Community Chat

[traveler]

On 3/27/2015 spud188 said: I remember we lived in a a hotel room when that happened,I was in the 4th grade.

because of the quake?

[Irshgrl31201]

I remember looking at pictures of the damage. The roads looked crazy, I couldn't figure out how they would fix them.

[raven-blackbird]

totally wiped out the town of Valdez............when hubs and I were there, he was on a job there..........we went and saw the old town of Valdez and the memorial with the list of names of the people lost...........whole families.....................................raven

[NoelSeven]

Close relatives of my father lived in Anchorage. I was a little kid and didn't understand the full impact but I saw how upset my mother, father and grandmother were. The phone lines were down, no way to know if our family was ok. Then my father thought of a good friend of his from church whose high school son was an amateur ham radio operator. The son was able to contact someone he knew of there, another student. The young guy there made it through the rubble to the family home, found there had been a lot of damage but they were ok. Then he got word back to us. I never forgot that kindness from those two boys. Does anyone do the ham radio thing anymore?

[Burnsite]

This was the first time I ever heard the word "tsunami," though I think the media mainly called it a tidal wave. It was horrifying to see the footage of that disaster.

[Marp2]

On 3/27/2015 NoelSeven said: Close relatives of my father lived in Anchorage. I was a little kid and didn't understand the full impact but I saw how upset my mother, father and grandmother were. The phone lines were down, no way to know if our family was ok. Then my father thought of a good friend of his from church whose high school son was an amateur ham radio operator. The son was able to contact someone he knew of there, another student. The young guy there made it through the rubble to the family home, found there had been a lot of damage but they were ok. Then he got word back to us. I never forgot that kindness from those two boys. Does anyone do the ham radio thing anymore?

Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

[NoelSeven]

On 3/28/2015 Marp2 said:

On 3/27/2015 NoelSeven said: Close relatives of my father lived in Anchorage. I was a little kid and didn't understand the full impact but I saw how upset my mother, father and grandmother were. The phone lines were down, no way to know if our family was ok. Then my father thought of a good friend of his from church whose high school son was an amateur ham radio operator. The son was able to contact someone he knew of there, another student. The young guy there made it through the rubble to the family home, found there had been a lot of damage but they were ok. Then he got word back to us. I never forgot that kindness from those two boys. Does anyone do the ham radio thing anymore?

Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Thank you, Marp, I'm going to check your link right away.

I just never hear of anyone being a ham radio operator anymore and it's always fascinated me. It's such a wonderful resource.

[NoelSeven]

On 3/28/2015 Marp2 said:

Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Thanks again. Wow, there's more than a hundred thousand in CA alone! I had no idea, I haven't heard about it in years. I wish I knew someone who was an operator, I'd love to see it in practice.

Radio was big in those days. I remember my father had a really large radio that received stations all over the world. It had a part that folded over it and when open there was a map of the world with some chart on where the best stations were. He loved searching what was on at night.

[Lucky Charm]

On 3/28/2015 NoelSeven said:

On 3/28/2015 Marp2 said:

Yes they do Noel. Ham operators can be communications lifelines if there is widespread outages due to natural disaster or other causes.

You might THIS of interest: http://hams.mapmash.com/hammap.php?US=1

Thanks again. Wow, there's more than a hundred thousand in CA alone! I had no idea, I haven't heard about it in years. I wish I knew someone who was an operator, I'd love to see it in practice.

Radio was big in those days. I remember my father had a really large radio that received stations all over the world. It had a part that folded over it and when open there was a map of the world with some chart on where the best stations were. He loved searching what was on at night.

Sometimes I'll see license plates that have their ham id on them. We actually have a poster (mostly on pet forum) who uses her Ham 'handle' as her nic.

A friend bought a house years ago and the guy was a ham operator big time. He left all kinds of antenas* and wires in the attic. They had the worst time taking everything out.

*(However you spell it...lol)

[graciesmom1]

As a child in school at that time, it was one thing to hear about the quake on the evening news an even to see the news clips reported, but we received Life and Look magazine in the mail and the spread in Life was astonishing. The photography was so real and so gripping that I still remember feeling as though I had gone through the same devastation as those families and being so very grateful that I lived on the East coast where we didn't know what an earthquake felt like. We all prayed at home and church for those thousands lost.