Trials and Errors #55: Radio's Role in the 1917 Halifax Explosion

W7DGJ · Apr 23, 2025

W0PV said: ↑

My first trip to KL7 was just two years ago, awesome!

There was a very nice write up on the comms contributions of radio amateurs to relief efforts in the July 1964 QST magazine page 46. It's a long read well worth it. Here is just a clip from the preface, with bold highlights on what I think are important points.

"Earthquakes are almost entirely unpredictable, That is, we know they are more apt. to occur at one place than another, in a general way, but usually they come on completely without, warning. When it happens, everybody is caught by surprise. In an organizational sense, Alaska was not “ready” for a communications emergency. Some good c.d. organization exists in Anchorage, but otherwise it couldn’t have happened in a worse place.

And yet, in this emergency which affected communications in the entire United States and Canada, the KL7s showed up in droves. True, some of them were ill-prepared, both in equipment and skill, to handle the tremendous volume of traffic which descended on them. Despite this and other drawbacks, the nation's presses and other news media, as well as officialdom, have been ringing with praises of the amateurs performance during the aftermath of the earthquake.

This writeup is more concerned with what mas done than with what should have been done. One could write a book on the latter, because hindsight is always better than foresight. Our analysis of reports received (48 from KL7s, hundreds from others! shows a grand total of 314 Alaskan amateurs participating in the emergency operation in one way or another. Considering the potential total, this is a whale of a lot of hams. (There are about. 1200 licensed amateurs in Alaska.) Reports from the other 49 states show a total of over 1000 amateurs taking part in the Alaskan traffic-handling in one way or another. Any way you look at it, it was a big operation. Personal inquiry traffic got so thick on the networks that it had to be piled up on the west coast, awaiting outlets, as the traffic flowed from Alaska in a steady stream. National Traffic System nets were unable even to begin to handle the load. No communications system could have done it. Western Union, the Bell System, the military and all others were hopelessly bogged down. Only when the outgoing traffic slowed down was it possible to take care of the personal inquiries, most of them by that time obviated. Red Cross estimates that something like 70,000 such messages were stacked up at one time, awaiting an outlet into Alaska. ... "

More recently the hurricane Maria disaster in Puerto Rico where an ad hoc group of hams not associated with the national societies task force produced a similar operation, smaller in total traffic handled but I can attest first hand that each message that conveyed survival news was emotionally appreciated like a lottery win.
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Thanks John. Nice info and I've read all I can about the Alaska event . .. 9.2! Loved your QRZ profile with the baby gator. Dave, W7DGJ

W1JIM · Apr 23, 2025

Once word reached Boston of the devastation crews and supplies were quickly dispatched.
Halifax greatly appreciated the rescue efforts and every year sends Boston a (large) christmas tree in appreciation.
W1JIM

KC1QOD · Apr 24, 2025

I love it when my 2 worlds collide. Besides being a ham I am a big fan of maritime music, and specifically a band called "The Longest Johns". They have a song, which I believe is a Nova Scotia folk song called "Fire and Flame". Haunting telling of the story. Not sure if the you tube link to it is OK in a nonyoutube forum, But here it is KC1QOD

W7DGJ · Apr 24, 2025

KC1QOD said: ↑

I love it when my 2 worlds collide. Besides being a ham I am a big fan of maritime music, and specifically a band called "The Longest Johns". They have a song, which I believe is a Nova Scotia folk song called "Fire and Flame". Haunting telling of the story. Not sure if the you tube link to it is OK in a nonyoutube forum, But here it is KC1QOD
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Thank you thank you!! This is a great addition to the forum, Matt. Dave W7DGJ

Trials and Errors #55: Radio's Role in the 1917 Halifax Explosion

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