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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.

10 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 grumling · · Score: 5, Informative

      Yea, not really. 1200 baud packet is pretty bad for transmitting even basic information on a sustained basis. APRS use is sparse in most of the US, yet listening to 144.39 in any city shows that the channel is almost always saturated, even when there are a lot of high digipeaters and everyone is using the newer wideN-n path.

      In a traditional packet network where you connect to stations using 1 or more digis (connect N0XXX via K1YYY), the channel is quickly saturated with digipeating, which gets far worse when you have hidden node problems and other collisions.

      Mesh networks using modified 802.11x equipment will work better only because there's an automatic routing that takes place, but it will still suffer if there's a high node that becomes a bottleneck, and hidden nodes. At least it will be a little faster and have a decent T/R turn-around time though.

      The time to build these networks is before there's a disaster, then harden the nodes. Or at least identify locations and test ahead of time but keep the equipment out of harm's way until needed. And we hams who want high speed networks on VHF and UHF need to start using what we've got (56 Ksps with QAM and other modulation, OFDM carriers, etc) and then petition the FCC for more bandwidth after we've maxed out what we have.

      --
      "Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
    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.

    4. Re:Nobody believed me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not packet radio, they're asking for operators with experience using WinLink which is an HF (long range 100's and 1000's of miles) email system. Remote stations on PR will connect via HF to 'base stations' around the world (in this case mostly US based stations) and send emails which can include very small (25kB) attachments.

      The WinLink system is completely volunteer run, designed and maintained and uses the PACTOR family of protocols (today PACTOR 2, 3 &4, along with Winmor a soundcard based solution).

      I use to be a part of the WinLink development team, and currently an ASM/ASEC for ARRL/ARES.

    5. 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. Re: Trump says, "Wait, their all black & spani by chill · · Score: 4, Informative

    The summary is slightly inaccurate. It is the American Red Cross that is coordinating this effort.

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  3. Thanks for the info. I am volunteering. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi from Adam KB2JPD FDNY*EMS

    Contacted the ARRL right away. I am a first responder from 9/11, EMT for 25 years, 23 years with FDNY, am Spanish speaking, and am a General class amatuer radio operator.
    Please have us in your thoughts and prayers so we can make several miarcles there in Puerto Rico. Those wanting more video and info from the island can look for my friend Nomar Vizcarrondo works for Univision, is a ham, and is getting internet video and news out of Puerto Rico. Much of the audio is in Spanish but the video is self-explanatory.

    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.

  4. 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.