Amateur radio answers call

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."

You can read the full PinnacleOnline article by Melissa Flores (with photos by Nick Lovejoy) at:
http://www.pinnaclenews.com/news/
contentview.asp?c=260879