A $20 dollar investment a little training could save your Life!
Dear Editor and friends,
With the coming of the dead of winter before long, and its usual storms, every family in the Deltana area should be made aware that they may very well already own a very potentially useful item of emergency equipment. In any emergency, communicating your needs for assistance is the immediate first need. Many, if not most, families already own a couple of these very small "Family Radio" walkie-talkies. The kind folks use at the mall to find each other, and kids have fun with while hiking or exploring. They're very inexpensive now, running as low as $20 for a pair.
What many folks don't realize is that since a lot of your neighbors have a pair or more of these little walkie-talkies also, that you now have a way to talk to your neighbors when the power is out and the phones are also not working in something like an ice storm, or a big blizzard with high winds. This ability can be a potential lifesaver!
There is a national movement on now for the last couple of years to identify a common "calling channel" so that of the 25 or so available channels, you'll easily remember which one to use. It couldn't be easier: Channel One has been identified by the national organizer at http://www.nationalsos.com/ , and quickly adopted by many other users. In addition, many of these little radios have a feature called "Quiet Code" or "Private Channel" or something similar. That should be set to OFF so that all the radios can talk to each other, regardless of manufacturer.
Now, if you have a scanner, you can enter the frequency of 462.5625 and your scanner will hear any nearby signals on Family Radio Channel One. In normal times these signals will be just people having fun or working around your neighborhood. But when the roads are blocked by fallen trees, and power and phones are down, being able to talk to your neighbors can be very, very useful. Next time you bump into one of your neighbors, ask them if they have one or more of these Family Radios. You can probably pretty quickly informally organize your whole street into a small mutual help network. The very first thing to do is to know about each other, and who has these radios.
The range of these little radios isn't great. They will go less than a mile most of the time regardless of what the salesman or the package says. But that's easily enough to talk to many of your neighbors, and that could make a big difference in many situations.
Finally, our town has several of Ham Radio Operators, over 40 at last census. Most of them have Family Radios, too, for the same handy reasons you do. The difference is that many of the Hams also have much more powerful and longer-range other kinds of radios as well, and have formed themselves into networks for helping as volunteer emergency communicators. So, if you could contact a nearby Ham, he or she might be able to relay your emergency call to the authorities. (I say "might" because you don't know until you've tested it.)
I'm hoping a lot of our Hams will see this letter, too, and put the Family Radio Channel One into their scanners, and be able to participate in this concept. I'm a ham, and I have done so. For you to reach a Ham, you'll have to be well within a mile or so. Closer is better, obviously. If you know one of your neighbors is a Ham, ask him or her about it. He or she will appreciate your interest, and most likely be eager to be a part of your Neighborhood Radio Watch. If you look at a map of our town, and draw a circle one mile in radius, two miles in diameter, it really is a lot bigger area than you might think at first. Try it.
Call me if you have any questions, and I'll help you get started all I can. Also, have a look at the two websites, http://www.nationalsos.com/ , and http://www.arrl.org/ . That second one tells a little about Ham Radio and its trained volunteer emergency communications work.
Come join us at our next meeting the second Monday of each month at 6pm Hard Wok Cafe
Brewed coffee provided by the club. Or email nationalsos@99737.com or call 907-895-6297
Sincerely,
Brian Corty
KL2AV
ARES Upper Tananna Valley Cooridator
National SOS Centeral Alaska Region Cooridator
REACT Team Leader
With the coming of the dead of winter before long, and its usual storms, every family in the Deltana area should be made aware that they may very well already own a very potentially useful item of emergency equipment. In any emergency, communicating your needs for assistance is the immediate first need. Many, if not most, families already own a couple of these very small "Family Radio" walkie-talkies. The kind folks use at the mall to find each other, and kids have fun with while hiking or exploring. They're very inexpensive now, running as low as $20 for a pair.
What many folks don't realize is that since a lot of your neighbors have a pair or more of these little walkie-talkies also, that you now have a way to talk to your neighbors when the power is out and the phones are also not working in something like an ice storm, or a big blizzard with high winds. This ability can be a potential lifesaver!
There is a national movement on now for the last couple of years to identify a common "calling channel" so that of the 25 or so available channels, you'll easily remember which one to use. It couldn't be easier: Channel One has been identified by the national organizer at http://www.nationalsos.com/ , and quickly adopted by many other users. In addition, many of these little radios have a feature called "Quiet Code" or "Private Channel" or something similar. That should be set to OFF so that all the radios can talk to each other, regardless of manufacturer.
Now, if you have a scanner, you can enter the frequency of 462.5625 and your scanner will hear any nearby signals on Family Radio Channel One. In normal times these signals will be just people having fun or working around your neighborhood. But when the roads are blocked by fallen trees, and power and phones are down, being able to talk to your neighbors can be very, very useful. Next time you bump into one of your neighbors, ask them if they have one or more of these Family Radios. You can probably pretty quickly informally organize your whole street into a small mutual help network. The very first thing to do is to know about each other, and who has these radios.
The range of these little radios isn't great. They will go less than a mile most of the time regardless of what the salesman or the package says. But that's easily enough to talk to many of your neighbors, and that could make a big difference in many situations.
Finally, our town has several of Ham Radio Operators, over 40 at last census. Most of them have Family Radios, too, for the same handy reasons you do. The difference is that many of the Hams also have much more powerful and longer-range other kinds of radios as well, and have formed themselves into networks for helping as volunteer emergency communicators. So, if you could contact a nearby Ham, he or she might be able to relay your emergency call to the authorities. (I say "might" because you don't know until you've tested it.)
I'm hoping a lot of our Hams will see this letter, too, and put the Family Radio Channel One into their scanners, and be able to participate in this concept. I'm a ham, and I have done so. For you to reach a Ham, you'll have to be well within a mile or so. Closer is better, obviously. If you know one of your neighbors is a Ham, ask him or her about it. He or she will appreciate your interest, and most likely be eager to be a part of your Neighborhood Radio Watch. If you look at a map of our town, and draw a circle one mile in radius, two miles in diameter, it really is a lot bigger area than you might think at first. Try it.
Call me if you have any questions, and I'll help you get started all I can. Also, have a look at the two websites, http://www.nationalsos.com/ , and http://www.arrl.org/ . That second one tells a little about Ham Radio and its trained volunteer emergency communications work.
Come join us at our next meeting the second Monday of each month at 6pm Hard Wok Cafe
Brewed coffee provided by the club. Or email nationalsos@99737.com or call 907-895-6297
Sincerely,
Brian Corty
KL2AV
ARES Upper Tananna Valley Cooridator
National SOS Centeral Alaska Region Cooridator
REACT Team Leader
posted by David M Johnson at 12/31/2006 03:19:00 AM
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