[600MRG] Hams and emcomm

[Edward R Cole]

Pat,

That is why hams need to set up a working relationship with 
authorities before the fact.  Most successful ham radio contributions 
to emergencies were the result of doing that.

My comments came out of a meeting with a representative of the Alaska 
State Troopers (State Police) who has been setting up a working 
relationship with our club for emcomm support to the Kenai 
Peninsula.  We have installed ham stations in the three major town 
hospitals for HF & 2m with permanent antennas installed on the roof.

Access to these facilities takes an official ID badge which must be 
secured in advance.  This is fairly typical in today's world.  All 
will have been vetted in advance and participant list submitted to 
authorities, in advance.  We will be participating in "Alaska Shield" 
exercise in March to demonstrate our abilities and to discover problem areas.

Personnel do change in organizations over time so ham organization 
need to be flexible and keep regular exchange with those dept's. 
Often ham must go thru the "education process" all over again with new folks.

Fifteen years as the Comm Dept. Head at my former employer, I 
constantly went thru this with member clients.  Over time I pretty 
much figured out what they needed to hear, and what not.  These 
client organizations made the same mistakes in emergency drills over 
and over.  Communications breakdown was number one.  These folks had 
to learn new ways of communicating from what they did in the 
office.  Part of my job was to help them learn.  Part was to provide 
them with the communications infrastructure (which my company 
provided).  I interfaced with oil companies, USCG, State DNR and DEC, 
police, fire, and gov't entities.

And the big lesson to learn is each event WILL be different, so no 
blue print will exactly fit.  But I had so many years doing this that 
I had a full litany of approaches which could be tailored to fit a 
particular emergency.  I learned my first one on the Exxon Valdez Oil 
Spill in 1989.

Alaska Ham have earned respect for their abilities during the 1964 
Alaska Earthquake (rated 2nd largest in history).  In recognition for 
the contribution of hams during that disaster the AK Legislature 
passed an act so that all licensed hams in the state were given free 
automobile registration (free plates with call letters) as long as 
they maintained a ham radio in the vehicle.  Most of those 
legislators are probably gone, now, but the law remains.

So, yes, hams will be under appreciated before the fact and better 
appreciated afterward.  Some things never change!

73, Ed - KL7UW

At 10:38 PM 1/5/2014, Pat Hamel wrote:
>My two cents =
>The thing nobody will listen to is that "emcomm" needs the police, fire,
>doctors, and politicians at each end, but none of them have spent lifetimes
>training to get the message through.
>They >are< the message, trained operators get it through.
>So the politicians with the money throw it at scrambled voice circuits for
>themselves, the doctors, firemen, and policemen.
>This is fine until the tower and multiplex computer goes down and the
>contract repairman evacuated..
>Then they will need the trained ham operator and the wire out the window,
>but he won't have a security clearance from feds, state, county,
>and the local constable who remembers that the ham's great-grandpa is
>suspected of turning in the sheriff's grandpa for moonshining...
>Happy New Year with no emcomm needed
>(the new radios are scrapped because someone needs a room for an office and
>everyone in the generation that had the emergency has gone).
>
>Pat W5THT & WD2XSH/6
>
>
>
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73, Ed - KL7UW
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