BRATS The Milliwatt ARRL
The award-winning monthly publication of
The Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society
P.O.Box 5915 Baltimore, MD 21282-5915

February, 2005

Post-Tsunami News Coverage Raises Ham Radio's Global Visibility

News coverage about Amateur Radio's role in the tsunami relief effort have been widespread and positive. High-profile articles in the past few days have appeared in The Washington Post and the Orlando Sentinel in the US as well as in several South Asian news sources, including The Times of India and The Hindu. Other media, including Agence France Presse, the Wall Street Journal and MSNBC, also have run reports on the value of Amateur Radio in helping to open lines of communication cut off when the earthquake and tsunami struck December 26.

Amateur Radio Praised as Lifeline in South Asia

As the tsunami relief and recovery effort continues in South Asia, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has joined those paying tribute to Amateur Radio's ongoing emergency communication role. Director and Executive Vice Chairman S. Suri, VU2MY, of India's National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR), noted January 5 that the PM "was all praise for hams in India and the entire world who helped us in this hour of need."

Echo satellite team reports no tsunami traffic (Jan 12, 2005)

The AMSAT Echo (AO-51) team reports it has not yet seen any message traffic via the satellite's PacSat BroadCast Protocol packet system (PBBS) from the tsunami disaster area in South Asia. AMSAT-NA put AO-51 into 9k6 bps store-and-forward mode earlier this month make it available for emergency communication in the wake of the December 26 earthquake-tsunami disaster. Nonetheless, the AO-51 team has noted a substantial increase in recent days in the number of stations accessing the PBBS--about three times the normal level of traffic. "We are going to leave AO-51 in its current mode for another week to give any stations in the area a chance to set up and use the PBBS," Mike Kingery, KE4AZN, of the AO-51 team announced January 8.

Reminder: No More Hard Copy Milliwatt

The Milliwatt has ceased universal hard copy distribution with the January issue. If you would like to receive a hard copy each month, please send me a WRITTEN REQUEST, either via snail mail, at: (BRATS, P.O. Box 5915, Baltimore, MD, 21282-5195) or via email ( mayerzimmerman@verizon.net) If you are receiving a hard copy and do not wish to continue receiving a hard copy, please let me know by either of the above methods.

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