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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.

4 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Nobody believed me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I said ham radio was still important because cell phones don't work in disasters where infrastructure is no longer in place. Been a ham since college in 1999.

    1. Re: Nobody believed me by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or, perhaps, there is more to social support than the military. Like FEMA, like the Red Cross, like hundreds of other organizations. Like amateur radio.

      The US military is sending assistance and they can do things that nobody else can do (the Navy hospital ship, for instance). There is no earthly reason that the military HAS to be the only group working a disaster.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Hate the Red Cross by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I know this is second-hand and anecdotal, however, it's not the only time nor the last will I hear about the Red Cross behaving badly.

    In 1966, my dad was standing on a pier in San Francisco waiting, with thousands of other brave men, for the troop ships that would take them to fight in Vietnam. The ships were due to depart at about 0800. At about 0530, the Red Cross comes around selling coffee and donuts to the troops. My dad, an immigrant already, thought it weird and declined. Thirty minutes later, the Salvation Army comes around GIVING THEM AWAY FOR FREE to the troops. My dad never forgot that.

    I knew a lady personally who was sent a bill for blankets and bottled water after her area was flooded.

    Just recently in Houston, the Red Cross rejected pleas of help from people who really needed it.

    I will never help them for any reason. Were it the Salvation Army needing HAMs, I'd pay for my own ticket.

  3. CQ CQ QUA /.? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Today's Slashdot outage is an excellent example of why Commercial Communications, and especially the Internet, needs volunteer backups like Hams with their own Gear.
    BTW, will we ever get an explanation as to why Slashdot and Sourceforge were down all day?
    2 Meters and Repeaters aren't good enough. They won't reach the Mainland from Puerto Rico for one thing. It's fine for local stuff, as long as the Repeaters stay up, but how many of them are on Emergency Generators? And if so, for how long?
    A QRP Sideband Rig on the lower Bands will run off a decent Car Battery for a week.
    A few reminders:
    *Ham Gear is Cheap. My most recent Rig covers 160-6, including the Marine Bands, (Called "Opening It Up". Not legal; nobody cares.), and including _everything_ cost $175. Elmer was giving it up.
    *There is no Code Test. Hasn't been one for years.
    *The Tests are ridiculously easy, and are given by Volunteers, either singly or by Clubs.
    *In Emergencies, the FCC doesn't give a Flea Fart as to whether you are Licensed. Learn some manners and some rules, pass some Traffic, keep the Frequencies clear when needed. You really have to be an obnoxious Bucketmouth to attract FCC attention.

    So Slashdot is finally back up, and as Bruce noted elsewhere, he hopes this Article stays on the front page for days. Lessons Learned.