When the Lights Went out in Idaho…HAM Radio to the Rescue!!

I promised on our yahoo group that I would share a story about using HAM radio. I am a big believer and becoming more of a believer as I hear more stories of those who have been helped by an amateur radio operator. A few weeks ago we saw this in action.

Our son and his wife are finishing college in Idaho and one night about 10:00pm we received a text message from our son that their power was out and had been for about an hour. We checked the weather and realized it was 6 degrees, and I’m sure the wind chill made it below 0 degrees, this is a very windy part of the state. Mom gave him some advice about closing doors to keep their body heat contained in one room, and covering windows to keep cold air from entering their apartment. We then asked what had caused the outage. That was the mystery.

Dad told him to get on the radio to see what he could learn. In about two minutes he reported back that he had contacted a HAM in Idaho Falls and he had the scoop. There had been an equipment failure at the power plant.

This is just a small example of how radio can help in a crisis and this was not a terrible disaster, yet, there was no information available to those in the dark. We had looked on the internet and found nothing. After about an hour there was a report on the internet that a tanker had crashed into a power station. That turned out to be untrue. The amateur radio operator was the only one who had accurate information.

While we were in Houston recently we were caravanning as we visited some of the sites. We became separated and one of the cars became stuck in a massive traffic jam. We communicated via our radios and the second car was able to avoid the mess and use an alternate route. Now, you may say we could have done the same thing with our cell phones. That is true but during an evacuation cell phone coverage will be non existent or very unreliable. Ask any emergency responder who has been involved in a disaster and they will tell you land lines are more reliable than cell phone and radio is by far the best way to communicate.

Several years ago our local scout troupe was on a 50 mile hike and a member was injured. It was days until someone could hike out to get help. Last year a friend was on a hiking trip with his son and his father-in-law suffered a heart attach. They did not discover the family crisis until they hiked out four days later. Several years ago our niece and her boyfriend were lost for two days when their car went off the road during a snow storm in Oregon. In each case there was no cell phone coverage. In the case of our niece, there was no sleep for any of us until they were found, and many hours of pacing and praying. All of these scenarios could have been made easier had those involved had a license and radio with them.

I got my license this last spring at a HAM cram. These are one day sessions where you literally cram to take the test. You review the questions and answers over and over until they become second nature to you. At the end of the day you take the test and you know immediately if you passed. The day I took mine everyone passed including a 10 year old girl and 11 year old boy. To find a HAM cram near you contact your local Amateur Radio Club. You can find them by searching on the internet or just asking around.

You can get started for under $200.00, it’s well worth the investment.

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