, assist in dispatching emergency services and handle every communication thats needed in an emergency from local to state and even international SOS for emergency assistance. The point is when you're now reliant on Ham in any context to assist in a rescue effort, the outlook for existing infrastructure is very bad.

Re:Again?

[whitelabrat]

I'm ham licensed as well, and this kind of news is a really important aspect of the hobby. There are lots of folks out there who would like to take our radio space and sell it off and it is important that we keep reminding folks that when things get ugly we keep working.

Re:Again?

[gstoddart]

Do we really need people bitching about every damned story?

Nobody ever promised you a pony or that you'd never see a story you weren't personally interested in.

You're free to not read it. You're also free to stop kvetching about it.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh....an egocentric comment by a confirmed cellular addict.

I spent two years on a sailboat in the canals and fjords of Chilean Patagonia and Argentina. I have been south of every automobile, paved road and street light in the world. Most of the time we were 100 miles or more from the nearest cell phone tower (and road). Sat phones are unreliable at these latitudes (about 55 degrees south) because the satellites are in more or less equatorial orbits. And the Chilean navy wants to hear from you twice a day when you are in Chilean waters. The only tool that will work is a single side band HF radio. When connected to A PC via a specialized modem, this setup can send and receive emails from anywhere in the world. My transmitter is only rated at 100 watts and yet it routinely communicates with stations that are more than 3000 miles away. I have contacted Europe from the Pacific Ocean. "Hobby"?!? For those of us who are really out there, amateur HF radio is the communications lifeline.

P.S. Could the submitter of "Again?" make an attempt to explain to me what "official radio communication" means?

73's

KR6AS

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm just glad it's not a 3D printing story cynically exploiting the death of hundreds to tell us about how important it is to 3D print shirt buttons or something.

Re:Again?

[neorush]

In 1998 there was an ice storm that struck Upstate New York. Hams were virtually the only source of communication as official communication channels ran out of gas (in many cases literally) after a day or so. I sat in a Firehouse with my own equipment relaying communications from ambulances (where another ham was riding along) to other base stations in nearby towns. We did most of this over 2 meters.

Hams were absolutely crucial because we could move in and quickly setup and operate additional equipment. I know times have changed....but every time I look at the state's disaster readiness plan hams would be needed again.

I think you are over estimating the ability of official channels to be ready to function on their own for weeks at a time.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent two years on a sailboat in the canals and fjords of Chilean Patagonia and Argentina.

Must be nice to have money.

Re:Again?

[tlhIngan]

Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster? I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication. "People communicating by any means possible," is not news.

Yes, because everyone not affected seems to assume that stuff like the Internet and cellphones will kill ham radio. Yet I'm pretty sure that while in normal circumstances you could get access to the Internet, and yes, the vast majority of people have cellphones, well, guess what? That stuff's not working now, so now what? Bit hard to use the Google or Facebook "I'm safe" feature when you can't get online now...

Call a friend, or text? Pretty hard when the towers are overloaded and maybe even in states that would appear to work, but not.

And that's a problem because people assume that because in the normal case it's not needed, it's obsolete. I'm sure a lot of people on /. wonder about AM/FM radios given that you can stream Pandora and other stuff off the internet.

And yes, ham radio is often official radio communications methods - many rescue groups use hams to provide communications between teams on the ground and HQ, or even to provide a way to tell someone else outside the country to relay messages onwards. And local government also often uses hams for emergency communications - the ham radio infrastructure may often be better than what their official radios have.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell yes..!!!!!!!!! its relevant and very contemporary.. people whom speak pout about these types of things are jealous. They just spent millions of dollars and wasted man hours building a infrastructure that doesn't come close to the reliability of RADIO and the tech behind it..

Bitches just wanna bitch, because they were bored, they tried to re-invent the wheel, came up with something elliptical in stead of round, resulting in ya it works until you put a load on it, then the imperfections begin to surface, yet all that money and man power still could not get a round object..

stick that in ur pipe and consume it..

Re:Again?

[Hadlock]

No, we're all soulless sacks of meat, fuck the other guys on the other side of the planet, we'll never meet 'em, so fuck 'em. Preach it, StickyPad!

Re:Again?

[rfengr]

Well it either takes money, or no money. You can't fit too much on a sail boat, so it's not like you have a lot of possessions. It really takes setting priorities.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster? I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication. "People communicating by any means possible," is not news.

fuck this guy

Re:Again?

[chilenexus]

Back when McVeigh bombed the Federal building in Oklahoma City, so many emergency personnel rushed into the area from so many jurisdictions that it brought all of their radio communications down due to saturation and intermod - the only thing that worked reliably was ham radio, and there were hams assigned to work with the fire crews and police to get their traffic passed.

Also, when a disaster strikes the cell networks are usually the first to go down. The older towers can't handle the sudden massive spike in the number of people trying to make calls at once, and would actually explode from the power demand and resultant overheating. The newer towers protect themselves by shutting down when they get spiked like that.

Re:Again?

[rogoshen1]

Yes, because it gives a counter point to the technophiles who'd rather see that spectrum re-purposed for other uses.

We need the same story run for the POTS system after disasters, for the same reason.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha, disregard that. I don't go sailing. I am a fat, ham radio loving fucktard living in my mother's basement and i suck cocks!!

Re:Again?

[TrentTheThief]

You may think so, but I assure you that your impression of amateur radio's place in the scheme of things is sadly wrong. Think of them more like rabid Maker's hooked on radios instead of Arduinos and 3D printers. They aren't random people yelling breaker, breaker into a CB. It's a very technical hobby. Some might have just a transceiver and an antenna. But others have setups that look more like a satellite comm center. The people who dive into emergency comms do so with as much seriousness dedication as any EMT, fireman, or policeman. They're more like the guys who chase tornadoes. They go _to_ the trouble.

But don't misunderstand their purpose. They don't do this just for emergencies. Radio is a way of life for many of them.

Sure, "the communicate by any means" is still there. However, amateur radio operators provide vital communications to coordinate rescue and relief efforts all over the world, way more than just providing "I'm alive" messages. They've been doing it for over 1000 years. Ham operators happen to be sprinkled around all over the world, so they might already be there when bad shit happens. The operators have networks, procedures, and contact in place for emergency situations.

Ham radio's activity in this regard is officially recognized in the US and most other countries.

In the US, MARS (DoD program), ARES (civilian org, "ARRL"), and RACES (DHS program). All three deal deal with the use of amateur radio to provide emergency/disaster services.

Re:Again?

[TrentTheThief]

F---ing A.

Re:Again?

[pr0fessor]

In the mid-west storm spotters, ham operators, and other volunteers coordinate with sheriff's departments to get relevant information to the national weather service and out to the pubic during times of severe weather. Tornado season is a particularly busy time for them and they are appreciated.

Re:Again?

[TrentTheThief]

Hell, sometimes they're hard pressed to even get in position, let alone operate. Hams have the advantage (if you want to call it that) of more than likely already having hot-damn eager people in place and ready to rock and roll.

StinkyPad is probably non-tech but interested in geeky stuff and doesn't have the background or exposure to be aware of this sort of stuff.

Re:Again?

[TrentTheThief]

I was downtown for 9/11 and the last big blackout.

I can tell you from experience that the cell towers overloaded or had lost power within an hour of the planes hitting and almost again instantly when the power went off in the big blackout. During the blackout some cell tower installs were powered from building generators, but there was no where near enough to handle the volume.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Emergency Alert System over a VHF repeater, if ones still standing"
The Radio Tech that is repairing or rebuilding this repeater is most likely also a HAM. These guys are an important part of our infrastructure. When you work on radios you need a place to test them in the real world. The HAM bands provide that. To keep your skills honed you need to use your tools on a regular basis.

Re:Again?

[TWX]

People like to forget that while traditional analog radio isn't secure, when these kinds of disasters happen being able to broadcast such that multiple people can receive and possibly respond is a feature, not a flaw. Consumer cell phones are designed to let the phone communicate with the carrier only, not to communicate with other phones directly. That means that contacting multiple parties is so much more complex that when the system is stressed it breaks.

I've actually broken down on the Interstate where I had no cell service, and the passengers from the other incapacitated vehicles (from debris on the road) also couldn't get cell service, so it wasn't just one provider. It wasn't a terrible emergency, but if we'd needed an emergency response we couldn't have called for it.

Re:Again?

[TWX]

When the summer storms hit I pull out the 2m HT and tune to a simplex frequency just in case. Haven't heard anyone asking for help but it's no burden to listen.

Re:Again?

[TWX]

On September 11, 2001 the cell networks nationwide failed because of the panic after the attacks, even in cities thousands of miles from the sites of the attacks. My wife was able to call her parents on the landline. That's why we still have one.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

..They aren't random people yelling breaker, breaker into a CB. It's a very technical hobby. Some might have just a transceiver and an antenna. But others have setups that look more like a satellite comm center. .

Ye Gods..
Listen, technical hobby it may be, some hams are technically minded, but not all of them are (back in the day, most/all of them were), We have the misfortune of having a couple locally who are little better than the stereotypical CB'er of old.. they shouldn't even be allowed access to license exempt PMR equipment let alone what they do have,

Here's a dirty secret about most modern Hams, they buy their equipment and have little real idea as to what the fecking things actually do inside, and the majority of the ones who do know what the business end of a soldering iron looks like (unlike our local two muppets) slavishly follow the various mod diagrams to be found out there like electronics equivalents of script kiddies...that's the limit of their technical abilities.
Note, I say above most modern Hams...there are still honourable exceptions..

..The people who dive into emergency comms do so with as much seriousness dedication as any EMT, fireman, or policeman. They're more like the guys who chase tornadoes. They go _to_ the trouble.

get over yourselves...unlike the police, firemen, EMT, they don't get all fucking sanctimonious about it afterwards..Wha's Like Us?, eh?

Re:Again?

[CaptainDork]

We regret any discomfort your stupid fucking post has caused us.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hahaha, disregard that. I don't go sailing. I am a fat, systemd loving fucktard living in my mother's basement and i suck cocks!!

Nice try, I fixed it for you.

Re: Again?

[chihowa]

This is why having multiple different means of communication is important in case of emergencies. You mention cell service being down or spotty, but amateur radio is not immune to unavailability either. There are many places in the US (and the world), where you will not be able to reliably reach somebody with ham radio (especially VHF and UHF, but even HF if you're limited in what you can carry or conditions are too bad). In some of those places, phone service may work fine.

Re: Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes again! The trouble with comments such as this is lack of understanding what emergency communications are. With as much damage as Nepal received, amateur radio can and does with simplicity, very likely the only means of communications in or out. That is obviously changing as commercial networks are coming back up again. What you don't understand is how simple amateur radio can be to deploy and operate... needing very few outside resources to reach very long distances. Given that simplicity, reliability and the ability to battery-operated the equipment, makes for full proof means of communications when nothing is left. So yes amateur/ham radio again.

Re:Again?

[jerel]

Since you posted as AC I'll say this. You must be an older Ham who got his ticket "back in the day" when you had to know morse code and had to design a radio circuit from scratch during your examan, and now you resent the ease with which an Amateur Radio license can be obtained. There have always been jerks in every endeavor. Why, you may not believe this, but there are even a few here on Slashdot! The FCC continues to cut funding for enforcement, so more and more we hams have to police ourselves. So, do that. If you have a couple of hams in your neighborhood who are violating rules, report them.

As far as getting all sanctimonious, when was the last time you really heard anything about what Hams did in a crisis, other than on vary narrowly focused outlets like Slashdot or Amateur Radio Newsline? It's not like we're parading in the streets crowing about our accomplisments. Just a little acknowledgement is all we want, and then only because Amateur Radio is largely invisible so people think it's dying. It's not. There are more licensed operators world wide now then ever before.

Get a grip, and get real. Seriously.

Re:Again?

[Bruce Perens]

You are exactly right. One thing though, it's "Ham" or even "ham". It's not an acronym. Thanks!

Re:Again?

[Bruce Perens]

Technically, making transceivers work when there are 30 of them in vehicles next to each other can get difficult. People wonder why you can buy a dual-band walkie talkie for $60 but the one in the police car costs much more. If it's well engineered, the one in the police car has some RF plumbing that isn't in the $60 walkie talkie.

Re:Again?

[Ol Olsoc]

Do we really need a story about ham radio after every disaster? I'm sure it's being used, but not to the extent of official radio communication. "People communicating by any means possible," is not news.

Actually yes, we do. In today's world, people seem to think that in an emergency, you just use the smartphone. Which of course is one of the first things to fail in a disaster.

It's also important for people to understand that Amateur Radio is not some guy in Idaho yapping about overthrowing the Guvmint with like minded weirdos on their 1950's tube radios.

My Software defined radios are marvels of electronics and computers melded together. Our digital modes are used to send and recieve forms and files. The biggest issues we face are that we are outpacing the F.C.C., and need them to update some of the rules, like maximum allowed digital transmission speed.

One of our most popular programs for digital mode operation is the fldigi suite, written by a team that has transcended the Ford versus Chevy mentality, and written identically functioning software for Windows, OS X, and Linux, and a lot of instructional materials to get them to complie and work identically. Olde farts, like hell, we're assembling a lot of knowledgable and helpfull nerds, many excellent programmers.

Aside from the technology, Amateur radio has a trump card that bears repeating.

Amateur radio has very little inherent structure.This sounds like a bad thing, but one of the first things to fall apart in an emergency is the structure. Cell phone towers run out of backup batteries, or their towers fall. Same thing for other emergency services. And unfortunately, one of the things those folks excel at is imposing structure. It's integral ot the way they are wired.

But experienced Hams are adept at working in chaotic and sometimes primitive and non-ideal situations. If the professional emergency systems are down, the adept amateur can run a couple wires, and get in contact with the rest of the world.

Which is all to say, that I might be sitting at my awesome software defined radio getting emergency messages from some guy running an incredibly primitive rig. Or the other way around.

And we even offer refunds - of course, we aren't allowed to be paid.

Re:Again?

[Ol Olsoc]

Do we really need stories about rescue efforts after every disaster?

No, but some of us like the news - even that which you find repetitive. I find it interesting that, with all of the modern technologies now available, old-fashioned ham is still useful.

Good reply. But Ham radio has definitely kept up with the times. While the old radios still work - and it's a subset of the hobby, the new stuff like the Software Defined Radio transceivers like the FlexRadios, http://flex-radio.com/ and the various digital/soundcard modes are nothing short of amazing. Geek-A-Licious!

Disclaimer: I'm a zealot.

Re: Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

neorush -Thank you for helping during the ice storm. I was the state RACES radio officer with SEMO at that time. Amateur radio was indeed vital. ( for some reason I am unable to log in other than anonymous, not trying to hide )

Re:Again?

[Ol Olsoc]

Ye Gods.. Listen, technical hobby it may be, some hams are technically minded, but not all of them are (back in the day, most/all of them were),

Oh boy , here we go, let's play the Ham radio is doomed game, and we'll stereotype each other. Quickly tell us about how Ham radio is dying.

We have the misfortune of having a couple locally who are little better than the stereotypical CB'er of old.. they shouldn't even be allowed access to license exempt PMR equipment let alone what they do have,

So what? You got a couple Hams who are not living up to your demands of what makes a Ham. Is there some sort of speciall way to think and act test?

Here's a dirty secret about most modern Hams, they buy their equipment and have little real idea as to what the fecking things actually do inside, and the majority of the ones who do know what the business end of a soldering iron looks like (unlike our local two muppets) slavishly follow the various mod diagrams to be found out there like electronics equivalents of script kiddies...that's the limit of their technical abilities.

Here's another dirty little secret of Ham radio. Olde fartes like you, are doing everything they can to demean the hobby. I've seen your type. You sit in the back of club meetings, and if another ham starts talking about anything but how the old time hams ant their equipment were better than the appliance operators of lady, some of whom have committed the mortal sin of not leaning and passing the Morse Code test, you'll groan and moan abbout it, You'll talk among each other about your Drake running circles around that stupid Software defined Transceiver if someone is making a presentation about some of that terrible new equipment. You are poison, and trying to destroy the hobby. Note, I say above most modern Hams...there are still honourable exceptions..

Note I say, you are not going to stand in judgement of me, and I really resent your categorical dismissal of Modern Hams. The people I have the most trouble with are people like you, who do their damndest to keep the new guys away from clubs. What's it like being better than all the new Hams? DOes it make oyu happy? Or just fuel your bitterness?

get over yourselves...unlike the police, firemen, EMT, they don't get all fucking sanctimonious about it afterwards..Wha's Like Us?, eh?

Perhaps you might get over yourself. Because you seem to believe you are better than the rest of us.

So tell me superior Ham, exactly what are YOU doing to correct his issue? Are you elmering anyone? Teaching classes? Just being friendly? Tell me, what you do for Amateur radio except bitch about how much better you are than modern Hams? I'll bet you still have a hard-on about when they restructured it with "Incentive licensing back in the 1960's dont ya? And eliminating the OOK CW test? Ermagherd!

If you are like all the other old and superior Hams, most likely you do nothing. I teach classes in digital and sound card communications, manage a contest station, Run a HF and VHF digital net, chair a State QSO Party, teach noobies how to solder, both traditional and SMT, run electronic project classes, and a lot of other stuff. You know what? If you attempt to teach these "modern Hams" knowledge and abilities, they suck it up like a solder sponge absorbs water after a week unused. Your inferior modern Ham is 90 percent in your head.

The hobby/avocation is what you make of it. If you want to sit in a corner bitching about modern Hams, and bemoaning the golden age of Amateur radio, that is yourhobby. Just keep away from the people I am teachnig to have an active part of the new and better Amateur Radio. I don't want them thinking that other Hams are like you.

Re:Again?

[Guy From V]

Anyone who is into PCs and amateur radio (or interesting tech in general) that doesn't own at least one RTLSDR dongle should dig the 10-15 dollars to get one out of their couches and start fiddling around with it and the open source software for them. The coolness factor aside, the future uses for them...and the possibility that what they can do now may be restricted in design later because of their flexibility...make these little things a must-have, and soon.

Re:Again?

[TrentTheThief]

You're way more eloquent than I. Thank you.

Re:Again?

[Anonymous Coward]

On the flip side, the more components, the more opportunities for intermodulation. The cleaner you get it to digital, the less chance of intermodulation and distortion. A well built AFE connected to an 8-bit ADC, will outperform most 16-bit ADCs, but a 24-bit 1GS/s ADC* with performance to match, and a simple low-pass filter on the input would outperform anything you could do in an AFE. While that's an absurd proposition, some of the high end integrated tuner+ADC ICs I have seen outperform most discrete component receivers, short of the cryogenic receivers used in SIGINT and radio astronomy.

*I'm well aware such a beast doesn't and likely could not exist (at room temperature, anyway).

Re:Again?

[Shirley Marquez]

The one on the belt of the police officer also has a few other things that make it much more expensive. First, it's more rugged than the $60 ham version; it has to be, because it is carried many hours a day and because people don't handle their working tools as carefully as they handle their personally owned equipment. Second, it has features for secure communication that aren't in the ham radio - they CAN'T be, ham radio has to be open to all listeners by law. Third, many commercial radio systems have a feature called trunking that allows many users to share a small number of radio channels while keeping the transmissions of each secure from the others; hams don't do that. (See point #2 for the reason.) Finally, it has to receive a higher level of certification by the FCC, because it is being used for critical communications and because it is being operated by untrained people who cannot be held responsible for technical failures.

Yes, some hams are using digital voice modes now, which will foil a garden variety scanner. But ham transmissions must use open and published standards and be unencrypted. (And the digital ham radios don't cost $60. Yet.)

Re:Again?

[Shirley Marquez]

9/11 was especially bad because most of the telecommunications infrastructure for Lower Manhattan - landline, cellular, and internet - was in the World Trade Center. So were the primary broadcast sites of most of the TV and FM radio stations in New York City. (Some but not all of the broadcasters had backup sites in New Jersey.)

Putting so many of our communication eggs in one basket may be dangerous, but it is also appealing for economic reasons; building a separate tower for each broadcaster would be a lot more expensive, and data interchange between networks is easier if they all have communication nodes in one place. I know the broadcast situation here in Boston isn't much better; toppling a couple of towers in Needham would take out most of our stations.

Re:Again?

[Shirley Marquez]

The non technically minded hams can also be valuable in emergency communications. Sure, you need somebody to keep the ham repeater, internet link, or whatever going. But you also need people out in the field with radios, talking to people, taking their stories, and passing information along to friends, loved ones, and authorities. Those people don't need to know how their radio works to do their service. They need to know how to USE their radio, even in times of stress and heavy demands. They have an important skill and mission: taking messages and passing them along accurately under challenging conditions.

I was a ham radio operator at the 2013 Boston Marathon. I was well away from ground zero (my station was in Newton, about 10 miles from the finish line) but we also had hams who were in the thick of the disaster. I had a long day because we held runners at our stations and later moved them to temporary shelters; we had to coordinate the plans for getting people on the buses and moving them to the shelters. I think my single most important job that day was to help keep the runners calm, assure them that things were being handled, and help them contact their friends and family so they could get home. The last was done with my cell phone because that was the appropriate tool for the job, and fortunately I had a Sprint phone which was working at my location - Verizon and AT&T towers were mostly overloaded and useless. But even when I wasn't using my ham equipment, the interpersonal and communication skills that I developed in ham radio were key.

Oh... why do hams do communications at public service events like the Marathon? In part because they are excellent training exercises for what to do when disaster strikes. In a normal year we coordinate medical supplies, ambulance pickups, and transport buses for runners who can't complete the course; we could do all of those things with cell phones. (Trained COMMUNICATORS would still be valuable; the medical and logistics people are busy doing their jobs and don't have time to spend on communications.) In 2013 the training suddenly turned into the real thing and we were ready - we wouldn't have been able to use cell phones, because the infrastructure was hopelessly overloaded and it was difficult or impossible to make a call. (Mine worked 10 miles from the finish, but things were far worse near ground zero.)

Re:Again?

[cbhacking]

A small monohull is also a lot cheaper than a house, at least in most of the developed world. Even a fairly nice "yacht" (which just means "private non-business vessel") is probably affordable if you can sell your house. My parents have lived aboard for 13 years now, and their 48' (14.5m) catamaran cost significantly less than their house near Seattle.

It's actually really annoying when people assume that yachties must be rolling in dough. Most have very little income, so even though the lifestyle is cheaper than living ashore there's not a lot of disposable income.

Once again

[Anonymous Coward]

HF proves itself to be indispensable, while regulators refuse to do anything about consumer powerline networking kit that fart out broadband noise shitting on any attempt at reception.

Re:Once again

[Captain Hook]

Do you think there is much powerline networking going on in Nepal right now?

Re:Once again

[BradleyUffner]

While you do have a good point, I think that any disaster that requires ham radio for communication would also likely have taken out the local power grid leaving consumer power line networking inoperable.

Re:Once again

[ColdWetDog]

No, but if you're trying to work on a relay in the US and there is broadband interference it is still an issue. That said, I don't thing consumer powerline networking is going to be very widespread, thanks in no small part to the ARRL's effort.

Further, this is why you do need to 'advertise' when amateur radio is used for public safety purposes. We are still fighting a rear guard battle and anytime the public (and our wonderful legislators) see the service as beneficial it slows down the attempts to limit amateur radio's spectrum and rights.

Re:Once again

[Urban Nightmare]

It's not the powerline networking in Napal that is a problem. It's the powerline networking here that is. It's over loads the receivers front end and makes it near impossible to receive the signal from Napal. That is why powerline networking is bad. The typical transmitter in an HF rig is 100 watts. Put that 100 watts in to a good yagi antenna and you can send a signal any where in the world. Even with powerline networking your signal will get out. By the time that signal gets to it's destination it is only a few micro volts in strength. So if the powerline is putting out a few more micro volts then the signal your trying to receive your receiver will never here the weaker signal.

While I am a ham radio operator, it's been a while so what I'm remembering might be a bit off.

Re:Once again

[tlhIngan]

While you do have a good point, I think that any disaster that requires ham radio for communication would also likely have taken out the local power grid leaving consumer power line networking inoperable.

There are in general two kinds of operation of ham radio. First is local communications - local rescue groups using hams to help communicate and coordinate between groups on the ground and HQ.

There's also the longer distance communications - these guys get the signal out so someone in an area not affected by the disaster can pass on messages and whatnot. Think more along the lines of "I'm safe and sound" type messages being passed on to family.

The problem is power line broadband basically makes the long-distance communications less reliable. I mean, given Nepal's economic conditions, sending out "I'm safe" messages usually mean transmitting to India, where the infrastructure works fine. Powerline broadband would be working as well, which means your message will not be received because the receiver can't hear your message over the noise.

Power line networking or broadband generally affects long-distance HF communications more so than short-range VHF/UHF comms. And that's bad because short range would mean the power and infrastructure is down so it's not a problem. But you want to pass your message to places unaffected by the disaster where there IS working infrastructure, and then you have interference.

And that's the beauty of ham radio that blows people's minds away - it's not just about people talking to people in a city, but around the world - it spans the ability to talk to people from your neighbourhood or city to around the globe. Most people are fascinated because most of them only see extreme short range communications - a few miles at most for a cellphone to the tower, to a few tens of feet for wifi and Bluetooth. Telling them that it's possible to actually go around the world on wireless...

Re:Once again

[morgauxo]

It's still important to protect the bands in-between disasters.

You want hams to have working equipment ready to go when the disaster strikes. Very few are going to go through the work and expense of obtaining and maintaining equipment that they don't even get to use. Just keeping the bands interference free enough that hams get to talk to one another means that they will be turning their radios on regularly and know when something needs fixing.

You also want the hams themselves to be ready for the disaster. Well practiced people with a procedure can communicate much more efficiently than panicky people first picking up the mike in an emergency. Hams have events for practicing this sort of thing which turns it into sort of a game. There has to be open bands available during non-disaster times to do this.

Re:Once again

[Lumpy]

I send signals around the globe with 5 watts. 100 watts is for the guys that have crap antennas.

Re:Once again

[ezdiy]

A good amp is the best antenna.
A good hill is the best amp.

Re:Once again

[Dr. Zim]

Actually, the FCC is now proposing that amateurs share those LF spectrums that BPL uses as experiments BY HAMS have determined they can co-exist just fine. In fact, Hams are getting more frequencies now than they have ever lost. http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-seeks-to-assign-entire-amateur-portion-of-160-meter-band-to-primary-status-to-amateur-radio-serv is just one of several similar articles the ARRL has reported on recently. Please don't keep up the BS argument that we're losing our bands and privileges when the opposite is true. Aside from a portion of the 220MHz band that we might actually be getting back, where else have we lost spectrum and rights? There are more licensed hams than ever now and the reduced license restrictions offer more privileges for less work.

W1BMW

Re:Once again

[Em Adespoton]

What gets me is that ham AR callsigns in general are significantly size constrained -- we're talking a standard of 5 letters and a digit, with some of those having reserved meanings, limiting the namespace. Sure, you have up to three letters appended as a location code as well, but this is still a restricted namespace.

But then, the airspace is also limited, so I guess we're lucky that there are enough dedicated hams around, while not so many that we run into significant issues that increased population density brings in any venue.

Re:Once again

[TWX]

On a day with freak weather conditions a buddy of mine in Las Vegas managed to talk on 2m to someone in Hawaii on an HT. He had a hell of a time getting people in California to quiet down and let him have airtime.

I've only managed to go about 50 miles at 5 Watts on 2m, but I haven't really made a point of trying for range either.

Re:Once again

[Lumpy]

Not freak weather, that is tropospheric ducting. It actually happens a lot more often than you think.

Re:Once again

[Ol Olsoc]

Do you think there is much powerline networking going on in Nepal right now?

We get that a lot. When they were trying to ram Broadband over Powerline ( BPL ) down AMerica's throats a few years ago, we heard a lot of "Well when you are needed, the power will be down, and you'll have clear conditions then. Running digital signals over an exposed line makes for an antenna, and it generates a lot of interference.

Problem is communications takes practice, and is a learned skill. Propagation is different on different frequencies and at different times of day and year. If you never get to learn this stuff, you are of no use as a communicator. It's like decideing to save fuel, no one gets trained in aircraft, they just get on the plane, and are expected to fly it immediately.

Re:Once again

[Ol Olsoc]

Actually, the FCC is now proposing that amateurs share those LF spectrums that BPL uses as experiments BY HAMS have determined they can co-exist just fine.

Citations? At one point, even with notching, it was ridiculously easy to kill a BPL signal with just a few watts. So I'd love to see the data.

Re:Once again

[Ol Olsoc]

A good amp is the best antenna. A good hill is the best amp.

Until everyone does it.

We used to hear about how spread spectrum was the cure for interference. Seems they forgote what happened to the noise floor whne a lot of people were using SS.

So when everyone is running a California Kilowatt, all things will be reset.

Re:Once again

[Ol Olsoc]

Not freak weather, that is tropospheric ducting. It actually happens a lot more often than you think.

Just not when you need it. Kinda fun though.

Re:Once again

[Anonymous Coward]

But then, the airspace is also limited, so I guess we're lucky that there are enough dedicated hams around, while not so many that we run into significant issues that increased population density brings in any venue.

Given that it is the FCC and their parent, the ITU, whose job it is to manage radio spectrum usage for the public good, it would be clear that if there were more HAMs such that spectrum crowding became an issue, that they would be obligated to allocate more spectrum to it's use.

Re:Once again

[Anonymous Coward]

a few tens of feet for wifi and Bluetooth.

I'm sitting in an isolated bach near the beach, by the fireplace, connecting to the internet from my notebook to a wifi AP to an 80km wifi link. For this I have a 2.4m (originally) Ku band satellite dish with a 15dBi antenna at the prime focus. On days with good weather, this link runs around 2.5mW TX power, with an EIRP of ~80W and a total link gain of over 90dB. Lawfully I'm allowed to operate up to 200W EIRP on this 5.8GH PtP link. In reality my routers will boost the link power to up to 250mW to cope with rainfade which is 7.9kW EIRP, but who's going to complain, there's nothing but farmland and forest between my bach and the farmhouse which I peer with.

The only thing keeping wifi from running round the world links is timing margins (workaroundable) and a lack of line of sight. people do reflected line of sight with VHF and UHF off the moon, but I don't think that could work with wifi due to the large phase shift induced by the multipath. If the moon was very smooth and metallic, wifi could be established over an EME link with good enough pointing and transmit side amplification.

Re:Once again

[Shirley Marquez]

Power line networking is the least of our problems on HF. A more serious problem is the huge number of broadband noise generators in every modern home. Computing devices like computers, phones, and tablets are the starting point but far from the entire story. Microcontrollers are being put into EVERYTHING these days - if it has a digital display, control buttons, and/or a remote control, it probably has one or more microcontrollers in it. Most modern electronic gadgets have switching power supplies. We are installing CFL and LED light bulbs, so even our LIGHTS have switching power supplies.

The amount of noise that any one device can create is regulated but the cumulative effect of all of them in a dense urban neighborhood is devastating; the noise floor in my house has been raised at least 20dB by all of it. In other words, you have to send 100 times as loud a signal for me to hear you, and that puts a serious crimp in ham radio HF reception. If there were ever a major emergency where I needed to help out on HF, I would probably trip the main circuit breakers in my house and run the radio on batteries. (And I'd still have to deal with the noise from the neighbors.)

Re:Once again

[Shirley Marquez]

The LF spectrum in question (135-137 and 472-479 KHz) is not used for BPL (broadband over power lines). The power line communication (PLC) on those frequencies is lower bandwidth data that is used by the utility itself, to control the grid and for the remotely readable power meters that many utilities have installed. Citation for the proposed band sharing: http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-p...

Re:Once again

[Urban Nightmare]

Very true. I do some PSK31 usually between 5 and 15 watts. Should get on the air more often but like you said, I have a crap antenna. No seriously. Since I moved I haven't been been able to get a decent antenna in the air. Stuck with a crappy OCF dipole at 20 feet. I think the spaghetti I had last night would work better.

what happend to packet radio?

[Anonymous Coward]

no HF radio doing packets??

Re:what happend to packet radio?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are digital data modes for HF like RTTY, PSK-31, and many others...

See Windows apps like Ham Radio Deluxe, Fldigi, Digipan, and others...
And I am sure Mac and Linux have lots of apps too for doing digital modes for HF ham bands.

Re:what happend to packet radio?

[rfengr]

Yes, Fldigi

Re:what happend to packet radio?

[Dr. Zim]

Packet is still alive and well, but everyone I know has switched to APRS (a protocol that sits on top of AX.25). HF packet is slow, but it's there. 300 Baud doesn't pass a lot of data. I'd rather rely on packet via satellite than packet over HF. The successful HF modes (AMTOR, SITOR, etc) have forward error correction to cut down on bad data... the packet network just has to repeat everything until it's understood.

W1BMW

Re:what happend to packet radio?

[cmh31909]

There is also Pactor which is used extensively by the WinLink 2000 system. It is a fairly fast protocol (relative to what you get with other HF data protocols).
The only downside is it requires a proprietary TNC (ie, modem) which is not cheap.

Re:what happend to packet radio?

[Ol Olsoc]

There is also Pactor which is used extensively by the WinLink 2000 system. It is a fairly fast protocol (relative to what you get with other HF data protocols). The only downside is it requires a proprietary TNC (ie, modem) which is not cheap.

The Winlink users have poisoned the wells though. It's not as bad as it used to be, but many of them would just open on a frequency, and kill everything else. Thhis was especially problematic with the low bandwidth low power modes like PSK31.

And there were several cases where an unattented station kust locked up and transmitted garbage for weeks. They need to prove tehy can get along with the neighbors now, and there's that little matter of proprietary software. A lot of Hams use Linux or OS X. And being volunteers, its kind of hard to dictate to them what OS they have to use.

Mesh networking

[havana9]

When a disaster happen, that disrupts communications, the amatueur radio operators give help even in 2015 when cellphones are ubiquitous. This runs down on some peculiar aspect of the hobby:

• amateur radio operators are traind and know how they gear works so they can repairo or adapt the system to work, for instance a spool of wire, a fishrod and and some coax cable could be use to make a temporary antenna
• old, proven, patent free analogue and digital transmission modes: old tube radios could interoperate with new and shiny software defined radios
• reliability: some ham radios are built like a tank, because were designed to be used in a tank
• almost standardized power suppy permits to power the radio with flexibility even with a bunch of D cells or a lead-acid battery
• mesh networking: no central control system: all communications are set up freely an could reconfigure on the fly

Re: Mesh networking

[Anonymous Coward]

even in 2015 when cellphones are ubiquitous.

Because the cellphones don't last long without the grid to charge them.

Re:Mesh networking

[ColdWetDog]

No, the real benefit from amateur radio operations is that they are trained to work as a team. The reality is that the vast majority of the gear used in emergency communications are modern, reliable, commercial rigs that the operators could no more fix internally than you can fix your computer. They don't train to McGuyver the radios, they train to set up command and control links and practice working with interfaces with the Internet and government systems.

That way, when the shit hits the fan they can plop down in their chair and do something useful. Yes, you can get a field station running with a length of wire and a car battery and there are lots of ham radio operators who delight in that sort of thing. But organization and teamwork is the real key to effectiveness and that is why amateur radio has been embraced by governments world wide.

Re:Mesh networking

[Anonymous Coward]

In the event of a disaster, like an earth quake, or a tornado, hurricane, tsunami, etc.... odds are your antenna tower won't be standing, and/or power won't be running to your shack.

The ability to get an antenna up quickly, and use an alternative power source (I believe I read they are using solar in Nepal) is the largest technical challenge, and that needs to be over come before you can begin working as a team wireless.

These technical challenges are why cell phones stop working in a disaster situation.

Being able to get on the air comes before being able to do anything with that ability, but in order to actually do something useful then you need to tie into emergency service, connect with other people who can make reports out via existing intact infrastructure (internet/phones/etc), get information to local government, etc.

Perhaps if AT&T devoted 1 person to each radio tower they had, and built their kit to be re-deploy-able after a complete break down in infrastructure, then they could... but that isn't cost effective for them, so they don't. The hams that are on the air now in Nepal built with a disaster in mind, they probably did it largely out of their own pocket, but they have physics on their side with higher power radios, and access to frequencies with better propagation than cell towers...

It takes both the ability to get on the air in less than ideal situations, and the ability to do something useful with the other people on the air once you are there.

Re:Mesh networking

[Lumpy]

RaDAR - Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio.

we make a game out of it by having impromptu events where a large group goes out and tries to get to a hard to reach location without power or anything else, erects antennas and then tries to contact as many other members on that event. It's great fun.

That game Saves peoples arses during emergencies.

Re:Mesh networking

[Anonymous Coward]

Forgive me, but i can not tell which side you are landing on.

Most Hams (at least in the US) build their shack so in the event of a large scale disaster, they can still get on the air. They often have backups of everything, so if their tower does go down, they pull out their backup, and erect a vertical dipole, or run a dipole wire antenna between trees. As for power... well the hobby made a point from the beginning of building the all the equipment so it uses 12 volt power systems which can be found in any car. As a result, Power is very rarely an issue in the event of a big disaster.

And all of this is done with their own money.

Why do they do this? because they know that the large telecom companies are too damn cheap to set up their networks in a way for them to be bullet proof. And out fearless government leaders are to damn chicken to force them to.

Re:Mesh networking

[Obfuscant]

The reality is that the vast majority of the gear used in emergency communications are modern, reliable, commercial rigs that the operators could no more fix internally than you can fix your computer.

It is questionable if the "vast majority" of the gear in use is commercial gear. I'd bet that the majority is amateur gear, just because it is so much easier to deal with than the commercial gear. For example, most commercial gear requires programming software just to change the frequencies in the radio, while ham gear allows user selection much more easily. Yes, many hams, especially in the US, buy used (or new) commercial gear if they are involved with public safety groups, just because it is easier to carry one radio than two and the existing ham gear is not legal for use on the public safety frequencies. (The 2013 narrowbanding mandate brought us that.)

That being said, the main advantage to ham technological input is not in fixing the radio itself, but the radio systems. I.e., radio, feedlines, antennas, power. There are three main commercial radio dealers in this area. If we have a major disaster and the existing public safety radio systems die, they will be very busy and probably unable to get into the county. Local hams, however, have equipment and knowledge that can be used to fix the systems (put up an antenna that's fallen down, new feedline, etc.), while other hams use ham frequencies to provide backup.

Re:Mesh networking

[jerel]

I think his point was that the majority of new hams no longer construct their own radios from scratch. They buy them commercially made, and the new radios are no more serviceable than your cellphone or any other modern surface-mounted-components electronic device. I don't think he meant commercial as in, commercial band radios. But I could be wrong.

Re:Mesh networking

[Obfuscant]

Why do they do this? because they know that the large telecom companies are too damn cheap to set up their networks in a way for them to be bullet proof.

Because the public is too damn cheap to pay for 100% availability of telecom systems. You wouldn't pay what it would cost to have 100% available cell service during disasters, or any other public infrastructure for that matter. And governments don't pay for 100% capacity for their public safety communication systems, either, for the same reason. The public wouldn't put up with the taxes they'd have to pay to get there.

A five channel trunked radio system can handle five simultaneous users (ten when Phase II P25 with TDMA is available). What happens in a disaster when six people want to talk at the same time? You got it -- one doesn't get to.

We'll pay for service during normal times and complain about the prices, and then complain when the service dies during a disaster when it is overloaded.

Re:Mesh networking

[Obfuscant]

I think my point was that it is pretty much irrelevant if the ham can make complicated internal repairs to his radio, it is the fact that the ham can make repairs to large scale infrastructure. When the ground shakes really hard, it won't shake the itty bitty surface mount resistors off the circuit board in any of my radios, but it may knock the tower over and break the antenna and cut a feedline. I have spares for both, and if it does shake the resistors off the radio in any of the repeaters I run, I have spare radios I can put into service quickly.

Public safety users cannot do that. Commercial radio repair will be a scarce resource.

Re:Mesh networking

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps if AT&T devoted 1 person to each radio tower they had, and built their kit to be re-deploy-able after a complete break down in infrastructure, then they could... but that isn't cost effective for them, so they don't.

Building a cell tower is within the capabilities of most radio hams and a great many radio professionals, and teenage wifi enthusiasts. It's basically a matter of downloading the right software from the net and connecting it to the right SDR. My wifi radio, antenna, and router is all contained in a single module on the end of a piece of Cat6 that supplies both power and data to the radio module atop my TV mast, there's no technical reason GSM or UMTS cells couldn't be fashioned in the same style. There's no technical reason that communities couldn't be responsible for maintaining their own cellular networks given radio modules with integrated wifi and UMTS BTSs. There's not even much technical reason why wifi can't operate in a cellular fashion, though it is undoubtedly an inferior radio protocol to UMTS or LTE with regards to handover.

In a lot of these remote places, it would actually be beneficial if someone in the community were responsible for maintaining their own cell sites, rather than having to fly someone from the telco in a helicopter to do the repairs. Alas, cellular companies, telcos and the governments that regulate them have an explicitly authoritarian approach to network design, and ridicule the idea that un-professionals could build out networks as or more effectively than centrally managed bureaucracies, all in spite of the overwhelming evidence of wifi deployment proving that it can be done. A related problem is that cellular handsets typically have no ability to fall back on wifi networks for emergency or other calls, so unless a cellular network is deployed with 3GPP or LTE protocol, it is useless to the average person with a cellular phone, even when their phone is capable of connecting to a wifi network.

In my mind, what would be ideal, would be a convergence of wifi and LTE, such that un-professionals can operate NGLTE (whatever it's called) on ISM/unlicensed bands, while commercial operators operate NGLTE on licensed bands, but the handsets are smart enough to work uniformly on either network and calls, particularly emergency calls, can get through via any route they can find. There's no sense in continuing into the future with two disparate systems, when they serve the same purpose of generalised packet termination or forwarding.

Racist

[Anonymous Coward]

Once again you white privileged bastards are going on about how great your cracker white hobby is. Here is a news flash crackers. The Nepal Earth Qack was caused by white people. Whiteys on Everest upset the delicate plate tectonics causing the death of billions of poor impovished Nepalese shepards.

Yes we need to kill white people. If you really want to save the lives of Nepal, you need to bring the power of hip hop music to bear. Hippity hoppity music can bridge cultures, and ushure in a new era of peacefull harmonious existence. Earth quacks are impotent against the power of hip hop. Yes if you want to save Nepal, you need to have jay z fly (yes he can fly no airplane needed) into Katmandu and hold a concert. Also, I have noticed that Nepaleses are exceedingly racists. There are very few African amercians in Nepal. This needs to change. Lets flood the continent with niggers and hippity hoppity music. Then things will change.

Re:Racist

[Anonymous Coward]

God i hope you are just joking and being sarcastic. If you are, pretty damn funny. If you are not, then get a freakin life.

Re: Racist

[Anonymous Coward]

The earthquake was caused by Republicans. They hate us. They want to gouge our eyes out and rape our eyesockets. Such is the way of their kind.

Re:Racist

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy fucking shit Batman! I didn't know Kamau Kamon was spewing his racial hatred on Slashdot.

As a result of the efforts of hams

[Anonymous Coward]

A hundred elderly Indian hams received emergency relief shipments of Geritol. A hundred more Indian hams were complaining about the sense of entitlement the lower castes had for expecting any emergency relief at all, while another few hundred Indian hams jammed the nets because it happened to be a day of the a contest and they were yelling at the emergency nets for operating on "their" frequency.

Re:As a result of the efforts of hams

[Schaffner]

All of which had nothing to do with an earthquake in the country of Nepal. Nepal is not India. Go look at a map!

Side Note

[koan]

Be careful if you're a HAM, locally I was able to find the name, address, and other information of callsigns with a simple look up.
In this case not a big deal but be aware that anyone can look you up via your callsign.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Interesting, see which country has the most.

Other than that kudos to these people as they are often the last working line of communication.

Re:Side Note

[Anonymous Coward]

This is one aspect of the hobby that i hate in the United States. While for the most part i dont care if other hams have access to my info, there are enough crazy haters out there (even a few hams sad to say) that having such easy access to my location can be unsettling.

But that is the risk we take by picking a hobby that can be used to help the public at large.

Re:Side Note

[Anonymous Coward]

The Friendly Candy Company allows you to use a PO Box as your station location.

Re:Side Note

[Bruce Perens]

I really have noticed people who were looking for me, standing outside of the mailbox store looking confused.

Re:Side Note

[Dr. Zim]

http://www.qrz.com - Show up at the address listed for me... they might tell you where I've deployed to if they say anything at all.

W1BMW

Re:Side Note

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what PO boxes are for.

Re:Side Note

[koan]

zimmerman, mark d
716 druid hills rd
temple terrace, fl 33527

Re:Side Note

[Dr. Zim]

When should I tell the people that live there now when to expect you?

Re:Side Note

[koan]

Still missing the point...

Re:Side Note

[Anonymous Coward]

When should I tell the people that live there now when to expect you?

So, does Title 47 part 97 ring any bells?

Re:Side Note

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the first things you're told after passing your first license exam is to check the FCC database to see whether your license has been added (because that's when you'll be allowed to transmit). So this name/address lookup stuff isn't news to any of us.

Re:Side Note

[Anonymous Coward]

What point? That there's a public directory? I've been listed in it since 1976 and it's never been a problem. You're missing the point that the information stored there isn't necessarily correct.

(AC because I didn't feel like logging in)

What was that? You're breaking up

[wonkey_monkey]

Ham [static] Fills [static] Gaps

It sure does.

YES Stories about Radio Operators in a crisis

[Anonymous Coward]

Why??

Because we need to surface the relevance of that tech. even in this day and age.. Thats something that the WWW cannot reproduce, as such those whom speak out against the reporting of such events only surfaces the the fact that there are stil gaps in communication with many situaitons that most if not all complex www infrastructures cannot cope/deal with.. It also surfaces the money wasted on the construction of these complex and far reaching infrastructures which in the end are really not resilient, to complex, and too prone to failure.. Why dont we focus on developing an allready proven tech?
If radio is so Passe, why is it still being used today? Why does it seem that RADIO is always picking up the communications mess left behind from the internet?? Why does it seem that when a critical situation is encountered, we allways fall back on the lesser developed tech because of its reliability.
So whats the deal? Is the www just there for people to say I made it, its here, pay me. If you want any realistic realibility you have to fall back to a more resilient less developed infrastructure (radio).

its confusing sometimes how we as a society think

Ham Radios need more loving.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ham radio needs more loving from the wider population of hobbyists.

Mesh networking over Ham especially needs more loving. These things can create a very simple low power network that can be used in emergencies.
Dotted around at random places with battery backup, they could serve to help lots of people if shit hits the fan.

The day we ever figure out how to stop neutrinos in their tracks will change everything though.
No more distance issues, no more interference issues, you could literally transmit through the planet, none of that line of sight nonsense to deal with.
Whether or not that day comes is another question.
Watch this, it will end up being possible one day, but require tremendous power to do so, so making it useless for small devices.
DAMN IT BATTERY TECH, HURRY UP, YOU ARE HOLDING BACK EVERYTHING.

Good troll by Stikypad

[bev_tech_rob]

Folks, someone mod the OP as troll and lets move on....

This is normal.

[Lumpy]

Ham radio fills in the gaps for ALL natural disasters. Katrina it was a huge aspect of communications.

This is not new, this is what ham radio does.

communications

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not trying to downplay the role of amateur radio communications - I am a shortwave radio buff. But I've heard people on the news talk to survivors in Nepal using telephones. Apparently, there is some landline or satellite communications to Nepal available. Just saying.

Re:communications

[hawguy]

I'm not trying to downplay the role of amateur radio communications - I am a shortwave radio buff. But I've heard people on the news talk to survivors in Nepal using telephones. Apparently, there is some landline or satellite communications to Nepal available. Just saying.

That's the case in any disaster - some traditional communications are working, but not in all areas. Even Satellite has limited capacity, it works when a few hundred, maybe even a few thousand disaster workers are using it, but if a significant fraction of the population start using their satellite phone, the system is going to be overwhelmed. Ham Radio is also capacity constrained, but with many ham radio users being trained in disaster communications, organized health and welfare messages can still be sent out of the disaster area through the limited communication channels.

I was in Hawaii for the 2006 quake that knocked out power on Oahu. The landline system was nearly useless -- took 45 minutes to get a dialtone and even then, it was impossible to make a call (both locally and out of the area). I had DSL for about 45 minutes until my UPS battery ran out, but it was super slow. No voice cellular calls, but could send SMS within the same network (i.e. I could send to other AT&T customers, but not to Sprint and Verizon, and vice versa).

My landlord was worried about his elderly mother 15 miles away and a car accident plus a downed tree had blocked the only entrance/exit from our neighborhood so I ended up riding my bike to his Mom's house to check on her since he couldn't use the phone system to reach her. (turns out she was at her neighbor's house who was having a big BBQ to use up the meat from his fridge before it went bad)

And this was a relatively minor 6.7 earthquake 200 miles away that caused no real physical damage on Oahu, just knocked out the power on the Island. If it were a 7.0+ quake on Oahu, the situation would have been much worse.

Re:communications

[Dr. Zim]

There are indeed satellite phones in Nepal, but they are extremely rare given the number of people that have them vs. the number that don't.

Also, if you think the cell network can get overloaded in a hurry, you should look at the bandwidth budgets for those type of satellites. In disaster areas, sat phones have the same issue of 'network unavailable' when the birds are trying to pass more calls when they have bandwidth for. All commercial systems are allotted frequencies in one particular band or another and when they're full, they're full. Amateurs have at least a dozen bands, all with different propagation profiles. Not to mention, we have our own both voice and digital satellites that are exclusively for amateur communications.

Finally, in a supplement from Inmarsat's own 2013 shareholder report... 'The capacity of our satellites is limited and our network can be subject to congestion due to concentrated usage in a specific geography. Continuing congestion could damage our reputation for service availability and harm our results of operations.'

[1] http://www.inmarsat.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/IGL-2013-Supplemental-Disclosure-20-May-2014.pdf

Only 8% HF Ops?

[jdigriz]

Surprising that so few hams in Nepal are setup for HF operations. I wonder how many HF ham stations there are in the U.S. One can't tell by license class. I know that in a real emergency my QRP FT-817 is not going to be the most reliable but until I can fork out for some bigger solar panels and batteries to run an amp, 5 Watts is going to be what I've got. With morse code that's enough to work the world, sometimes. Beats the hell out a walkie talkie.

Re:Only 8% HF Ops?

[CQDX]

According to a US ham who was operating in Nepal a few years ago, the government wasn't issuing ham licenses for at least 10 years and ham equipment is very difficult for the locals to get. It's not like here where there is a local VE exam almost every week and a basic HF rig can be bought for $600 and delivered in a week.

Re:Only 8% HF Ops?

[hawguy]

Surprising that so few hams in Nepal are setup for HF operations. I wonder how many HF ham stations there are in the U.S. One can't tell by license class. I know that in a real emergency my QRP FT-817 is not going to be the most reliable but until I can fork out for some bigger solar panels and batteries to run an amp, 5 Watts is going to be what I've got. With morse code that's enough to work the world, sometimes. Beats the hell out a walkie talkie.

I've been a licensed ham for almost 20 years and don't do HF because I don't find it to be very fun or interesting - making a contact 1000 miles away has lost its allure (to me) in the internet age. I do participate in local disaster drills using VHF/UHF, but am not really interested in HF to get out of the area. Though my club dues do help pay for their HF equipment, and I'm glad that we do have members interested in HF. I can run a VHF/UHF crossband repeater from my car for an unlimited time thanks to solar, but I can't reach much farther than I can see since I don't do HF.

Re:Only 8% HF Ops?

[jdigriz]

Hey VHF and UHF are cool. Not saying anything bad, about them, just a matter of range. In fact, you could make long-distance contacts with the right antennas by using amateur satellites, or with a lot of power, the Moon. And then there's these crazy guys. http://www.df5ai.net/Material/... I'd hate to have to rely on that for comms, but it's remotely possible. My first cross-pond QSO was via Packet on 2M connecting up to an HF gateway to London in '92. Back then it was pretty impressive, I didn't get my first real email address til 1994. The great thing about our hobby is that there are so many different ways to be a ham, there's something for everybody!

Re:Only 8% HF Ops?

[Anonymous Coward]

According to a US ham who was operating in Nepal a few years ago, the government wasn't issuing ham licenses for at least 10 years and ham equipment is very difficult for the locals to get. It's not like here where there is a local VE exam almost every week and a basic HF rig can be bought for $600 and delivered in a week.

I'm assuming the Nepalese have better things to worry about than running a fleet of FCC style snooper vehicles, so, screw the licensing.

Now, apropos how difficult the equipment is to get your hands on and its cost, I'll mutter some dirty names like Baofeng and Puxing. (or, name your other poison of Chinese origin..do a search on alibaba).

Re:Only 8% HF Ops?

[Bruce Perens]

It's actually pretty easy to prompt a visit from the army if you pop up on frequencies where you are not expected, in some countries. Never mind any nice citizen-consulting sunshine-respecting mostly-independent part of the Executive Branch like FCC. Guys with guns come.

Kind of close to home for me.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a good friend who was at Everest Base Camp just 5 days before the earthquake happened having climbed there for charity.

If he'd still have been there when this had happened I would sure of been glad for this work by Ham enthusiasts.

Hats off to them and don't let anyone else say otherwise.

Ham radio = SysVinit.

[Hognoxious]

Doesn't it make you even a little bit happy to hear that in a fucking shitty situation some good is happening?

It's also a warning - don't write off old tech prematurely.

We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Applehu Akbar]

Although everybody appreciates the amateur service's value in disasters, ham is slowly dying in the US because it is perceived by the public as falling behind compared to the more popular commercial communications technologies. What I would like to see is for ham to be assigned a legal commercial niche that it can occupy as an incentive to buy gear and revive the experimental edge that the service has long been renowned for.

How about Internet service in rural areas? Allow hams to offer commercial interconnect from fiber and other wired broadband to the scattered users who have difficulty getting ISP service any other way. HF radio would be a candidate technology. Let innovation romp and others may emerge and have unexpected applications.

The connectivity we would get from this type of commercialization is, furthermore, exactly what would help the most in time of disaster.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Anonymous Coward]

Neckbeads will save the day here, at least for 20 more years.

But I agree, few people are picking up the skill.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Bruce Perens]

There are more licensed hams today than ever before. Part of that is because we modernized the licensing rules and don't have a Morse code test any longer (for which I take partial credit). And they already have a commercial niche. Most of them have jobs. Many of us got those jobs because of the skill we developed through Amateur Radio. In general they pay as well or better than offering ISP service to the boonies.

We don't want to see commercial use of those frequencies, even if such use would help some folks get more equipment, because if that happened, there would not be room for Amateurs any longer.

You should consider that all of the ham HF frequencies together are smaller than one WiFi channel. And they have global range. So, if you offer a good bandwidth signal to some home in the boonies, you have potentially used up that freuquency for the whole world!

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Obfuscant]

What I would like to see is for ham to be assigned a legal commercial niche that it can occupy as an incentive to buy gear and revive the experimental edge that the service has long been renowned for.

What possible commercial activity using ham radio could trigger experimental activities? Given the ability to experiment now, how could allowing commercial ham usage improve that?

How about Internet service in rural areas? Allow hams to offer commercial interconnect from fiber and other wired broadband to the scattered users who have difficulty getting ISP service any other way.

Cool. Consume the available ham frequencies with people selling ISP services. What a great way to promote ham radio.

The connectivity we would get from this type of commercialization is, furthermore, exactly what would help the most in time of disaster.

I hate to tell you, but infrastructure in the ham radio world requires a great deal of dedication and commitment. You will find a few people who will do it for fun, but a lot more hams USE the infrastructure than provide any of it. In my county, for example, there are two VHF Winlink gateways. One is provided by a state grant of equipment and an associated requirement to keep it on air. The other is at my house.

No, a ham-operated public internet would not be what you want to rely on in a disaster, because 1) it would probably be down, too, and 2) were it operational, it would be clogged with users trying to use it and useless for disaster relief.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Deadstick]

Although everybody appreciates the amateur service's value in disasters, ham is slowly dying in the US because it is perceived by the public as falling behind compared to the more popular commercial communications technologies.

Homeowners' associations trying to eradicate it with antenna bans don't help either.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Anonymous Coward]

..You will find a few people who will do it for fun, but a lot more hams USE the infrastructure than provide any of it. In my county, for example, there are two VHF Winlink gateways. One is provided by a state grant of equipment and an associated requirement to keep it on air. The other is at my house.

a situation very familiar to anyone involved in the running of repeaters here in the UK..

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[swb]

With the rise in satellite television and the appearance of eight zillion satellite dishes, I thought that local regulation of them got slapped down because they fell under the FCC's domain and were exempt from local regulation.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Anonymous Coward]

Allow hams to offer commercial interconnect from fiber and other wired broadband to the scattered users who have difficulty getting ISP service any other way. HF radio would be a candidate technology.

HF frequencies would not only suck at this due to their wildly-varying (by time of day, solar activity, weather, etc.) propagation characteristics, but they wouldn't get you enough bandwidth to support anything recognizable as internet service. Seriously, the various HF bands are on the order of a couple hundred kilohertz each. A single Wi-Fi channel is 22 megahertz wide. Just how well would a single worldwide shared-media 128K wireless network work?

Besides, interested parties can already do this with Wi-Fi and without an amateur license so long as they use only height and directional antennas. (As opposed to higher power) You don't see a lot of movers on that, do you?

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[tweak13]

I believe the issue is the FCC regulations regarding antennas apply to governments, but not private agreements with HOAs. Basically, if you signed the contract saying you can't erect an antenna, that's your problem.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Deadstick]

What tweak13 said: gubmints can't shut down hams, but contracts can. And if you don't like the provisions of the contract, you have the option of building your house in a subdivision where they don't have an HOA. I believe there are some in Mississippi.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[sharkbiter]

http://www.arrl.org/hr-1301

I attempted to bring up this issue for discussion but it got turned down. The HR-1301 Bill addresses the rest of antennas that weren't covered by the prior bill which allows satellite dishes and OTA antennas to be erected in restrictive HOA lands.

Amateur Radio operators really need this bill in order to work with the HOA powers that be in order to work out a compromise concerning HF/VHF/UHF antenna restrictions.

Re:We need a way of keeping hams in practice

[Anonymous Coward]

No, a ham-operated public internet would not be what you want to rely on in a disaster, because 1) it would probably be down, too, and 2) were it operational, it would be clogged with users trying to use it and useless for disaster relief.

I agree with you.

On the other hand, a community wifi mesh, which supplies internet to users permanently, and has local community message boards, if colocated with the local ham HF stations, would prove invaluable to disaster operations, as the HF station operators could relay messages from the local message boards and telephone system to the HF net. And unlike a cellular network, or an HF network, the traffic on a wifi mesh will be lower during a disaster, as people are unlikely to be idly browsing the net or streaming video or whatever they normally use it for.

Luckily most of the world has plenty of spectrum allocated to wifi networks both home usage and fixed point to point service. Unfortunately, while the capacity is plentiful, the usage for fixed service is limited due to the plentiful availability of services like ADSL rendering it redundant until disaster strikes. Then those fixed line services become inoperable. Wireless meshes setup to operate off grid during normal operation, like the one I participate in, also tend to operate unphased during most disaster events.

The people saying HAM needs to be opened up to commercial exploitation are full of shit, and obviously have no experience working with wifi outside of enduser AP applications. In the wifi mesh I participate in (4 radios at my site), some of the links are in excess of 80km (the longest at my site is 13.6km), while operating within legal limits for my country (200W EIRP, 250mW PEP), it's all a matter of selecting appropriate antenna and careful link planning. If it was to get way more popular, there could be a case to be made for allocating more spectrum to wifi, but not at the expense of HAM, but rather the huge spectrum allocated but not used by commercial fixed service, and this would have to be carefully managed (ie. not free-for-all, like ISM) to provide interference protection in the rare areas where fixed service actually operates.

To clarify we are using the hf bands

[Anonymous Coward]

The hams involved with this are world wide and aren't using satellite. They are using the 20m 14.205 14.215 mhz frequency. This isn't as simple as just watching the stuff off the satellite and takes some effort of volunteers. If you would like to hear how they are doing this we are rebroadcasting this on a internet stream using http://amateurradioclub.net/stream.html today. 73 AF7LT.

Yes!

[Anonymous Coward]

And people wonder why ham radio, morse code are still RELEVANT in this "modern" age.

73's
KB0GNK

This is what hams do. Period.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, Amateur Radio may be a "hobby" but when the chips are down and other traditional forms of communication fail, it is us, the amateur radio operators, that make it possible for various agencies and organizations to effectively do their jobs. We set up emergency communications centers and pass traffic locally, nationally and even world wide. We have organizations such as R.A.C.E.S (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services) and A.R.E.S. (Amateur Radio Emergency Services) just for this reason.
If nobody ever talks about what it is we do, younger people would never hear of us and the hobby and therefore the services we provide would die out. We need this kind of publicity even if we are not doing it for the recognition.
I know I have gone to many disaster situations here in the US just for the purposes of providing communications and I am not alone in that.

73's de N9PKL

mmm

[Anonymous Coward]

ham

commercial channels aren't necessarily overwhelmed

[Anonymous Coward]

While there is some ham traffic, there's also a significant amount of internet and voice traffic being carried over conventional means. These days, sat phones and small aperture ground terminals provide convenient 24/7 communications not subject to the vagaries of ionospheric effects. Granted, you've got to pony up the cash to buy the service, but it's readily available.

How do you think all those high res news photos and videos are getting out of Nepal? Yak -express? Runners?

WIth *8* whole ham operators, I doubt they're carrying a significant fraction of the total traffic in and out of Nepal.
Ham radio has a place, but "backup emergency communications" isn't necessarily it.

Amateur radio provides a relatively liberal operations regime for experimentation: it's one of the only services that lets you do pretty much anything you want, rather than prescribing protocols and frequencies.
Amateur radio provides a (by law and international regulation) a "commerce free" zone to communicate with other like minded enthusiasts.
Amateur radio provides a way to get experience with the vagaries of propagation in a very visceral and immediate way that cannot be achieved by MOOCs, Sitting in lectures, doing modeling programs, etc.

I am an amateur radio licensee.. I believe in amateur radio.. But if I were equipping myself for a trip to the back of beyond, I'd carry a sat phone for emergency comms, not a ham rig. I'd carry the ham rig for amusement value: "Hey, guess where I'm calling from?"

As a ham myself

[Anonymous Coward]

There are many places in the US where there is no cell coverage. In many of these places, ham have set up vhf and uhf repeaters to use during disasters and searches.
    These is an Arizona highway patrolman who is assigned to the north east part of the state and he can only get back into headquarters to report emergencies via ham radio.
    As someone mentioned, during severe weather, it is mostly hams who are roving around in their cars watching for tornadoes and other bad weather events. They are the weather spotters who confirm that a tornado has touched down and which way it is moving.
    Hams in California volunteer to run circuits of public camp sites to see that every thing is ok. Hams also volunteer for fire watch duty in national forest and monuments.
    Almost all cross country races have ham in strategic places to report accidents and people locations.