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