Texas department of emergency management Y2K communications drill

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I have just participated in a Y2K emergency communications drill operated by the department of emergency management of the state of Texas. The stated purpose of this drill was to determine what amateur radio resources would be available for communication throughout the state of Texas in the event of communications disruptions caused by Y2K.

I'm happy to see that the responsible people in state government are taking Y2K seriously enough to run such drills. If only others would follow their lead, the possibly catastrophic events of next year might be greatly mitigated.

Either way, over 1000 stations checked in during the drill today, which will be repeated on October 21st. If you have any interest in participating in this drill or merely want to be kept informed of how it goes, please email me and I will add you to my Y2K amateur radio mailing list.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), October 08, 1999

Answers

Geez Steve given up on selling books? What kind of a moron would buy a programming book from a kook like you? You are seriously the king of the kooks. Who was your publisher again?

-- You Knowwho (debunk@doomeridiots.com), October 08, 1999.

During Hurricane Floyd the NC amateurs did very well, however there is no way NC had a thousand stations! One of the problems was that the network of repeaters was severely damaged out east, their towers were destroyed. I was among others who took our antennae down, which restricted the effective ranges of our stations.

I was surprised at a couple of things- one was the number of calls for stations with working cellphones (or who could autopatch), because the cellphone networks went down in many places. The other was how many hams actually do not have an alternate power source. I have yet to plug any of my stuff into the wall, 100 watts of solar panels and some deep cycle batteries run my station. I heard more than a few hams sign off because their batteries were low, or knocked off the air altogether when the power failed.

Another thing I noticed was that the greatest bulk of traffic was on 2 meters. I am not liscenced yet below 6 meters, but I listen down there and very little was going on, perhaps because UHF punches through the rain noise better. But most of the activity was 2m/repeater dependent. As repeaters failed, the remainder were jammed up, and the interlinks between repeaters caused confusion.

One result of my observations is that I am installing a UHF base antenna as high as I can reasonably get it, which will be around 40 feet. This will give me a decent simplex range, hopefully aound 50 miles, but it will be vulnerable to storm and lightning damage, as well as dangerous to install.

I am a little dumbfounded that so few hams aroung here run on solar. Given what you pay for your rig, a couple of small panels doesn't seem like a huge investment, especially when you consider the local power utilitie's hideous record of surges, which destroy computers and radios alike. But from talking to other hams in my band, it seems I am the only solar station around. This seems truly odd.

Also, no local repeaters that I know of are solar powered. This lack of alternate power, and the dependence on repeaters, could pose some serious difficulties for ham nets if there are extended outages.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), October 08, 1999.


Youknowwho@Doomeridiots.com:

Thank you for illustrating the feeble attempts of pollies to distract attention from serious problems. Have a nice millennium.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), October 08, 1999.


Ah Steve, enjoy life now you will be nothing but a embarassment to your profession in three months. I wonder what the chances are of you showing your face again after the rollover. I think it is equal to a snowball's chance in Hell.

-- You Knowwho (debunk@doomidiots.com), October 08, 1999.

You Knowwho: Ah Steve, enjoy life now you will be nothing but a embarassment to your profession in three months. I wonder what the chances are of you showing your face again after the rollover. I think it is equal to a snowball's chance in Hell.

Whatever happens, I do not regret warning people about the significant probability of a disaster. As for being an embarrassment to my profession: I'm willing to risk my name and reputation, unlike cowards like you who hide behind pseudonyms.

Now let's hear some discussion about the Texas state Y2K drill. Of course, you won't discuss that, because you can't write it off as the work of "doomers". Isn't that right, you pseudonymous coward?

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), October 08, 1999.



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