Posted on 05/20/2014 7:28:53 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Seeking reliable backup communication in a crisis, emergency managers are finding new solutions in an old technology: ham radio.
“It’s just another avenue, another opportunity for us to be able to communicate,” said Herb Schraufnagel, public safety captain with Emory University Hospital Midtown.
Emory HealthCare is among a growing number of hospital systems to adopt ham radio. Hospital administrators and government officials took a lesson from Hurricane Katrina, which left some Gulf Coast medical centers isolated from the outside world, as landlines and cell towers failed. …
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
That’s a good thing, I guess. But somewhere in the back of my mind, especially with the Academia connection is the potential for a call for more government regulation and control to go out with respect to priority for government, medical/first provider, etc. to be implemented.
IIRC, government has its own set of frequencies that Ham operators can’t utilize. “Civilian” radios have to be modified to tune those freqs.
As a licensed HAM, I can tell you that MOST hospital systems around the country are installing at least some sort of radio array in their safe areas. I worked as an operator for the Hillsborough County EOC drills a few years ago, and every year we had new hospitals coming online.
HAM radios are becoming more portable and more powerful while the number of licensed HAMs is becoming smaller. We need a resurgence. It’s rock solid technology.
“while the number of licensed HAMs is becoming smaller”
No. The number of licensees is higher than ever.
Fixed it for ya!
Exactamundo....and after the BLM show-of-force tyranny, I have had huge numbers of new Technicians showing up. We are mandating 6 VEs show up so we can split into two test sessions.
The number of licensees is growing. I’ve worked with quite a few new or about-to-be hams recently. Our county is moving ham gear into not only hospitals but to a number of towns including islands. The normal public safety frequencies quickly get overloaded and the people that use those radios and frequencies are not, as a rule, very skilled communicators and they know not much other than how to set their radios to one or a few pre-programmed channels.
The article mentions cw (Morse) which is great but very slow. Hams have a wide variety of tools at their disposal now including digital modes that can sent error free messages at well over 1000 words per minute and don’t require any sort of elaborate equipment.
Mmmmm, Nurse Dixie, SCHWINGGG!
CW is more effective than texting. Skilled CWers can "talk" faster than by voice in many cases.
Guess this depends on your area. We’ve seen a decline in our area, but that’s from overall per-quarter new licensees.
Not my fault. Spell Check didn’t catch it.
CW is better than voice. Voice on HF and even VHF under poor conditions is terrible for getting accurate copy. However, just try sending a long list of needed supplies in spreadsheet format with CW. Or a detailed ICS-213 form, ready to be printed upon receipt.
How about sending IP over AM?
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