Every year, there are people whose sole purpose it is in life to portray ham radio as something that makes a real difference to lots of people in an emergency.
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| Get out your radios! Or, just run... Image: NASA. |
Every day, there are Maritime Networks and such stuff that endlessly call out for messages from boats out at sea. Pretty much all the time, nobody does actually call in, not least because there are so many other simple, automated and effective position-relaying systems available at modest cost, and even keep working when they fall into the sea - unlike a HF rig!
With recent earthquake events, there have been the rather ridiculous situations where somebody with not much brain in the USA decides with some friends to try and keep the very middle of 14MHz clear of ham traffic 'in case' someone in Nepal wants some help. So it continues for days or weeks on end, helping nobody except those desperate people who adhere to this ludicrous vision of ham radio's purpose.
Rather oddly, though, QRZ.com and the usual ham outlets are not (yet) full of EMCOMM people with fluorescent jackets claiming that they will save the world with their 2m FM rig, even though the extent of devastation is clearly going to be enormous. And there is plenty more action forming out at sea, as I write.
We'll see how many people EMCOMM saves this time. My prediction is: nobody at all.
But if you really want to know how radio will overcome your lack of health insurance, have a dull few minutes looking at this video:
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| Hurricane Alley today. Image: earth.nullschool.net |
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