NewsAdvance.com | Amateur radio operator helped with communications

NewsAdvance.com | Amateur radio operator helped with communications

"Amateur radio operator helped with communications

Matt Busse
mbusse@newsadvance.com
September 18, 2005

For Bob Weber, Hurricane Katrina meant a chance to use his hobby to help out.
Weber, a 57-year-old broker for Edward Jones, was one of several local amateur radio operators who offered to assist with communications in the wake of the hurricane.

With phone systems and other methods of communications knocked out by wind and water, emergency officials needed ham radio to send and receive messages.
Weber spent last week in Montgomery, Ala., assisting the American Red Cross with radio communications.
Before leaving, he received a Hepatitis A shot and met with clients who stopped by his office to wish him well.

Weber said that he wasnt sure what he would find when he arrived in Alabama or what exactly he would do.

The term amateur radio refers to the fact that operators arent paid for their work, not to any lack of experience.

For years, hams have helped out after disasters, natural or not. Weber went to New York after Sept. 11 to assist. Gerry Knowlton, of Bedford, and Henry Wyatt, of Forest, who also went to Alabama after Katrina hit.

A lot of people need a lot of help down there, said Knowlton, a 58-year-old program analyst for BWX Technologies.

Amateur radio operators were required to supply their own equipment, such as radios, cables, batteries and clothing. Though they would be with the Red Cross, they took responsibility for their own safety.
The News & Advance was unable to reach Weber on Friday, but Larry Stanecker, spokesman for the Lynchburg Amateur Radio "



73 fer nw,
Bob N5IET

(old calls KE5CTY - WB5ZQU - WY5L)
10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.qsl.net/ke5cty/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.