Courtesy
After a disaster, if cellular and Internet communications become unstable, your neighborhood Hub — if you have one — will hopefully spring into action, setting up tables and tents with volunteers to help neighbors connect and share needed resources.
But what about the city and the wider world? After an earthquake, say, how would we get the word out about our status in Madison Park, and find out what city services we can expect to continue — or be halted?
We’ll do that — the hope is — with radio. Part of a typical Hub setup, including the essential Resource and Volunteer tents, includes a Radio tent designed to send messages to and from the Hub, but the details of how radio works vary from Hub to Hub. Some lucky Hubs include volunteers who are licensed amateur radio operators (called “hams”) who can send and receive messages to other hams. (And some of those hams are also ACS members — but more on that in a bit.)
Other Hubs, like ours, include a few volunteers who use GMRS handheld radios. These short-range radios require an FCC license to use (with a one-time fee) but there’s no required knowledge test as with amateur radio. GMRS radios work well at short distances (including between houses, if the houses are in the same area and reasonably line-of-sight), but we can communicate much farther with them using the city’s emergency repeaters (designated radio towers just for this purpose). Several of our volunteers also participate in the weekly Seattle Emergency Hubs GMRS radio check-in — I have heard Hubsters check in over radio from as far as Kent, Kirkland, Everett, and even Maple Valley.
But in an emergency, we won’t be able to use GMRS radios to talk to the city, and even fully licensed hams won’t be able to directly interact with city services. (A recent news story covered a ham getting a hefty fine for interfering with fire suppression efforts in the California wildfires, despite his good intentions to help.) Although hams could get messages to and from other hams around the city in an emergency — a huge help.
Ready and willing: understanding the ACS
Seattle ACS (Auxiliary Communications Service), part of Seattle’s Office of Emergency Management, is a collection of amateur radio operators supporting the City of Seattle in times of disaster and emergency. Per the ACS website, “Being a part of Seattle ACS means putting your skills as a licensed ham radio operator to positive, civic use. Members are expected to participate on an ongoing basis in regular on-the-air nets as well as occasional in person meetings and even real-world events and activations. It’s a good way to hone your amateur radio operation skills and learn from a friendly and enthusiastic community.”
ACS members, in addition to having an active radio license, are registered state emergency workers who have taken a series of classes from FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute designed to help understand how emergency messaging works. You can learn more at the ACS website: seattleacs.org
If I had the bandwidth (a radio joke), I’d join ACS myself, as their activities sound like fun to me. In addition to emergency drills (admittedly, emergencies are my jam), they participate in Field Day, a special outdoor event where hams come together each summer to practice the hobby. (I’ve heard it can sometimes involve zombies?) ACS has also been involved with the Seattle Marathon and the Fremont Solstice Parade.
How can a ham — or ACS member — help a Hub?
A ham radio operator volunteering with a Hub would take part in Hub drills, which is where we practice setting up the Hub and trying out emergency scenarios, with volunteers playing the parts of neighbors who need help. In the Radio tent during a drill, the volunteer ham sends and receives simulated emergency messages (this is done with real radios or on paper). A radio Hub volunteer could also help test and refine a Hub’s radio procedures. And, of course, if a real emergency arose, a ham would hopefully bring their rig to the Hub and spring into action!
In a real emergency here in Madison Park, anyone with a ham radio license could listen for information from the City about warnings, conditions, and service availability, and share it with the Hub.
But an ACS member working at a Hub, in addition, could engage in two-way communications with the city, reporting local neighborhood status and coordinating any resources or response from the city.
What we’d love to have in our area, and active with our Hub (we dream BIG here at the Madison Park Hub), is either a ham or an ACS member to help out in an emergency. Could this be you, or someone you know? If you know of any ham radio operators who live in Madison Park, we’d love to connect (find our email at the end of this column).
Intrigued to learn more about radio in a disaster?
If you’d like to find out more about being an amateur radio operator and being at the forefront of information during a disaster, there are a lot of resources out there. Go to www.arrl.org/getting-licensed to find out more about ham radio licensing and hamstudy.org to find tools for studying for the technical knowledge test.
And if you want to learn how to use GMRS radio, consider becoming a member of your local Hub. (Madison Park and neighbor Hub Madison Valley both have active GMRS-using volunteers). This summer, our Hub is hoping to run a GMRS radio scavenger hunt.
As always, this column is part of Madison Park Emergency Hub’s outreach effort. We’re an all-volunteer org focused on neighbors helping each other in the event of an emergency (our Hub will spring up right next to the tennis courts and playground). We always need volunteers and ideas for new ways to prepare, and there are many roles to choose from. If you’d like to get involved with neighbors who want to help neighbors, it’s a light lift AND a lot of fun. Contact us at madparkhub@gmail.com with questions or to get on our mailing list.