STSO 'Flooded In Place' Puts Radio Operator Skills to Good Use

TSA.gov ^ | January 30, 2009 | n/a

[Cindy]

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.tsa.gov/press/happenings/seattle_stso_flooded_in_place.shtm

STSO 'Flooded In Place' Puts Radio Operator Skills to Good Use News & Happenings

January 30, 2009

When more than two feet of snow gave way to rain and heavy flooding earlier this month, Supervisory TSO Donn Gallon of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport put his skills as an amateur radio operator to good use.

As Gallon put it, he was “flooded in place” in his home on the Skookumchuck River in southwest Washington for more than two days. But from that vantage point he was able to report on water levels and other local conditions to the Emergency Operations Center in nearby Centralia as well as to the Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) that TSA partners with at Sea-Tac.

With the region swamped by its second “100-year” flood in two years, that information from call-sign KE7LOQ was used in disaster response efforts, helping determine damage, road closures, and where power lines were down.

With water within 20 feet of his house, Gallon was able to get to the main highway but the flooding Skookumchuck blocked him from reaching any town. Gallon, who joined TSA when SeaTac was federalized in 2002, is the volunteer station director of MARS at Sea-Tac. A regional MARS official as well as the local emergency coordinator congratulated Gallon for being the only volunteer in Washington to provide “essential” information on the flood.

[Cindy]

ON THE INTERNET:

http://www.arrl.org

http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/emergency/
ARRL.org: “Emergency Communications”

[HarryCaul]

It’s a measure of my geekiness that I couldn’t think of anything else for SSTO to mean than Single Stage To Orbit.

[HarryCaul]

Oh, and that I misread it :-)

[HarryCaul]

Oh, and that I misread it :-)

[Techster]

When all else fails, amateur radio.

[ExSES]

When all else fails, amateur radio.

All things DO fail at some time...

After Hurricane Charley, those emergency powered cell phone towers still standing failed within a few days, telephone lines were destroyed, AC power was down for more than a week where I live, and the roads were so blocked with debris that they were impassable for 4-5 days...

Just strung out a longwire, loaded up on 20 meters via a deep cycle 12V battery and rapidly contacted a fellow ham operator in Ohio who called my out of state relatives to let them know our situation.

The fourth such occasion during my 51 years in ham radio...

[LibLieSlayer]

I am a Ham and I am part of a group that has helped to ensure all hospitals and government facilities in South Mississippi have Amateur radio and trained ops at the ready. Any government that does not embrace and use this great National resource are fools and idiots. This is something that mitt romney learned the hard way.

LLS

[Cindy]

Yep.

[Cindy]

“Any government that does not embrace and use this great National resource are fools and idiots.”

I agree.

[dragnet2]

When all else fails, amateur radio.

I could lose total power, phones, cell towers, computers everything, and could still communicate to all points in the U.S. and the world.