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Posted on 03/03/2006 6:52:50 PM PST by Denver Ditdat
When another disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina comes along, the League will be able to deploy "ham gear ready to go," thanks to manufacturers' donations of Amateur Radio gear, ARRL members' generous monetary contributions and a federal grant. The ARRL Ham Aid-sponsored "Go Kits" now being assembled at League Headquarters are the third leg of a program that's already reimbursed certain out-of-pocket expenses for ham radio hurricane zone volunteers and helped restore Amateur Radio backbone infrastructure along the US Gulf Coast.
"To me, this is a first step in ramping up ARRL's ability to support Amateur Radio volunteers in the field before the next big disaster hits," says ARRL Chief Development Officer Mary Hobart, K1MMH. "It won't replace or supplant anything that's already on the ground and working well, but it will strengthen it and add flexibility to Amateur Radio's overall response capabilities." The equipment and cash donations coupled with a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) will mean Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) field volunteers will never go without in terms of equipment. Hobart notes that a lot of radio amateurs lost all their gear during the devastating storms last summer.
Harry Abery, AB1ER, spends his days at ARRL Headquarters literally surrounded by Amateur Radio gear that he's packing into Go Kits. These will be available on loan from ARRL to support Amateur Radio Emergency Service volunteers in the next big disaster zone.
The Go Kits will make it possible for the League to loan necessary equipment where it's needed, literally on a moment's notice. For several weeks now, Emergency Communications Specialist Harry Abery, AB1ER--a retired police dispatcher--has been spending his days at ARRL Headquarters securely stowing various equipment complements in rugged, waterproof Pelican 1650 containers.
"The idea is that this makes it easy to ship," explains Abery, and since they're less than 50 pounds apiece, they'll be able to go by air if necessary." Flooding is not an issue either. "You can throw them in the water, and they'll float," he adds.
So far, Abery says, there's an HF Kit, a VHF/UHF Kit, a Handheld Transceiver Kit and a Support Kit--seven of each, and more on the way. He and other League staffers consulted with volunteers who had been in the field during Hurricane Katrina to find out what gear served them best or what they wished they'd had but didn't.
The HF Kit contains a 100-W HF transceiver, a microphone and a power supply. The VHF/UHF Kit includes a dualband mobile transceiver, power supply, headset, 10 handheld transceivers and a supply of alkaline batteries. In the Handheld Transceiver Kit are eight dualband handheld transceivers and antennas plus a stock of extra batteries. The Support Kit includes a length of BuryFlex 213 coaxial cable, rope, 15-foot jumper cables with battery clamps at one end and an Anderson Powerpole on the other. The kit includes various fittings and adapters to connect to the power distribution unit and to make RF feed line connections. All kits contain any necessary manuals. Packed in a separate container, appropriate antennas and antenna accessories will accompany a given kit.
More than two dozen members of the Amateur Radio industry and individual radio amateurs contributed equipment last year for use in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort.
Hobart says $25,000 in Ham Aid funds have been set aside for the Go Kits, while nearly $39,500 has gone toward reimbursing volunteers' out-of-pocket expenses and an additional $29,000 or so will help to replace Amateur Radio communication infrastructure from the Gulf Coast to Florida damaged or destroyed by last year's three devastating storms.
Citing Amateur Radio's favorable treatment in recent US House Subcommittee and White House reports on the Hurricane Katrina response, Hobart said it's imperative to sustain and enhance ham radio's emergency communication capabilities for the future. "Disasters happen to be one place Amateur Radio can shine," she pointed out. "We need to maintain a high level of readiness to do those things that are second nature to ARES members but that the public is just coming to recognize."
Making the "Go Kits" available to ARES teams, Hobart says, is a small step toward cementing Amateur Radio's position as a community resource. "We want to be able to ensure that we have the personnel and the equipment," she said. "With a disaster of this magnitude we need to be ready."
Ham Radio Ping ListPlease Freepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.
They could start at my house.
L
I could do a bang-up job with a nice Ten Tec Orion II, I think...
L
Come on guys, this is what Field Day is about. I know a few locals were handling traffic from LA up here in CN85. CUL . .
Great story, long live the Morse Code. CW is fun, CW is life! CW is my voice!
Come on guys, this is what Field Day is about. If you have a station that can run anything but Class D, you should be good to go. I know a few locals were handling traffic from LA up here in CN85. We hams are usually right behind the first responders when the chips are down. CUL . .
I believe a working knowledge of Morse code and CW are fundamental to radio communication not just for historic reasons but for practical reasons as well because it represents the first nontrivial mode of communication with radio, requires no special modulation equipment, and can be extremely useful in emergency situations where amateur radio naturally shines. For those reasons, all licenses should require at the very least a 5 wpm proficiency. Just my humble opinion.
I posted on the wrong dang thread. Should be on the other "ham" thread. Apologies for the confusion.
And that's just me. In the local area there are lots of folks with similar capability, plus a handful of local collectives that have trailers with crank up towers, portable repeaters, and things of that nature.
Probably the weakness in this area (and I'd suspect most areas) is a lack of EMP proofing. And quite honestly I'm not sure how critical that is.
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