Emergency Communications
Amateur radio operators on Oahu that participate with emergency communications are registered with Department of Emergency Management (DEM) on Oahu as RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service) radio volunteers. Click on this link for more information on C&C DEM OCD RACES.
Similarly, amateur radio operators working with Hawaii SCD (State Civil Defense) are registered under SCD's RACES program and other amateurs are registered with their respective agencies. Many are registered with ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service), the emergency communications portion of the ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League), the national organization of amateur radio operators in the United States.
As one of the original contributors to ARRL's Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course (ARECC) in 2000, I highly recommend becoming proficient in passing messages, with special emphasis on timeliness and ACCURACY, and having your radio station ready to operate at all times. I also recommend the use of the ANDERSON Powerpole connector for your 12 volt DC power needs. You just never know when you'll need to communicate as a result of an unexpected emergency.
Enjoy, and feel free to drop me an e-mail if you have any questions.
There are quite a number of incidents on Oahu each year that could potentially lead to situations requiring emergency communications.
Preparation:
These are general articles on amateur radio.
If you interested in some simple ideas that you can accomplish to be better prepared, see these six simple tips. It doesn't take much or very long to implement, but it goes a long way to being prepared. If you're wondering why, consider the key points about Hawaiian geography and radio propagation highlighted in this article. If you wish to be better prepared, check out this list.
To practice, join in some of these radio nets. To practice writing messages for the practice nets, click here. Also practice how to pass messages written on the ICS-213 form, click here.
Alerts: To get advanced warning of weather, tsunami and other alerts, you may wish to pick up a Radio Shack Weather alert radio with the SAME (Specific Area Message Encoding) feature. You may wish to refer to the Hawaii SAME Codes to program the SAME codes into your radio.
For further information, see: Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weather Radio SAME codes
Emergency Communications
Community-based emergency communications is based on where you live and work. It is also based on where you may have to evacuate during a disaster. If you're interested in participating in emergency communications, feel free look through these pages and contact these people.
- What is emergency communications and why do we need it?
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- How Amateurs Accomplish the Impossible During Disasters
- Interruptions to Living on O'ahu and Hawai'i
- Emergency Communications in Hawaii Using Amateur Radio
- How amateurs responded to Hurricane Iniki
- How amateurs responded to the Kiholo (Kona) Earthquake, Oct 15, 2006
- Lessons Learned from Past Operations and Exercises
- How the Anderson Powerpole became the national standard power connector
- Near-realtime alerts
- The General Process for Alert and Activation in Hawaii
- Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs)
- Response Plans
- Emergency Communications Net Information
- Composing test practice messages
- Radio protocol for passing ICS-213 messages on the radio
- Simplex Test Procedures
- Hawaii State RACES -- Communications for the State of Hawaii
- OCDA RACES - Communications for the City & County of Oahu
- Healthcomm - Communications for Healthcare Association of Hawaii
- Organizations and Points-of-Contact
- Links
- ARRL Field Organization Emergency Communications Web Page
- Makani Pahili 1999
- Year 2000 Emergency Communications in Honolulu: Dec 31, 1999-Jan 1, 2000
Personal Preparation
A lot of your personal success to weather a disaster or interruption involves how much preparations you've made when the situation is normal for the difficult times. Just before a disaster strikes, it's very hard to mobilize and reposition many things that's needed, so now is the time to get it done. Just make a checklist and accomplish one item at a time.
Click on these logos for more information about these programs.
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