Hi all,
Hey Sparx, here's another POed ham telling you to knock it off and act like a gentleman. Remember the phrase "it is better to be thought a fool than open the mouth and remove all doubt". My friend's mother isn't nearly so polite, she mentioned a braying jackass and that feisty Irishwoman would take you over her knee as big as you are.
"The 9/11 disaster was another big callout for Ham radio ops. The World Trade Centers had huge antennas on top and several radio systems went down that day."
This incorrect statement seems to have triggered that repeated tirade so here's the straight dope. We lost several repeater systems directly, went down with WTC2 and others indirectly that day when power went off in lower Manhattan. There was little ham turnout, none was really needed under the circumstances that seem to be greatly misunderstood and wrongly compared to others where hams really matter.
For example, the whole area around the Indian Ocean was affected by a series of natural disasters, the tsunami was only one and hams provided the only communications possible in the most severely affected areas.
On the other hand many of us go about routine public service communications behind the scenes quite unnoticed. For example, the guys driving those Doppler radar trucks you saw on the Discovery Channel are the glory boys working for the NWS, but the storm spotters in private vehicles you saw are hams. We do such things pretty much every day and nobody gives credit, few even notice us along the parade route or the March Of Dimes marathon, the bicycle race.......
Now the bottom line after all that is IF YOU CAN'T SAY SOMETHING NICE, SAY NOTHING AT ALL.
