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ALL IT TAKES IS ONE EVENT... by AB1DO |
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A MINOR ROLE IN A LOCAL EVENT LEADS TO THE TOWN'S WILLINGNESS TO SUPPORT AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS |
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Several years ago Doug Hartline, the Town of Redding Health Officer and then also the Emergency Response Coordinator approached John Ahle (W1JMA) and me asking how Amateur Radio might assist the Town during an emergency. We spent an afternoon with Doug explaining what our capabilities were, and how we were organized, and offered to present to the relevant Town officials. Nothing much materialized, but I did stay in touch with Doug from time to time. That all changed, when on May 5th the Town of Redding, with the assistance of the Danbury ARC, held an emergency shelter drill to train its CERT in shelter operations. The designated shelter was a section of the Joel Barlow High School. The Drill would involve the Danbury Chapter of the ARC, Redding Police, EMS and a mobile pet shelter. Cots would be set up, a nurse station, reception area, cafeteria, command center, dormitory, logistics and cafeteria mgt and a PIO. In short the Drill would simulate a full blown shelter situation. |
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A local Redding citizen plays the role of an injured person for the CERT team to drill in on-site transportation procedures. photo by Mar Walker |
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During the drill 12 Motorola XTN 2600 commercial UHF walkie-talkie radios were to be used for internal on-site communications. Doug Hartline, the Town's Health Officer and leader of the Redding CERT asked me to help instruct the CERT on the use of these radios, to organize the internal communications and, although no out-going messages were going to be generated, to perform any external communications we desired. -- (continued next page) |
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First Selectman Natalie Ketchum uses one of the Motorola UHF portables to contact the ICP.. photo by Mar Walker |