The following is a Q-S-T. Ham radio continues its lifeline communications to the stricken Gulf states, a close call for the Handi Hams and Amateur Radio remembers the victims of 911. Find out the details on Amateur Radio Newsline report number 1465 coming your way right now.

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RESCUE RADIO: HAM RADIO CONTINUES AS LIFELINE COMMUNICATIONS

Amateur Radio continues as the main communications lifeline to the hurricane and flood ravaged Gulf states. This, almost two weeks after Hurricane Katrina made landfall near New Orleans and devastated the Big Easy. Amateur Radio Newsline's Mark Abramovich, NT3V, is here with the latest.

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Sound on tape:

1st operator: "State your QTH and conditions please."

2nd operator: "We are in Gulfport, Mississippi at a staging area right now trying to fit into about a 6 foot by 6 foot square piece of shade to stay cool, over."

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Those who are living through it and those who are working to help victims of Hurricane Katrina say the television pictures just don't tell the full story. The devastation and destruction to property, the loss of lives, sometimes defies words and pictures.

Amateur Radio operators from across the country are rallying to do their part - as they always do in times of disaster.

Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO, writes the public service column for CQ magazine and is an ARRL assistant section manager in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Josuweit says hams have responded in large numbers to the call from the American Red Cross to the ARRL for volunteers to staff shelters. He says the effort to put together a database was handled by someone who's had some experience in this area.

"A website for collecting the names of volunteers had been set up by Joe Tomasone, AB2M, down in Florida," Josuweit explains. "Now, Joe has had extensive experience following 9-11 in establishing a resource database for hams. People are registering for that and then operators are drawn from that list as needed."

Many are heading to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama - to key towns where the needs are great.

Josuweit says those who've been staffing the various shelters and emergency operations centers since Katrina hit are running out of steam and need a break.

"People are getting tired, they've been out there for a week some on 24- hour-operations and we're just going to need to fill in and give the operators on site some relief," Josuweit says.

"It's expected that ham radio operators will be needed for at least the next 30 days at various locations in the South."

He says a particular group of hams with experience dealing with hurricanes have stepped forward to help their neighbors.

"I understand hams in the Tallahasee area in particular have gotten together and are coordinating their efforts and bringing equipment with them, but, again, they are being assigned to specific locations in Mississippi," Josuweit says.

He says a lot of health and welfare traffic has been passed out of the hurricane-disaster zone across the country on a number of bands and modes.

"A combination of EchoLink, IRLP, WinLink, traditional voice communication on UHF-VHF, as well as HF capability," Josuweit says.

The CQ columnist says the internet is also playing a role in helping reunite families, thanks to the Salvation Army and amateur radio.

"We do have, through the Salvation Army, a website of www.satern.org. That's S-A-T-E-R-N dot O-R-G that people can put an inquiry in," Josuweit says. "That information will go into the ham radio networks and we'll attempt to find it. But it is very difficult and we're having much better success getting information out of the affected area rather than trying to get inquiries into the affected area."

And finally, Josuweit notes it's not just the hurricane zones that need operators.

"The hams are not only working directly in the actual disaster area, but they're now spreading their operations into other areas of the country," Josuweit says. "For example, in the

Houston area there are many hams providing communications for the EOCs and for the Red Cross to the various shelters in that area.

"And, also out in Oklahoma they've been deployed to provide 24-hour, seven- day-a-week communication for some of the evacuees out there."

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Mark Abramowicz, NT3V, in Philadelphia.

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Read the rest of this Newsline at Amateur Radio Newsline - Report #1465