by MARY KLAUS, Of The Patriot-News
The York Township resident has seven phones and four computers in his home, and a cell phone always with him.
Yet when it comes to emergencies, Dellinger still depends on the century-old technology known as ham or amateur radio.
"When all else fails, amateur radio is there," said Dellinger, a 27-year ham radio operator who in times of disasters sets up equipment so emergency responders can communicate if or when county radio towers fail. "Amateur radio is ready and willing to serve the community."
During the May 12 earthquake in China, a Chinese ham radio repeater never stopped functioning. Chinese hams headed for the epicenter to set up emergency communications and soon, more than 200 local radio hams were communicating on that repeater.
In the United States, the last major disaster in which ham radios were used was after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the South. Two weeks after the hurricane struck, the American Radio Relay League recruited Dellinger to help provide communications in Hattiesburg, Miss.
"I worked there with the American Red Cross Pennsylvania branch for three weeks," Dellinger said. "We had amateur radio communications between the operations center and mass care center. I also spent a week in one of their emergency response vehicles, where the Red Cross took food to the mass care centers, churches, schools and firehouses. There was no other communications there."
Dellinger said that when disasters sever power and phone lines, the hand-held, battery-operated ham radios can be lifelines. "When phone lines are overloaded or when radio towers are down in power outages, ham radio continues to communicate," he said. "Sometimes, we're all that's left."
He serves as chairman of the Pennsylvania South Central Task Force Amateur Radio Work Group. That 50-member group provides emergency communications services during disasters in Adams, Cumberland, Dauphin, Franklin, Lancaster, Lebanon, Perry and York counties.
In Pennsylvania, ham radios have been used during floods and other weather disasters, said Jack Wehr, acting director of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency Technical Service Bureau. He said PEMA has ham radios in its headquarters and conducts semi-annual drills with hams.
"Ham radios are not yesterday's technology," said Wehr, a ham radio operator for 36 years. "Society today relies on phones so much. When they don't work, people get upset. Ham radios work."
Cell phones can be useful but can't replace ham radios, according to Stephen J. Shaver, Dauphin County Emergency Management Agency director.
"Cell phones are like land-line phones," he said. "They are tied to a device that is close. Ham radios can talk all over the world if necessary. We use ham radios as a backup system to provide a redundant link from our operations center to the operations center of an incident."
Astronauts have ham radios when they go into space as "a backup communications system." Wehr said. "The space stations and the shuttles have amateur radio equipment. Ham radio has been reinvigorated. It's a hobby that is a valuable asset in an emergency."
Jerry Blacksmith of Carlisle, a South Central Task Force ham radio member, said ham radios are most valuable during the first few days of a disaster when communications are so important.
"That's when the American Red Cross has to let people know they are there," he said. "The modern value of amateur radios was proven during Katrina. When other sophisticated systems failed, ham radio was able to provide voice communication."
- WHAT IS IT?
- Ham radio is non-commercial, two- way wireless transmission in which messages are sent by voice or Morse code.
- Participants known as hams use a transceiver to transmit and receive.
- The power supply can be electric, battery or solar.
- An antenna is the feed line from the antenna to the radio.
- Hams also use computer monitors and keyboards or laptops to communicate with one another.
