Text 704, 113 rader
Skriven 2007-08-20 03:39:02 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
    Kommentar till text 703 av Thom LaCosta (1:261/1352.0)
Ärende: emergency comms, was welcome to grammar school, was ...
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Thom LaCosta wrote in a message to Richard Webb:

TL> to give the sailing folks free email....the fact that they tout HF
TL> for emergcom is laughable, since as far as I know the bulk of true
TL> emergency communications is local in nature.

 RW> Not necessarily.  I am a strong believer in hf ssb and cw for
 RW> emergency comms. HElp came to us at those hospitals in NEw Orleans
 RW> because of hf radio.  Our local eoc abandoned ship due to rising
 RW> waters TUesday morning, and the remainder of the week it was good
 RW> ol' hf radio cw and ssb that was getting things done.

TL> Don't get insulted...but what happened in New Orleans shouldn't be
TL> viewed as a model or example for much.  If the local folks had have
TL> prepared and acted accordingly, a lot of the problems would be
TL> different in nature. 

Agreed, however I still think since this was a large scale disaster a lot of
what was needed still would have been arranged for on hf. take for example the
big eoc bus which they were playing with. We played terror alert drill with
their fancy do everything from dc to daylight with emergency power and tenna
masts bus.  Three weeks before Katrina I was working at that hospital as part
of a drill.  Scenario was a gas attack on the shore of lake ponchartrain.

IF you said sitting in a parking lot getting filled with water you'd be right
on the money.

That bus could have left the area with personnel aboard SUnday before the
hurricane and come back in afterword to park on high ground, deploy their
antennas and their generator and been ready to rock 'n roll for those of us at
the agencies needing to get people out etc.  THat bus had all sorts of radio
systems, not just amateur, satellite phone, whole nine yards. sTories about why
the bus didn't roll range from "we couldn't find the keys" to "nobody had any
gas money" to GOd only knows what. IF it hadn't been so stupid and sad after
all the homeland security money spent to play terror alert I'd be laughing
behind my sleeve.


YEs most emergencies are local in nature, but when you need to communicate with
folks outside your local area such as state government etc. oftentimes high
frequency cw and ssb gets it done simply.  YEs I'll have my dual band rig with
at least 50 watts and a decent antenna and mast ready to deploy, plus plenty of
battery power. I'll also have my trusty KEnwood ts-440, my straight key and a
good old fashioned dipole antenna <grin>.
WHen you need it, you need it!

TL> Your local and state governments shoud have backup communications in
TL> place....and not wait for a ham to show up.....that's their job,
TL> that's why they collect taxes....now if the primary and the backup
TL> systems fail, then I think Ham radio has a need to fill.

YOu betcha!  YEt I carried one of their whiz bang 800 mhz trunked portables
with me for two days while deployed there. THe system (the statewide trunked
system) found itself overloaded with traffic.  Along with all the state systems
normally using it we had CIty of NEw ORleans as well, as their trunked whiz
banger went down. NOw get this!  THere were conventional repeater systems for
police and fire all over that city which before the storm were still working. 
THey didn't have radios, and nobody was bothering to check emergency power for
said conventional repeater systems. IN fact, I have one of the old conventional
MOtorolla uhf handhelds which used to be a NOFD radio.  BOught it at a hamfest
for less than fifty bucks, had the guy reprogram it for ham frequencies for my
wife.

I'm a strong believer in the premise that my government will screw anything up
given half a chance, and citizens just have to fend for themselves when the
stuff hits the fan WHen it does, my radio equipment is ready to serve my
neighbors and my community, because if they're waiting for their government
they might be waiting too long.


 RW> I do believe like you that it's a grab for spectrum, but I also
 RW> think that they're touting it so much because it's supposedly
 RW> simple to set up.  NO need for training operators who won't take
 RW> part in real training anyway <g>. 

TL> I guess....I think that the government needs to fulfill it's
TL> responsibities...and we can see that when they don't, various groups
TL> are willing to justify themselves and/or their grants by releiving
TL> the government of its responsibitiies.

Agreed, and this is one op who is quite willing to get the training, and has
been part of the effort to make it available for years now. IF I learned one
thing during that mess in 2005 it was that I can't depend on the folks who tell
me "just leave everything to us and you'll be just fine." ASk the young lady
who swam five blocks to that hospital in that muck because she knew she'd need
a c section to deliver her baby where she'd probably be now if she waited for
the authorities to arrange for a medevac for her. THE coast guard chopper which
sent down the basket to pick her off the roof of our institution was arranged
for at 5:00 A.M. that fine morning thanks to the work of some ham radio folks,
yours truly included.


I'm not about grant money or any other happy shinola, I"m about trained people
getting the job done when it needs to get done.  IT's nice if my government
fulfills their responsibilities and has the backups in place.  THen I'm more
than glad to send messages to uncle Fred or Aunt SUe telling them that JOe Shmo
is safe at a shelter or other alternate
location.  WOuld that those health and welfare radiograms were all I had to
deal with.

TL> We had no problem finding volunteers who would be trained....they
TL> just weren't hams (g).

THerein lies the problem, and all this grant money floating around just isn't
helping that situation at all.

73 de nf5b

Regards,
           Richard
... Pre production planning prevents poor Performance!
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Radio REscue net operations BBS       (1:116/901)