[JeremyChase]

Be assured that the Amateur Radio community is quite active; especially regarding emergency communication and disaster preparedness.

Personally, I am active with the Connecticut Amateur Radio Emergency Services(CT-ARES), which is a local organization part of the larger national ARES organization(http://www.arrl.org/ares). Both of these offer training and procedures for facilitating communication during emergencies. CT-ARES works with the state of CT, in particular the Red Cross and many local town governments.

My activities include participating in regular 'nets' (http://www.ctares.org/networks.php) which are station tests which serve to prove that my radios work in various failure scenarios. Other members are even more active and practice their communication skills by offering supplemental communication for various events like marathons, fairs, etc.

It comes down to this; you don't know something works unless you regularly use it.

de K2CHA

PS: One should also test their backups by actually restoring from them...

[TimTheTinker]

Thanks for the assurance! My grandfather was a lifelong ham (KJ6NK) and I have many fond memories of sitting with him in his radio room while he participated in various nets or picked up QSOs.