Recent examples include the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre in Manhattan in 2001, the 2003 North America blackout and Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, where Amateur radio was used to coordinate disaster relief activities when other systems failed.

On September 2, 2004, Ham radio was used to inform weather forecasters with information on Hurricane Frances live from the Bahamas. On December 26, 2004, an earthquake and resulting Tsunami across the Indian Ocean wiped out all communications with the Andaman Islands, except for an expedition that provided a means to coordinate relief efforts. Recently, Amateur Radio Operators in the People’s Republic of China provided emergency communications after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and U.S. hams did similar work following Hurricane Ike.

But cyclones, earthquakes or floods are not everyday events. What we see every day is that someone in the remote place is struggling for life, awaiting the arrival of an essential drug from another town or someone has lost a dear one because medical attention could not reach him on time. All this happens because most often communication is slow or impossible. Hams have special section to handle medical and other emergency traffic on their daily nets.