Comments regarding emergency communications:

Comments regarding a copyrighted article by Roger Williams, KA7VOM:
(Sun, 25 Jul 2004 21:54:42 -0700 Radio Corner - Amateur Radio Emergency Services by Roger Williams - The Digital Journalist ? July 2004 Contents ? Column Radio Corner: Amateur Radio Emergency Services July 2004 by Roger Williams KA7VOM)

Williams commented that the leadership of Department of Homeland Security should "inform themselves of the capabilities and resources of these organizations, especially since a tie between the government and the self-sufficient amateur radio groups would undoubtedly be beneficial to the country during any emergency situation in which communications was of prime importance."

Pat,  XE2KB60XX - Since the road to hell is paved with good intentions; may I pose a couple of questions?

How would HAM radio in the States interface with the Department of Homeland Security?  I seriously doubt if DHS actually has a communications system, or would know what to do with it if it had one.  If it does I, for one, have no idea how to link to it.  Any terrorist planner with half a brain would take out as much of the hard-line and cellular system as he could, while he inflicts other grief.  This should not be a big deal, since the 9/11 suicide bombers easily circumvented airport security, the FAA radar system, and the U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard, etc. 

You have to remember that Al Qaida are pretty good planners, and it doesn't require much time nor money for them to plan, organize, and execute.  So, on the civilian side at least, that leaves a bunch of hams and CB operators trying to tell each other what is going on when the next attack happens (note the use of the word WHEN, not if).  What frequency should they use; who should they contact?  Does the Amateur Service have a workable action plan?  I bet the FCC doesn't have a clue how to come up with one. 

Dick,  XE2N6DHD - On March 27, 1964 I was in Kodiak Alaska.  I was stationed at Marine Barracks, USNS Kodiak and was in town on liberty when the "Great Alaskan Earthquake" took place.  At the time, the state of AK absolutely bristled with all sorts of huge military communications stations, radar installations, early warning networks, huge "vlf" radio transmitters to communicate with our "boomer" subs etc. etc.  The earthquake was 9.3 on the Richter and lasted for over 5 1/2 minutes.  After the 5 1/2 minutes, the only communications in and out of Alaska for MANY days was amateur radio!  All of that fancy military hardware, along with its impressive infrastructure to operate it was broken up, and without electricity to run it.  When the military did re-establish its comm, it was all they could handle to see to the National defense and get its own facilities repaired.  All of the civilian and humanitarian communications links with the outside world were handled by the ham community in AK and for an extended period of time!  I was amazed at how little credit or appreciation they received for thier (Sic) hard work and appalled by the fact that the country didn't seem to learn the lesson it should have taught them!
  
Pat,  XE2KB6OXX - Electrical engineers, Power linemen and electricians generally agree that the safest way to set up a portable generator in the event of a power failure is to first physically remove the electric meter once it is evident there is no electricity coming from the drop.  This way,  anyone working on the distribution side will not get back feed current from your generator.  The power company will reinstall it for you when the system is back on line.

Dick,  XE2N6DHD - You're right about removing the electric meter for all of the reasons mentioned.  If you don't, you can also fry the generator with the line surge if/when the power comes back on.  As to the line noise.  The best thing you can do with a "small" generator (3 or 4 Kw or smaller) is to hook it up to your refrigerator first, then use a small battery charger to maintain charge in a couple of 12 car batts hooked up in parallel.  Run your radios off of the battery bank and there won't be any 60 Hz hum.  You will probably have to take the charger off line when transmitting though.  It's amazing how much power it takes to run basic household appliances.  I had a 4 Kw Onan for my rv.  It would run the A/C unit plus ONE other appliance.  We had a very small microwave and the generator didn't like to see it come on while the A/C was running!  A solar panel or two hooked up to 1 or 2- 12V car batts will run a small 2M rig on low power forever.