Why Amateur Radio?

Assalamualaikum & Selamat Hari Raya AidilFitri...

Look at the picture. I don't know where this happened, just a picture that i found while browsing. This is the story: We travelled from Kedah to Kelantan on 30th September, one day before Hari Raya. After about 20km from Gerik town, we saw a car in the roadside drain, about ten cars at the roadside and about twenty people looking at the car in the drain. Two ladies were sitting at the roadside with small patches of blood on their 'tudungs' together with a small boy.

It happened that nobody has called the police any rescue services to come to the accident site. When asked, the reply that i got was there was no signal coverage at that hillside area. I quickly ran to my Rexton, turned my ICOM 2200 on, and scanned for any available frequencies. A few ham friends were using the Bukit Larut repeater, and i quickly 'break' their qso to get their help to call for rescue.

Luckily, after a short while, an army vehicle passed by, and after some time, we managed to get the car out of the drain and also send the injured ladies to the hospital in Gerik town.

To me, this is a good example of some of the advantages of having a CB radio ready in your vehicle. Some of you out there might be asking, what's the advantage of being a ham? Well, here's one of them. I don't know whether the police or the 'bomba' managed to come to the rescue. What's important that time was to call for help. Or, some might say, ah, just ask one of the passers-by to bring them to the hospital. What if you're the only one there?

To the hams who has helped to contact the relevant authorities that day, thank you very much. And to those who has not been involved in or doesn't even know what Amateur Radio is all about, come on, read and learn about it, get involved, and i'm sure you'll see the fun in it!

Just for your reading pleasure + extra knowledge, go to http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/60Great.html

That's it for now.

-73 de 9W2AZX-