I came across a blog post by W8BH that really hit a cord with me.
I have had my ticket going on 27 years or so and I wasn't active in doing much with it for a large part of that time. Not that I have been away from radio so to say, but for nearly as long I have had a Fire Department Pager attached to my hip, a Bendix King HT not to far away, and a mobile rig in nearly every vehicle that I have had.
Nearly 3 years ago my family had to evacuate from the subdivision that we live in do to the Valley Fire . At the time this was nearly the most destructive fires in California's history (as of now it's fallen to just 4th place). Without going into specifics it wasn't until a week after our evacuation that I realized my complete lack of realization of how Amateur Radio could have helped. Total Facepalm moment! In this situation, I was not one of the Firefighters, but one of the ones fleeing and trying to keep in touch with my family. The moment the evac order came, my wife and kids left and I stayed to a few minutes more to gather the essentials. But those few moments thankfully got my family ahead of the thousands trying to flee the area and put myself more than a few hours behind them. As you can guess, communications between my wife and I was not great with the cell network being taxed.
Honestly, I don't even know what amateur radio traffic was being done in the area while this incident was occurring. But I know of some pretty high level repeaters in the area that have great coverage. Lesson(s) learned? Just one of the changes was that my wife is now a licensed operator with a radio in her car. My kids will have their call signs before I will pay for a cell phone for them. I have upgraded to General and have really gotten back into the hobby.
Of course, this is not where the story ends, 2 years later the Wine Country Fires hit. These fires were a combination of the Tubbs Fire (The #1 most destructive), Nuns Fire (#6) the Atlas Peak Fire (#10) and finally the Redwood Valley Fire (#16). This was a little bit different in that my family wasn't in the path of the fire, and I was in the position of fighting the Tubbs Fire. The first night many cell carriers had either complete loss of service to the areas listed above, or significantly had their services impacted.
However, even with my deep dive back into Amateur Radio, I have no clue if the local ARES or RACES were activated or had a roll. I was just to involved with my duties at the fire department.
Tragedy may well push new people into the hobby and bring others back, and this is a perfectly legitimate reason to get your ticket. But, as I have shown above, it's not just simply enough to have your call sign and a radio. There has to be a dedication for learning your radio(s), getting to know your area (more than just your commute drive). Joining or getting involved in the local groups whether it be the local ham club, Races, ARES, County S&R, Volunteer Fire Department, etc.
I know that I have a lot of work still yet to do! What about You?