Daily Chronicle Online

Daily Chronicle Online

"After the Hurricanes
Local ham operators help out in Mississippi
By Renee Messacar - Staff Writer
Local residents have sent food, money, clothing and volunteer workers to areas ravaged by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Last week, they provided another service - communication.

Licensed ham radio operators Bob Yurs of Sycamore and Tom Lower of Rochelle spent eight days in Gulf Port, Miss., where they set up a radio station that linked Mississippi's American Red Cross distribution center with shelters and soup kitchens across the state.

As donated goods came into the center, it was Yurs and Lower's job to speak with shelters and soup kitchens to learn what they needed. More traditional means of communicating were impossible as the storm had knocked out cell phone towers and telephone lines.

Yurs said about 150 trucks went through the distribution center each day, taking food, clothes and other supplies to evacuees. The men also provided a link between the distribution center and the national Red Cross office.

Tom Lower of Rochelle talks over a ham radio in a truck that took him and Bob Yurs of Sycamore to Gulf Port, Miss., where they established a radio station for communication between American Red Cross centers and shelters. Provided photo

Yurs and Lower took with them everything they needed to be a self-sustaining radio station, including gasoline for the station's generators, food and water. They left Sept. 19 and returned home Wednesday after being replaced by other volunteers.

Lower said he started participating in ham radio because he wanted to be able to help locally if there was an emergency.

"But I never thought I'd travel 1,125 miles away to help out in a hurricane," he said.

Ham operators use two-way radios to communicate with people in other areas of the state, nation and world. They assist emergency personnel by providing a means of communication when electricity and telephone lines are out.

Yurs is the emergency coordinator and Lower the assistant emergency coordinator with the DeKalb County Amateur Radio Emergency Services, a part of the American Radio Relay League.



Through the league, ham operators practice what to do during disasters. Occasionally the organization asks them to help during real ones, such as the July 1996 floods when they provided a means for communication among emergency personnel throughout DeKalb County.

Both men also are members of the Kishwaukee Amateur Radio Club, which has agreed to help with some of the costs of their Mississippi trip.

"It was quite an experience to be a very small part of an organization that's helping so many people," Lower said. "It was very rewarding."

Yurs said it was a tiring but good experience.

ARRLWeb: ARRL COO Testifies on Capitol Hill to Amateur Radio's Value in Disasters

ARRLWeb: ARRL COO Testifies on Capitol Hill to Amateur Radio's Value in Disasters

"ARRL COO Testifies on Capitol Hill to Amateur Radio's Value in Disasters
ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B.
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 30, 2005--

ARRL Chief Operating Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1B, testified on behalf of the League September 29 before the US House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. Addressing the hearing topic, 'Public Safety Communications from 9/11 to Katrina: Critical Public Policy Lessons,' Kramer reiterated and amplified comments ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, delivered earlier this month to the House Government Reform Committee. As Haynie did on September 15, Kramer testified on the successful efforts of Amateur Radio operators who provided communications during the Hurricane Katrina response.

'Amateur Radio was uniquely suited to this task by virtue of the availability of HF communications covering long distances without fixed infrastructure,' Kramer pointed out in his testimony. In addition to those who responded to support relief agencies in hurricane-devastated areas, thousands more radio amateurs outside the affected area monitored radio traffic and relayed health-and-welfare messages, he said.

Kramer noted that there's been a lot of discussion in recent years about public safety interoperability. 'The Amateur Radio Service provides a good deal of interoperability communications for first responders in disaster relief incidents,' he told the subcommittee. He said ham radio is able to fill this crucial role because even the 'interoperability channels' that exist in most Public Safety allocations are useless when the Public Safety communication infrastructure goes down.

"Interoperability, in short, presumes operability of Public Safety facilities," Kramer said. "While some 'hardening' of Public Safety facilities is called for, there is in our view an increasing role for decentralized, portable Amateur Radio stations which are not infrastructure-dependent in providing interoperability communication on site."

Kramer told Subcommittee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and his House colleagues that Amateur Radio "is largely invisible to both the FCC and to Congress on a daily basis, because it is virtually self-regulating and self-administered," he said. "It is only during emergencies that the Amateur Radio Service is in the spotlight." Also testifying at the subcommittee session was FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin, and Kramer said he had the opportunity to introduce himself to the chairman before the subcommittee convened.

Martin also was on hand September 22 when Haynie's written comments were placed into the record of the US Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on "Communications in a Disaster." Alaska Republican Ted Stevens chairs that Senate panel.

Kramer noted that for the first time ever, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) has provided $170,000 in grant supplements to the ARRL to support the efforts of Hurricane Katrina emergency communicators in the Gulf Coast. The grants to the ARRL's "Ham Aid" fund enable the League to reimburse some volunteers' out-of-pocket expenses on a per diem basis.

Kramer said he was honored to be chosen to provide the testimony on behalf of the ARRL. "I am proud of Amateur Radio's and our role in the Katrina relief effort," he added.


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.

Nothing amateur about it

Nothing amateur about it

"Nothing amateur about it
Rob Newell photo
DIALLED IN - Logan Hart in the North Shore Emergency Management Office communications room.
By JENNIFER MALONEY

Staff Reporter
Sep 29 2005

Within five minutes of receiving a bed-waking page January 19 at 4:30 a.m., 10 North Shore Emergency Management workers were on their amateur radios receiving assignments to help with the devastating landslide in North Vancouver.

Simultaneously, two retired emergency communication volunteers abandoned their warm sheets for the Seymour Fire Hall where they retrieved the communication's command post van, which would allow the elderly men to transmit and receive messages from the disaster zone.

'We knew there were a couple of things that were going to happen pretty quickly,' remembers Logan Hart, a volunteer for the North Shore Management Office, and a member of the North Shore Amateur Radio Club. 'First of all that's a tough area to get radio signals into. So not everyone's radio signals are going to work very well.'

Police and firefighters were able to get a signal at the site, but the North Shore Rescue Team's radios were cutting out. The amateur radio signal, however, was crystal clear.

'North Shore rescue ended up coming over onto the amateur radio system when they needed to reach somebody [at the Emergency Management Office],' Hart recalls. 'Their repeaters were just not in the right spot for that operation.'

On the North Shore, amateur radio is the Emergency Management Office's primary communication panel. When conventional systems are down, as they often are in disasters like Hurricane Katrina, rescue and relief workers turn to an international fraternity of hobbyist who are experts in what some view as a diminishing breed of technology.

"Where the amateur radio community really shines, is what we joke about is the 'MacGyver factor'," Hart says from the EMO communication office. "Got a piece of wire? Okay, I need about 60 feet and I'll make you an antenna and I'll talk to California from here in 10 minutes."

When Katrina hit the Gulf Coast earlier this month, toppling communication towers, virtually all major networks shut down. Towers that weren't destroyed from the 150 mile per hour winds were missing power grids and running on generators. The result was chaos.

Luckily, The Salvation Army, which has an emergency radio network made up of amateurs across the continent, was able to restore communication.

"They set up an interim radio station with very simple stuff at a reception centre for the refugees, for the Superdome, the Astrodome, and dealt with the Red Cross registration and inquiry people," Hart informs. "Someone looking for a family member that was evacuated, [is thinking] how do we connect with them? Literally thousands of these messages and inquiries [were sent out] and answered back."

Some of the messages were sent orally, while others were transmitted through text messaging, a technology that can actually take data off a battery-powered computer and transmit it through a hand radio. Text messaging, which is relatively new to amateur radio, was particularly useful in the registration of refugees across the Gulf Coast.

Although the Lower Mainland is not faced with the same issues Katrina presented to the Gulf Coast, where everything was unpowered, under water and flattened, disasters such as an earthquake or a major brush fire are concerns local emergency workers prepare for.

Turning to the window in the EMO communications office on East 14th Street, Hart points to Mt. Seymour.

"There are three very large transmission towers on Mt. Seymour," he says. "Over 150 commercial broadcasters of various types are on there. CBC is up there, BC Ambulance, some police and some fire. Would those sites be destroyed [in a brush fire]? Very good chance. It would take some time to rebuild that. In the meantime what do you do? What's the plan B?"

The EMO's amateur radio equipment allows operators to run three high frequency operations simultaneously. The office has access to approximately 80 volunteers from the North Shore Amateur Radio Club, but Hart estimates there are a couple hundred of people in the area who are educated in amateur radio and would likely come forward during an emergency.

Almost all amateur radio equipment is based on 12 volt power, which can be generated from a car battery.

In the event of disaster, priority is given to communications that locate evacuation¨
North Shore ham radio operators a vital link when disaster strikes.

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.

Mendocino Beacon - Local

Mendocino Beacon - Local

"'Radio ham' aids hurricane relief efforts
By FRANK HARTZELL Of The Beacon -
Dick Comen of Mendocino remembers the devastation he saw as a young sailor in Tokyo at the end of World War II.

He got a chilling reminder of that historic scene when he went to Ocean Springs, Miss., to help set up a communication system for a community ripped to shreds by Hurricane Katrina.
'There were places where even the foundation was gone, everything. It took four years of bombing to do that to Tokyo and nature devastated that place in four hours,' Comen said.
'It didn't look much different.'

A ham radio operator, Comen, 82, left his Mendocino home and arrived about a week after the disaster to set up communications for the Ocean Springs area. Population 17,225, elevation 30, the city near Biloxi was one of the hardest hit by the hurricane, which blew through the region in the last days of August.

'We [radio hams] were recruited to provide communications between the Red Cross headquarters in Ocean Springs and the outlying shelters which were in churches, and high schools.'
He said landlines and cell phones were useless."


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.

ARRLWeb: Amateur Radio Volunteers Still Needed

ARRLWeb: Amateur Radio Volunteers Still Needed

"Amateur Radio Volunteers Still Needed

In Mississippi, Ed Daszkiewicz, N0EPD (rear), of Crossville, Tennessee, and Jacky Schwartz, KA1RBC, of Hatley, Mississippi, handle traffic at 'Gulfport Operations' at Harrison Central Elementary. [Greg Ansley, KB4R, Photo]

Jim Jett, KC6ETU, of Marietta, Georgia, operating from a makeshift station at the Bay St Louis, Mississippi, Senior Center in support of a Red Cross shelter. 'I feel like I benefited more from helping than they did from my help,' Jett commented. [KC6ETU Photo]

ARRL Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK (right), speaks with two incoming Connecticut volunteers at the Montgomery, Alabama, volunteer marshaling center--Dave Hyatt, K1DAV (middle), of Torrington and Dave Wilcox, K1DJW, of New Hartford. [K7BV Photo]

ARRL Sales and Marketing Manager Dennis Motschenbacher, K7BV, volunteered for a time at the Montgomery, Alabama, Red Cross volunteer marshaling center, where he helped set up W4AP. [K7BV Photo]
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 29, 2005--UPDATED--Amateur Radio volunteers still are needed to assist relief agencies in the southern Mississippi counties hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. In addition ham radio volunteers are wanted to support Hurricane Rita FEMA operations in Texas. ARRL Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, who's been at the American Red Cross volunteer staging area in Montgomery for nearly a month now, says he got a call for more operators this week, but turning the 'operator pipeline' back on after holding off on soliciting additional volunteers has been slow. "

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.

TheDay.com, New London, CT

TheDay.com, New London, CT

"Emergency Radio Test Planned For Saturday

By ROBERT A. HAMILTON
Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat
Published on 9/29/2005

Amateur radio operators in eastern Connecticut will conduct an annual emergency test Saturday, according to District Emergency Coordinator Wayne Gronlund of East Lyme.

The ham radio operators won't know the details of the drill until the day of the exercise. Gronlund will open an envelope Saturday morning detailing the nature of the simulated emergency, and radio operators will staff emergency operation centers around the region, setting up portable stations where needed.

Gronlund noted that in recent weeks the importance of ham radio has been vividly displayed, as operators came from all over the country to begin restoring emergency communications in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, providing free service to medical, police and other responders.

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.

BEWARE AND TEST BEFORE THE REST

BEWARE AND TEST BEFORE THE REST

"Chip Helps Electric Outlet Go Broadband
Sep 29, 8:58 AM (ET)
By YURI KAGEYAMA

(Note this is being posted for Ham Radio to but you on guard as this is Probably a major QRM generator) BEWARE AND TEST BEFORE THE REST

TOKYO (AP) - The common electric socket will serve as your home's connection to broadband with a new chip developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. - doing away with all the Ethernet cables or the hassle of hooking up to a wireless network device.

Products are still being developed, but gadgets embedded with the chip from the Japanese manufacturer of Panasonic products can hook up to a broadband network by plugging into the common electrical outlet, company officials said Thursday.

That's because the Osaka-based company has come up with technology to use electric wiring in the home to relay not just electricity but also data.

The technology has been around for some time - including in the United States - but Matsushita's system is unique in that it delivers fast-speed broadband information at up to 170 megabits per second, which is faster than Ethernet.

The advantage is that the lowly electric socket is everywhere. Right now, a broadband outlet still isn't usually available in every room, even in homes that have broadband connections."


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.

WALB-TV, Albany. South Georgia�s #1 News Source: Hurricane Hunter's widow looks back

WALB-TV, Albany. South Georgias #1 News Source: Hurricane Hunter's widow looks back
: "September 27, 2005
Coolidge, Georgia--

While so many people run away from hurricanes like Katrina and Rita, some actually run into them. That was the case of a Navy Hurricane hunter from South Georgia who was killed 50 years ago this week on a mission.
'He joined the Hurricane Hunters, which I begged him not to do, but he was that type of man. He said he could do some good for other people, and that's what he died doing. says Betty Stocker.

Despite the passing decades, Stocker will never forget her late husband, Navy Lieutenant George Herlong. 'He volunteered for this mission for a man whose wife was having a baby, and they flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico. And from there, they flew into Hurricane Janet,' she says.

Herlong was the co-pilot aboard a P2V storm chaser. A ham radio operator heard its mayday that fateful day, and immediately relayed it to the Navy. 'When I saw those Navy men come to my door, I knew he was dead. They searched for eleven days for them and never found a sign of the airplane or of any person. They got sucked down into a down draft,' says Stocker."


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.

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

OpEdNews.Com Progressive, Tough Liberal News and Opinion

"Do Feds Secretly Control The States' Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)?
Who controls state-to-state requests for disaster assistance, the states or the federal government?
by Lynn Landes

9/28/05
Most people would say the states, of course. But, that might not be the case. The federal government may secretly control state-to-state assistance requests through a little-known entity called, the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC).

In the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, which included communications and logistics failures across the board, and with similar problems after Hurricane Rita (voiced today in Congress by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)), EMAC has largely escaped public scrutiny.

EMAC is touted by federal officials as central to national disaster relief efforts. In fact, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) strongly urges that all state-to-state requests for disaster assistance, including requests for National Guard units, be processed through EMAC, particularly if the states want reimbursement of costs from FEMA.

For such an important organization as EMAC, Congressional investigators should ask why the Department of Homeland Security's 'National Response Plan' (NRP) doesn't even mention EMAC.


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.


What is EMAC and who controls it? Originally, it was founded in 1993 by the Southern Governor's Association and funded by member states. Its mission was to improve the coordination of disaster relief in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. Today, it is a 'congressionally ratified' organization based in Lexington, Kentucky. Every state except Hawaii has joined it. "

ARRLWeb: ARRL Announces 2005 Toy Drive for Hurricane Victims

ARRLWeb: ARRL Announces 2005 Toy Drive for Hurricane Victims

"ARRL Announces 2005 Toy Drive for Hurricane Victims
NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 28, 2005--

In the wake of unprecedented hurricane devastation in the Gulf Coast region, the ARRL has announced it will again sponsor a toy drive to brighten the holidays for youngsters left homeless or displaced as a result of the storms. Country singer and ARRL member Patty Loveless, KD4WUJ, has agreed to serve as the honorary chairperson for the 2005 toy drive. ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, is urging the Amateur Radio community to pitch in.

'Last year, hams from all over the country brought smiles to children during the holidays,' Haynie said. 'We made a lot of friends, and we did a lot of good. No one expected that we would need to do it again so soon, but this year's hurricanes have changed the plans of a lot of people.'

Last year, individual radio amateurs and clubs across the US joined together to collect new toys for youngsters affected by a series of four hurricanes in Florida. ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, says the 2004 effort was a success beyond anyone's wildest dreams, and there was no question in his mind about doing another toy drive for the latest hurricane victims. "


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.

ARRLWeb: Amateur Radio Volunteers Still Needed

ARRLWeb: Amateur Radio Volunteers Still Needed

"Amateur Radio Volunteers Still Needed

NEWINGTON, CT, Sep 28, 2005--Amateur Radio volunteers are still needed to assist relief agencies in the southern Mississippi counties hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. ARRL Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, who's been at the American Red Cross volunteer staging area in Montgomery for nearly a month now, says he got a call for more operators this week, but turning the 'operator pipeline' back on after holding off on soliciting additional volunteers has been slow.


'Yesterday we received a renewed need for amateurs who can deploy to the Gulf Coast region,' he said. 'Three Mississippi Gulf Coast counties need amateurs in EOCs, American Red Cross shelters and other locations to provide reliable communication.' Sarratt says he's trying to fill a need for 18 operators in Hancock County, 24 in Harrison County and 9 in Jackson County. He's hoping that the nationwide network of ARRL SMs and SECs can recruit the fresh volunteers within their regions. "

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.