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.
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hard copy each month, please send me a WRITTEN REQUEST, either via snail mail, at:
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