eHam.net News

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Queens School's Amateur Radio Club Offers Messaging Lifeline to Puerto Rico

Posted: 02 Oct 2017 05:22 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40178


JACKSON HEIGHTS -- Inside the tiny amateur radio room inside the Garden
School's second-floor library, students fiddle with dials and listen for
voices being transmitted from around the world. The school's radio club,
which has grown to around 20 members since launching last year, has
competed in contests and learned all about operating ham radios from inside
the 78th Street school. Now, the extracurricular activity has taken a more
urgent mission for students. The station -- known by its call sign, K2GSG
-- is taking messages known as "radiograms" to send down to
hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, which has been mostly without power since
Hurricane Maria struck the island. Anyone can send a note to the club's
email address, and students will help craft the right message to relay to
people in Puerto Rico. The old-school relaying process has become relevant
again, as millions of Puerto Ricans have been cut off from modern forms of
communication following the storm. In response, two-dozen amateur radio
operators on the island have helped police and first responders after power
was knocked out earlier this month, NBC News reported.


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Newburgh Teen is a Real Pro with Amateur Radio:

Posted: 02 Oct 2017 05:21 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40177


When all communication fails, there are always amateur radio operators to
step in. Natural disasters such as hurricanes and storms can cause flooding
and disable systems: But they don't affect amateur radio. "After Hurricane
Sandy, our system was activated to help communicate emergencies throughout
the region," says Sean Flynn, 17, of the Town of Newburgh. "We were
relaying messages between organizations or taking information from the
field and passing it along to emergency services." "Even cellphone systems
rely on towers, switchboards and relays to work," says Sean. "When those go
down, cellphones stop working." So, is amateur radio being used in Texas
and Florida to deal with the recent hurricanes? "We aren't part of it, but
I can almost guarantee it," he says. "One of the great things about amateur
radio is that it doesn't rely on any infrastructure," he says. "We can set
up anywhere and transmit around the world, if needed."


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MFJ Enterprises Celebrates 45 Years:

Posted: 02 Oct 2017 05:21 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40176


STARKVILLE, MS -- Hundreds of people were at McKee Park on Saturday to
celebrate the 45th anniversary of a local business. MFJ Enterprises is
named after its founder and president, Martin F. Jue, who founded the
company in 1972. It has grown from selling one product - a filtering device
for radios - to making more pieces of ham radio equipment than any other
radio company in the world. "The whole idea here is for us to say thank you
to all of our radio operators and just let them have a good time and find
out about Starkville and what we have here to offer," Jue said. To
celebrate, the company hosted two days of events, with tours of its factory
buildings, a fried chicken lunch on Saturday, prizes, guest speakers,
product demonstrations and FCC license exams. "We had an international
short-wave broadcasting station broadcasting live from our community and he
reaches audiences all over the world," Jue said. "The mayor came down and
was given a tour and interviewed on that short-wave radio station, so
people from all over the world know about Starkville, now." Ham radios are
used primarily as a hobby, but president of the American Radio Relay League
Rick Roderick said the league helps with emergency relief efforts after a
disaster shuts down communications in an area. "We have been working with
the Red Cross and FEMA in deploying radio operators in teams to Puerto Rico
to have an emergency communications relief there," Roderick said. "We have
used MFJ products there and I personally have about 30 of MFJ's products in
my station back home."


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Knox County Ham Radio Operators Relay Messages When All Else Fails:

Posted: 02 Oct 2017 12:04 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40175


ROCKLAND -- In Maine, two families slept a little easier in the aftermath
of Hurricane Irma thanks to ham radio operators in Knox County. The two
welfare inquiries began their slow journeys to Florida via radiogram on
Monday, Sept. 11. Both replies came back September 14. Slow by modern
standards, yet lacking another long-distance option during the power and
phone outages of the storm, the patience of Steve Hansen and Norm Smith,
and the team effort of the traffic handlers along the route, still allowed
for a sense of relief. Both hams are active members of the Pen Bay Amateur
Radio Club and the Knox County ARES/RACES-CERT team. They are also
affiliated with Radio Relay International, an organization that supports
and promotes ham radio message handling. Smith, of Friendship, sent out a
welfare inquiry regarding someone he knew. That inquiry took an unexpected
geographic detour. His message traveled first by voice, and was then
relayed down the east coast by CW (Morse code) operators according to James
Wades, who wrote about the incident in his monthly "QNI" newsletter for
traffic (message) handlers.