I was involved in a sort-of emergency situation a few years back.
I had spoken many times with Victor, LY2BIG, of UP1BZZ/LY2ZZ, and we had met
inperson at Dayton. One fine day in 1991, I ran into Victor on 15 M. He told me
he was going to Vilnius later, because things were getting difficult there. He
asked me to keep an ear open for him.
Later that day, I was tuning 20 M, and heard a Joe Tribander sort of guy trying
to
pull out the signals from LY2ZO/P, who was running low power to a makeshift
antenna on top of the Lithuanian Palriament building. I was copying the LY
fine with my contest station's above-average antenna and equipment.
I began relaying for Joe Average, then identified myself. Some anonymous guy
listening on the frequency said something like "Let that loud guy take over.
I think he has one of those big contest stations, and he'll be able to keep
the frequency open". Several other guys seconded the motion, and I was drafted
into service as Net Control of the ad hoc Lithuanian Emergency Net.
The Emergency had something to do with the Parliament building being surrounded
with Soviet troops who took a dim view of the Lithuanians' bid for independence.
I should note that my motivations in helping out were simply at the request
of a friend in trouble. I am not a Lithuanian-american, and I won't offer an
opinion on right or wrong - I was just helping a friend.
At any rate, the LY parliament had just passed a law regarding succession to
power
if "anything should happen to the duly elected leaders", and they asked me to
realy that to a certain station in the midWest, and I did. They also asked me
to help keep a channel open for them, since all other international comms links
were out of service.
It wasn't a natural disaster, but the point was that someone in trouble needed
a
reliable communications channel and I was glad to help. I should point out
that N4ZC, another contester, also helped out - his status as a retiree gave
him a lot more free time to ehlp out for several days during the work week. I
played the role of "weekend warrior".
We both received nice letters of thanks from the President of Lithuania as a
result of our assistance, and that letter hangs proudly on the wall of my
shack, along with some contest plaques.
I did not hang up the letter I received from people who felt I had provided a
service that interfered with the internal politics of another country.
I was happy that I could use my station's capbilities to provide a more
robust comms link for a while.
We *do* have bigger stations, and we ought to use them for this purpose once
in a while.
73,
Doug K1DG
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