
American Red Cross Asks for Ham Radio Operators for Puerto Rico Relief Effort - kw71
http://www.arrl.org/news/american-red-cross-asks-arrl-s-assistance-with-puerto-rico-relief-effort
======
slr555
One thing about HAM that I didn't see in perusing the comments is how many
tools HAM operators have developed that integrate with the internet. There are
a bunch of tools that let you start out on HF and hit a receiver or repeater
that puts your traffic into the internet. In an environment with the right
kind of repeaters you can hit the internet with a handheld (Puerto Rico likely
has had it's repeaters decimated with all other towers). On HF you can go
around the world to hit a link to the internet. I imagine the Red Cross and
ARRL will be selecting an HF mode and band to take the shortest hop they can
into more modern data systems.

The secret sauce in HF is that unlike the web, conditions matter to the
operator. Things like sunspot activity, the position of the day/night line, if
you are near water etc. can greatly affect your ability to successfully
communicate.

DXpeditions, which are trips HAMs take with their gear to try to hit very
distant stations are often based in island locations because HF tends to
propagate significantly better with the antenna is near water as opposed to
irregular ground.

I would just say to all of you who are into tech as I imagine HN readers to
be, to give HAM a try. A lot of us are old and HAM sites regularly feature a
list of "silent keys" because so many of the hardcore operators are dying off.
Yes it's a bit antiquated but the younger generation will be able to marry all
the amazing things you've invented to HAM to serve populations where the new
tech either hasn't gone or gets knocked out as in the current crisis. For so
many of you engineers it will be easy, like dusting off your first Circuits
text. Yes, the regs are a drag to learn but I bet the average HN reader has
done things that are way more challenging.

Have fun!

73

~~~
Cerium
I have both a question and a comment. I got my license (Technician and General
on the same day) about a year ago. I have not once pressed transmit on a
radio. I guess I don't know where to start. If you have any advice I would
like to hear it.

Anyone with an EE background should be able to study up on
[https://hamstudy.org/](https://hamstudy.org/) for a few hours a night for a
week and pass without trouble.

~~~
wepple
+1 got my ticket, bought a baofeng, unboxed it and put it in a draw. I'm not
sure how to get involved?

Loraham.org does seem a cool use to tinker with.

~~~
fapjacks
Do you have a license? Step one is getting your license. QRZ offers "practice"
exams online which are literally the questions from the FCC license exam pool
[0]. You can rote memorize these questions and answers if you need to.
Technician and General are both fairly easy licenses to get. The FCC dropped
the Morse (CW) requirement, but this can be a really fun way to get into
certain ham bands which are CW-only. Very niche crowd. I suppose the sibling
advice I gave is to find a local repeater and just start talking. If you're on
the West Coast, I _highly_ suggest checking out the WINS repeater system. It's
an internet-connected set of repeaters, so when you hit your local WINS
repeater, you're actually going out to most of the west coast and Hawaii. And
a few other places. It's always growing. Always super friendly. Well, most of
the time it's super friendly.

[0] [https://www.qrz.com/hamtest/](https://www.qrz.com/hamtest/)

~~~
tlrobinson
Getting one's "ticket" means getting licensed to hams.

~~~
fapjacks
Seems there was a ninja edit.

~~~
wepple
There was not. I appreciate your helpful attitude toward people on the fence
about getting a license, but the parent to my comment was saying "I'm
licensed, now what?" And I said ~"I'm in that exact same situation".

But now that we're chatting and you obviously do know your stuff, any pointers
for _actually_ putting it to use?

~~~
fapjacks
You must have stopped reading at the first couple of sentences, or did you
just not see the whole thing about jumping on a local WINS repeater? That
_wasn 't_ ninja edited in there.

------
TallGuyShort
I'm a bit out of the loop on amateur radio these days, but if I remember
correctly there was a mass exodus from volunteer radio operators from the
American Red Cross to the Salvation Army over the background check issue.
Volunteers that were bringing thousands of dollars of their own equipment to
help saw it as very unnecessary and insulting. I'm a bit surprised to see
they're still requiring the background checks...

edit: I'm also a bit surprised they're requiring a General Class license. That
cuts out a huge number of potential volunteers. Are they really using the
other frequencies that opens up enough that it's a requirement? Possibly that
is a reasonable requirement, but I've helped with disaster recovery
simulations, etc. and my Technican Class license was just fine.

~~~
jcrawfordor
ARRL now conducts background checks on ARES volunteers, so the issue is rather
moot (in fact ARC and ARRL have an MOU stating that ARRL is responsible for
background checks on their volunteers assisting ARC, which presumably applies
to this call as well). There have just been too many incidents of people with
e.g. sexual assault on their rap sheets turning up working in shelters where
there are all manner of vulnerable people. Terrible optics if nothing else.

I suspect the general class requirement is just to cut down the applicants to
a pool of more dedicated people. A very real problem with disaster volunteers,
if I might be a little harsh especially from the amateur radio side, is "fair-
weather responders" who will go through all the training and then not actually
deploy. I've also personally found that people with higher class licenses are
more likely to be into digital modes which is what they're mostly looking for,
but that's getting less true as the equipment gets cheaper (to be honest I've
never even seen a packet TNC in person).

I happen to be both an ARC disaster worker and amateur radio operator, but I
speak for myself.

~~~
dmoy
What do all those acronyms mean?

~~~
olympus
ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) is an emergency response group of
amateur radio operators. Hurricane wipes out all the phones, but radios still
work. ARES operators help with emergency communications until the phones and
internet get fixed.

ARC is American Red Cross.

The ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) is the main club of amateur radio
operators in the USA. There are lots of facets to amateur radio, not just
emergency response. There are contests where people try to make many radio
contacts (or long distance contacts, or contacts using a certain range of
frequencies, etc.), people that just like to chat (known as rag chewing), and
serious researchers that develop new modes of wireless communication that may
even make it to commercial products. ARRL supports all licensed amateur radio
operators in the USA.

MOU is a memorandum of understanding, basically a business agreement.

TNC is a terminal node controller, it's the box that interfaces your digital
object (computer or phone) with your analog radio. Many new/expensive radios
have built in digital capabilities, but most radios need an audio input.

~~~
TimTheTinker
Just to add another facet: there are folks from other hobbies (like R/C
planes) who obtain an amateur radio license because it lets them legally
transmit at higher power levels.

~~~
honestlyreally
Virtually a prerequisite for anyone doing long range first person flying
legally.

------
Animats
This indicates how bad things are in Puerto Rico. None of this is necessary
for Texas or Florida. But Puerto Rico has lost most of its infrastructure, and
it's an island. They have to get the ports cleared of debris and functioning
before stuff can be brought in. They need basic communications just to
organize the early stages of recovery.

It's going to be slow. In the domestic US, within three days after a disaster,
the Interstates usually have been cleared and trucks are bringing in supplies.
Fairly quickly, the big-box retailers like Wal-Mart will be back up and
restocked with necessities. Puerto Rico isn't going to be like that. They need
what amounts to a military invasion. The military brings its own
infrastructure and can cold-start on bare ground if they have to.

Another big problem - the money system is down. No credit card processing. Few
ATMs working, and those are mostly out of cash by now. This is the downside of
the cashless economy.

~~~
Animats
Update: Port of San Juan is open, 3000 containers of relief supplies have been
unloaded by Crowley Marine alone, but there's too much debris on the roads to
get semitrailers out of the port yet. Diesel fuel is in stock at tank farms
but not getting distributed because roads are blocked.

Bulldozers and front end loaders will deal with that, but not instantly.

[1] [https://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-rico-port-reopens-but-
re...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-rico-port-reopens-but-relief-
distribution-remains-slow-1506446137)

~~~
Animats
Update 2: Crowley has 10,000 containers stuck at the port, but only 20% of the
truck drivers have been located. With cell service down, nobody can call them.
Getting Diesel to fuel stations is a problem. 11 tankers are inbound, and 100
fuel trucks have been sent out from San Juan. But damaged gas stations without
power can't use the fuel.

The further from San Juan, the worse it gets.

------
brian-armstrong
Being a Ham radio operator sounds kind of romantic on paper, but then you try
it and realize that 90% of the other operators are curmudgeonly old Trump
supporter types. Not really any fun chances for discourse when the person on
the other side is pining for the return of Jim Crow laws

~~~
uabstraction
The great thing about ham radio is that if you don't like what you're hearing,
you can just keep spinning the dial. In my experience (NYC metro area), I hear
very little politics on the ham bands. There are also CW and digital modes
which tend to draw people with more than five brain cells. I know there are a
couple infamous HF frequencies where some reality-challenged folks tend to
congregate, but there is much more to the hobby than that QRM.

------
FTA
I've been a Technician for many years. I have worked numerous local responses:
parades, athletic events, smaller scale weather disasters. It was really
rewarding, especially when a family member was actually participating in the
event, and you felt awesome knowing you're keeping watch and helping to direct
and dispatch help where needed. I met a lot of folks who were much older and
had amazing stories. One in particular drove his RV with his wife down to LA
shortly after Katrina and, using a ham radio and bag phone, helped relay a lot
of the communications flowing out of the area.

Unfortunately the bar to get a General license is much higher than Technician,
even without the Morse Code. There are a ton of regulations and rules you need
to be familiar with that are often not related to E&M. This unfortunately kept
me from ever upgrading and being of use in large scale disasters like this. I
can understand to an extent why the licensing is still required; otherwise you
will have these spectra flooded with people probably using them for commercial
purposes with no regulation to cut them off.

Basic ham communications are still absolutely critical in major disasters. A
few others have touched on this, but bandwidth and throughout for
communication is increased with the advent of digital interfaces to the radios
to the point that you can essentially establish a data connection over the
air. Godspeed to those who make the trek.

~~~
lutorm
I went to get my U.S. Technician license (I've had a Swedish CEPT2 license for
a long time but never been very active) after studying a bit online, and after
passing that they asked if I wanted to try the General test too, since I was
already there. I did, and I passed. (Did the same with Extra, but didn't pass
that one.)

I would certainly not be comfortable with actually operating a HF rig without
doing some prep work, but it seems to me that an active ham would have a
reasonable chance of squeezing by the General test if they gave it a chance.

------
curtis
I've seen steady reporting about Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria but it's
been exactly that -- "about Puerto Rico" rather than "from Puerto Rico".
Everybody seems to think it's bad, but it's really hard to say how bad. I
think the major contributing factor to how the situation is being reported is
that most of the cell towers (90%?) are out of action, and presumably land
lines have also been seriously affected.

~~~
maxerickson
CNN is doing live shots every hour.

Hard to say how much of the island they are covering, they are there.

~~~
curtis
It's also been nearly a week. In all fairness though, it seems like the
airports are either shut down or operating at greatly reduced capacity, so
it's hard for reporters to get in.

~~~
justin66
The military isn't giving up seats on military flights to members of Congress
today because they need the space for vital supplies and personnel, which is
one measure of how hard it is to get into PR right now.

~~~
curtis
At this point I wonder if it would make more sense to fly into the Dominican
Republic and then take a boat.

~~~
JakeKalstad
I just got out of PR Tuesday. I tried to get a ferry to DR to do this exact
thing in reverse to get into the mainland and was informed the ferries are all
out of service.

------
Dowwie
The ARC is an non-profit organization supported by a movement of volunteers
from all walks of life. It gives resources to volunteers willing to help those
in need. Thank god it exists.

I took a month leave of absence from a programmer position at Merrill Lynch
when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. I signed up for a disaster response
role in the American Red Cross, who dispatched me relatively quickly to a
major shelter in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Gandhi said, "You have to be the change you wish to see in the world.". This
could not be more true than as a volunteer. A mass response to a disaster of
Puerto Rican proportions will be loosely coordinated. Supply chains will
operate far from optimal. Volunteers who recognize an inefficiency will either
do nothing about it or assume the leadership role required to reduce the
inefficiency. A volunteer experience like this is largely what you make of it.
Unlike other entrepreneurial endeavors, the ARC gives you the resources to do
something great.

------
slr555
A few people have said that going from Technician to General or General to
Extra is difficult. It is not totally easy but I did find a tool when I was
studying for my Extra exam (passed). I don't post to much here so if I am out
of bounds please let me know and I'll remove the comment. I used a tool called
HamTestOnline,
[https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com](https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com),
and it was a huge help. I paid for the service and I am in no way associated
with them except as a customer. I worked in technical training for 20 years
and this guys system is as good as online training systems we shelled out well
into six figures for.

Like I said if posting a link here is bad form tell me and I'll take it down
lickety split. Only want to share something I found very useful.

------
Havoc
Given how badly they fk'd up Haiti I'm not so sure I'd help them...

~~~
killjoywashere
You should try responding to some disasters. They're all crazy. The DoD did no
better in Haiti.

~~~
hyperbovine
> The DoD did no better in Haiti.

The DoD is not a disaster relief organization, so that's a pretty low bar.

~~~
digikata
They are not, but they should have very good logistics capability for disaster
areas with damaged/nonexistent infrastructure.

------
ejcx
If you don't get your technicians license and have the opportunity to, I think
you're crazy. It's something in tech that doesn't get enough love anymore.
It's immensely valuable and actually a fun change of pace from SaaS.

It takes about 2-3 hours of studying and you can pretty much keep it for life.
KK4PPF. QSL?

------
aidos
My business partner's father (ZL2AL) passed last year and I know he'd be
chuffed to see all this HAM talk on HN :-)

He demoed the process to me last time I saw him (back in New Zealand). It was
amazing to see the speed with which the he (and the other operators) could
relay messages around the world.

He wrote a bit about his many adventures on his blog
([http://www.zl2al.com/](http://www.zl2al.com/)). I guess there may even be
other HAM operators on here that knew him.

------
grandalf
I've been a ham since I was a kid. There are so many different, interesting
things to explore.

These days I find high speed telegraphy pretty relaxing and meditative, and I
have a few ongoing RF projects that keep me going even when everything else
seems trend-driven and silly.

And let's face it, radio wave propagation still feels magical. I could go on
and on. Glad to see some PR even though it's for a sad reason.

------
mmaunder
I'd love to help but 3 weeks is a huge commitment and I can't leave my job
that long. I think they may get a tremendous response from the retired folks
in the ham community. Anyone have data on HF frequencies being used and if
remote relay assistance is helpful? Or any other technical data on the effort?

WT1J

------
jabl
Semi-offtopic, any city-dwelling HAM's out there? I've been thinking it would
be cool hobby to get into, but I live in a condo. My father is a ham, and he
has this long antenna up in the trees across his yard (must be close to 50m
long), for HF I guess (he mostly does CW, AFAIK).

So it seems a bit pointless if all I can do is operate some VHF band equipment
with an indoor antenna, or maybe sticking a short-ish antenna out of the
window, with a range of maybe of few tens of km's?

What am I missing? If there are city-dwelling hams out there, what do they do?

~~~
tinco
First time I saw a HAM installation was when I bought a lab power supply on
Craigslist. I went to pick it up and the guy lived on the third floor of a 5
story building with his family. One room was entirely filled with radio
equipment. Some big cables went through his window and up the building. He
told me his landlord was OK with him putting antennae on the roof of the
building.

------
westurner
Zello trended up during hurricane Harvey:

[http://zello.com/](http://zello.com/)

> Push the button for instant, radio-style talk on any Wi-Fi or data plan.

> Access public and private channels.

> Choose button for push-to-talk.

> [...] available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows PC and Windows
> Phone 8

...

> Connects to existing LMR radio systems

> All Radio Technologies

> Interconnect conventional and trunked analog FM, ETSI DMR, ETSI TETRA,
> MotoTRBO, APCO P25 FDMA, and NXDN.

> [https://zellowork.com/lmr](https://zellowork.com/lmr)

They probably need some batteries, turbines, and solar cell chargers to get
WiFi online?

~~~
westurner
> This phone needs no battery

[http://www.techradar.com/news/this-phone-needs-no-
battery](http://www.techradar.com/news/this-phone-needs-no-battery)

> [...] “We’ve built what we believe is the first functioning cellphone that
> consumes almost zero power,” said Shyam Gollakota, an associate professor in
> the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the UW and co-
> author on a paper describing the technology.

> Instead, the phone pulls power from its environment - either from ambient
> radio signals harvested by an antenna, or ambient light collected by a solar
> cell the size of a grain of rice. The device consumes just 3.5 microwatts of
> power during use.

> [...] “And if every house has a Wi-Fi router in it, you could get battery-
> free cellphone coverage everywhere."

(Also trending on HackerNews right now:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15350799](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15350799)
)

~~~
atomicthumbs
That's not at all useful, nor is it relevant.

~~~
westurner
A low energy phone (and WiFi (from a related UW R&D team?)) would be extremely
useful in this and future disaster relief scenarios. Furthermore, radio
operators who care about the Red Cross may be able to help pull this product
through to market.

------
kaiwen1
Why would there be a preference for ham radio over satellite phones?

~~~
LVB
I'd guess: 1. probably easier to manage, with a central net coordinator and
many remotes. 2. there is lots of equipment 3. cheaper

~~~
justin66
The satellites over the Caribbean are probably pretty swamped right now, too,
and operating at or past their capacity. That's just a wild guess but if these
past few weeks wouldn't put them past their capacity I don't know what would.

~~~
LVB
I'm no longer active, but one of the main attractions to the hobby was how
simple everything was. The idea that with some power and a basic antenna, I
could talk to a radio built 50 years ago with no more alignment then choosing
the same frequency, was always very intriguing to me.

------
jimhefferon
Please folks. It is not spelled HAM. It is spelled ham.

------
t3h2mas
What are people using to study for HAM licenses these days? Any modern
resources to know about?

~~~
stannouskj4vwg
I made these tech flash cards for a group of elementary school kids. I
downloaded the questions and processed them with a small python program that
generated latex (I can provide the source code if anyone needs it)... They're
at
[http://www.employees.org/~stannous/tech.pdf](http://www.employees.org/~stannous/tech.pdf)

The first test is not hard... a couple of 9 year old kids passed it after
studying a little.

------
txmx2000
Do not donate or help the American Red Cross.

They do almost nothing to help those affected by natural disasters. All they
do is setup shelters and feed people in those shelters. They do not help
rebuild.

They do an exceptionally poor job at this. Everyone knows about Katrina. In
Houston this year, food sat on loading docks downtown while people starved in
local shelters. The American Red Cross ran the main shelter so poorly that the
city had to build an entirely new shelter and move everyone there...in the
middle of a hurricane.

They don’t need your donations. They have a deal with the federal government
where they get reimbursed for whatever they spend during a national disaster.
The local American Red Cross chapters do this. The national organization does
not provide the resources for this.

If you donate to the American Red Cross, you’re throwing your money away. The
money won’t go to the local chapters. It won’t go to rebuild. It won’t go to
the victims of the natural disaster. Do not donate to the American Red Cross.

~~~
KGIII
Maybe a better statement would be, "If you donate to the Red Cross then know
what your donation is going to support..." Then maybe you can enumerate the
complaints and, if wanted, provide citations.

As it is, I think some folks may take offense with you telling them how to
spend their money. I, for one, read it as you trying to tell me what I can or
cannot do.

Edited to add: I see your dead reply. The difference between my suggestions
and your post is that you demand, as opposed to ask. You may notice that I'm
making a point of not saying you should do something, but that pointing out
that you can choose to do something.

It's received much more gracefully and people are much more open to the ideas
when they are asked, instead of when they are instructed. But, it's entirely
up to you how you take it and what you decide to do with it.

I've spent years learning to say could instead of should. It has helped me
immensely.

~~~
mbrookes
[http://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-
red...](http://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-red-
cross-500-million-in-haiti-relief)

To be clear, this article is about the American Red Cross (which is not to say
that other branches and other NGOs aren't as bad), but if you want to know
what your donation is going to support... good luck!

~~~
KGIII
Oh, they are pretty horrible. I was more concerned with presentation than
content. I support the idea of educating people about the horribleness of the
American Red Cross. I also know it is more effective to do so by engaging then
demanding.

People, as a general rule, don't like being told what to do. They respond much
better when being asked politely. We didn't develop politeness for no reason,
after all. We have all sorts of negative phrases for demanding people.

As I support the idea of making people aware of the problems with the American
Red Cross, it stands to reason that I'd like to not sour them on the process
of learning about the reasons for the complaints.

~~~
mbrookes
Ah, got you. I misinterpreted your statement as a defence of ARC, but
rereading I see that's not the case.

~~~
KGIII
For better or worse, society respects a well dressed person with manners more
than they do a spittle-flecked zealot. I suspect more people have been turned
away from desktop Linux precisely because of this.

It has been very, very socially helpful to learn to not say should and to
substitute could. Relatedly, I also try to say I can relate, and not to say I
understand. Just a couple of small things completely change how people respond
to me.

You could try it in your everyday speech and see if you notice a difference?

