[AT] A little Off Topic -amateur licenses

[Don Bowen]

charliehill wrote:
>   I've got my scanner set on the local repeater and I 
> might hear 3 converations a day on there at most and most of the guys seem 
> thrilled to find one other station off somewhere they can talk to. 
There are often practice nets where net control is practiced.  These 
nets can be anything from just chit chat (rag chewing to some) to very 
technical nets.  One I occasionally join via echolink is on railroads.
>  Of 
> course given a Katrina type of event where you find yourself in a proverbial 
> New Orleans where phones and cell phones don't work and there is no 
> transportation then any possible means of communication would be great.
>   
Several years ago there was one of the ever more common major brush 
fires in Southern California. I was listening to a Repeater in Fallbrook 
as they gave the ever changing road conditions during an evacuation.  I 
was relaying that information via cell phone to a Red Cross Emergency 
Communications Response Vehicle that was trying to get to San Diego.

While parked in Houston at the Red Cross office I listened to a local 
Skywarn net during a major rain storm.  They were giving information on 
flooding and road closures and at aone time helped bring in rescue 
personnel.

-- 
Don Bowen           KI6DIU
http://www.braingarage.com/Dons/Travels/journal/Journal.html