Thanks, Ken, for posting the entire article. To me it is a very well written, complimentary article. The final paragraph points out that in telecom it is no different than any other business sector.
Just look what the Walmart Super Stores and the Home Depot's have done to the local grocery stores and hardware/lumber yards. And what Mc Garbage has done to the local burger joint. It's the power of advertising. In our area it affects even the smaller towns out to 40-50 miles from the larger towns and cities. Everyone is in hog heaven until the big boys go down and then people wonder why the home folks don't have what they need. My two bits. Milt, N5IA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kenneth E. Harker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Thom R LaCosta" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <elecraft@mailman.qth.net> Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2005 1:01 PM Subject: [Elecraft] WSJ article > This is the original WSJ article: > > http://online.wsj.com/public/article/0,,SB112597561578132422-u6wVATR7vnguM__uPJ3YNkKhKcw_20060906,00.html?mod=blogs > > ----- > HURRICANE KATRINA > > As Telecom Reels > >From Storm Damage, > Ham Radios Hum > > By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS > Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL > September 6, 2005; Page A19 > > MONROE, La. -- In a shelter here, 300 miles north of New Orleans, Theo > McDaniel took his plight to a young man fiddling with a clunky, > outdated-looking radio. > > Mr. McDaniel, a 25-year-old barber, had evacuated New Orleans with his > wife and two small children more than a week ago and since then had had > no contact with his brother or his aunt. The last he heard, his 42-year-old > aunt was clinging to her roof. > > "We've got to get a message down there to help them," he said. The man at > the radio sent the information to the emergency-operations center across > town, which relayed it to rescue units in New Orleans. Later in the > weekend, Mr. McDaniel learned that food and water were on the way to > his trapped brother and his brother's young family. He had heard nothing > about his aunt. > > With Hurricane Katrina having knocked out nearly all the high-end > emergency communications gear, 911 centers, cellphone towers and normal > fixed phone lines in its path, ham-radio operators have begun to fill > the information vacuum. "Right now, 99.9% of normal communications in > the affected region is nonexistent," says David Gore, the man operating > the ham radio in the Monroe shelter. "That's where we come in." > > In an age of high-tech, real-time gadgetry, it's the decidedly unsexy > ham radio -- whose technology has changed little since World War II -- > that is in high demand in ravaged New Orleans and environs. The Red > Cross issued a request for about 500 amateur radio operators -- known > as "hams" -- for the 260 shelters it is erecting in the area. The > American Radio Relay League, a national association of ham-radio > operators, has been deluged with requests to find people in the > region. The U.S. Coast Guard is looking for hams to help with its > relief efforts. > > Ham radios, battery operated, work well when others don't in part > because they are simple. Each operator acts as his own base station, > requiring only his radio and about 50 feet of fence wire to transmit > messages thousands of miles. Ham radios can send messages on multiple > channels and in myriad ways, including Morse code, microwave frequencies > and even email. > > Then there are the ham-radio operators themselves, a band of radio > enthusiasts who spend hours jabbering with each other even during > normal times. They are often the first to get messages in and out > of disaster areas, in part because they are everywhere. (The ARRL > estimates there are 250,000 licensed hams in the U.S.) Sometimes > they are the only source of information in the first hours following > a disaster. "No matter how good the homeland-security system is, it > will be overwhelmed," says Thomas Leggett, a retired mill worker > manning a ham radio in the operations center here. "You don't hear > about us, but we are there." > > Slidell, a town 30 miles northeast of New Orleans, was directly hit > by the hurricane and remains virtually cut off from the outside world. > One of the few, if not the only, communications links is Michael King, > a retired Navy captain, operating a ham radio out of a Slidell hospital. > > "How are you holding up, Mike?" asked Sharon Riviere into a ham-radio > microphone at Monroe's operations center. She and her husband, Ron, > who is the president of the Slidell ham-radio club, had evacuated > before the storm to the home of some fellow ham-radio enthusiasts in > Monroe. She said Mr. King had been working 20-hour days since the storm > hit. > > Crackling static and odd, garbled sounds followed her question to Mr. > King. Then he replied: "It's total devastation here. I've got 18 feet > of water at my house. Johnny's Cafe down there has water up to its roof." > > Ms. Riviere asked about her own home, which is not far from Mr. King's. > "It's full of mud," King replied. "Looks like someone's been slugging it > out in there." > > Ham radios are often most effective as one link in a chain of communication > devices. Early last week, someone trapped with 15 people on a roof of > a New Orleans home tried unsuccessfully to get through to a 911 center > on his cellphone. He was able to call a relative in Baton Rouge, who in > turn called another relative, Sybil Hayes, in Broken Arrow, Okla. Ms. > Hayes, whose 81-year-old aunt was among those stranded on the New > Orleans roof, then called the Red Cross in Broken Arrow, which handed > the message to its affiliated ham-radio operator, Ben Joplin. > > Via stations in Oregon, Idaho and Louisiana, Mr. Joplin got the message > to rescue workers who were able to save the 15 people on the roof, > according to the ARRL, based in Newington, Conn. "We are like the > Pony Express," says the 26-year-old Mr. Gore, wearing black cowboy > boots. "One way or the other, even by hand, we will get you the message." > > Mr. Gore, who is in charge of the northeastern district of Louisiana > for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, has spent a lot of time the > past week at the Monroe shelter, helping evacuees try to track missing > friends and relatives. > > Last Monday, Danita Alexander of Violet, La., came to a ham operator > in the Monroe shelter asking about her 96-year-old grandfather, Willie > Bright, who had been in a nursing home in New Orleans. The next day, > she got word back from a ham operator that he had been safely > transferred to a shelter near New Orleans. "We can't do enough of > these," says Mark Ketchell, who runs the ARES branch in Monroe. > > Nevertheless, the ham-radio community feels under threat. Telecom > companies want to deliver broadband Internet connections over power > lines, which ham-radio operators say distorts communications in the > surrounding area. Since hams are "amateurs," there is little lobbying > money to fight such changes, they add. > > The hams also get little respect from telecommunications-equipment > companies, such as Motorola Inc. "Something is better than nothing, > that's right," says Jim Screeden, who runs all of Motorola's repair > teams in the field for its emergency-response business. "But ham > radios are pretty close to nothing." Mr. Screeden says ham radios > can take a long time to relay messages and work essentially as > "party lines," with multiple parties talking at once. Says Mr. > Leggett at the Monroe operations center: "We are the unwanted > stepchild. But when the s- hits the fan, who are you going to call?" > > Write to Christopher Rhoads at [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ----- > > > > Thu, Sep 08, 2005 at 03:36:50PM -0400, Thom R LaCosta wrote: > > On Wed, 7 Sep 2005, EricJ wrote: > > > > >Your post didn't include this quote from Mr. James Screeden who is a Vice > > >President at Motorola working in the field, drawing a salary, and tending > > >to > > >the needs of his commercial accounts, NOT the suffering people of New > > >Orleans. > > > > A well meaning member of the list, sent me a copy of the Motorola PR > > response to the article,,,,and seemed to have a real hard time > > understanding that the PR guy's response wasn;t the same as the actual > > quote from Mr. Screeden. > > > > So, I would think that until the actual quote, in total of Mr. Screeden is > > known, then it's real difficult to prove the reporter misquoted him. > > > > If we are suspect of reporters, we should also be suspect of PR people. > > > > > > 73,Thom-k3hrn > > www.zerobeat.net Home of QRP Web Ring, Drakelist home page, > > Free Classified Ads for amateur radio, QRP IRC channel > > Elecraft Owners Database > > www.tlchost.net/hosting/ *** Web Hosting as low as 3.49/month > > _______________________________________________ > > Elecraft mailing list > > Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > > -- > Kenneth E. Harker WM5R > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.kenharker.com/ > > _______________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > You must be a subscriber to post to the list. > Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): > http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm > Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com > _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
