Volunteer group prepared to offer communication in emergency
Time and again, communication has proven to be an issue during
major disasters. It happened in Loma Prieta, when the hardest hit
regions in Santa Cruz and San Benito counties were without phone
service. It happened during Hurricane Katrina when landlines and
cell phones both went down.
Volunteer group prepared to offer communication in emergency
Time and again, communication has proven to be an issue during major disasters. It happened in Loma Prieta, when the hardest hit regions in Santa Cruz and San Benito counties were without phone service. It happened during Hurricane Katrina when landlines and cell phones both went down.
“Without proper communication, you can do all the planning you want,” said Ron Ross, the deputy agricultural commissioner and an amateur radio enthusiast. “If you are not able to communicate with people in the field – at fire stations or shelters – you are almost stuck in the stone age.”
Ross, along with other volunteers, has been active for the last three years with the San Benito County Amateur Radio Emergency Services group.
“One of our missions, one thing we want to provide, is back-up communication in local emergencies,” Ross said. “[Radio] doesn’t rely on outside infrastructure or outside signals. Cell phones rely on a network, and if that goes down, you are in trouble.”
Ross pointed to the recent telecommunications outage in Santa Clara County, when a fiber optics cable was cut. Land lines, cell phones and Internet connections all went down, bringing cities such as Gilroy close to a standstill.
“It is a stand-alone system,” Ross said, of the radios, “so we are not affected when other systems may go down for emergencies, outages or overloaded systems.”
The group has a core group of 15 volunteers. The group participates in the emergency drills put on by the County Office of Emergency Services and also uses local countywide events to hone its skills. Members volunteered to provide communications services for the inaugural Condor Classic, a bicycle ride that takes people as far as the Pinnacles and back. They will be helping with the event again this October.
“A lot of the route doesn’t have cell phone coverage,” Ross said. “We will help coordinate it. We will have amateur radio operators around the route. It gives us a chance to perfect our skills.”
The amateur radio group has put repeaters in downtown Hollister and in south San Benito County so they can get a signal in most of the county. Repeaters also allow the group to communicate with agencies in Monterey, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz. They can connect to Sacramento, to the California Emergency Management Agency, through a shortwave radio.
“We can communicate with the outside world and also within town,” Ross said. The group participates in the county drills and is part of the operations group. They have a communications room set up at the Hollister Police Department, and procedures posted on their Web site. In an emergency, one person likely would be at the communications room, and others would be in the field so they could communicate back the needs of different parts of the county.
Ross said most of the group is involved because they are into radios and electronics, but in the event of an emergency, they are willing to help out.
“There had been a Ham radio group maybe 15 years ago, but it more or less faded away,” Ross said. “We resurrected it because we saw a need to have an organized group to help the community. And it’s also a chance for us all to get together and talk about our hobby.”
For more information on the San Benito County Amateur Radio Emergency Services, or to get involved, visit www.sbcares.org.
