Barry, [Regarding your exercise]
"A local hospital here in Denver suffered an actual loss of their internet connectivity during the day of the exercise and was unable to enter patient data from incoming casualty patients because they couldn't access the States https: database. If they had had access to an ID-1 and internet connectivity they still couldn't perform their mission directly with amateur radio as a back up with the system accessing an https: internet site since that would be using Encryption on amateur Frequencies. Yes information was passed after the fact but had this been an actually incident with mass casualties having the ability to use amateur radio would have ideally completed the data link during the emergency." OK, to me this says the hospital needs to work on its own backup strategy before even worrying about what else hams can do for them, but *had this been a real emergency*, does anyone REALLY think the FCC would have come down and revoked anyone's license for passing HTTPS traffic over ham frequencies? I sure don't. If wireless Internet access were as ubiquitous then as it is today, when the FCC was making the "in a true emergency, you can use whatever mode and frequency you need to" ruling, I'm sure they would have included "...and access whatever web sites you must, even if they are HTTPS or send you encrypted files." Of course, the point of many exercises is to try to figure out where the real problems/bottlenecks are and resolve them using "ordinary" means so that, in real disasters, people don't *have* to start facing judgment calls on whether or not invoking "extraordinary" means to solve a problem will be considered acceptable once the disaster has passed. (This reminds me of an anecdote I once heard about some mid-level manager at a place like FedEx where his regular airport was snowed in, but he could charter flights from a different airport to get his packages delivered. Doing so was going to cost something like $10k, but would save the company several times that in damages, and while he *technically* had the ability to make that $10k happen, he didn't have the *authority* to do so on his own. Unfortunately, he couldn't get ahold of his own manager -- who did have the proper authority -- but he made the call anyway, spending $10k in direct violation of his company's rules.. and saving the company much more money as well as untold ill will in the process. Amazingly, if you tell this story and ask a bunch of people in a room to raise their hands if they think the guy acted inappropriately, you'll always find some people who'll raise their hands! These are not the kind of folks *I* want to associate with...) ---Joel
