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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - When technology failed on a massive scale
last week, some old-fashioned broadcasting stepped into the breach
as ham radio operators took to the airwaves to reach emergency
workers.
For millions of people in the Northeast and Midwest last week's
massive blackout took access to e-mail and the Internet with it.
Landline and cellular telephones were jammed by a crush of calls.
But the ham radio, which came into being in the World War I era,
connected firefighters and police departments, Red Cross workers
and other emergency personnel during the most extensive blackout in
the Northeast since 1977.
Ham operators are not dependent on a server or cell tower, and
with battery backup can operate when grids fail.
"When everything else fails, the ham radio is still there,"
said Allen Pitts, a ham operator in New Britain. "You can't knock
out that system."
The radios are operated by a network of volunteers organized by
the Newington-based American Radio Relay League.
Ham radio's importance won renewed recognition after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The organization won a federal
Homeland Security grant of nearly $182,000 to train amateur radio
operators in emergency operations to help during terrorist attacks.
"It's incredible the differences you're seeing, the large cadre
of people who know what they're doing," Pitts said. "It's making
a major difference."
Tom Carrubba, a coordinator for ARRL in New York City's five
boroughs and Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, said
volunteers went to work immediately after power went down Thursday
afternoon.
"In five minutes guys were on the air with the Red Cross and
Office of Emergency Management," he said.
During other disasters, such as severe weather, ARRL volunteers
and coordinators activate telephone trees, Carrubba said. On
Thursday they instead hit their assigned frequency or staffed an
emergency operations center.
It didn't take an army. In the New York-Long Island region, with
a population of nearly 10 million, about 100 ham radio operators
handled the situation, Carrubba said.
Some volunteers headed to a Red Cross headquarters or shelter,
fire department, or hospital, he said. One hospital was temporarily
out of power and ARRL volunteers provided communications to
ambulances until electricity was restored.
In Connecticut, which did not experience a communications
emergency, ham operators were on standby.
The ARRL report on ham radio's response to the blackout was not
completed by Monday. But Carrubba estimated that operators handled
between 800 and 1,000 communications from Thursday afternoon until
early Friday morning. Typically the operators - largely supplanted
by the Internet and e-mail - respond to about five communications a
week, he said.
"A lot of our traffic is a trickle now," Carrubba said. "It's
just a routine hello, a happy birthday or happy anniversary."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
NJFFSA16....a.k.a. WA2HUQ....QRZ?
last week, some old-fashioned broadcasting stepped into the breach
as ham radio operators took to the airwaves to reach emergency
workers.
For millions of people in the Northeast and Midwest last week's
massive blackout took access to e-mail and the Internet with it.
Landline and cellular telephones were jammed by a crush of calls.
But the ham radio, which came into being in the World War I era,
connected firefighters and police departments, Red Cross workers
and other emergency personnel during the most extensive blackout in
the Northeast since 1977.
Ham operators are not dependent on a server or cell tower, and
with battery backup can operate when grids fail.
"When everything else fails, the ham radio is still there,"
said Allen Pitts, a ham operator in New Britain. "You can't knock
out that system."
The radios are operated by a network of volunteers organized by
the Newington-based American Radio Relay League.
Ham radio's importance won renewed recognition after the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The organization won a federal
Homeland Security grant of nearly $182,000 to train amateur radio
operators in emergency operations to help during terrorist attacks.
"It's incredible the differences you're seeing, the large cadre
of people who know what they're doing," Pitts said. "It's making
a major difference."
Tom Carrubba, a coordinator for ARRL in New York City's five
boroughs and Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, said
volunteers went to work immediately after power went down Thursday
afternoon.
"In five minutes guys were on the air with the Red Cross and
Office of Emergency Management," he said.
During other disasters, such as severe weather, ARRL volunteers
and coordinators activate telephone trees, Carrubba said. On
Thursday they instead hit their assigned frequency or staffed an
emergency operations center.
It didn't take an army. In the New York-Long Island region, with
a population of nearly 10 million, about 100 ham radio operators
handled the situation, Carrubba said.
Some volunteers headed to a Red Cross headquarters or shelter,
fire department, or hospital, he said. One hospital was temporarily
out of power and ARRL volunteers provided communications to
ambulances until electricity was restored.
In Connecticut, which did not experience a communications
emergency, ham operators were on standby.
The ARRL report on ham radio's response to the blackout was not
completed by Monday. But Carrubba estimated that operators handled
between 800 and 1,000 communications from Thursday afternoon until
early Friday morning. Typically the operators - largely supplanted
by the Internet and e-mail - respond to about five communications a
week, he said.
"A lot of our traffic is a trickle now," Carrubba said. "It's
just a routine hello, a happy birthday or happy anniversary."
(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
NJFFSA16....a.k.a. WA2HUQ....QRZ?
(Me)
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