Hams Respond to Historic Floods in Hawaii

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Hawaii, which was slammed with two so-called "atmospheric river storms" that brought heavy rains and high winds, flooding all the state's islands and sweeping many houses off their foundations. ARES and RACES hams were activated, providing realtime ground reports for weather and field information on Oahu and Maui. 

“... VHF linked repeater systems carried individual voice reports sent to EOCs. Meanwhile, federal emergency ICS-213 forms were transmitted carrying messages and incident reports over peer-to-peer Winlink via VHF or on HF.
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— ARRL Pacific Section Manager Alan KH6TU/AD6E

As emergency crews cleared landslides and repaired communications and power lines, hams continued to update road and weather conditions, assisting with coordinated communications. As Newsline went to production, recovery continued after what was being called the state's worst flooding in two decades.

FCC Warns Pittsburgh Amateur Radio Operator for 911 Interference

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FCC Warns Pittsburgh Amateur Radio Operator for 911 Interference

The Federal Communications Commission has sent a notice of licensed operation and harmful interference to an amateur radio operator in Pittsburgh regarding transmissions on a 911 emergency services channel from a handheld transceiver.

Last summer, the FCC received a complaint from Allegheny County, Pa., Emergency Services concerning interference with one of its UHF “T-Band” emergency communications channels.

The interference affected the county’s west EMS dispatch channel on 470.4375 MHz.

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Doomsday Radio awakens after 50 Years - Repeats “Degazator”

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Doomsday Radio awakens after 50 Years - Repeats “Degazator”

The current climate among the nations of the world is a very tense one indeed. But when a mysterious “Doomsday” radio station began broadcasting after 50 years of silence, the world began raising questions as to the purpose of these odd one-word broadcasts.

What could the strange repetition of the word ‘Degazator” mean?

How strange radio broadcast signals have revealed secrets about the world

Strange radio signals have often emerged from military or security projects around the world.

In 1976, at the height of the Cold War, a strange and unexplained radio signal was detected with no obvious origin. The Soviet Union remained silent on the signal, but amateur radio enthusiasts found that the signal came from Chernobyl, most likely being an early warning system for American missiles.

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