Amateur Radio volunteers fill communication gap

When a telephone outage occurred in Southern California October 18, the Long Beach Emergency Communications and Operations Center (ECOC) declared a 'communication failure protocol,' and ARES/RACES members and other ham radio
volunteers stepped in to help.

The outage disabled 911 service in communities along the coast and through parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties. It also cut off at least 150,000 telephone and Internet service customers for up to 12 hours along with many cell phone users.

Radio amateurs worked with police and fire officials to support the departments with auxiliary communications. Hams also were stationed at 17 of the largest nursing homes in town. The emergency net successfully relayed traffic through the ECOC to the hospitals, nursing homes and ambulance services, ensuring access to 911.

When the City of Long Beach built its new ECOC three
years ago, Emergency Services Coordinator Casey Chel, KD6DOV, had the foresight to include a complete Amateur Radio facility for those rare occasions when all other communication systems might fail.

Those plans paid off on October 18.

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