Hurricane Response Was Key Element of Amateur Radio Demonstration

A major hurricane with mass casualties in the mid-Atlantic and New England states was the scenario for a demonstration of amateur radio's ability to transmit and receive messages without commercial power, telecommuni-cations infrastructure or permanent stations. The ARRL reports that the demonstration involved roughly a dozen hams from South Carolina to Maine and was held in coordi-nation with both the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross. 

A combination of voice and digital modes was used by participating hams to transmit messages to ARRL Headquarters station W1AW, from which they were relayed to a joint Red Cross-FEMA meeting under way in Baltimore. The League reports that Red Cross officials monitoring the test were impressed with hams' ability to match Red Cross message formats in their digital messages, which were sent using fldigi and flmsg.