KE8HNK

Setting up a home emergency operations center is something that is fluid and in this series I will be discussing theory, placement and planning along with construction pics of my operation center(s) and how each one plays out. Why would one want a communications center in the first place when we have our ham shacks? Well the main difference between a shack and operations center is being able to operate 24/7 whether or not you do so is your choice. The second one is that you can plan to help and assist your local EMA and groups with disasters in your area or surrounding town. Finally you can communicate with other hams and family members in the event of a full scale black autumn event. Now with that out of the way we can dive into a little history of Hams helping others and some of the groups that make up today's emergency communicators.. A Little History: Dating back to WW2 ham radio operators have assisted neighbors, government and country though ham radio. I got it's start through the old Civil defense during the start of the nuclear era and lasted until the mid 80's where the Civil Defense was decommissioned in the mid 80's. In early 2000's the FEMA/EMA era began to take shape and of course ham radio operators were there ready and willing to provide back up communications. Now we flourish with different groups such as A.R.E.S. (Amateur Radio Emergency Services), Skywarn, R.A.C.E.S (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency services) and Auxcomm Here is a little background into the groups as they would operate or be Deployed. Skywarn: This group of hams operates mostly during severe weather and are trained by the National Weather Service to provide ground truth data in real time during severe weather threats such as tornadoes. hurricanes, and other mass weather events including blizzards. They also offer assistance to the EMA post event should more weather possibly hamper rescue operations. A.R.E.S: This group of hams are called up by the EMA to assist in providing emergency communications, help find victims, and help provide damage reports coordinating clean up efforts. This group also provides communications with shelters, the Red Cross. hospitals and the EMA should the communications grid go down or be destroyed. As a side note this is another reason to have a home EOC as you can provide help to others and be close to your family. R.A.C.E.S: A carry over from the Civil Defense there are some groups still out there operating but there are no new RACES licenses being handed out and most still operate under the EMA or even the ARES coordinator. Auxcomm: This is still somewhat confusing to me Some have formed into groups and others just get the training and stay with the other groups but all I can say is it is worth the training to sharpen your radio skill set. This concludes the first part of my series on setting up a home EOC and hopefully I inspired you to either join a local group or if you are part of one maybe consider setting up your shack to be able to provide 24/7 comms. In the next blog post I will cover the meat and potatoes of planning and designing your home EOC. Until next time remember God is in control, stay healthy and stay blessed.

Imagine your at work and it is near the end of your shift, over the radio and buildings loudspeaker you hear the following message...... "All second shift standby for an emergency announcement" A few seconds go by and another announcement's made. "due to civil disrest we are asking all second shift employees to stand by with third shift until further notice at which time we will provide further information" Now you know that there had been some peaceful vigils and protests going on in the downtown area, but nothing to crazy, however once you flip on the news channel you find out that a few bad eggs decide to start a riot to the south of downtown. So you call your family and tell them to lock the doors and stay in the house. You know your wife or Fiancé's kids are at a restaurant nearby and you call her and say " Babe get a hold to the kids and tell them to get out of the area". She responds why? As she has been asleep and didn't know what is going on. You respond they are rioting to the south and I know- CLICK all of a sudden your phone shuts off. You desperately try to call her back but you get the message " All circuit's are busy try your call again later" A few minutes later during a press conference you find out that the city had shut down cell phone service for 8 miles around downtown to help quell the riot's. You and your family live within the 8 mile range. You worry that your message didn't get through and you fear the worst as you watch the live news reports from your desk computer. What do you do next? Fortunately for you, you, your significant other and two of your kids are a ham radio operator. You go up to the roof of your building and call out on the local repeater that you guys chose to meet on should an emergency happen. You call out "KX9XOX to K7XIX" you wait a few long minutes and then you hear. " K7XIX to K9XOX" You respond: "did you get my message and are the kids ok?" She replies: "yes and I was able to get ahold of our daughter and they left about 15 minutes before you called........" You reply: " Good, I am stuck at work keep the radio on this frequency and I will let you know when I am on the way" ~She replies OK. A few hours go by and things calm down you are released from your shift but you find out that cell phone service won't be back on till the AM. As you step outside of work and smell the scent of burning fires and tear gas you call out on the radio...... "K7XIX to K9XOX I am on my way home" to which she replies "Ok I will be up when you get home". This actually happened in our home town (with the exception of the cell phones being turned off and using the radio). In a million years I never would have thought that it would happen here. Now before you go jumping on the bandwagon of they can't shut the cell phone off you need to know a few things. The first is yes they can shut down or limit it to only 911 calls. The second is they have done it before, On 8/11/2011 BART in San Francisco shut down cell phones like that in the area of the stations as there was plans to disrupt the service. The final thing you need to know is you should be prepared for the inevitable no matter how thin the chance of it actually happening is, and if you have family that live nearby and doesn't have, or want a radio license a GMRS repeater system might not be a bad idea. Now if you are a ham hope this give you food for thought and if not maybe it will encourage you to get your license and develop a plan for you and your family. Until next time, stay blessed ~73

As ham radio operators we are looking for ingenious ways of loading more gear and during our trip to the 2022 Dayton Hamvention showed no shortage of innovative ways of making go- boxes, portable radio bags and other ways of portable means. As we walked past and toured the Emmcom vehicles over the course of two days it was really nice to see all of the different options and setups, however during the last day of the convention as me and my son were coming out of one of the buildings, behold appeared one of the more ingenious ideas nobody would think of... at least not me. Why not make your dog do the work? Above shows the set up and the guy was nice enough to let us photograph the pup and his harness set-up. Now a few things come to mind..... Do you call it K9 portable or mobile? Does the dog need a license (LOL)? What would be the wavelength of the dogs tail, and would he needed a Balun ? Alright enough with the corny jokes right ? Overall I think it was a great set up I didn't ask what he had in the pouches but if one were to guess it would be medication and other essential needs along with the spare HT. This had me thinking if this small dog could carry all of that what could our Boxer-Shepard mix carry? Or any other large breed dog for that matter? Well to answer that question I have devised a list (keeping it under 8lbs) of gear that our dog could carry should we decide to put him to work. Here is that list. (2) HT radios one being my VX-270 and my DJ-MD5 DMR Radio (1) I.F.A.K (individual first aid kit with tourniquet) (1) Large pouch with other supplies and spare batteries (1) water bottle holder to keep our friend hydrated (1) small pouch with dedicated medications or maybe a few energy bars Now of course loading down your wife's 5 pound teacup poodle with 10lbs of gear would be cruel and I don't in any way shape or form condone cruelty to animals but it leaves food for thought have we been under utilizing our 4 legged friends? Until next time take care and stay Blessed ~73

I want to introduce you to my blog some of it taken my other blog from the tactical ham, now before you think this is a all weapons and ham radio related blog I would like to clear a few things up. oxford's dictionary defines "tactical" as such 1. relating to or constituting actions carefully planned to gain a specific military end. "as a tactical officer in the field he had no equal" Or 2. (of a person or their actions) showing adroit planning; aiming at an end beyond the immediate action. "in a tactical retreat, she moved into a hotel with her daughters" Now our blog is about the latter definition (of a person or their actions) by taking a tactical approach to ham radio has given me a fun and structured way of enjoying the hobby and saving me money by not wasting it on things that just don't work for me. A lot of times I do storm spotting and helping first responders in their duties and this puts me into some very interesting situations Now with that out of the way you can look forward to some good scenario based stories that hopefully will take and add some food for thought. A few of them are also like where I where I helped a fellow ham who was in our military rig up his old gear just to see if it would work and have fun Elmer'ing him in the hobby. Now a little about me, I am a extra class ham who was licensed in 2017/2018 (extra class) and as I had mentioned before work in the field assisting first responders and law enforcement. Many days I have to carry around a radio for my job usually a Motorola 6000 and I always somewhere on my person also have my HT . Yes there are days I just don't switch on my ham radio and having a grandbaby (whom has started liking ham radio and had already been to Dayton Hamvention at 5 mo. old) I don't always get a chance to fully enjoy my hobby. I hope you enjoy my blogs and at least walk away from it with something you can use Take care ~73

What would happen if you had to spent the night or several days at work due to a snow storm, or another natural or man made incident? One thing working security is that I can always be mandated to work, some others work in sectors as such too that may require you to stay for more than one shift, do you have comms to keep in touch with your family? Do you have your Go-Bag setup for several days at work? do you have or carry extra supplies in your vehicle? As ham radio operators we often times do emergency preparedness and public service events but do we take the time to plan for our personal lives and our families? I would like to hear from others about the thought of having to stay at work for a few extra shifts to about a week. What would you do? How would you plan? And finally how would you go about establishing contact with family who do not have their ham radio license's?

Speaking of power failures, this happened about 2 years ago in November. We had a late November thunderstorm and while it wasn't even severe warned or under any weather advisory it was able to produce 70+ Mph wind gusts. A large tree about 1/2 a block from the right of the photo went across the lines snapping several poles off including the one pictured. it took about 3 days for them to get the power restored and 5 days till the fiancé's power was restored. It make you wonder if a small event on a Sunday afternoon can do this damage what would a major storm could cause. One of the main reasons I began preparing back up comms, and other preparedness items.

Hey Ham Community, this is an automated post on behalf of our new member: KE8HNK, On behalf of Ham Community, let's give KE8HNK a warm welcome. KE8HNK, we encourage you to browse around and get to know the Community's many sections. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, as with all things HAM, we all love to give advice 😎 For everyone's information, KE8HNK joined on the 05/30/2022; this is their profile: View Member.