| On Good Friday, March 27, l964 approximately | | | | us and they're still responding to cries for help, up |
| 12,000 square miles of the Alaskan seafloor | | | | to and including 9/11 and the 2002 fires in |
| shifted causing one of the worst earthquakes in | | | | Colorado. |
| US history. When the shock waves subsided and | | | | The world wrongly assumes that with the |
| the massive tsunami receded, loss of life and | | | | Internet and cell phones, we no longer need Hams. |
| injuries were compounded by yet another | | | | But disasters cut electricity and cell phones need |
| tragedy -- a total communications blackout. | | | | working towers every three miles. Yet Internet |
| Then at last, a lone Ham Radio Operator managed | | | | search engines list Amateur Radio sites under |
| to send a message -- a cry for help that was | | | | "hobbies," a classification totally unwarranted and |
| repeated by other Hams and sent all over the | | | | highly resented. |
| world. | | | | Hams are a lot more than high school kids fiddling |
| History is rich with stories of Hams - 1996 a | | | | with radios. They are a network of highly trained |
| fierce lightning storm in Oregon/California, 1998 | | | | people -- men and woman of all ages who are |
| Flooding in Texas and Hurricane Bonnie, 1998 Ice | | | | willing to drop whatever they are doing to look |
| Storm in Canada, 1999 Hurricane Floyd | | | | for a lost child or aid overworked emergency |
| Earthquake in Taiwan - and the list goes on. | | | | personnel. Like an old-fashioned fire brigade, they |
| So what happened to Ham (Amateur) Radio | | | | pass the information bucket from one to another |
| Operators and why don't we hear about them | | | | warning of severe weather conditions, hazardous |
| anymore? Believe it or not, they still live among | | | | spills, railroad disasters and much, much more. |