Last Modified: 19 October 2005

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October 2005 Newsletter

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From the Secretary
Carl Russell, KE5AKI



Communication Isn't a Luxury

Last Spring I was at a national meeting for Disaster Relief and in the communications breakout, a man actually said, "We don't need HAM radio anymore, cell phones and satellite phones can do everything we need." I sure wish I had had him at Katrina. The power lines were down, no phones were working. Without HAM radio there would have been no communications with the devastated areas. I was the Logistics and Communications Officer for Southern Baptist Disaster Relief in Mississippi and we had over 2,000 volunteers working on feeding units, chainsaw units, mud out units, child care and mobile medical units. Some of those units also brought in a Communications units, but most didn't. Those that didn't had no communications with anybody. Imagine trying to supply food, fuel, water and services to a feeding unit when you have no idea how many meals they are serving or what they need. Or imagine having a chain saw unit out in the field and somebody gets hurt and they can't contact anyone for help or to find where the nearest clinic is. As I began to really think about how to raise our communications ability, I had to deal with why we didn't have more in the first place. That's an easy one; we don't have enough trained volunteers and we don't have enough equipment. Why do we seem to have plenty of volunteers and equipment for feeding and chainsaw units but not for communications? Maybe it's because we have looked upon communications as a luxury and not a necessity? Communications has been one of those, "What's the least we can get by with?" kind of things. And maybe that's because we have trusted in the telephone too much?
"To be ready is important, to know to wait is even more important, but to use the opportunity is the key to life."

Arthur Schnitzler (1862-1931); Austrian playwright.

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