Advisory: Requests for Information from the Public and the Press
Many
individuals have loved ones in Puerto Rico and they are understandably
hopeful that Amateur Radio operators can relay messages to them. As a
result, some are contacting amateurs with
requests to pass message traffic to the island.
At
the same time, individual amateurs and clubs have reported that local
press representatives have contacted them to request information about
Amateur Radio involvement in Puerto Rico. This
is likely to increase as word spreads in the national media about our
activities.
For
inquiries from the public, ARRL advises that these individuals should
be informed that amateurs traveling to the island to support the
American Red Cross effort will be tasked with handling
outbound traffic only. With that in mind, members of the public should access the American Red Cross Safe and Well System online at
https://safeandwell.communityos.org/cms/index.php. Status
information from friends and relatives in Puerto Rico will be entered
into the system as it arrives from amateurs stationed there.
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In addition, the following request comes from HFLINK International Coordinator Bonnie Crystal, KQ6XA:
ALE operators are needed to help support disaster relief flights in the Caribbean area.
Volunteer ham radio operators who live in the following areas are asked to activate their home ALE HF stations:
+ Caribbean islands
+ southeastern USA
+ eastern USA
+ Central America
+ northern South America
+ areas that have good HF propagation to Caribbean
If you can volunteer some of your spare time to put your ALE station on the air, even on a single frequency, please respond to this request.
Please see the HFLINK.NET website to text chat with other ALE ops.
http://hflink.net
We will be using the HFL (voice) and HFN (text/data/sounding) channel sets.
The following frequencies will probably be the most active.
14346.0 kHz USB
7296.0 kHz USB
5371.5 kHz USB
Bonnie Crystal KQ6XA
HFLINK International Coordinator
http://hflink.net
(via Lloyd Colston, KC5FM)