No Internet? No cell phones? No problem

This past weekend saw hundreds of local ham radio operators across the country tune up and show off their well-honed ability to respond quickly in the case of an emergency during the annual “Field Day,” demonstrations.  Field Day is sponsored by the  American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national membership association for Amateur Radio operators.  There are 660,000 amateur radio operators (hams) in the U.S. and more than 2.5 million around the world, according to the group. It is estimated some 30,000 ham operators take part in Field Day. The annual event challenges the group to quickly deploy and communicate with similar groups across the country. It is a competitive event involving ham-radio operators from 50 states and Canada. During a 24-hour period, operators will establish contact with as many other locations as possible, exchanging information about local set-ups. The operation is conducted without commercial power and using temporary antennas strung between trees and temporary towers. Radio operators used voice, Morse code, radio-teletype, satellite and other digital-text modes. Experiments also demonstrated solar-powered stations and extremely low-powered transmitters to make long-distance contacts to the coast-to-coast.  When phone and Internet connections are knocked out during natural disasters, people who operate ham radios often help set up communication lines for such groups as the Red Cross. During the weekend drill, groups had to set up generators and all its equipment in less than 24 hours and keep them operational for another 24 hours, according to a story in the Washington Post. Amateur radio operators pay $200 to $300 for a radio that can reach local operators and $500 for one with international reach, the Post article noted. Meanwhile other stories touted ham radio’s disaster recovery prowess. During Hurricane Katrina, technology was at a standstill, leaving thousands of people along the coast without any means of communication with the rest of the country. But one form of communication never missed a beat. They call it a hobby, but ham radios operators were saving lives during Hurricane Katrina says this report.