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“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
– Arthur C. Clarke
Shame on us: we take it for granted that someone can speak into a microphone miles away (perhaps thousands of miles), we can hear them, reply to them, share information and maybe even get someone some help.
It’s astonishing, but we accept it as commonplace. (Let me remind you: every time you fire up your mobile phone – smartphone or otherwise – you’re using a radio). And yet it has the potential for greatness.
I saw that greatness demonstrated by ham radio in the response to the devastation brought to Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee by Hurricane Helene. Torrential rains and high winds wiped out infrastructure – roads, bridges, dwellings, businesses, power lines, cell towers – isolating people and putting them in peril . . . and cutting off the affected areas off so thoroughly that people not far away had no idea how desperate conditions were. It was bad . . . really bad.
The morning after Helene ripped a hole in civilization in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, Dan Mark K2DMG dropped his callsign on the Mount Mitchell repeater (which is fortuitously located on the highest peak in the Eastern United States, giving it enormous reach) and asked if anyone needed help . . . and that began a saga that will likely be studied as an example of radio emergency response for years to come. For hours and then days, Dan – who had never before been a net control – passed health and welfare messages, summoned help for people, and much, much more. Others listened to Dan’s radio traffic and used it to direct help to those who needed it and to find roads that were open.
In the heart of the affected area, Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL (SWLing Post’s Maximum Leader) also used ham radio to summon help for others and provide community communications.
But these few words do very poor service to what really happened. So I would heartily suggest, recommend, even implore you to listen to the following videos and podcast.
No matter where you live in the world, everyone should have a battery-powered or self-powered (hand-crank) portable radio in their home.
Recently, the pace of articles here on the SWLing Post has slowed down. That’s because I live in Swannanoa, North Carolina—a town that was particularly hard-hit by Hurricane/Tropical Storm Helene, which brought unprecedented rainfall and caused widespread destruction.
In short, our rural mountain community was completely cut off for several days. Our bridge washed out, and a critical section of road crumbled daily.
At one point, two families had to be helicopter-evacuated for medical reasons, and less than a week after the storm, the Sheriff’s department came door-to-door recommending evacuation.
Our amazing community pulled together: we cleared our road of hundreds of downed trees and made sure everyone had food, water, and supplies. We took care of each other.
Now, things have improved dramatically. After two and a half weeks without power, we’ve been reconnected to the grid. The Kentucky Department of Transportation repaired our road, making it accessible to regular vehicles again. On Tuesday, an arborist crew finally made it up the mountain to remove fallen trees from houses.
Although things are starting to feel more normal at home, the impact on Swannanoa, Asheville, and surrounding areas has been profound. Entire neighborhoods are gone, numerous businesses have closed, and several grocery stores were severely damaged.
The Communications Void
The National Guard helped us for a full day at our home. Thank you 5th Battalion 113 Field Artillery!
It’s often said that modern communications infrastructure fails us after a disaster.
I can confirm, first hand, that this is true.
The mobile phone network went offline during the storm, leaving us without service for days. Even now, three weeks after the storm, mobile phone service remains unreliable. Calls drop every few minutes.
Mobile data services at home are still down at time of posting (October 18, 2024). Internet services like cable, fiber, and DSL are mostly still out across the county. Only those with satellite internet have a connection—I’m fortunate to be one of them. Our cell tower still only supports basic voice calls and text messaging, without data or media attachments.
Radio to the Rescue
As many of you know, I’m not just a radio listener, but also a licensed amateur radio operator, and both of these hobbies became essential post-Helene.
As highlighted in an article by WIRED, amateur radio proved to be our lifeline for communication when everything else failed.
Using the local repeater (N2GE on Mount Mitchell), I was able to pass wellness checks, coordinate helicopter evacuations, and arrange supply drops for our community. I handed out a few handy talkies to unlicensed neighbors so we could stay in touch.
My wife and daughter, who are also hams, helped tremendously. While I was out with a chainsaw, clearing driveways, they acted as net control operators on our community’s simplex frequency (147.555 MHz), passing critical messages.
For that first week especially, amateur radio truly was our community’s connection to the outside world.
AM/FM Radio: A Lifesaver
Fortunately, our local TV station remained online after the storm, but few people could access it. Many people rely on cable or internet to watch TV, and in areas like ours, the digital transition over a decade ago left many without the ability to pick up over-the-air signals.
In contrast, FM and AM radio became the most reliable sources of information. Here in Buncombe County, public information and news were broadcast on 99.9 MHz (FM) and 570 kHz (AM). Both stations stayed online throughout the disaster, and the information they provided reached a vast audience. Check out this feature from CBS Evening News:
In Henderson County, the local AM station WTZQ stepped up as well. They did incredible work serving their communities post-Helene, as highlighted in a report by Queen City News:
Information Lifeline
As a presenter in the above story pointed out, everyone should have a battery-powered (or self-powered) AM/FM/Weather radio in their home.
After a disaster, you’ll rely on that radio for essential updates like where to find clean water, how to apply for FEMA assistance, what businesses are open, and when services will be restored.
Even three weeks after the storm, much of the Asheville area is still without water, so radios remain vital for getting updates.
Here at SWLing Post HQ, I shared my extra portable radios with neighbors who needed them. I used my CC Skywave SSB 2 in the kitchen window to tune into local news on 99.9 MHz and 570 kHz. I also relied on my XHDATA D-109 and CC Radio 3—they became our constant companions for information.
Many of you here on the SWLing Post are already radio enthusiasts, so no doubt I’m preaching to the choir. But let this serve as a reminder to stock up on alkaline batteries and check your radios regularily to make sure they’re fully functional. Keep spares on hand so you can lend them to neighbors if needed—they’ll never forget your generosity.
And don’t assume your area is safe from natural disasters. Western North Carolina was considered one of the safest regions in the country for weather, yet we were hit by one of the most devastating storms in state history.
Stay prepared. Don’t become complacent.
Thank You!
Over the past few weeks, many of you have reached out with kind words and support, and I can’t thank you enough!
As of this morning, I have 310 messages in my inbox.
I’ve been too busy to reply to emails and comments—though I’ve read each one—but I truly appreciate your patience as I try to catch up. My days have been consumed by helping neighbors and getting our own life back in order. It’s been exhausting but incredibly rewarding, and we still have months of work ahead of us.
Thank you also to the contributors who have kept the SWLing Post running during my absence, and a special shout-out to my friend Vince (VE6LK), who has taken on a huge role in keeping QRPer.com updated.
Thank you so much for your support and understanding—and, again, keep those radios ready. You never know when they’ll become your primary source of information!
The morning after Hurricane Helene pummeled the eastern seaboard of the US, Thomas Witherspoon inspected the damage to his western North Carolina home. The night before, he listened to the wind whip down trees and snap power lines along the two-mile access road connecting his family to their few neighbors in Buncombe County.
Like the tens of thousands of other North Carolina residents, the power to Witherspoon’s neighborhood was completely out. It was impossible to communicate with the house down the road, let alone anyone several miles away. Unable to send text messages or make phone calls, radio became the one form of communication left in rural North Carolina. After fixing what he could on his own property, Witherspoon, a lifelong amateur radio enthusiast, began distributing handheld radios to his neighbors.
“Amateur radio is one of those things you get into because of your love of radio communications and the technical aspects of it or the community and the challenges that you can overcome,” Witherspoon says. “It’s a lot of fun, but underlying all of that is this prime directive with amateur radio that it’s always there as emergency communications when all else fails.” [Continue reading…]
Asheville, North Carolina — As Florida grapples with the destruction from Hurricane Milton, the people of western North Carolina know that reality all too well. Helene roared through the mountains, leaving more than a million people in the disaster zone without water, power and spotty cell service.
But what they did have was the radio.
For days, WWNC host Mark Starling and producer Tank Spencer were a lifeline, serving as a proxy dispatch service to help coordinate wellness checks and connect the stranded with nearby resources.
“We didn’t have any connection to the outside world except our radio stations, and we were the only two here. So we kind of had a mission of like, OK, well, we’ve got to walk these people through the storm,” Starling said.
The Asheville AM radio station was inundated with phone calls, which meant dealing with the widest range of emotions imaginable. One caller was a man on the second floor of his house with his wife and grandchild, Starling said.
“Our entire basement’s flooded. Our first floor’s flooded up to about four feet and we’re upstairs. We’re safe, but my Ram truck is underwater,” the caller said.
Starling told the man to keep the station’s number handy and hoped everything would be OK.
But as Starling tearfully recalls, “Everything wasn’t fine.”
The caller, his wife and their 7-year-old grandson were all swept away, among the at least 120 people killed by Helene in North Carolina. [Continue reading…]
