Posted on 10/20/2017 6:09:44 AM PDT by markomalley
The local service of radio grows enormously in value when disaster strikes a community. This is what weve seen with the wildfires that have swept through the Northern California counties of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Solano beginning last week. Fast moving and unpredictable, these deadly fires also took out communications infrastructure like cell towers, internet and cable TV, leaving radio as one of the most reliable sources of potentially life-saving information.
Commercial and non-commercial stations stepped up to offer emergency information to residents and first responders. Large Bay Area stations offered coverage, but often it was smaller, locally-owned stations that could better serve the hyper-local information needs, able to report the conditions on the ground in specific towns, cities and neighborhoods, from what roads are shut down, to what kind of donations were most in need at specific emergency shelters.
My San Francisco-based colleague Jennifer Waits reported hearing an emergency services press conference on Sauvignon Rock station KVYN-FM The Vine in Napa, which also ran a bilingual call-in show where residents could get answers regarding local emergency services. In addition emergency information was broadcast on Sonoma Community Radio KSVY and country station KZST in Sonoma.
The Willits News in Mendocino County documented the service that LPFM KLLG provided the community:
Michelle Cummins, program manager at KLLG radio said people were coming up to her at Mariposa Market last week thanking her for the fledging stations crucial role during the fire emergencies.
When cell phone towers were damaged and all cell phone communications (with the exception of satellite phones), and internet were unavailable over a two day period as a result of the Mendocino Lake Complex fire, KLLG and KZYX Public radio became the local sources of information in Willits.
Inside Radio talked with staff of two small commercial radio groups in the area, Wine Down Media and Redwood Empire Stereocasters (owner of KZST), which switched their stations music programming to wall-to-wall coverage. Staff at Redwood Empire studios even had to evacuate twice due to the fire threat, only to return when the flames receded. Owner Gordon Zlot recounted the story to public radio KALW in San Francisco.
Radio newsletter Tom Taylor Now published a report from the Sonoma Media Group, owner of six stations, including news/talk KSRO. Market manager Michael OShea said the latter station ran, 24/7 commercial-free news coverage for 72 straight hours, with virtually all the groups on-air people helping the news anchors with coverage, handling phones, feeding social media, etc. The coverage was noticed and appreciated. I cant tell you how many times listeners would call and tell us this same discovery, he said. [T]hey almost had to re-learn the ultimate magic of local live radio.
Amateur radio operators also reported for duty, as they do during nearly every kind of disaster, natural or man-made. According to the American Radio Relay League ham radio operators were stationed at local hospitals and large nursing homes through the middle of last week in Mendocino County. In Sonoma County amateur operators were relaying fire and emergency information on amateur radio frequencies, and also supporting shelters and maintaining a presence at the area Emergency Operations Center.
This celebration of local radio isnt at the expense of other media platforms. Most of these stations maintained a strong presence on social media, providing updates along with live feeds from regular press briefings by local authorities whenever possible. Moreover, some stations had to rely only on their internet streams and social media when their transmitters were knocked off air by the fire.
And, while internet and cell was out in some areas, this wasnt the case everywhere. What this means is that radio is part of a fabric of media and communications, where each platform has its particular strengths and can be called to serve when and where other platforms are less appropriate, or unavailable.
What makes the difference are the people who step up to do the work, to broadcast information and create that lifeline when needed. One advantage that a radio station has is that community trust the standing of being a community asset that folks trust due to a record of service. You might say that a local radio station is authenticated you know (in most cases) that theyre working hard to be accurate and reliable in their service, especially in trying times.
With so many media and audio options available to us, its understandable if you dont tune in to local radio every day. But dont forget about your local stations, either. Because its all too likely that there will be a day when you need them, and tuning in will be vitally important.
Radio will never be obsolete.
HAM operators at Hospitals?
I wish the article expanded a little.
We were researching radios to replace one at home. It seems that many of the newer ones don’t have AM any more.
Try eBay. We found an older version still in the box.
A 7-20watt 40 meter SSB radio with digital tuning display for 59.00 and that includes shipping
http://www.hfsigs.com/
The case and assorted hardware 19.00 and free shipping
https://amateurradiokits.in/product-tag/bitx-40-case/
This rig comes pre-assembled but you have to solder the leads onto the vol control and speaker.
There are many demo vids on youtube...
Clicked On your link..
Thanks.
Licensing Required?
It doesn’t hurt to store some equipment in a Faraday box. And a spare or two also. Especially extra handhelds.
I wonder what ever became of the ARRL/Red Cross joint effort a few weeks ago to recruit 50 volunteer ham licensees for 3-week TDY’s in Puerto Rico?
I’ve had a number of portable receivers, Grundig, CCrane, etc.
This is my favorite right now:
https://countycomm.com/collections/radio
AM/FM stereo (headphones), shortwave and SSB for ham radio.
Brilliant scanning system for storing stations into memory, including shortwave.
The story is that they are an upgraded version of a Japanese brand, developed for US govt. employees overseas. Good story at least. Oh yeah, it will recharge rechargeable batteries via a USB cable.
'Force Of 50' Volunteers' Puerto Rico Hurricane Recovery Mission Ends.
They only got 22 volunteers.
Yes, ham (not HAM) operators at hospitals. It’s done all the time in disaster areas. Here in my little town in Alabama, we have a drill at least once a year where a ham operator sets up in the local hospital. This year, it was me.
I agree, BitX40 is cool. I may get one just to run FT8 on it...
Yes. Depending on the band you build it for, a minimum of a Technician license is required, but with a General license, you can operate it on all the HF amateur radio bands (just not all the sub-bands, unless you get an Extra class license, which I have).
>> They only got 22 volunteers <<
Surprising to me that they didn’t have more.
But then, the effort seems not to have been well-publicized.
Yes, you must be licensed but the license is very easy to get.
A simple multiple-choice test and you get to look at the answers beforehand...they might as well just hand them out on the street.
I had to sit before an official and take the code test...not fun. But I’m glad they don’t require code anymore.
In an emergency you can use any radio wo a license...so this radio is good for preppers.
Just wanted to put that out there.
I got licensed for 2meter..
Yaesu radios around a 125 bucks.
It works just fine.
40meter....70meter...
I’m not sure of advantages.
The repeater goes down and you are limited to line of sight and short distances.
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