In an emergency, sometimes only radio will do

Sending Morse code messages over the radio may seem hopelessly old-fashioned to people who communicate via cell phones and the Internet. In an emergency, however, radio is far more reliable than modern communications networks.

"If the network itself is hurt or damaged or overloaded, none of the things on that network are going to function right," said Allen Pitts, a spokesman for the American Radio Relay League. "That's what happened last week in Kentucky."

When severe winter weather disrupted communications through much of the Bluegrass State, ham radio came to the rescue, providing a crucial information link. Because they're not part of a physical network, individual stations can still transmit and receive during an emergency.

"Each one is independent, but we also are organized," Pitts said. "The hams, they're going to get that message through."

There are 654,000 licensed amateur radio operators in the United States, Pitts said, including more than 15,000 hams in Oregon. And although knowledge of Morse code is no longer required for certification, many of them still use it. That can be crucial when bad weather or other conditions make even radio communications tenuous.

"It is much easier to understand a weak Morse code signal than it is to understand a weak voice signal," Pitts said. "That's one of the reasons it's still very popular in the amateur radio community."

Russell Ruby of Corvallis used Morse code to call for help last September when he broke his leg backpacking in Washington's remote Glacier Peak Wilderness, bouncing a string of dots and dashes off the ionosphere to a ham in Bozeman, Mont., 600 miles away.

"Those are the stories we like to hear," said Peggy Peirson, emergency services coordinator for Benton County. "He was prepared and knew how to get a message out."

Peirson said local emergency responders rely heavily on radio and work closely with hams on search and rescue operations, especially in mountainous or remote areas where cell phone reception can be spotty or nonexistent.

"That's why we make it the backbone of our communications system around here, because it's so stable," she said. "Even if we're not going to be in hilly terrain, we always take them. You don't want to get into a situation where you can't communicate."