I admire the WICEN volunteers. Sending messages across oceans with a AAA battery is not easy, and a community will only need to do that once in anyone's lifeti

I admire the WICEN volunteers. Sending messages across oceans with a AAA battery is not easy, and a community will only need to do that once in anyone's lifetime. But, on rare occasions like the Indian Ocean tsunami, when a continental-scale catastrophe destroys whatever didn't fit in anyone's pocket, that capability is really useful to have. You have to respect the people who keep organising to make it available through the decades where nothing happens, and organise effectively enough that things work when they need to.