Do Local Authorities Still Consider Ham Radio Important In Emergencies
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ค. 2024
- I saw in on another TH-cam channel it stated that “ The city and state don’t need hams and are reluctant to reconize hams still exist”. I disagree with this. At least where I live that’s not the case. Please let me know in the comments how it is where you live.
Fellow Tennesseean here and I'm glad we got great repeaters in our state. During the Christmas bombing in Nashville our repeaters were very active with great information. Thanks for the video. KO4HPC 73
I am a member of the local ARES. The local emergency services have requested our help with monitoring traffic during the up coming eclipse.
You'd be amazed to find out how many people don't think the hobby still even exists. I've mentioned it to people and heard "ham radio? people still do that?" lol
Both the ARRL and IEEE are missing in action in the general media for us. I could be wrong, but the last time I checked, public service announcements for non-profits were either free or low cost. They complain about numbers, but do nothig to make the public aware we even exist and the fragility of the complexity of modern communications. Yes, I'm a very active ARES/RACES members and fortunately we are valued and integral to our county's emergency services plans. But, that is a pleasant exception.
Here (Australia), I get the impression that, as you mentioned, the amateur service is far less valued now, than decades ago. However, HAMs continue to practice civil-emergency type operations, some clubs also maintain a mobile communication system (van/caravan equipped and ready for deployment). I'feel', the HAMs are seen as a spare wheel, little thought about, until needed. But despite the lowering importance of the HAM community, it’s made evident, by legislation, amateur radio operators, are not only permitted, but are required to render assistance to mayday calls, and signals of distress and impending peril, on any frequency, if that operator is the only communication available.
We (HAMs), may be at the bottom of the pecking order, but when we’re called upon, we know our contribution is essential.
Thank you
Back in ‘15 I was a beginner prepper. I took the county CERT courses and became a bit involved with the group. My prepping grew along with (surprisingly) my desire to help others. Along with the prepping I got involved with ham radio. That endeavor has grown quite a bit since. I’m by no means a master of radio as I still have tons to learn. Through some of my CERT contacts I got invited to join my state Auxcomm group. I’ve been a member for over a year now. I’ll be stationed in the state EOC for a couple days for the duration of the solar eclipse next week.
Our group doesn’t have much of a state funded budget but over the years they have amassed an excellent array of gear and resources. We are well supported and respected by our state’s management. To be honest, I hope we are not needed during the eclipse or ever for that matter! However, we have a good team and we are ready to help however we can.
What state are you in ?
@@keithshamradioworld2793
Indiana
I'm a member of ARES in our county. There are a few Sheriff's officers that are members of our HAM club. In fact, the County Sheriff's Dept. has incorporated our club's reporter on their new comms tower free of charge.
In my area I don't believe the hams who volunteer with the emergency services will be utilized until there is a county wide emergency that would require the use of amateur radio gear. Sure we help out with bicycle races, foot races, car shows, etc; however we use those as training events.
I think it depends on where you live. I don't feel like i could depend on emergency services and law enforcement to have my families best interests at heart. I hope it's better where you live.
They should establish establish stations at Waffle Houses for the ultimate in disaster assessment and response.....
If assigned to a Waffle House, I hope it stays open. 😂
I am registered with my local EMA.
Even if I wasn't, if I'm able to assist, I'm more than willing to do my part.
Recently, we had slick road conditions. I was out anyway so, I proceeded to start giving road condition reports on the local repeater, telling where accidents were, where the roads were most treacherous, and even putting "if you find yourself in a bad situation I have an extra seat. I can give you warm shelter while you wait for help or I can get you to a warm location if you need a ride."
I just felt like, even though we weren't activated or deployed, that was a way for me to do my part for the community.
Who cares if authorities see us as "a vital communication source?" It falls right in line with the respect and etiquette we display on air. Just do your part anyway.
Good discussion! I agree with you. Where I am at the local emergency group does not think much of us Hams. I fear the last EC did some things that didn't sit well so we need to build that relationship up. Right now we are without a local EC and no one seems to want it.
For those that don't value comms guys in general, just wait till you're in a jam. I hope it never happens, but we all need to be ready to act.
Godspeed!
our county plans on going digital 700 or 800 Mhz trunking the back up plan is AT&T
I'm afraid in our local folk think it is a good idea but little to no follow through. It is hard to get them interested and those that do tend to fall away from regular communication... Thanks for your video. KI7RJS
My large urban area, covering 7 counties, is subject to natural disasters. Emergency services have mostly upgraded to a Project 25 standard (interoperable, digital, encrypted, trunked radios). There is little or no reliance by emergency services on hams. Yes, high winds, floods, wildfires and earthquakes can destroy emergency service antennas, cell towers and cut their power, but those same forces can also damage ham antennas, towers, transceivers, repeaters and cut their power. Government communications towers and cell towers comply with building codes for wind and seismic forces. Are ham towers compliant? Government communications have back-up generators designed to run for days, our cell towers have about 8 hours of backup power. How long can most hams operate cut off from the grid?
Project 25 radio systems and extensive back-up power may not be practical in less densely populated areas so hams may be more useful there.
"Ham" is a broad term. I find many hams only do HF while in my urban area only UHF and VHF would be useful to emergency services in a county-wide disaster. Small satellite phones can reach out of my region if needed. Plus, new iPhone 14 &s 15s have an Emergency SOS feature that allows texting via satellites. T-Mobile, Starlink and Samsung are developing similar systems. I see the usefulness of ham emcomms declining over time as technology marches on. 95% of US population has a cell phone, 85% are smartphones.
Our small ARES club has its meetings in the county EMA office usually with Brad Speer our manager sitting at his desk.
Our biggest upcoming task is emergency coms for our county, where our population is expected to double,
because of us being in the path of totality, for the April 8 total, eclipse.73's🎙KD9OAM🎧📻📡
I think it would be beneficial to hear actual stories from operators who were used during an emergency and how they were used. Specific stories from Katrina or Andrew or during a wildfire. Were operators used on 9/11? Such stories would be very helpful.
The only time in my area that HAM Operators are utilized is for large Bicycle races and Marathon races. To my knowledge, they have never been needed to assist in emergency operations.
Where I live our group hasn't been involved in any drills with the county in a long time. The EC has hob nobbed with the County EM for a long time. Hams did get involved during a wide area flood in 2020 but for non ham purposes. Some are trained for data entry to the state information system and that was done. The EC says we have a seat at the table but if we don't know them they don't know us without face to face interactions for an emergency activation. We will go to bleep here if hams are ever called on.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I read several years back where the state of California said that hams were not needed anymore. I felt this was an arrogant statement. A lot of California is mountain wilderness. It's not all about the cities along the coast. I think the same attitude is spreading around the country with these EOC folks. People are walking around with a false sense of security. They have their cell phones and carry them like a protective blanket. But, in any large scale emergency or disaster, those phones will become useless. People are not aware that the telephone systems are designed to carry 50% or less of the callers on the network. This goes for the old land lines as well as cellular systems. Fine you say, I'll just get on the internet. Nope, that will crash too. A lot of cell towers are interconnected through the old copper underground cables. There can be fiber links as well as microwave. But again, the system will only handle so much. What about satellite links ? Well, a really good solar flare or an EMP burst from a hostile nation could take out the COMM Satellites. The reason we prepare is to be ready for how and when the extreme cases come along. It's easy to be complacent. If nothing else, we need to keep out individual station ready. backup power or what have you. Having a portable station ready to go is not a bad idea either. Besides, The FCC says we are needed as a pool of responders in an emergency and to have a group of operators with technical know how. I know this was a long response.
A backup is important. One is none as they say.
We also meet at your eoc and they are getting us a new trailer and our repeater is also at the eoc
in the UK we have RAYNET. but they get used for bike tour events. they are frowned upon really. bit of a joke really.
I don't think it's ever been considered useful in the U.K. as emergency communications.
The official organisations like to think they can cope.
G4GHB.
"Do Local Authorities Still Consider Ham Radio Important In Emergencies"
NO and I am a ham and live in a hurricane zone.
Given what passes for local authorities I don't much care what they consider.
😂😂
Absolutely
It's a bit of a sad trend effecting all sorts of technologies (I'm afraid). Here in Australia, we have had a couple of events where our Telco's have come into criticism for one failure or another. Someone digs up a fibre in some back area town and it shuts down a major city Airport. More recently there was a total outage of all communications through one of our "foreign owned" players in the Telco game here. Everything was down emergency calls, EFTPOS you names it... The big CRY here was more about businesses needing to close because they couldn't make banking transactions as hardly anyone carries cash. Boo Hoo... Get a back up SIM card on the opposite telco! But no... they just wanted to cry cry & sook! They could have been the only cafe open for their fancy coffees... but no.
My point is.... the quick and easy gratifaction of today's VERY DELICATE infrastructure is making people dumb to it's reality (too many eggs in one basket). Bringing this back to HAM's being used in an Emergency. I think it's suffering the same problem a Black Smith's shop is... There aren't that many horses around anymore. But they still exsit and they still need shoeing.
Keep up the skills fella's.... We might need to crack out the HF radios one day like in the movie Indepenence day.... when the Internet dies or ET finally does come visiting!
73's from VK2 land.
Is it wise for hams to post their name and address with callsigns for anyone to hear?
Everyone can hear a ham's callsign if they have an appropriate scanner or even a ham radio they use to only listen.
No, most don't even know what it is, or who they could contact if they even did.
Mostly yes. State, County, and City officials are wrapped in a safe cocoon manufacturers have convinced them is real. Their multi million dollar systems are not immune from breakdown.
Hams volunteers for civil emergencies are usually neglected by authorities until a crisis. Yes, they are crisis mangers- they only start to handle it if there is a crisis. During the blowtorch like wildfires in Lahaina, Maui, the cell phone system, telecom system & electrical power was literally vaporized. It took months for Verizon, AT&T, etc… to restore service. Of course, part of the system intended for emergency services was also destroyed. Hams did fill the void for awhile, until weeks later when Elon Musk quietly donated 750 Starlink phones. Government politicians did have rapid response photo ops, but in reality was very slow in relieving the situation. Until there is a crisis, most of us think it is a waste of time. When there is a crisis, we think why aren’t we more organized & why didn’t we practice enough. Hams are a resource of privately maintained equipment, providing redundant support. Before the age of cell phones, Hams were nearly #1. In the case I mentioned, the cell network disappeared & Hams moved up to fill the void. Thankfully, this does not happen very often, but when it does it never seems to be enough.
"reluctant to clothes hams"?
corrected npw
That's why I'm buying a uv-5r no need for a government permission slip!
Emergency and honby radio on the cheap! As good as any high dollar radio.
Sure hope you don't key that poorly on the air.
Thank you for your kind words
Of course, Ham Radio will be important. During a time of calamity. As, once the Internet goes down. Once commercial broadcasters go down. Cellular systems go down. We again will have rudimentary, Amplitude Modulated, low-frequency radio signals. That's all there'll be. And Ham Operators will play a Pivotal Role. In helping to prevent, Anarchy. During the time of the great catastrophe. You bet your sweet BIPPY!
I might even venture to say. We might have to de-tune our, 160 meter rigs. To get it down to the commercial AM radio band. Down around 1600 kHz. So everybody with a, cranking radio receiver will be able to get it.
So the answer is, yeah you better believe it. And I'm not even a Amateur Operator. I'm a Professional Operator. There was no need for me to be an amateur.
I don't need a Ham License. I have a 1st Class FCC Radiotelephone License. That's the highest you can get. So I shouldn't need any other stupid lower, 2 ways/walkie-talkie license. Screw that! As the 1st Class Ticket. Let's you ride. All of the rides. For as long as you want. It's all gravy.
Can you please pass the cornbread?
RemyRAD