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Winlink & National Security ConsiderationsThis
article is not about the moral or wisdom of Australia having joined the
coalition that is now occupying and attempting to pacify Iraq. What is important
though is that to a significant proportion of the world’s population Australia
is deemed to be at war. Wars will cause casualties on both sides of the dispute.
The casualties are not confined to combatants but in this particular conflict,
civilian populations in or of Australia, Afghanistan and Iraq more than
proportionately have born the brunt. Australians were attacked in Bali and it is
possible that similar reprisals could again occur elsewhere on “soft”
targets either in or outside the country. The Australian government has taken
steps already to increase security at Australia’s overseas embassies and
legations. The Prime Minister’s National Security Campaign is trying to raise
awareness of risks at home. As the
attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and on the Pentagon in
metro-Washington DC have shown, communications are the Achilles heel of
emergency relief operations. When voice communications fail that adds to the
disaster. Similarly, inadequate or non-existent digital communication facilities
for the transmission of text and graphics can be a serious deficiency. This
article is about mobilizing and training the Australian amateur radio community
in the support of emergency and disaster relief operations. Australia already
has WICEN (Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network) and potentially other
networks, such as, the FWD (Four Wheel Drive) groups and Winlink that can be
geared up to take a part in providing support. “The
Winlink Development Team has a keen interest in Emergency Management. Its
structure and operations are specifically conducive to such an application.
Please note the Internet URL, http://winlink.org/emergency.htm.
On this page of the Winlink WEB site are useful documents and presentations in
MS Word, MS PowerPoint and PDF file formats. Hope you find them useful. Please
feel free to contact us should you require any additional information. Steve
(k4cjx), Administrator Winlink Development Team.”
Official
and volunteer emergency relief operators would provide a service if they
arranged for presentation to their members of any or all of the material
available. 10 December 2003 |
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