Starvin Larry

The following was sent to me by a confidant with decades of experience working with relief agencies, in addition to being one of the most knowledgeable Amateur Radio operators out there today. Maria’s aftermath on Puerto Rico is compounded by the fact that the island’s crippling welfare state and decades of nepotism has lead to excuse making and blame deferment by the island’s leadership that would make Ray Nagin blush. Regardless of all that, it’s about as close to a real-world WROL event as it gets.

The island during the event lost nearly 100% power and had no communications means whatsoever. While Amateur Radio operators give lip service to emergency communications capabilities via ARES and RACES, usually with training events tied into repeater use or HF nodes (Winlink for example), the bare bones fundamentals- making your gear work when the world is upside down- are usually up to the end…