North East Derbyshire RAYNET has been around since the late 1980s and was first affiliated with the RSGB in 1995.
Group Controller, Roger Neale,(G4OIE) has had a long association with RAYNET and says that "our members are always willing to assist other groups when the need arises", "We always look forward to a good challenge."
For more information on North East Derbyshire RAYNET, please contact :-
Roger Neale - G4OIE - via www.qrz.com or visit their web site here
In June 2008/09/10/11 Members of The M0OCT ARS assisted North East Derbyshire RAYNET on The Midsummer Night Walk in Aid of Ashgate Hospice.
For the event in June 2011 we are pleased to announce that once again Members of M0OCT Amateur Radio Society are assisting North East Derbyshire RAYNET with Communications. In 2009 there were approx 1400 walkers who completed the 14 mile walk from Dronfield To Ashgate Hospice and back to the start point for Bacon Butties and Refreshments.
We are also looking to enlist more operators this year to assist in providing Communications on the walk.
IF you think you can help, contact Roger on the link above or via our contact page.
In times of crisis and natural disasters, amateur radio is often used as a means of emergency communication when wireline, cell phones and other conventional means of communications fail.
Unlike commercial systems, Amateur radio is not as dependent on terrestrial facilities that can fail. It is dispersed throughout a community without "choke points" such as cellular telephone sites that can be overloaded.
Amateur radio operators are experienced in improvising antennas and power sources and most equipment today can be powered by an automobile battery. Annual "Field Days" are held in many countries to practice these emergency improvisational skills. Amateur radio operators can use hundreds of frequencies and can quickly establish networks tying disparate agencies together to enhance interoperability.
Recent examples include the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 2001, the 2003 North America blackout and Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, where amateur radio was used to coordinate disaster relief activities when other systems failed.
On September 2, 2004, ham radio was used to inform weather forecasters with information on Hurricane Frances live from the Bahamas. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake and resulting tsunami across the Indian Ocean wiped out all communications with the Andaman Islands, except for a DX-pedition that provided a means to coordinate relief efforts. Recently, Amateur Radio operators in the People's Republic of China provided emergency communications after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and U.S. hams did similar work following Hurricane Ike.
The largest disaster response by U.S. amateur radio operators was during Hurricane Katrina which first made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane went through Miami, Florida on August 25, 2005, eventually strengthening to Category 5. More than a thousand ham operators from all over the U.S. converged on the Gulf Coast in an effort to provide emergency communications assistance. Subsequent Congressional hearings highlighted the Amateur Radio response as one of the few examples of what went right in the disaster relief effort.