Hams lend a helping hand (tsunami story)
I'm an amateur radio operator. I've been licensed since 1992, and while I don't do that much with it anymore, I plan to get back into the hobby after the Wife Unit and I (along, of course, with Fat Cat and Rescue Cat) complete our move up to Richmond.
Nowadays, being a "ham" apparently makes me, in the opinion of Time magazine, something of an embarassment:
Power Line Named Blog of the Year: TIME also names Power Line its Blog of the Year. “Before this year, blogs were a curiosity, a cult phenomenon, a faintly embarrassing hobby on the order of ham radio and stamp collecting. But in 2004, blogs unexpectedly vaulted into the pantheon of major media, alongside TV, radio and, yes, magazines, and it was Power Line, more than any other blog, that got them there,” writes TIME’s Lev Grossman. See separate press release.
Well, the tsunami disaster in South Asia has shown, once again, that amateur radio, even in this day and age of cellphones and Internet, still can be vitally important. On the ravaged Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a ham radio expedition has been a lifeline for several days now:
He says they are often called upon by the Government to lend a helping hand since they are a mobile, usually well-connected, civilian group. Hams can set up radio stations even from their cars, travel around affected areas, identify people who need help and radio the police or hospitals. They can also mobilise men and materials since they have a vast network of millions of people from all walks of life, which covers the world. Port Blair, for instance, has just asked for 12 doctors so the hams are calling hospitals for help. "And while we co-ordinate from here, the ham control station in Delhi is talking to the Government to see if they can spare doctors," says Gopal.
Memo to Time: Don't piss off the stamp collectors, either. They're much meaner than we hams are.
Nowadays, being a "ham" apparently makes me, in the opinion of Time magazine, something of an embarassment:
Power Line Named Blog of the Year: TIME also names Power Line its Blog of the Year. “Before this year, blogs were a curiosity, a cult phenomenon, a faintly embarrassing hobby on the order of ham radio and stamp collecting. But in 2004, blogs unexpectedly vaulted into the pantheon of major media, alongside TV, radio and, yes, magazines, and it was Power Line, more than any other blog, that got them there,” writes TIME’s Lev Grossman. See separate press release.
Well, the tsunami disaster in South Asia has shown, once again, that amateur radio, even in this day and age of cellphones and Internet, still can be vitally important. On the ravaged Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a ham radio expedition has been a lifeline for several days now:
He says they are often called upon by the Government to lend a helping hand since they are a mobile, usually well-connected, civilian group. Hams can set up radio stations even from their cars, travel around affected areas, identify people who need help and radio the police or hospitals. They can also mobilise men and materials since they have a vast network of millions of people from all walks of life, which covers the world. Port Blair, for instance, has just asked for 12 doctors so the hams are calling hospitals for help. "And while we co-ordinate from here, the ham control station in Delhi is talking to the Government to see if they can spare doctors," says Gopal.
Memo to Time: Don't piss off the stamp collectors, either. They're much meaner than we hams are.