|
6
Nerd-Its
|
|
current event
by The recent storms plaguing the Northwestern United States were the root cause for massive amounts of infrastructure damage. When disasters like this strike, communication infrastructure is often the first to fail as power and telephone lines are knocked over by debris and cell towers are either over saturated with traffic or damaged. HAM Radio operators often step up and provide emergency communication relays for 911, Red Cross, FEMA and any agency needing to get in touch with distant parts of the action. For their efforts, Oregon's governor recognized amateur radio's contribution, "I'm going to tell you who the heroes were from the very beginning of this...the ham radio operators. These people just came in and actually provided a tremendous communication link to us."
While HAM Radio operators have participated in nearly every disaster from the Titanic through 9-11 and Hurricane Katrina, their ability to stay on the air may soon come to an end. Broadband Powerline (BPL) initiatives have existed for awhile, but have been slow to take off in application. Part of that delay is due to lobbying from amateur radio groups to preserve the high frequency spectrum which would be swamped by interference from BPL. The matter has been proven to the FCC which takes the issue seriously as other services, to include shortwave and low-band VHF, will be impacted. Many federal and local government services to include ambulance and fire department dispatch use these frequencies.
Star This to Save in Your Profile 
Add a Comment (11)
Email This
Message Author
Statistics
Thread parent sort order:
Thread verbosity:
0 Nerd-Its
Future
I am a younger ham radio operator at the age of 17 and am totally in it. Qth is Salem, Oregon. I love ham radio. I just decided to type in future of ham radio and came across various pages about it slowly dying and interenet taking over. I dont want to hear that, for at leat the rest or most the rest of my life I can tell you that I will be doing this and I dont want it to die, it is freakin sweet. We just need to be creative in "recruiting" people or make people understand the importance of it. However, radios can work when everyting crashes and it has amazing propagation with some metal and a radio. A might impressive. I will always support it. Heck we are trained and intelligent in the matter and can provide amazing emergency communication. It cant die...Treat it like the TV....The tv is the same and has the same purpose it just evolved...but it still works on principle on communication (radio) just digital signals....bla bla blah. I wont let it die. We are wat I call "Warriors of the Airwaves" we protect and take care of....hell, who the heck is going to use so much empty band space.....Radio astronomy is just getting popular and that uses radios...and it will get more popular, is there life out question, can be all the more soon answered. Lets get to ita and keep it running for well lets set a goal 100 years, if the radio is all fancy and digital and is like computer, it still is a radio as long as it uses the airwaves...
73's
Scott
scott.warren@xtremscott.com
This comment has 1 reply.
RSS
A Dying Breed? by gnifyus :: NR7 :: Show
I wonder with the advent of instant messaging, email and cell phones if HAM radio is something that is going by the wayside as not as many younger people are getting into it. At one time, I remember a fair number of people around had giant antennas attached to their houses, and there was always news of HAM radio clubs meeting here and there.
On the other hand, I do know of one local kid who went off to college and came back with a bunch of HAM equipment in the back of his truck and was totally into it, getting his license and everything.
If anyone has any experience with these general trends, I'd be curious; but it seems like the hobby is slowly disappearing as time goes on.