The Villages Daily Sun

The Villages Daily Sun: "Members of the Villages Amateur Radio Club were there to show how communications problems during power outages can be mitigated by the use of ham radios.

“When there’s an emergency and you lose power, you usually lose all phone service,” said Ed Crowell, secretary of the club and Village of Glenbrook resident. “Your cell phone service especially, because everyone gets on the phone. The subscriber can only hold 17 percent of its users at a time, so the cell phone tower shuts off its automatic cell phone switch. You need a radio to send a message over long distances.”

Crowell said the radios can last for years, and showed one he’s had for 10 years."

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ARRLWeb: ARRL NEWS: Surfin': Are You in the Blog Now?

ARRLWeb: ARRL NEWS: Surfin': Are You in the Blog Now?: "You can find the ham blogs by using your favorite search engine to look up 'ham radio blogs' or visit one of the directories of ham radio blogs to find a blog of interest."

THE EARTHQUAKE QUIZ

Take the earthquake quiz...... CLICK HERE

Scientists Imagine California's "Big One", Forecasters Predict Massive Quake Would Injure 50,000, Cost $200B - CBS News

Scientists Imagine California's "Big One", Forecasters Predict Massive Quake Would Injure 50,000, Cost $200B - CBS News: "A real quake would yield different results from the scenario, which excludes possibilities such as fierce Santa Ana winds that could whip fires into infernos.

The scenario: The San Andreas Fault suddenly rumbles to life on Nov. 13, 2008, just after morning rush hour. The quake begins north of the U.S.-Mexican border near the Salton Sea and the fault ruptures for about 200 miles in a northwest direction ending near the high desert town of Palmdale about 40 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Scientists chose the scenario because it would create intense shaking in the Los Angeles Basin and neighboring counties - a region with nearly 22 million people.

The scenario will be released at a House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources meeting in Washington.

Here are the major elements:"

Breaking Communications 'Stovepipes' -- An All-digital Receiver

Breaking Communications 'Stovepipes' -- An All-digital Receiver: "HYPRES Inc., a small New York State company, is building the new digital receivers. Deborah Van Vechten, program officer in ONR's Electronics division, says that this company will deliver a demonstration receiver that simultaneously 'digitizes' all the signals in the most critical over-the-horizon military communications bands (HF and VHF) and uses a technique called software-controlled digital filtering to select the signals to output."

Emergency Links: 'Sweet Spot' For Radios In Tunnels Identified

Emergency Links: 'Sweet Spot' For Radios In Tunnels Identified: "ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — As part of a project to improve wireless communications for emergency responders, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have confirmed that underground tunnels--generally a difficult setting for radios--can have a frequency 'sweet spot' at which signals may travel several times farther than at other frequencies. The finding, which uses extensive new data to confirm models developed in the 1970s, may point to strategies for enhancing rescue communications in subways and mines."

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NORTH COUNTY: Fledgling amateur radio network takes first step : North County Times - Californian

NORTH COUNTY: Fledgling amateur radio network takes first step : North County Times - Californian: "'The philosophy of it is that in a great, big disaster that hits us, we know police and fire are going to be behind the curve in the early hours,' he said. 'If you're bleeding, you're not going to get a paramedic in six minutes ---- it's going to be hours or days. CERT is trained to fill that gap.'"

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It's an Emergency. We're Not Prepared. - washingtonpost.com

EDITOR: This is a terrific article


It's an Emergency. We're Not Prepared. - washingtonpost.com: "Still, most Americans have been watching the devastation in Asia from relative safety and, if I had to guess, with a certain sense of complacency, a feeling that disaster on that scale isn't likely to happen to them. But it could. And if it did, our country might face the same sort of crisis as our Asian cousins. A major reason: The American public isn't prepared."

Be Prepared - Communicating During and After a Disaster | NewsChannel 8

Be Prepared - Communicating During and After a Disaster | NewsChannel 8: "It may be helpful to find out in advance if you have a ham radio operator in your area. They are very helpful and can deliver messages from both private and community sources during and after a disaster. If a pay telephone isn't readily available, and your out-of-state contact is several states away, you can communicate via this type of relay system. Your local ham can contact another ham that will contact another ham, and so on, until they find one within your out-of-state contact's area. The ham operator closest to your contact can then phone the contact and deliver any messages."

globeandmail.com: The wave he couldn't weather

globeandmail.com: The wave he couldn't weather: "The waves had ripped away the life raft, a hatch cover, the steering vane and the solar panels. She was taking on water. Everything was soaked. Without solar panels to recharge his batteries, he'd soon lose any ability to communicate with the outside world.

Weather reports said the storm would last three more days.

Tripping around the mess, he made a cup of tea and some porridge. Then he broadcast a message to ham radio operators that would eventually make it back to his family in Victoria.

“I think it's Thursday today,” he started. “I'm not sure …”"

Rescue work begins at earthquake's epicenter in China - International Herald Tribune

Rescue work begins at earthquake's epicenter in China - International Herald Tribune: "Until Wednesday, Wenchuan had been completely cut off from the outside world, and the longer it remained completely isolated, the more people would suffer and ultimately die. Half of the survivors had severe injuries, Chinese officials said."

WCATWC Information Statement - TW

SEAK71 PAAQ 121255
EQIAKX

TSUNAMI SEISMIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK
455 AM AKDT MON MAY 12 2008

...THIS IS AN INFORMATION STATEMENT...

EVALUATION
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH A MAGNITUDE SUCH THAT A TSUNAMI
WILL NOT BE GENERATED. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY WCATWC MESSAGE
ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT.

PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
MAGNITUDE - 5.1
TIME - 0451 AKDT MAY 12 2008
0551 PDT MAY 12 2008
1251 UTC MAY 12 2008
LOCATION - 56.5 NORTH 153.1 WEST
90 MILES/145 KM SW OF KODIAK CITY ALASKA
345 MILES/555 KM SW OF ANCHORAGE ALASKA
DEPTH - 21 MILES/33 KM

THE LOCATION AND MAGNITUDE ARE BASED ON PRELIMINARY INFORMATION.
FURTHER INFORMATION WILL BE ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY - EARTHQUAKE.USGS.GOV - OR THE APPROPRIATE
REGIONAL SEISMIC NETWORK.

$$

WCATWC Information Statement - TW

SEAK71 PAAQ 111707
EQIAKX

TSUNAMI SEISMIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NWS WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER PALMER AK
907 AM AKDT SUN MAY 11 2008

...THIS IS AN INFORMATION STATEMENT...

EVALUATION
AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH A MAGNITUDE SUCH THAT A TSUNAMI
WILL NOT BE GENERATED. THIS WILL BE THE ONLY WCATWC MESSAGE
ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT.

PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
MAGNITUDE - 4.0
TIME - 0904 AKDT MAY 11 2008
1004 PDT MAY 11 2008
1704 UTC MAY 11 2008
LOCATION - 58.6 NORTH 137.2 WEST
75 MILES/121 KM SW OF HAINES ALASKA
105 MILES/169 KM W OF JUNEAU ALASKA
DEPTH - 7 MILES/12 KM

THE LOCATION AND MAGNITUDE ARE BASED ON PRELIMINARY INFORMATION.
FURTHER INFORMATION WILL BE ISSUED BY THE UNITED STATES
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY - EARTHQUAKE.USGS.GOV - OR THE APPROPRIATE
REGIONAL SEISMIC NETWORK.

$$

Amateur radio buffs provide community communication | delmarvanow.com | The Daily Times

Amateur radio buffs provide community communication | delmarvanow.com | The Daily Times: "In a widespread emergency, a local organization called the Eastern Shore Amateur Radio Club is prepared to render communications. These dedicated men and women are the Shore's behind-the-scenes heroes. They devote myriad hours of public service communication to keep residents informed and safe.
Advertisement

Licensed ham radio operators are the community's chief communication volunteers. During a disaster, their battery-operated equipment is often the first means of communications. When state of the art communications of the sheriff, police, and fire departments malfunction, ESHARC furnishes vital back-up.

When cell phones became prevalent, interest waned in amateur radio. During a state of emergency, cell phones may die while ever-dependable ham radio"

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NEW DIRECTIONS radio

NEW DIRECTIONS radio: "But what most folks don't realize is that there are now more than 3,000 individuals in over 100 countries who have the capability to send and receive their own video pictures over long distances via amateur radio. The technique these people use is known as slow—scan TV (SSTV for short).

Even with super-high-power transmitters, conventional TV stations can't transmit pictures over distances of more than 100 miles or so. How is it, then, that hams can?using a tiny fraction of the power—transmit video images thou sands > of miles? The answer lies in their decision not to send 'moving' pictures.

To preserve the illusion of motion on a screen, conventional TV stations transmit 30 complete, highly detailed pictures per second. This amounts to the transmission of many millions of bits of information every second . . . enough information, in fact, to fill 1,000 voice channels! And the only portion of the radio spectrum with enough 'room' for these wideband width TV signals is the very high and ultra-high frequencies (VHF and UHF), where radio waves have only line-of-sight transmission properties. (That is, the signals can't follow the curvature of the earth and aren't reflected back to the ground by the ionosphere, but can only travel in straight lines.)"

NASA - Explore the Ionosphere (from the safety of your own home)

NASA - Explore the Ionosphere (from the safety of your own home): "Above: A screen-shot of the 4D ionosphere. Clicking on the image launches a 19 MB video demo. You can download and launch your own 4D ionosphere by following these simple instructions.

The ionosphere is, in a sense, our planet's final frontier. It is the last wisp of Earth's atmosphere that astronauts leave behind when they enter space. The realm of the ionosphere stretches from 50 to 500 miles above Earth's surface where the atmosphere thins to near-vacuum and exposes itself to the fury of the sun. Solar ultraviolet radiation breaks apart molecules and atoms creating a globe-straddling haze of electrons and ions."

NewsGator Online

Albert Einstein

"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only...