I can tell you I have handled a message already for a family member who has
not heard from family in that area of CO.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Behler" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: DStar and other Internet based modes
> And, let's ask the people in Colorado who are dealing with the current
> flooding situation how reliable cell phones and internet communications
> have
> been?
>
> Remember the article that a list member distributed last week regarding
> amateur radio's response to the flooding situation, and I think you'll
> know
> what I mean.
>
> Tom Behler: KB8TYJ
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Martin G. McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Saturday, September 21, 2013 9:57 AM
> Subject: Re: DStar and other Internet based modes
>
>
>> Good question but let's ask, When was the last time the internet
>> died where you happened to be?
>>
>> The trouble with disasters is they tend to bite where
>> you didn't expect. During Hurricane Katrina on a large scale or
>> the Oklahoma City or the World Trade Center terrorism events,
>> the first thing to go away was the cellular network.
>>
>> In Oklahoma City, the cellular network wasn't damaged by
>> the bombing but it crashed right around the site of the disaster
>> due to severe overload.
>>
>> In New York City, there was some infrastructure lost,
>> but, once again, severe overload took out cellular access right
>> where it was needed most.
>>
>> In New Orleans, the water took out lots of cell towers
>> and killed electric power over a large area so that other cell
>> towers eventually died when their backup generators ran out of
>> fuel and nobody could get to them to bring more.
>>
>> Basically, if it involves wires and more wires to power
>> the stuff connected by the first set of wires, anything that
>> eats wiring infrastructure is a sitting duck for the forces of
>> entropy.
>>
>> I work for Oklahoma State University and we have a large
>> campus and a good data network but, as luck would have it, there
>> is a lot of construction going on and contractors have cut power
>> to major parts of the campus twice in as many weeks.
>>
>> Here's what happens:
>>
>> The lights and fans go out and we all swear as whatever
>> we were doing at the time goes POOF! If you have a wireless
>> device, it continues to work for a few minutes until the UPS's
>> begin to run out of batteries. As time goes by, more and more
>> wireless access points and switches die because the bigger UPS's
>> pass their battery time. They are built to provide power durring
>> a short outage or flicker, but the big stuff starts dying in an
>> hour or two or even 30 minutes or so.
>>
>> In a couple of hours, it's done and nothing is working
>> much.
>>
>> My point is that amateur radio can get by on less
>> infrastructure and much more varied infrastructure than any of
>> the fixed installations anywhere.
>>
>> The millitary is probably the only other organization
>> with communications capability that does not rely on commercial
>> infrastructure.
>>
>> 73 WB5AGZ
|
