At our October meeting, SPARC member Oliver Dully, K6OLI gave a presentation on the annual Great Shakeout earthquake preparedness exercise. Shakeout has become a global phenomenon with schools and institutions around the world taking time each October to practice safety drills and earthquake response.
Amateur radio operators have a way to participate in Shakeout that the general public does not: sending a Did You Feel It report via Winlink. Oliver explained the value of Did You Feel It reports to the U.S. Geological Survey and how, in an actual emergency, Winlink could be one of the only ways to get vital information out of the quake zone.
In his role as the District Emergency Coordinator for the ARES LAX Northeast section, Oliver recently gave a similar Shakeout presentation through the RAT PAC organization. A YouTube recording of that presentation is embedded at the end of this post.
Following Oliver’s presentation, club president Tom Bruegge, KE6SRO and vice-president Jeff Liter, W6JCL demonstrated the emergency communication methods we discussed at our September meeting. Tom left the EOC for a remote location and then communicated with Jeff via VHF amateur radio, GMRS, and MeshCore. All three methods were effective, and Tom’s local VHF simplex transmission was remarkably clear.
If you would like to join our new emergency communication group, click here to subscribe to its mailing list. (This is a separate list from the main SPARC email list and is focused solely on emcomm within South Pasadena.)
Related Links:
Video version of Oliver’s Presentation: