With communication still limited after Helene devastated western North Carolina, ham radio operators in the Triangle and other areas are trying to help people connect with loved ones unable to make calls or evacuate.

  • Knacht @lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    I helped set up a phone patch for an Asheville resident Saturday morning.

    Using the Intercon as a setup point and directed the stations to move off net frequency a bit to have their welfare conversation.

    It worked! The party found a nearby local to Asheville, and the traffic was passed.

    Ken KD8DWO

  • K0STK
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    3 months ago

    As fas as the mainstream media (M5M) are concerned, ham radio doesn’t exist. All I’ve heard about are heroic efforts to distribute Starlink terminals.

    As past FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, said in Ham Radio Now Emcomm Extra #8, when an incident occurs “they just want their email to work.”

    • invalidusernamelol [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      3 months ago

      The star links sucked anyways. Can really only handle like 100 connections before they overheat and they put them all on 192.168.0.0/24 address space so when you have 500+ people trying to connect it just straight up didn’t work.

      Luckily switching to 10.0.1.0/16 is easy, but most of the people they were handed out to didn’t know that. Meanwhile HAM radio just works. It can also support unlimited connections.

  • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Is communication still limited? I have family that was in the path and I heard from them before, during, and after. I guess maybe they got lucky.