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+---- Thread: Red Cross / ARES deployment to PR after Hurricane Maria (/showthread.php?tid=589)
Red Cross / ARES deployment to PR after Hurricane Maria - Marvin VE3VCG - 2021-09-30
These types of emergency deployments are rare. However, each event contains lessons of value for all HAM's even those with no interest in Emergency Communications. Here in Canada, in specifically in Bruce / Grey Counties such total loss of communications and infrastructure seems a remote possibility - regrettably the potential is all to real, but is to often ignored.
Preparing for such events is something all operators need to consider. We need to think beyond the limited scope of supporting served agencies. A total loss of communications will impact everyone in very personal ways, which can be hard to imagine. It is my considered opinion as the ACS Emergency Coordinator in Bruce County that any operator with a vehicle mounted 2 meter radio is in fact an emergency radio operator.
My reasoning on this point is simple. Every vehicle with a 2 meter radio is a self-powered mobile station. Even with no other radio gear any operator so equipped can become part of an emergency communications net, even where their participation is informal. However, where normal communications are not available then a local amateur radio net will become a valuable means of sharing information. It may go without saying, but still important to state that having such radio communications capabilities offers the ability to call for help if necessary. Expanding on this idea further, having such capabilities affords the opportunity for any operator to also get help for friends, family, neighbors etc.
Here in Bruce County, it is my intention to nurture all licensed HAMs to think of themselves as emergency radio operators, even if they do not formally participate in the Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) group. In an emergency I will be on the air and hopefully doing that with the cooperation and participation of others. I hope you will each follow my work as I reinvigorate emergency communications in Bruce County.
Enjoy the video and please feel free to comment.