re: Any HAM radio operators here?

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Didn't the internet kinda make the whole nerdy HAM radio thing obsolete?

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How do you figure that? When Katrina came through, our hospital had a HEAR radio, Internet, landline phones, SAT phones and cell phones.

ALL of it went down after the storm came through. Didn't take long for the cell towers to run out of gas to run the generators to keep their sites up. The HEAR radio antenna became a casualty when the winds came through. Landlines and Internet went down about the same time. The HAMs in the area saved the day. Even the SAT phones were almost worthless. You had to find an area to stand in to get reception, and you couldn't move from it. It's kind of a nice thing to be able to bring your communications to where the problems are.......

The HAMs could move to where you needed them, and since a lot of them are ex-military, they knew something about logistics, which helped us immensely.

I became a HAM after that. It's a shame that people have already forgotten the lessons of Katrina.

LC