The Columbus Ohio area was struck by winds of 70 mph last week as straight line winds and storms ripped through the area. We live about 50 miles north and west of Columbus. While there was some damage here and to our north,  the falling trees in the old neighborhoods of Columbus took out many electrical wires. Many homes lost electrical service. Some are not back on yet.

In talking to my many friends and relatives in the Central Ohio area, they not only lost electricity but reported telephone service was out. In talking to them about it, they said the telephone system is "now digital" .

When we had our last tornado alert, my county called me on the telephone to advise me to take cover. In all of my long life, I do not recall the telephone ever being out of service.  I think  that the telephone line to our houses is still hard wired. The problem is we have all gone to portable phones in the house. We have a couple "old fashioned" phones in our house hard wired where  you stand and talk on the handset which is connected to the base with a spiral cord.  (non-portable)

You telephone techs out there can probably confirm that the hard wired non portable home phones will still work when the home power fails. If so talk to your fellow hams about this. Make sure everyone keeps at least one hard wired phone in the house. In addition, make sure  you have a car charger for your cell phone. Also ham repeaters (such as worked in Katrina and 911 emergencies) should be kept simple and direct wired where possible. Please don't overcomplicate them. We need dependability in emergencies not the latest digital gadgets. Perhaps this should be an open discussion for your next ARES meeting.

Latest word on our special manufactured receiver parts is they will be coming off the production line from our supplier first week of October.  We will not be shipping products the last week of September. We will be handling emails and orders.  73 es BCNU!  Glenn NN8G pastimeprojects@yahoo.com