Local ham radio operators are helping Katrina victims

05:22 PM PDT on Wednesday, August 31, 2005

By DEBORAH FELDMAN / KING 5 News

OLYMPIA - Local ham radio operators are listening in to the drama unfolding in Louisiana and Mississippi, and some are doing something about it, lending a hand to those most in need.

One ham operator in Olympia helped reunite a worried family. Richard Olson got his license in ham radio operation at age 14 and has been hooked ever since. "The fascinating part is it doesn't require telephone lines. It’s strictly over the airwaves," said Olson.

He tunes in daily, so when hurricane Katrina hit land he began listening in to what ham operators there were saying. "There's a network that has been set up by the Salvation Army and so they're handling emergency traffic on that frequency," said Olson.

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Over the years, Richard has used his ham radio to communicate with people in more than 200 countries. In fact, a map on his wall has pins indicating just some of the countries where he's had communications.

The conversations he's had with people in Louisiana in the past few days have been some of his most memorable transmissions yet. Wednesday morning, Richard keyed in one man living 50 miles outside of New Orleans.

With all other systems down, the man was operating his ham radio off his car battery. Richard recorded the man's transmission as he explained an elderly neighbor was trying to reach family members in another state.

"He was trying to get information to a family in Ohio, so I jumped in and was able to relay and I made a phone call to Ohio and we were able to pass information back and forth to a family there in Folsum," said Richard.

Richard was able to reassure the woman's family that she was all right, and then passed information back that her relatives are arranging to bring her to Ohio. "It feels very gratifying," Richard said.

He says when a major disaster strikes; sometimes old-fashioned modes of communication out perform modern technology. “In this day and age with the internet, cell phones and all that, if all of these other highly technical forms of communications fail, amateur radio is a very basic, fundamental form of communications and can be very useful," said Olson.

Richard says the signal from New Orleans varies during the day, but that he'll keep on listening to see if he can help anyone else.