At our September meeting, SPARC welcomed CERT trainees and members of South Pasadena’s Neighborhood Watch groups for a discussion about emergency communications. Club president Tom Bruegge, KE6SRO explained that the goal of the discussion was to begin planning how to pass information to the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) when normal communications go down.
In 2019, the city purchased a Kenwood D710 radio that can be activated at the EOC when necessary. SPARC members would operate that radio, receiving status reports from the community and relaying them to city emergency personnel. But how will members of the community get those status reports to the EOC? SPARC members gave presentations on three potential methods: MeshCore, GMRS radio, and amateur radio.
Meeting attendees envisioned a plan in which designated block captains would collect status information from neighbors and pass it along using the method of their choice. This would help prevent the radio operator at the EOC from becoming overwhelmed. Several attendees shared their thoughts on what would work best for their specific neighborhood, and that input will guide our next steps.
Upcoming meetings will focus on developing a Standard Operating Procedure: which communication methods to use, which SPARC members will be trained on the EOC radio, and how our response might change in different scenarios like earthquake, fire, or flood.
We closed by urging everyone to attend a public safety open house scheduled for Saturday, October 17. More information will be shared as the date approaches.
Below are the evening’s three presentations as downloadable PDFs.
MeshCore presented by Tom Bruegge, KE6SRO
GMRS Radio presented by Jeff Liter, W6JCL
Amateur Radio presented by John Aboud, KK6ZVQ