"TOM" wrote in message
...
The future of the National Traffic System
http://www.eham.net/articles/12198

[snip]
For those of you who may not know, the National Traffic System (NTS)
consists of a carefully choreographed collection of section, region, and
area nets designed to relay messages throughout the US. In a sense it's
the
second "R" in ARRL. NTS has a long and honorable history and has some of
the
best operators in the world as its membership.

The recent hurricane season has raised serious doubts for me about the
role
that NTS plays in the current ham-radio environment. I did not hear a
single
health-and-welfare message during the disasters. In bygone times, NTS
would
have been buzzing with activity.
[snip]


Tom,

I hate to break your ham hating crusade but the NTS can't run any traffic,
if none is sent to it. I had the exact same complaint. I did manage to
handle a few messages, but NOTHING like I was expecting.

I have since found that the American Red Cross, for WHATEVER REASON decided
that ham radio was not good enough to use. Other than for a VHF Telephone
network between shelters that is.

Not our bad Tom. We were there, ready, willing, and able.

Dan/W4NTI