Ham Radio Operators Still Have Role to Play:

eHam.net News — The people who keep communication lines open when disaster strikes are looking for new talent. That’s amateur radio clubs, and they’re increasingly filled by people above the age of 50, who would like to prepare the following generation to help in a crisis, says Mike Johnson, emergency management co-ordinator for Cumberland County. “We have so much technology that we rely on, and when it’s taken away, it creates a problem,” Johnson said Thursday. “There’s no question we need new blood.” Once licensed, amateur radio operators — or ham operators — can “set up a radio with a 12-volt battery and transmit to the world, to let them know how things are,” Johnson said. In a crisis, if the servers that look after cellphone and landline transmission are down, “getting hold of emergency responders gets to be difficult, because people who live in, say, a 661 prefix can’t call a 667 prefix, so they can’t get through to the emergency service,” Johnson said. So in Cumberland County, for example, ” (ham) radio members go to the various fire departments where we’ve already arranged equipment,” Johnson said. “We broadcast to the public: If you have an emergency, please call the local fire department. From the local fire department that information is passed on to the amateur radio member, who relays it through to a central location where the appropriate organization — ambulance, fire, police — is able to respond to the incident.”

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