![]() ![]() In 1993 SATERN again demonstrated its ability to utilize new technological advancements by creating the first official SATERN website-only two years after the very first website had been introduced in 1991. Recognizing its increasingly important role over the ensuing 30-plus years in responding to hurricanes in the United States, the Caribbean and Central America, SATERN officially partnered with the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) in 2021 to assist with incoming Health & Welfare messages and provide relays of incoming hurricane conditions and damage reports from the impacted areas. ![]() Three months later, SATERN began its mission in earnest, assisting with handling Health & Welfare messages after Hurricane Gilbert, still the second most powerful Atlantic Basin hurricane in history, devastated portions of the Caribbean and Central America. These four were the nucleus of a new international emergency communications group-the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network or SATERN-which held its first Net session on Saturday, June 25, 1988. McPherson (WW9E)-began discussing how they could provide emergency communications for The Salvation Army. In the late 1980’s, a small international group of four SAROF members from the United States and Canada-Harold Gibson (VE3NKU), Ernie Reid (VE3BIX), Art Evans (KA9KLZ later N9KQ) and Captain Patrick E. SAROF was active until 2016 when it was discontinued. In this effort more than 150 Wisconsin radio amateurs took part, handling health and welfare messages and relaying reports and instructions from the divisional office in Milwaukee.” “Last spring when a devastating tornado hit the Colfax area of Northern Wisconsin, Major Lindstrom was instrumental in helping to organize communications for Salvation Army personnel operating in that area. Lindstrom (W9JSF) in the late 1950’s for “strengthening those bonds of faith and common interest which link us together as Salvationists and amateur radio operators.” Over time, an increasing number of non-Salvationist operators began participating in SAROF which eventually became the Salvation Army Radio Operator’s Fellowship reflecting its expanded membership base.Īs early as 1958 SAROF members were already providing essential Amateur Radio emergency communications in times of need. Here is how it all began.and how it continues:īefore there was SATERN, there was SAROF-the Salvationist Amateur Radio Operators Fellowship founded by Major Carl J. Time and again, SATERN serves as the only communications link to the outside world during a disaster. ![]() The number of lives saved, families reunited, and vital information relayed by these volunteers is beyond measure. It’s amazing to think that Amateur Radio operators have had such a remarkable impact on the world thanks, in part, to the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN). ![]()
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