ARLA/CLUSTER: O radioamadorismo encontrar lugar no mundo da alta tecnologia.

[João Gonçalves Costa]

Ham radios find place in high-tech world

Ham radios once played a key role in the operations of the U.S. military before fading into the background with the arrival of better and more accessible forms of communication like cell phones, the Internet and Skype.

But just when you start to think ham radios might go the way of rotary phones, 8-track tape players and phonographs, disaster strikes and the old war horses of communications fill a void in the response to emergencies, the Stars and Stripes website reports.

Ham radio operators were widely credited with helping with emergency communications in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina. Sixteen days ago when an earthquake and tsunamis devastated Japan, ham radio hobbyists and their outdated technology once again got involved in reconnecting families and guiding emergency aid where it was most needed.

“In the fairly early stages after the earthquake, several radio amateurs were able to activate their stations with car batteries or small-engine generators,” Japan Amateur Radio League International Section Manager Ken Yamamoto said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. “They transmitted rescue requests and information on the disaster situation, including refugee centers and their needs and/or the availability of basic infrastructures, like electricity, water and gas supplies.”

Yamamoto said information gathered from ham radio operators in the hardest hit areas of the country was “reported to the rescue and disaster relief organizations for their appropriate deployment.”

Radio equipment manufacturers distributed hundreds of transceivers for use at relief and refugee centers, he said, which “should help ... to facilitate smooth and appropriate delivery of disaster-relief goods.”

In some cases, ham radio operators also helped anxious people around the world find out about the welfare of loved ones in Japan.

Trevor Jones of British Columbia, Canada, called embassies and checked social media websites immediately after the earthquake, checking on the welfare of his son, Jonathon, but it was the ham radio of Jonathon’s grandfather that played a key role in reconnecting him with the 32-year-old English teacher in Sendai, according to the Montreal Gazette.

“I think they’ve forgotten about ham radios,” Trevor Jones is quoted in the Gazette. “If you went back to the time when I was 32 years old, that was the only system that wouldn’t break down.”


Military connection

Ham radio may be a dying form of communication, but amateur-radio hobbyists don’t want any static about their passion — one that appears to have a significant following among members of the U.S. military.

“I will be the first to admit that using ham radio to communicate is far from being the most efficient means of communication,” said U.S. Army Maj. Scott Hedberg, a ham-radio operator based at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea. “I think you can best look at it like, ‘Why do people go horseback riding or ride bikes? Isn’t there a more efficient way to get from A to Z?’

“Sure, but it is the enjoyment of the journey that is the key.”

There are still references in military regulations to ham radio use. For example, U.S. Forces Korea regulations state that, “When directed, amateur radio operators will assist in providing communications for all types of disaster and will work with various relief agencies as necessary.”

However, Hedberg said, “Just based on the robust communications we have here today ... I would think it would have to be fairly extreme circumstances, from a military standpoint, that they would be coming to me for any sort of assistance.”

That has not stopped hobbyists — they number “in the hundreds” among active troops, Hedberg said — from spending their off hours spinning dials and connecting worldwide with others with a passion for the technology and quaintness of ham radio conversations.

Richard A. Bartlett, the 90-year-old author of “The World of Ham Radio, 1901-1950: A Social History,” said, “Morse code may be disappearing and hams declining in numbers, but what of the innovators?

“I think the curious, highly intelligent radio gadgeteer deserves a viable place in our society, including the military. Ham radio, in its social aspects, provides these bright, inquisitive people with contacts, rivalries, challenges and, yes, friends with similar interests.

“It would be tragic for their wonderful hobby to disappear.”

 

You can read the full Stars and Stripes article at:
http://www.stripes.com/news/ham-radios-find-place-in-high-tech-world-1.139146