An emergency response

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Previously I've talked about one of the often lauded cornerstones of the amateur radio community, namely Emergency Response, and to be frank, I questioned then, as I do now, the reality of this, at the very least, perceived, foundational aspect of our global hobby.

Before you get out the caps lock key, let me assure you that I'm aware of sporadic examples of heroic efforts made by members of our community to save lives that are held up as examples of amateur radio emergency responses.

What I'm questioning is related to our collective effectiveness. We have global and increasing occurrences of wild or bush fires, we have earthquakes and tsunamis, storms, hurricanes, cyclones or typhoons, whatever you call the vortex of destruction, and global news media ensures that we hear about it within hours if not seconds. Social media provides us with mobile phone footage dubbed with expert audio to explain the latest tragedy to the rest of us.

What we don't see is what happens next, while the power is out, the internet is down, mobile phones aren't working anymore and survivors are fighting tooth and nail for their return to normalcy, or at least what's left of it.

It struck me that one thing I never see discussed and haven't ever discussed in over a decade and a half I've been here, is the amateur radio interface with the rest of the world.

A comment I see often is that Internet connected amateur radio, like Echolink, AllStarLink and IRLP, aren't real radio and that real amateurs use RF.

HF radio for the win right?

What do you think the relevance of HF radio is to a family member living in the next town after a disaster, or a parent looking for their lost child?

How do ordinary people benefit from the radio amateur who lives on their street, or the one who travels into the disaster zone?

Ultimately, if we are to take our claimed emergency response role seriously, we as a community of radio amateurs need to consider just what it is that we can offer to the people around us in the case of an emergency.

Might what we offer look like a Wi-Fi base station that's connected to the rest of the world via an IP link that happens to be running on 2m or 70cm during an emergency?