Daily Kos

View Story | 230 comments

  •  As a ham radio operator (4.00 / 2)

    I've been on top of this stuff for well over a decade. I used to try to get others involved in ensuring their own safety and welfare. Got little response or interest from folks. Now, after the fact, there is a whole lot of interest. Give it a couple of years and everyone will be back to watching the tube.

    An aside:(Can you imagine how different things would have been at the Superdome if everyone had brought a couple of gallons of water instead of suitcases full of clothes?)

    However, if folks are really interested in ensuring their own welfare, diaries like these are well worth reading. And, personally, I've found that ham radio puts me right in the middle of things when it comes to this sort of stuff, and that's a good place to be. For instance, I'm a Skywarn certified weather spotter and contribute to emergency radio nets on a regular basis. It keeps me in touch with local police and FEMA folks (ones who actually have a clue, not Bush apointees.)

    Get into ham radio and stop pretending with cell phones. It's not that difficult these days.

    -6.88/-5.64 * We won! We won!.... Now back on your heads.

    by John West on Fri Sep 16, 2005 at 01:32:10 PM PDT

    [ Parent ]

    •  BTW (none / 1)

      If you review the entire NO tragedy, you'll soon come to the realization that an enormous number of the problems that occurred could have been solved before they even started if there had been effective communications (and no, I don't mean cell phones.)

      -6.88/-5.64 * We won! We won!.... Now back on your heads.

      by John West on Fri Sep 16, 2005 at 01:42:00 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

    •  CQCQCQCQ (none / 0)

      Kilo-alpha-one-november-yankee-victor
      Got my novice class in the 8th grade. Been hooked since.

      "Bring it On!" is not a Foreign Policy

      by demdragon on Fri Sep 16, 2005 at 01:50:34 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

      •  10-4, good buddy! :) (none / 0)

        Sorry, I just had to do that.

        What's really frustrating about the whole Katrina communications nightmare is that I have 200 high power Motorola FM rigs just sitting in storage here in MI. If folks in NO had been using them, FEMA screwups or not, things would have been very different. But I imagine that when the next such tragedy comes along they'll still be sitting in storage.

        -6.88/-5.64 * We won! We won!.... Now back on your heads.

        by John West on Fri Sep 16, 2005 at 01:59:08 PM PDT

        [ Parent ]

    •  Ham radio operators are critical in a crisis (none / 0)

      I've read this and other comments you've posted on this thread.  It's clear to me that folks like you, John, do make a huge difference in a crisis.

      That said, I do want to take you to task for the throwaway line at the end of your comment:

      Get into ham radio and stop pretending with cell phones. It's not that difficult these days.

      Bloody near everyone has a cellphone.  Relatively few of the readers of this series have the time, money, or inclination to get a basic ham license and equipment.  I think I took a pretty fair position on ham radio in this installment, considering that.

      It's all about doing the most good for the most people -- and most people will, in fact, be depending on their cellphones in an emergency.  It would have been unrealistic to assume otherwise, and I have tried throughout to help people make more effective use of the resources they already have available.

      -AG

      "Watching George Bush trying to govern is like
      watching a monkey trying to f**k a football."
      I'm a libertarian, pro-2A capitalist Democrat.

      by AlphaGeek on Fri Sep 16, 2005 at 11:36:19 PM PDT

      [ Parent ]

View Story | 230 comments