Evening star., 1928-09-18
RADIO HAMS LEND
AID DURING STORM
Amateurs Receive and Send
News of Gale in Florida
and Porto Rico.

With customary alacrity the radio
amateur has injected himself into the
West Indian hurricane situation, and
has substituted for the disrupted land
and wireless communication facilities.
Amateur stations were among the first
to transmit and receive accounts of the
desolation and destruction wrought by
the hurricane which already has laid
waste vast areas in Porto Rico, the
Virgin Islands, and in Florida.
Maintaining their past records of
the radio hams" eagerly have CO.
operated with the Naval Communica-
tions Service in expediting the trans
mission of dispatches for the relief of
the stricken populaces Where regular
land, cable and radio communication
facilities have been swept away, the
amateur has stepped In on both the
sending and receiving ends.
The hurricane struck its first blow
September 13, cutting a Swath through
the Virgin Islands and Porto Rico. The
antennae of the Navy's radio station at
San Juan was carried away and all
communication in that area was crio-
pied. First official word of the disaSt .c
amateur Station $50, School of En-
gineering, Milwaukee, from the San
Juan naval station, transmitted on the
amateur frequency of $500 kilocycleS
with improvised equipment.
Sends News to Capital.
The second official report from the
area was picked up by amateur station
2AFO, operated by Charles Brown,
Richmond Hill. N. Y. This station
worked on high frequency with naval
radio at st. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Amateur 2BS. Lawrence E. FELTON,, Co
lonia, N. j., fo--,r-ied to washington
message from -. Thomas, assisting in
setting UP a contact.
And on the sending end Of the st.
Thomas contact was the amateur sta
tion of r. c. Spincelly. former Navy
man. Through this station two-way
communication with Washington was
established.
AS the hurricane swept North to
Florida. destroying all regular commu-
nication, the radio amateurs in the
region assumed their self-delegated
functions of establishing contacts. Gif-
ford Grange, Jacksonville, receiving a
message from station VAFC, Palm Beach,
asking for assistance and describing
0AdllsC ID ttlC diidICuk WlIO
obtained the first message from the
Florida hurricane area in 1926, for
which he was commended by the Navy
Department.
Hams" Value Shown.
Emergencies such as this are indi-
cative of the value of the "ham" Be-
cause their efforts primarily are direct
ed to experimentation In their own small
way there has been considerable talk
of regulating amateurs off the valuable
ether. But the present situation is just
another example of the usefulness or
even the necessity of having scattered
throughout the country stations that are
able to step into the breech and give
service that means actual saving of
lives when regular communication chan
neis falter
There are approximately 10000 Ii
censed amateur stations in the country.
They have been the real pioneers in
radio, and are largely responsible for
the present advanced stage of the art.
Many of the vast number of devices and
con.raptions that make up the present
transmitting and receiving apparatus
are the results of amateur experimental
ton. 49, -, s
tcopyrisht, 1928, by the Consolidated Press,