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Red Cross Asks For 50 Ham Radio Operators To Fly To Puerto Rico (arrl.org)

Posted by BeauHD on from the relief-efforts dept.

Bruce Perens writes: The red cross has asked for 50 ham radio operators to fly to Puerto Rico and be deployed there for up to three weeks. This is unprecedented in the 75-year cooperation between Red Cross and ARRL, the national organization of ham radio operators for the U.S. The operators will relay health-and-welfare messages and provide communications links where those are missing and are essential to rescue and recovery. With much infrastructure destroyed, short-wave radio is a critical means of communicating from Puerto Rico to the Mainland at this time.

3 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Thanks for the info. I am volunteering. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Best luck to you KB2JPD. Hope you can do some good while you're there!

    Don't forget to stand up and stretch one in a while if you're going to be sitting at the bit-flipper all day.

  2. Re:Nobody believed me by AsylumWraith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The morse requirement is long since gone. Testing costs something like $15, (sorry, I haven't gone to a testing session for a while.) A Chinese handheld capable of 2m and 70cm costs under $50 on eBay.

    That's not what I call exclusivity.

  3. Re:Nobody believed me by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not really

    Give up your cell phone for a week. See how insignificant it is for you to not have communications you've grown to rely on to organize your life and coordinate with your friends, family, and employer.

    Now multiply that impact by 3 million. In a disaster zone.