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Tuesday 7th September, 2004
Amateur Radio in an emergency
I was asked today if any one still used Amateur Radio. My response was to point out the work of the various emergency services which rely on amateur radio.
Amateur Radio and natural disasters
At I write this Florida is coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Frances, and only recently the USA was hit by Hurricane Charley. Volunteer Amateur Radio operators were called up on both occasions. If you're based in a more temperate zone, e.g. Ireland (like me), you may think there's no emergency that's likely to need Amateur Radio support. Let me convince you otherwise...
Amateur Radio and the Lockerbie disaster
On December 21st, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky above Lockerbie, Scotland, spreading wreckage and bodies over a 1,000 square mile area. Volunteer Amateur Radio operators were called up and formed an essential part of the emergency teams. The available mobile phone (cell phone) lines were quickly used up leaving the emergency teams to rely on two way radio. But services such as the army and police didn't always have a means to bridge their differing radio systems, and the systems they had didn't always cope with the difficult terrain. They relied on RAYNET (the U.K.'s Amateur Radio emergency organization) to set up repeater systems on the hills to provide radio coverage over the entire area. Amateur Radio operators accompanied the various search teams etc. and provided the vital communications links.
"9/11"
Amateur Radio was used following 9/11 terrorist attack, which destroyed much of the existing communications infrastructure. The BBC recently produced a programme called "Unsung Heroes":
"Through moving interviews, sensitive use of ham radio
transmissions and some harrowing accounts, Unsung Heroes reveals
the little-known story of the 9/11 ham radio operators who
helped to provide vital communication networks for the agencies
supporting the search-and-rescue effort at Ground Zero. Hams,
often mocked for their obsessive hobby, believe that September 11
became amateur radio’s finest hour.
As the Twin Towers fell and the extent of the disaster unfolded, ham
radio operators in New York mobilised quickly by keying into New
York’s Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (Races). Stephen
Evans, the BBC’s North American Business Correspondent, travels
throughout New York to meet the ham operators who witnessed
the terrorist attacks or lost friends and relatives but still helped to
support the search-and-rescue operation."
The BBC have made available a streaming real-audio version of Unsung Heroes, but I suggest you listen to it, or down-load it, now as I think they only keep the "listen again" archives available for a short time after the broadcast.
I've posted a number of links related to Amateur Radio emergency communications on today's link blog page.
Posted by Terry Ebdon | Permalink |
File under: Category Amateur Radio, Category Blog Entry.
Leicester Rally
I'll be at this year's Leicester Amateur Radio Show or "The Leicester Rally" as most people call it. The current plan is travel over on the Ferry on Thursday 30th September, visit the rally on Friday and do some shopping on Saturday. So listen out for me on the radio, or e-mail me for a sched or to meet up at Donnington Park. I'm looking forward to this, it's been a few years since I was at a big rally.
Posted by Terry Ebdon | Permalink |
File under: Category Amateur Radio, Category Blog Entry.
Perceptions of Microsoft
A lot of people have a very bad impression of Microsoft, including several of my friends. To some extent Microsoft have brought this on themselves, but I believe Microsoft is not as bad as it's painted - it couldn't be! Plus I earn my living working with Microsoft products and I'd like to think they're no worse than the average big corporation, though that's not saying a lot I suppose. Robert Scoble and the other MS bloggers are doing a great job of giving the company a more friendly face, and employees like Rory Blyth probably don't fit the stereotypical "Microsoftie" image.
Recently one friend, let's call him Fred (in case he doesn't like me mentioning him), was complaining about the way Microsoft distributes software patches. Always via the web, seeming to assume an xDSL connection or better, and needing to down-load updates as soon as you install a brand new programme. So having heard from Robert Scoble and Joe Wilcox that MS would post a CD out, I encouraged Fred to go this route; hoping that it would also counter some of the "Microsoft is evil, Linux is wonderful" propaganda. Unfortunately things didn't work out that way. Although Joe reports good service from Microsoft, my friend wasn't so lucky. By all accounts they tried to steer him away from getting a CD and repeatedly tried to get him to down-load the service pack. Now here in the west of Ireland, in Co. Mayo, getting a high speed internet connection is not that easy or cheap. The phone lines are also dead slow, and Eircom (who have a monopoly on the local-loop) will only guarantee 9,600 kb/s. So down-loading XP SP2 just isn't on. Eventually Fred was told that he'd have a CD in four to six weeks, but I think we all agree with Joe Wilcox that four to six weeks is just too long to wait. My friends reply to this was "have you heard of Linux? Because in four to six week that's what I'll be using." I can understand his attitude, though I'll still be encouraging him to stick with Windows XP. I hope he'll also add some comments to Robert Scoble's blog entry on this subject, or even start his own blog.
Posted by Terry Ebdon | Permalink |
File under: Category Software Development, Category Blog Entry.