[GA ARES] Katrina - Missed Signals

[Tom Rauch]

> I have never claimed it was anything else.  The simple
fact is that email
> is far more than we have now.  To be able to send 600+
pages of data in 4
> hours is a quantum leap from where we are now.  Email is
also a universally
> understood format for both hams and non-hams alike. You
are a DXer so you
> no doubt have a great deal of experience talking rapidly
but clearly via
> SSB.  How long would it take to pass 600 pages of text via
phone even under
> ideal conditions.

My first reaction was to wonder who would have time to type
all those pages in an emergency, when what is generally
needed first and fast is voice-to-voice communications.

>Even the fastest readers would need about a week just to
> read it much less read it out loud

I can read about 100 times faster than I can type, and I can
talk much faster than I can type. In an emergency, I'd
rather be talking than typing. (Heck, I'd be as fast or
faster sending Morse code than typing!)

Maybe we need a more reliable but slower speed network, and
be able to use some bandwidth for voice? Unless there are a
few dozen computer terminals tied into the fast backbone at
each end, the speed isn't all that important.

We haven't even established a good voice network. Maybe the
systems should be combined, or was that already being
planned??

73 Tom