Newington-based HAM radio organization sending help to Puerto Rico

NEWINGTON — The National Association for Amateur Radio, headquartered in Newington, is getting ready to send gear and volunteers to Puerto Rico. The organization, which has roughly 750,000 licensees, put out a call for volunteers to go to the island and transmit essential communication.

“The island is still kind of cut off,” said Mike Corey, Emergency Preparedness Manager with the ARRL. “San Juan is starting to come back online. There’s still a lot of the island that is without communications, and this will go a long way to help bridge some of those gaps.”

The country remains largely without power, cell phone service or Internet. Ham radio, however, does not use cellular technology to operate, and can be powered by generators, batteries or solar power.”You can, within an hour, have a full-operating amateur radio station and communicate with the world on very little power,” said Valerie Hotzfeld, a ham radio operator who is heading to Puerto Rico to volunteer….READ MORE