Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Radio buffs hone emergency skills

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 14:19:43 -0500

Radio buffs hone emergency skills

Sept. 11 prompts ham operators to rework training

http://www.chicagotribune.com/

October 27, 2002

Ham radio operators will gather in Libertyville next month to train for a day they hope
will never come--a disaster that knocks
out communications in Lake County.

They won't know until they arrive just what type of emergency will be simulated. But in
the year since the 9/11 attacks, they've
become acutely aware of the need to be ready for anything.

"We've always been kind of preparing for emergency situations," said Bernard Moritz, radio
officer for the Lake County Radio
Amateur Civil Emergency Service. "What Sept. 11 has done for us is give us another thing
to prepare for."

Much has changed in the half century since 1952, when the Federal Emergency Management
Agency created the RACES
program. It has become America's backup communications plan in any worst-case scenario.

Born in the Cold War era amid fears of a Soviet nuclear missile attack, the RACES program
has provided police and rescue
workers with backup communications during tornadoes and hurricanes. When the twin World
Trade Center towers fell in the
attacks last year, causing major communications blackouts in New York, RACES provided
communications for the Red Cross
in Manhattan for several weeks.

Besides establishing a line of communication, the amateur radio operators can create a
link between vital departments, such as
police and firefighters, who typically work on different radio frequencies. That
difference is widely recognized as a gap in
emergency communications, and it has been blamed during the World Trade Center collapse
for poor dialogue between police
and fire officials that hampered the ability of many firefighters to escape.

Since the attacks, amateur emergency radio operators locally and nationally have been
reworking their training programs to
prepare for any future strikes that could wipe out mainstream communications.

The Nov. 9 training program in Libertyville could involve mock terrorism scenarios, and
the 100-member Lake County
RACES group has been working in other ways to keep up with the times.

In 1999, the group did a test that simulated a Y2K communications disruption. Then, for
Jan. 1, 2000, RACES and the Lake
County Sheriff's Office set up eight stations where citizens could relay emergency
messages if other forms of communication
failed.

"Fortunately it wasn't needed," said Jim Schultz, emergency management director for the
sheriff's office. The relay stations were
shut down after four hours, but the backup system worked.

Earlier this month, Lake County RACES was at a massive camp-out for Boy Scouts at the
county fairgrounds. Members
demonstrated how amateur radio enthusiasts not only can communicate with people throughout
the world, but also can assist
during emergencies.

Many state experts on terrorism preparedness say the trick to be ready for a terrorist
strike is to have a comprehensive plan to
handle all emergencies. The response needs to be the same, for example, whether a
terrorist bomb or a natural gas explosion
destroys a building.

"We train for an `all-hazards' plan," Schultz said. "A hazardous material incident is
pretty close to a terrorist attack. The
response is almost the same as if it were a chemical attack. It doesn't make any
difference if it is an intentional act or an
accident."

After Sept. 11, every state came up with plans in case of a terrorist strike. Many, if not
all, of these plans make it clear that
RACES organizations need to be mobilized should a disaster occur.

In Lake County, they would set up at command centers, communications centers and other
locations, such as shelters. They
would do an over-the-air roll call to get the locations and abilities of every available
operator.

In places like Florida and the Carolinas that are regularly battered by hurricanes, it
could take a long time, perhaps weeks, to
restore cellular phone service if cellular phone towers were knocked out. Amateur radio
operators can be ready to transmit
from portable 30-foot masts in 10 minutes.

Advances in technology have helped amateur radio operators play a bigger role in
emergencies, said Don Bolstad, treasurer for
the Lake County RACES.

"I have a radio the size of a credit card," Bolstad said. "I can put it in my shirt
pocket."

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