Bill, thank you for passing this on to the group.
This highlights an idea I brought up at a recent ARES meeting and I envision SBARC, ARES, CERT and other local groups like home owners assns and neighborhood watch playing important roles.
It's about "who ya gonna call" when 911, cell phones, etc are not capable. I see SBARC and others recruiting communicators while ARES trains the leaders and coordinates communication. There's a lot of room for inclusion and creativity to build and prepare a network to be effective in the worst circumstances. The technology, people and motivation are out there, we just need a cooperative team to pull it all together. With the fire season on top of us now, this can't happen soon enough. - Rod WB9KMO
Bill Talanian <w1uuq(a)cox.net> wrote:
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Urgent Communications
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California city incorporates hams in response program
<http://urgentcomm.com/urgent-communications>Urgent Communications
<http://urgentcomm.com/author/glenn-bischoff>Glenn Bischoff
Thu, 2013-05-02 11:00
When a disaster strikes, amateur radio operators
in the affected area are quick to mobilize. The
result is invaluable communications services at a
time when they are most needed. In some parts of
the world, where the first-responder
infrastructure isnt as robust as it is in the
U.S., the hams step into that role, as seen in
the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004.
Within the U.S., the role of hams usually is to
provide supportive services, as they did in the
aftermath of Superstorm Sandy last October, when
hams helped the American Red Cross set up
communications in numerous ad-hoc shelters
established across the region, where commercial
communications were rendered inoperable in many places.
It is not unusual for an informal connection to
exist between public-safety agencies and the
local amateur-radio community; such a connection
helps the mobilization effort. But, in one
southern California city, a formal relationship
was established, with the result being the
creation of the Peninsula Volunteer Alert Network, or PVAN.
Rancho Palos Verde is city of 42,000 inhabitants,
located on the Pacific Ocean just a few miles due
west of Long Beach. It doesnt have much crime,
but it is prone to natural disasters, such as
earthquakes and wildfires. Despite this, it never
really occurred to anybody to formally leverage
ham radio until the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It dawned on us that there are a lot of big
targets in our area. There are refineries in San
Pedro [an adjacent city], and lot of shipping
goes through there, said PVAN Chairman Denzel
Dyer. We needed to prepare for a big event.
That realization led to a big idea: establish a
way that the citys numerous neighborhood-watch
groups could communicate with each other during
emergencies, with hams at the center of the
strategy. The 150-member strong Palos Verde
Amateur Radio Club was the logical place to
start. The goal was to ensure that every
neighborhood-watch organizationeach of which
typically covers about 6 square blockshad a ham
in their midst. The PVAN, which started with 4-5
hams in November 2002, now has 86 members, all of
them hams, according to Dyer. New PVAN members go
through a
<http://urgentcomm.com/disaster-response/california-city-incorporates-hams-r…>training
regimen that is coordinated by the city and
participate in at least one mock emergency drill each year.
The radio club not only convinced local sheriffs
and fire officials that this effort a good idea,
but they also officials that amateur radio was
the best option, given the topology of the
surrounding area, which consists of numerous peaks and valleys.
They asked about FRS (family radio service) and
CB (citizens-band radio), but amateur is the most
reliable communications you can get, said Alan Soderberg, a PVAN board member.
Despite the fact that amateur-radio technology is
highly reliable, the topology still creates some
challenges, because there are plenty of dead
spots. However,
<http://urgentcomm.com/companies/harris?intlink=autlink>Harris
recently came to the rescue by donating a UHF
digital mobile
<http://urgentcomm.com/disaster-response/california-city-incorporates-hams-r…>repeater.
One of our employees knew a PVAN member, and one
thing led to another, said Steve Howard, a
Harris regional
<http://urgentcomm.com/disaster-response/california-city-incorporates-hams-r…>sales
manager.
Though grateful for the repeater, Dyer noted that
its not yet operational. Now we need a duplexer, he deadpanned.
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Source URL:
<http://urgentcomm.com/disaster-response/california-city-incorporates-hams-r…>http://urgentcomm.com/disaster-response/california-city-incorporates-hams-r…
