I've found it interesting reading about US Emergency Comms. It seems to me
that many of your counties etc are quite small and don't have the critical
mass to invest in comprehensive comms networks.
Here in Queensland (Australia) the state government has an agency devoted to
emergencies (EMQ - Emergency Management Queensland), and the SES (State
Emergency Service), a volunteer organisation, sits under it. SES have radio
repeaters throughout the state (1,730,648 sq.km/668,207 sq.mi of land, so
about 2.5x that of Texas and the same as Alaska), with remote & major
locations having HF facilities. All SES members are trained in basic comms
which pretty much involves using HTs and mobiles, and procedure is based on
the army system.
There is a trial underway where ham operators that are a member of WICEN (VK
equivalent of ARES) are also members of the SES and form a special
Communications Unit, as opposed to the normal geographic (local council based)
Unit. This will provide EMQ and SES with a pool of highly trained radio
operators, as well as people trained in EOC operation.
As far as I can tell, SES have 22 HF frequencies, ranging from 2.0215MHz
through to 18.6745MHz. There is a cluster at 3.7MHz, 4.5MHz and 5.1MHz, making
them pretty suitable for NVIS (not sure if it is used).
There was flooding in October 2007 on the Sunshine Coast, to the north of
Brisbane. While not involved personally, I believe that the WICEN guys were
activated and provided communications capability to EMQ. I have been involved
in the response to recent floods in Beaudesert (to the south of Brisbane) in
the field and at the EOC (on comms). Amateur radio was not used as there were
two repeaters that covered the affected area & portable repeaters (self
powered ones with handhelds inside, as well as land mobile based repeaters)
were available to be deployed. EMQ's regional comms officer was on hand to
help, and he'd brought two Codan manpack HF radios along for backup incase
repeaters failed.
Unfortunately there was no sign of anything digital except for the 850MHz UMTS
HSDPA wireless internet card in a laptop.
As nice as it is for ham operators to assist in emergencies, I quite like the
idea that the professionals working for the government, and the emergency
response agencies like the SES are self sufficient. I believe that the
situation in some states in the US (Kansas might be one) is a little different
again in that the National Guard is used to provide communications for the
state during disasters. I believe that all states and territories in Australia
have a system similar to Queensland where the government has installed the
infrastructure and the trained volunteer members use it as need be. Western
Australia uses the Q-MAC HF90 manpack, but the idea is much the same.
If through practise with ham radio operators are able to use a radio in
adverse RF conditions (not full quieting FM), not afraid to speak into a
microphone, know how to keep a log, know the phonetic alphabet, can speak
properly (not like using a cellphone) into the radio etc, then these people
are valuable to emergency service organisations. Added knowledge of digital
comms, fault finding etc all helps. Best thing to do would be to join up with
a suitable organisation. That what I did, so now I'm an SES member (also comms
officer for our group) as well as a ham. Unfortunately WICEN meetings &
training are held at the same time as SES training here in Brisbane, so my
'official' WICEN involvement doesn't really exist.
I guess some hams want to use their equipment, and operate in their way, and
it might suit some communities that don't have much in the way of facilities.
Good on you, and hope that you can provide assistance. For those of us that
live in areas when the government (national, state, city etc) has installed
equipment for emergency use, we shouldn't be too proud to use it. We shouldn't
underestimate the significant increase in operating experience and skill that
ham radio provides. As digital gets more common (and complicated) this will
probably be more apparent.
73s, and hope that there isn't any more need for EmComm this year,
David.
--
David Ingram (VK4TDI)
Real email: dave at ingramtech dot com
Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
http://www.ingramtech.com/
MGRS: 56J MQ 991583 Maidenhead Grid Square: QG62lm
Roger J. Buffington wrote:
> The strength of ham radio in the context of emergency communications is
> not that we are all sitting around all the time just itching to monitor
> for that SOS or whatnot. It is that amateur radio provides a reservoir
> of private citizens who own and know how to quickly deploy things like
> generators, antennas, and SSB/FM transceivers. We can quickly put
> together makeshift but effective communications in environments where
> all other communications are temporarily down and out. Katrina, the
> 1994 California earthquake, are but two examples. There are countless
> others.
>
> I do agree that some persons with agenda have used the Emcomm argument
> as a cloaking device to pursue an agenda. Winlink immediately comes to
> mind in this regard. But this should not take away from the civic
> minded hams in many countries who regularly make a real contribution to
> emergency communications.
