Mexico, FL, and Ham Radio

Ham Radio/SW DXing. Get involved! Let's take back America's Radio Waves! What's going on in ham radio in America...

Moderator: Super Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Fred_Vobbe
Pirate
Posts: 1564
Joined: 03-22-2005 03:08 PM

Mexico, FL, and Ham Radio

Post by Fred_Vobbe » 10-28-2005 06:52 AM

A HURRICANE NAMED WILMA PART 2

Hurricane Wilma's slow progress over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula took a heavy toll on local villages and luxury resorts. It also knocked out power and other utilities. With all means of communications down, it was up to ham radio let the outside world know what had happened. One of the most cryptic damage assessments came from XF3PAS on Cozumel:

--

XF3PAS: "I can tell you that this is very serious damage. We have no communications. We have two cruise ship terminals and we have our cargo pers also down. so we have no way at this moment to have water or food (delivered). We have to bring it overland. Over."

--

Alberto also provided reports to the Hurricane Watch net on 14.325 MHz:

--

XF3PAS: "It devistated a terifficly (wide) areas. Hotels on the ocean front are down. Some of them are completely damaged and the erosion at the South end is really bad. It goes like 50 yards in over solid rock. There is nothing in the area other than solid rock that was about 50 yards inside. Over."

--

By Sunday morning, October 23rd, Wilma was a Category 2 hurricane as it headed into the Gulf of Mexico. Its next target was the west coast of Florida, with landfall taking place on Monday the 24th. Steve Crow, K4CPX, in Punta Gorda reported that Wilma’s eye wall clocked at 120 Knots passed directly over Marco Island as forecasters had predicted with Naples and Everglades City directly in the hurricane's path. Steve also reported that he had not lost power though the lights were blinking every so often. He also had good news that his boat. The Sea Fox was riding out the storm very well.

Wilma then crossed Florida heading directly toward the Ft. Lauderdale area. There were reports of storm surge flooding in the Keys. Ron Keister, KG4DWP at the E-O-C in Boynton Beach who described only light to moderate damage at about noon on the 25th over Hurricane Watch Net VoIP circuits:

--

KG4DWP: "It appears we are in the south-west eyewall at this time. We have rain and wind and we do have some structural damage to the adjacent buildings. Roofs, sidings and trees down. That kind of thing."


--

Further North, Martin Falk, KI4IQZ, reported in from the Oakland Park Emergency Operations Center

--

KI4QZ: "Its slowed down a tiny bit but its still windy. Everyone is staying put. The fire department in Oakland Park is considering going out shortly, hoping that the winds go down in the next ten to fifteen minutes. Its to dangerous for high profile vehicles right now. Back to net."

--

The big problem in the area between Deerfield Beach and Boynton Beach was not a loss of phone. Rather it was the power that kept going away. As Wilma's eye passed over the area, our producer Bill Pasternak was surprised when the phone rang with his in-laws in Boca Raton on the other end:

--

"I was sitting here, actually working on the script for Newsline when my wife called out to me and said that mom and dad were on the phone. I picked up the extension and talked to them for a while and found out that yes they had no power. And yes they had no cellular service. No gas, I believe. But the telephones kept working at least in the Boca Raton area."

--

That area was one of the few where landline telephons remained in operation even though cellular service went out. The ham radio community using emergency power kept on the air even though at times the copy was a little rough:

--

(Unidentified operators. Hard to decipher off-air audio).

--

As Wilma approached, the Hurricane Watch Net worked in conjunction with National Hurricane Center station WX4NHC to gather data on the storm. Meantime, with power out to over 6 million people after the storm finally made its way off shore, ARES and other emergency communications volunteers throughout Florida provided ongoing assistance to relief officials and the public.

According to news reports, 10 people in Florida lost their lives in the storm. Authorities say that they hope to have electrical service completely restored no later than November 16th.

A databases where hams can reguister to volunteer to provide asssistance to relief agencies has been set up for the ARRL by Joe Tomasone, AB2M. Its on-line at http://wilma.ab2m.net. Again that's http://wilma.ab2m.net.

(ARNewsline - with most audio from HWN IRLP Conference)
scientia quod ethics super ususfructus

Post Reply

Return to “Ham Radio/DXing”