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Reliable Radio Heritage Village Ham Radio club assembles go-bags to improve emergency communications By Marietta Homayonpour |
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SOUTHBURY -- A 33-year-old ham radio club is making people safer. The 13 members of Heritage Village Radio/Electronic Club spent 200 hours in the last few months assembling four go-bags that will enhance emergency communications in Southbury. Money -- about $7,000 -- for go-bag equipment was obtained by First Selectman Mark Cooper through a Homeland Security grant. Village Radio Club members, who are part of Southbury's Community Emergency Response Team, put the several parts of the go-bags together, programmed in about 80 radio frequencies within Southbury and surrounding towns, and presented the finished products to Cooper Thursday. "This is a tremendous asset for the Village, the town and the community," Cooper told several of the club's members. |
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Heritage Village Radio/Electronic Club president Vincent DeGrosa, right, shows the newly purchased go-bags to Southbury First Selectman Mark Cooper and Heritage Village Master Association vice president Leola Lee. The go-bags took club volunteers 200 hours to assemble. |
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He spoke at the club's headquarters in Heritage Village, where scores of identification cards from ham radio clubs around the country and the world line the sloping ceiling. Heritage Village is a 40-year-old housing development for people 55 and older. It has about 4,000 residents. Two of the go-bags will remain at club headquarters and two will be kept at the town's dispatch center at the police department annex. Cooper said telephone service -- land line or cell -- can be lost during an emergency because poles and towers are down or equipment is without power or is overloaded. When backup communication is needed, "the reliable one is ham radio," Cooper said. Club member Bill Kerber, 64, agrees. "When everything else fails, we can still communicate." Ham radios at the club work on electricity. But if the electricity fails, the club has a backup generator. Still, the ham radios at the club are stationary. That's why the go-bags will be a boon. They are portable. |