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Ed. Note: Details in this article were culled from the November 2001 QST article, \u201c9\/11\/01: \u2018This is Not a Test\u2019 \u201d by Rick Lindquist, N1RL, and Diane Ortiz, K2DO<\/i>.\u00a0The original article is\u00a0available here\u00a0(PDF).<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/b>Twenty-five years ago, on September 11, 2001, the United States came under attack from al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked passenger planes and flew them into buildings in New York City and Washington, DC, as well as a field in western Pennsylvania when passengers fought back. Communications infrastructure sagged under the weight of destruction in some places and overwhelming usage in others. Amateur radio operators answered the call, not only in New York and Washington, but around the country, with ARES\u00ae (the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service\u00ae) and RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) teams going on alert to provide backup communications as needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In New York City, radio amateurs (also known as hams) took to the airwaves within minutes of the attacks on the World Trade Center, and emergency nets were active — and busy — for nearly two weeks afterward, with nearly 500 hams in total responding to calls for volunteers. In the Washington, DC, area, more than 100 hams answered a call to support the Salvation Army\u2019s volunteer effort at the Pentagon, which was active for a week after the attacks. Amateurs in western Pennsylvania also supported the Salvation Army, providing three linked repeaters for SATERN — the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network — to relay messages between the plane crash site and the regional Salvation Army headquarters in Pittsburgh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amateur radio received high praise from emergency response officials, including Red Cross communications officer John MacInnes, who told then-ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP (SK), \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t be where we are today without the ham radio operators.\u201d Virginia Section Emergency Coordinator Tom Gregory, N4NW, noted that \u201camateur radio performed exactly as it was supposed to \u2026 We responded to the need to provide communications where none were available.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n