IT TECH: "Why Ham Radio is Still Handy"

[N2NH]

Some may feel we are obsolete, but even techies agree Amateur Radio is viable...

In New York City, a loosely organized national group called "Amateur Radio Emergency Service" (ARES) was activated within five minutes of American Flight 11 crashing into the north tower, the first attack. Private, non-government radio operators, called "Hams" or "Amateur Radio Operators" worked in shifts for two weeks.
In 2005's Hurricane Katrina, radio operators were functioning three days before landfall. At the request of the American Red Cross, radio operators then supplemented communications at 200 shelters. Seven-hundred private radio operators were working by Sept. 6.
A perusal of modest collateral produced by another associated bunch, the National Association for Amateur Radio (ARRL) comes up with more:
Hurricane Hugo, 1989; All conventional communication was destroyed; amateur radio networks coordinated relief shipments and medical supplies; hot-shot teams called "jump-teams" visited affected areas.
It goes on.
"At some point, our standard means of communications -- cellphone, landline and Internet -- will likely fail. When events like this happen, volunteer Ham operators give of themselves to save lives and property," Bryce Anderson, a member of the Los Angeles-based Topanga Disaster Radio Team (DRT), told TechNewsWorld.

I know we've all heard it before and it might sound jingoistic, but:

"When all else fails," said LAFD's Zimmerman, "Amateur Radio works."

A very good and POSITIVE article on Amateur Radio in Tech News World.

[K7SGJ]

I wonder if those are the jump teams that Ren referred to when he got canned from another site?

[kds]

I'm not sure what the intent of bolding "LAFD's Zimmerman" is but he's not a chief or even LAFD staff, so it's not really like the LAFD itself is praising amateur radio.

Jonathan Zimmerman, who is a lead civilian volunteer with the Los Angeles Fire Department's (LAFD) Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS)

Regardless, it's a nice article.

[NQ6U]

The local fire departments think quite highly of hams. Here's an article from a local rag about my own ARC:

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/9327

With a little schmoozing, we managed to get a donation for the radio and a group of us (myself included) spent a few hours one Saturday installing antennas and running cable.

[N8YX]

I don't see it as a matter of whether or not we're "handy" so much as whether or not we're "wanted" when it comes to primary incident-scene commo duties.