[Fwd: (WWI) Article: Ham Radio Gets New Respect]

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Subject: 	(WWI) Article: Ham Radio Gets New Respect
Date: 	Tue, 20 May 2014 13:57:43 -0400 (EDT)
From: 	Jtgrout via Woodbridge Wireless <wwi-reflector at googlegroups.com>
Reply-To: 	Jtgrout at aol.com
To: 	wwi-reflector at googlegroups.com



  Ham radio: Old technology gets new respect

By Jonathan Serrie <http://www.foxnews.com/archive/jonathan-serrie>

Published May 19, 2014
FoxNews.com <http://www.foxnews.com/>
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ATLANTA –  Seeking reliable backup communication in a crisis, emergency 
managers are finding new solutions in an old technology: ham radio.

“It’s just another avenue, another opportunity for us to be able to 
communicate,” said Herb Schraufnagel, public safety captain with Emory 
University Hospital Midtown.

Emory HealthCare is among a growing number of hospital systems to adopt 
ham radio. Hospital administrators and government officials took a 
lesson from Hurricane Katrina, which left some Gulf Coast medical 
centers isolated from the outside world, as landlines and cell towers 
failed.

When power, phone and Internet services go down, a battery-powered 
amateur radio and portable antenna can provide that crucial link to the 
outside world.

“Ham radio will never die,” said Barry Thomas, Sr., a ham radio 
enthusiast and employee at Emory University Hospital Midtown.

“The quickest means of communication is Morse Code. It’ll get out when 
none of this will,” Thomas said, referring to a room filled 
with computers and smartphones.'

“It is interesting that some of the technology that has been around for 
80, 90, 100 years is still relevant,” said John Davis, a ham 
radio enthusiast.

In addition to major hurricanes, Davis says the terrorist attacks of 
September 11, 2001 rekindled interest in ham radio as a public safety tool.

The Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) has set up a permanent 
ham radio station in its command center.

“We look at ham radio operators just like GEMA staff, just like DOT 
staff and Georgia State Patrol staff,” said GEMA Director 
Charlie English. “They are a critical partner with us.”

The number of ham radio licenses is at an all-time high in the U.S. 
(723,182, as of April, according to Federal Communications Commission 
(FCC) data compiled by Joe Speroni of the Amateur Radio Education Web 
Site, ah0a.org <http://ah0a.org/>.

“I really hope that it stays relevant and that we can be a resource to 
emergency management agencies,” enthusiast Davis said. “Because I think 
that is where ham radio shines.”

Fox News producer David Lewkowict contributed to this article.

Jonathan Serrie joined Fox News Channel (FNC) in April 1999 and 
currently serves as a correspondent based in the Atlanta bureau.

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-- 
     Terry McCarty
    3t3 at comcast.net
        wa5nti

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