Short wave frequencies to monitor hurricane disaster relief

If you have a short wave receiver here is a list of frequencies that you can tune in to listen in on the efforts to help those affected by Hurricane Katrina. I continue to pray for those who suffer from this storm.

Here are some frequencies that you can tune on the HF bands to keep up with the relief efforts from Hurricane Katrina. We continue to pray for those affected by this event.



Hurricane Katrina HF Response and Recovery Frequencies

02802.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-91) **

03171.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-92) **

05136.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-93) **
05141.4 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-94) **
05211.0 USB FEMA
05236.0 USB SHARES Coordination Network (nationwide HF voice coordination)

06859.5 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-95) **

07507.0 USB USN/USCG hurricane net (pri)

07550.5 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-96 - primary) **
07698.5 USB American Red Cross Disaster (F-97) **

09380.0 USB USN/USCG hurricane net (sec)

10493.0 USB FEMA

14396.5 USB SHARES Coordination Network (nationwide HF voice coordination)

** Type-accepted equipment and an issued US FCC license are required to
transmit on Red Cross frequencies

AMATEUR HIGH-FREQUENCY GULF COAST HURRICANE NETS

03845.0 LSB Gulf Coast West Hurricane
03862.5 LSB Mississippi Section Traffic
03873.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
03873.0 LSB Louisiana ARES Emergency (night)
03873.0 LSB Texas ARES Emergency (night)
03873.0 LSB Mississippi ARES Emergency
03910.0 LSB Mississippi ARES
03910.0 LSB Louisiana Traffic
03923.0 LSB Mississippi ARES
03925.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
03925.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency (altn)
03935.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
03935.0 LSB Louisiana ARES (health & welfare)
03935.0 LSB Texas ARES (health & welfare)
03935.0 LSB Mississippi ARES (health & welfare)
03935.0 LSB Alabama Emergency
03940.0 LSB Southern Florida Emergency
03950.0 LSB Northern Florida Emergency
03955.0 LSB South Texas Emergency
03965.0 LSB Alabama Emergency (altn)
03967.0 LSB Gulf Coast (outgoing traffic)
03975.0 LSB Texas RACES
03993.5 LSB Gulf Coast (health & welfare)
03995.0 LSB Gulf Coast Wx

07225.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
07235.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency
07235.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
07235.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency
07240.0 LSB American Red Cross US Gulf Coast Disaster
07240.0 LSB Texas Emergency
07243.0 LSB Alabama Emergency
07245.0 LSB Southern Louisiana
07248.0 LSB Texas RACES
07250.0 LSB Texas Emergency
07260.0 LSB Gulf Coast West Hurricane
07264.0 LSB Gulf Coast (health & welfare)
07265.0 LSB Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio (SATERN) (altn)
07273.0 LSB Texas ARES (altn)
07280.0 LSB NTS Region 5
07280.0 LSB Louisiana Emergency (altn)
07283.0 LSB Gulf Coast (outgoing only)
07285.0 LSB West Gulf ARES Emergency (day)
07285.0 LSB Louisiana ARES Emergency (day)
07285.0 LSB Mississippi ARES Emergency
07285.0 LSB Texas ARES Emergency (day)
07290.0 LSB Central Gulf Coast Hurricane
07290.0 LSB Gulf Coast Wx
07290.0 LSB Texas ARES (health & welfare)
07290.0 LSB Louisiana ARES (health & welfare) (day)
07290.0 LSB Texas ARES (health & welfare)
07290.0 LSB Mississippi ARES (health & welfare)

14265.0 USB Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio (SATERN) (health &
welfare) 14300.0 USB Intercontinental Traffic
14300.0 USB Maritime Mobile Service
14303.0 USB International Assistance & Traffic
14313.0 USB Intercontinental Traffic (altn)
14313.0 USB Maritime Mobile Service (altn)
14316.0 USB Health & Welfare
14320.0 USB Health & Welfare
14325.0 USB Hurricane Watch (Amateur-to-National Hurricane Center)
14340.0 USB Louisiana (1900)

Great joy and prayers

As promised here is a picture of the proud new Grand Ma with baby Kelsey born this morning. Mom and Dad and baby are all doing well.

In light of all this joy I wish to add that our thoughts and prayers are all with the people who are in the path of hurricane Katrina. May God watch over them and their families.

Its a girl ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Well for the second time in my life I am a grand pap! God has once again blessed our family and at 09:14 this morning Katie gave birth to Kelsey Marie Sprouse. A picture will follow upon return from the trip to the hospital. Kelsey was twenty and one half inches long and weighed seven pounds and five ounces. She has beautiful brown hair, mother and daughter are both doing fine.

ABC Prime Time goes inside the 911 system tonight

This should be of interest to the residents of Allegheny County especially in light of how long it took for us to get 911 service and the current move to consolidate the dispatching in one physical location.
This is a subject that affects all of us not only from a safety stand point but in terms of the tax dollars involved in the system.

Tonight on ABC News Prime Time they are doing an hour long special on the inside workings of the 911 system. The blurb on the web site did not say if they were just talking about the call takers or the entire system including the technical telephone side. I would imagine they are only interested in the people side. In any case I plan to fire up the TiVo when I get home to make sure I see it. Thought I would pass it along to the blog readers.

Has anyone seen my day stretcher?

I am still looking for my day stretcher as I just can’t seem to make the hours in the day go nearly far enough. Even finding time to sit at the computer and type a few words for my blogs is becoming difficult. Of course it doesn’t help that the used laptop I bought a few years ago now has a “bouncy” keyboard and at times as I watch the letters and words appear on the screen as I type now and again a few extra ones find their way into the line. If you have ever typed a paper with a typewriter manual or electric though you can appreciate that I’m willing to tolerate a “little” key bounce in return for the attributes of a word processor.

At least the weather has improved. With the high humidity gone we are experiencing some truly great sunny days and evenings. Linda and I ate dinner out on the back porch yesterday evening and listened to the crickets sing in the nearby trees. I have never been a “winter person” not even as a kid. So summer, fall and spring are my favorite times of the year pretty much in that order.

As summer winds down I look forward to taking some time off and spending a few of those sunny days sitting in my swing on the back porch with Lucy and reading a good book. It is a great way to relax. I have a few projects at work that I have to get out of the way first though so until the I keep looking for the elusive tool to make my hours, days, weeks and months longer than they are. In the meantime I will try to make the best use of the hours God has granted me the use of. Hope those of you reading this are having a wonderful summer.

Water can be distracting

The big water main break in Gateway Center was unfortunate since it is distracting the folks at KDKA Radio from the crusade they have launched aginst Governor Swindell and the Pennsylvania state legislators since the great pay grab.

They have been relentless with Mike Pintek on his morning show and Fred Honsberger during afternoon drive time along with their callers hammering this subject every day. The only break the poor cads in Harrisburg get is during the Bill O’Reilly show which is syndicated nationally so their thievery is not the main topic of discussion during that time slot.

I’m not sure if KDKA television is going at this quite as hard but I do know that some of their reporters are currently “persona non grata” with some of our fine state representatives. Marty Griffen was filling in for Mike Pintek this morning and he said that one of the stations reporters passed a state representatives in the hall and asked “What are you going to do with that pay raise?” and in Marty’s words “it got ugly” quickly. Good! Someone should be asking every one of those dolts just exactly what they are going to do with that raise that they voted themselves literally in the middle of the night. Then our good Governor Fast Eddie Swindell had the audacity to say that the news media was keeping this story alive for ratings and that it was their fault that people were so upset with Harrisburg. Hello! McFly! Anybody home up there? It is the carpet baggers in Harrisburg that have the people’s knickers in a twist, not the news media!

I repeat my previous thought that I hope everyday citizens who are expressing their outrage through talk radio and the Internet will continue to do so and intensify those efforts bringing there full force to bear at the ballet box in the next election. Make them understand that we are NOT going to take this anymore! Remember in November!

Interesting story from News Max web site

Here is an interesting tid bit about one of my favorite stores. Matter of fact Linda has accused me of having an incestuous relationship with this group! That of course being Amazon the on line vendor that survived the infamous dot com bubble of the 1990's and actually made money. A small portion of that revenue has come from my bank account since ninety plus percent of my book collection arrived in a box by way of a big brown truck.

So when I spotted this story on the News Max site this morning I thought I would share it with you. Like I said I found it interesting and I sincerely hope that Amazon's project continues to fruition bringing more knowledge to the Internet than it already has.

Amazon Opens Book Doors
NewsMax.com Wires
Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005
SEATTLE, Washington - Cellular biologist Bruce Lipton holds no fond memories of his early struggles to get his book published.

One by one, the big houses in New York looked at "Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles," but eventually said no, suggesting his theory that signals outside cells control genes was too radical for mainstream readers.

Story Continues Below

Follow this link to read the rest of the story.

The television of the future

Here is a news story that I found interesting. If you have been in a consumer electronics store with in the last year you know that one of the “hot” items in the market place are those flat panel television sets. I’m sure that one of these days we, like the cartoon family the Jetsons, will be watching flat panel displays that hang from the celling or sit on our desks.

I have been hearing rumors for over two years now that Dell will stop shipping monitors based on the cathode ray tube or CRT with their computers in favor of flat panel or flat plasma displays. So far it hasn’t happened so I have to assume that either the price point hasn’t fallen sufficiently on the flat screens or there are a large enough number of CRT displays in the pipe line that vendors can’t afford to just scrap them in favor of the new technology. In either case I keep hoping because I would really like to have one of those flat panels on my computer.

So I found this AP story in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette interesting.

Koreans seek to slow demise of television's dominant technology
Monday, August 15, 2005
By Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico -- Samsung Electronics Co. has an odd sales pitch for one of its new televisions. A slide show for dealers features a drawing of a TV on a tombstone that reads, "The news of my demise is greatly exaggerated!"
The Korean manufacturer is referring to cathode-ray tube, or CRT, televisions -- the heavy boxes that have dominated the business since television was introduced at the New York World's Fair in 1939.
As rival technologies become cheaper, the era of the conventional tube TV is ending.
Yet Samsung and a Korean rival, LG Electronics Co., are refusing to abandon the old-style tube TVs entirely. They continue trying to improve CRTs even as they and other television makers are building more and more factories that churn out super-thin LCD and plasma televisions.

Follow this link for the complete story.

Mad as hell and not going to take it anymore

I have been silent on this matter of the Harrisburg pay grab, I won’t dignify it by calling it a raise, that has caused such a furor on talk radio and one that is slowly building in the mainstream media. One of the things I am having a hard time adjusting to in the blogosphere is the speed at which it moves. Most of the time this is a positive point as it give the medium much of its power. I do feel that there are times when ideas should be better thought out before being expressed.

Words have meaning and they have effects whether written or spoken and should have some thought placed behind them. Speed and thought are not always coequals in the world of words and many have not yet figured this out. Of that group many write or speak, mostly speak in this age, without thinking and find themselves in a firestorm as a result. Others lean from the experience and never speak or speak only in terms that have little or no meaning in the real world. We have some from each camp involved in this issue.

So our illustrious governor and his cohorts in Harrisburg have finally done something that has pushed the average taxpayer in Pennsylvania over the edge. I haven’t heard this much wailing and gnashing of teeth since the state income tax was instituted several decades ago. Now the sixty four thousand dollar question will be can we sustain that anger until the next election cycle? Even more important will be be able to come together and focus that anger in a meaningful way that will bring about some change in the state?

I have already head two different proposals about how this can be accomplished. Let me tell you about both of them. First a group has been formed for what is being called “Operation Clean Sweep” which hopes to put every incumbent in Harrisburg out of office. I have to tell you this idea has a LOT of appeal and while it might happen it will be very hard row to hoe. Much like the war on terror if this ball get rolling these career politicians are going to realize that they are in a fight for their way of life and they will pull out all of the stops to make sure that they keep the status quo in place. If you don’t believe me just watch. Here is a link to Clean Sweeps web site where you can learn more.

In addition this plan has what I consider one glaring fault. That is that there are some good people working as true public servants in the state capital and is some cases you will be throwing out the baby with the bath water. When you look at the plan though this can’t be avoided since if you start making exceptions you will dilute the plan and, in my humble opinion, it will fall apart. Still, I have to admit that it does have merit.

The other proposal I have heard came from Ron Morris who is an instructor at Duquesne University and local talk show host. This in addition to being a very successful business man. Ron wants to tap a number of other successful people in Pennsylvania to build a “war chest” large enough that they can back key candidates for the Sate House and Senate. Then send people with enough wealth of their own that they neither want or need to spend the rest of their lives in Harrisburg living on the taxpayers dime.

Ron says they will only back candidates that will pledge to repeal the pay grab, cut the number of legislator's in half, give the voters of the state the power of referendum and institute term limits for those that remain. He would accomplish this because they would back people like themselves who pass muster in that they have had the responsibility of making a payroll in their career. Entrepreneurs who understand what function government is supposed to serve in our society. Create the infrastructure to allow the citizens to create wealth and economic growth in clean and safe cities. Do this and Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania will once again become a vibrant place that will attract business and create jobs that will let everyone prosper. I am putting a link in this article to Ron’s web site where you can read more about this if you like.

I agree with all of these objectives except the last one. I have never believed in term limits either at the state or national level. I guess is has to do with the fact that I think we should be self governing as the founding fathers intended and if I choose to elect someone to represent me in the government and I am happy with the job that that person is doing I should have the right to continue to send him or her back to continue the job until I or they decide otherwise. This even if the rest of society shirks it duty to do the same. It could even be an edge in situations like we find ourselves in today where a large number of those in government have forgotten that they were elected to serve the people and not the other way around. Those that do recognize their obligations should be allowed to continue to work from within the system to effect change. I will have to say though that I understand the arguments from those that advocate term limits and at times get frustrated enough myself to think about it.

What then are we to do you and I? Well you can start by making sure that you vote in each election in which you are qualified to do so. Then you have to make sure that the people running for office know that you exercise that privilege. When someone espouses the ideals and principles that you feel represent your idea of good government make it known to them. Not just by saying so either. Actions speak louder than words. Vote with your wallet by supporting that candidate’s campaign or do some leg work for them knocking on doors and talking with your neighbors and letting them know why you are backing this person for office.

As to the current mess in Harrisburg, I think that drastic measures like those advocated by Ron Morris are necessary to send a wake up call to entire body politic. The key is that we have to do something! The fact that I am sitting here writing this entry for my blog instead of enjoying reading a book or talking on my amateur radio station says that “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” in the words of the character Howard Beale in the movie “Network”. I only hope that enough of my fellow citizens feel the same way. There are a number of links in this text should you choose to explore the subject further.

Television worth watching

I watched a few hours of television over this past weekend and one half hour show caught my attention more than the rest. Q&A on C-Span’s Book TV Sunday night was excellent. Of course that fact that the show was hosted by one of my favorite interviewer, Brian Lamb, and the subject of the interview was one of my very favorite authors, David McCullough, may have had something to do with it.

For those of you that many not be familiar with Pittsburgh native son David McCullough he is a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes in addition to numerous other awards for his writing. His mastery of the English Language and the ability to bring prominent characters in history back to life and present them in a way that makes you feel as though you had known them is extraordinary. David McCullough has tapped into a yearning for knowledge of history and in particular American history that has surprised everyone even him. His new book “1776” debuted at number one on Amazon and is still in the top ten on their fastest selling list. I have a number of his books some of them still in my “to be read” stack and I look forward to them all.

If you get C-Span2 on your cable system or satellite system, and if you don’t you should be complaining, many of these types of events are repeated at a latter date. If you get the chance to catch the David McCullough’s interview on Q&A by all means take the time to do so. You won’t regret it.

Picture of new police car

Well I said that I would get a picture of the new police car and here it is. I stopped on the way to work this morning and snapped a shot in front of the station. Like I said the color scheme with the blue stripe is new. Nice looking cars. Wonder if they will modify the existing cars with the new blue stripe?

You are invited!

If you have ever gazed up at the stars in awe and wonder you are not alone. Thousands of people are drawn to looking at the night sky and many do it with telescopes. In the Pittsburgh area a group of those on lookers have formed a club called the Amateur Astronomers Association of Pittsburgh.

If you are like me I lived in Oakmont for a long time before I became aware of this group and the fact that they maintained an observatory in Deer Lakes Park just across the river. The Nicholas E. Wagman Observatory is owned and operated by the AAAP and the center piece of the facility is an eleven inch refractor telescope built in 1910 by John Brashear. There is quite a story behind this telescope that you can read on the organizations web site.

Every so often they have “star parties” that are open to the public and everyone is invited to share the joy of looking at the stars with a better view than you can get with the naked eye. This Friday and Saturday, August 12th and 13th 2005, will be the peak of the Perseid's Meteor Shower and the Wagman Observatory will be open to the public. If you find this interesting please visit their web site for directions and times for the star party.

New color scheme?

I noticed a few weeks ago that Oakmont had placed a new police car in service. It had been equipped with radios, or at least antennas, and a light bar on the roof. There were no markings on the car yet and it was entirely white. This is not unusual since when the cars are replaced they typically come in plain and are put in service before all of the accouterments are installed.

What surprised me was that several days latter I noticed the new car sitting on the paddock in front of the station with blue striped that extended the entire length of the car. None of the other cars have these markings so I wonder if the department is going for a new color scheme? There was still no lettering or emblems on the doors so I will be interested to see what the final color scheme looks like. I took the digital camera to work with me this morning expecting to snap a picture of the new car for here on the blog but it wasn't much of a day for photography in the early part of the day. I forgot and left the camera at work so I didn't get a chance to look on the way home. I will post one soon though.

Pay back is a bear

Today is August 6th 2005. I know that I am being about as politically incorrect as one person can be with what I'm about to say but I have come to the point in life that I really don't care if what I believe to be fact offends a few people.

I have come to believe that August 6th should be marked on the calendar as PBAB Day. Also know as “Pay Backs A Bear Day” although some would choose a different word for bear. You see it was sixty years ago today that a lone B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, flew over the city of Hiroshima dropping a single bomb that changed the course of history and the world.

While only in a symbolic way it also became the answer to a challenge issued just four years earlier on December 7th 1941 at Pearl Harbor Hawaii. It was to be almost a decade before I would be born here in the United States but much like September 11th 2001 both of those dates are ingrained in my thoughts and memories.

I will never forget the first time I saw motion pictures and still photographs of the aftermath at Hiroshima. Death and destruction so horrible that it seemed almost unthinkable that one human being could inflict it upon another. As a child I wondered how even in war that such a weapon could have been unleashed.

Growing up in this country I was taught and the general perception was that the bombings at Hiroshima and six days latter at Nagasaki had been necessary to end the war. There were even then a number of people who thought else wise and those that thought using the bomb was a mistake have become more firm in that judgment as the years pass and I will not say that their arguments are completely without merit.

I will tell you though that after reading much material and talking with a number of people far more learned than myself I have come to some conclusions. One is that had that terrible event not taken place there is a very good chance that I would not be sitting here typing on this keyboard. You see, my father was one of the men in the South Pacific in August of 1945. From his location at the time it is almost certain that he would have been involved in the initial invasion of the mainland of Japan had that occurred. The losses at Hiroshima and Nagasaki would have paled in comparison to the number of American and Japanese lives lost by such a confrontation. Despite what anyone may say to the contrary.

I can't begin to imagine the weight that must have been placed on President Truman in making this decision. I also believe that despite all the arguments put fourth since that fateful day his decision was the correct one. You see, war is a terrible thing that should not be entered into lightly. Something that I don't think this generation had come to grips with just yet since the attack of September 11th 2001. War carries with it horrendous price in terms of loss of human life and destruction. War should be avoided whenever possible of that there is no doubt. However, when one group or county wages war on another there can be only one answer to that action. If nations and individuals wish to continue their way of life they have to make the attackers aware in clear uncertain terms that pay back is a bear.

Words of wisdom

I was never much of a student in school. As a matter of fact I am amazed that I managed to derive the education that I received considering the complete lack of effort on my part in the endeavor. I think my two worst subjects were math an history. I remember once writing an essay, something the entire class had to do as “punishment” for some infraction of the rules, about what a waist of time it was studying history. I wrote several pages of diatribe about the complete lack of relevance of history in my day to day life or its possible use in preparing for the job market after school.

Ah, the ignorance of youth! Being somewhat of a hard head it took me quite a while to lean the fallacy of my notions. While I sill shoulder most of the responsibility for my education or lack there of I think it is also somewhat of an inditement not only of the system in use at the time and the people managing and operating it. I have long been of the opinion that a good teacher is worth their weight in gold and that we as a society failed recognize that fact. I also feel that many of the people involved in the education system today are worth their weight in river rocks but that is the subject for another rant.

I have come to have a real appreciation of history especially American history thanks in part to authors like David McCullough. If you haven't read any of his excellent books you are really missing something. Again, I digress as that was not the point of this writing. What I wanted to bring to the attention of readers of my blog was a daily email that I think worth while. Each day I receive quotes from the founding fathers courtesy of the Federalist Patriot web site. Here is just one example.

The Federalist Patriot
Founders' Quote Daily

"Nevertheless, to the persecution and tyranny of his cruel ministry
we will not tamely submit - appealing to Heaven for the justice
of our cause, we determine to die or be free...."

-- Joseph Warren (American account of the Battle of Lexington,
26 April 1775)

Reference: Documents of American History, Commager, ed., vol. 1
(99)


If you would like to receive the founding quotes go to the Federalist Patriot web site where you can sign up. I will also add their web site to my links section here on the blog. Learn and enjoy!

From the book shelf...... "Cleaning Up"

One of my other favorite hobbies is reading. I don't spend nearly enough time doing it but that is my fault. I could spend less time in front of the television which I have done and less time pounding on the keyboard which I haven't. Be that as it may, I try to manage at least one book a month and so far this year I am doing fine by that standard. My next goal will be one book a week but I haven't figured out how to get around that “work thing” in order to make that happen. From time to time I plan to write about what I'm currently reading here on the blog.

I recently read a book called “CLEANING UP” sub titled “One Man's Redemptive Journey Through The Seductive World Of Corporate Crime” by Barry Minkow. The book describes a young man who became a con artist at the tender age of sixteen years old after starting his own company. By the time he was twenty he had taken his company public and was a millionaire. At age twenty one, he was facing twenty-five years in prison and having to pay back twenty-six million dollars in restitution to his victims.

I found this book through an interview on talk radio and the author sounded interesting enough that I ordered it from Amazon as soon as I got home. Let me tell you that I was not disappointed. Some of this book reads like a fiction thriller making it all the more interesting knowing that it is a true story. Barry Minkow literally went from being in a prison cell one day to living quarters at Quantico Virginia FBI training center the next. There he helped train FBI agents to spot investment fraud scams and other financial skulduggery.

In addition to being the pastor of a church he is the co-founder of the Fraud Discovery Institute which has uncovered over a billion dollars worth of investment scams. He has also saved individuals millions of dollars by steering them away from putting their money in what would have amounted to a black hole never to be seen again.

Barry is a talented writer and gives you his complete story including some of the lowest points in his life. His personal life still took many down turns even after he found himself a great success at helping other people. He is a witness to how faith in God can bring people thorough extremely hard times and low points in their lives. This is an inspiring book that I heartily recommend. I'm sure you can find it at the Oakmont Library.

Cleaning Up by Barry Minkow ISBN 1-59555-004-6