Disaster Preparations

[Robbie1984]

Both MTS2000des and yourself N4DES are correct amateur radio repeaters aren't 100% fail proof during disasters also emergency service radio networks aren't fail safe either an example of this comes from Pinery fires of 2015 when the SA-GRN was overloaded resulting in delays of vital information being passed onto fire crews ultimately in end blame was pointed squarely at SAPOL who tied it up with non essential radio traffic another was during the infamous 2009 Black Saturday Fires in Victoria when the whole CFA VHF network at that time completely collapsed/overloaded due to sheer number of fires

Down here in the South East of South Australia we have 2 local repeaters close to my QTH being 5RMG and 5RSE both on 2 meter band only drawback as ladn mentioned above immediate loss of power due to power lines being down and buildings/equipment/antennas being damaged rendering repeater communications useless thankfully 5RMG repeater has backup batteries for short term contingency in event of power loss

 

[buddrousa]

@KQ4AQP
Where you live in the Cadiz LBL area you have lots of terrain challenges all of those hills can be your friend of they can be your worse enemy.
Most people on here have no idea the elevation changes you are dealing with. Your ham radio may be at best some help but what you will get out of it may be small news bits at best. But planning is always a good thing but just do not have one plan. Highway 80 from Murray to Hopkinsville is like riding a roller coaster.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

establishing evac centers at the pub,

Now I like the sound of evacuating to the Pub!

 

[mmckenna]

Now I like the sound of evacuating to the Pub!

My staff and I practice that particular evolution most Friday afternoons, and repeat frequently to keep the muscle memory thing going.

Hasn't let us down yet.

 

[Echo4Thirty]

My staff and I practice that particular evolution most Friday afternoons, and repeat frequently to keep the muscle memory thing going.

Hasn't let us down yet.

We used to call that "coverage testing"

 

[ramal121]

We used to call that "coverage testing"

Or "calibration day".

 

[mmckenna]

We just refer to it as "shenanigans".

And while it's all in jest, often the importance of team bonding and getting to just relax and talk freely. And talk freely, not just about work, but everything else that's going on in our own families and personal lives. Makes for a much stronger team and better understanding about the issues/challenges everyone is facing.

I was also taught by my dad to never stand in the way of staff sitting down drinking coffee and just BSing sometimes. A lot of technical issues get solved that way.

 

[MUTNAV]

We just refer to it as "shenanigans".

And while it's all in jest, often the importance of team bonding and getting to just relax and talk freely. And talk freely, not just about work, but everything else that's going on in our own families and personal lives. Makes for a much stronger team and better understanding about the issues/challenges everyone is facing.

I was also taught by my dad to never stand in the way of staff sitting down drinking coffee and just BSing sometimes. A lot of technical issues get solved that way.

I agree, with two observations....
On Friday in a particular flight, we were required to go to the "club" (Combined officer/NCO club) (end of day Friday) or continue working till the end of the day. Same reasons as you stated.

The second is when I was at a small base, and the flight CC had breakfast with us at one point, he pointed out he found out more about what was going on than a half a days worth of meetings.

ok... one more, one unit commander made the people that attended the morning brief, do the brief at breakfast once a week (usually Wednesdays).

Thanks for the reminders.
Joel

 

[mmckenna]

Thanks for the reminders.
Joel

My dad used to run teams of technicians for Xerox. There were some managers that would discourage coffee meetings like that. He discovered that it was a great opportunity for new technicians to learn from the older guys, trade info, guidance, offer help, swap parts, etc.

I'm fortunate that my employer gives me the full flexibility to run my team the way I need to. I've been doing it that way for almost 20 years now. We have less issues than the other teams, more productive, and consistently score highly when performance evaluation time comes.

But, back on topic...

That's one of the values of this page. People can come in and ask questions like this and those that have been doing it for decades can pass along advice, personal experience, or even ideas that would never be considered. While no one answer is 'right', there's enough useful information in this thread that a workable solution could be built using bits of information from everyone else.

 

[K6GBW]

After the 1994 quake I lost my power and phone for about three days. I rolled...more like was thrown, out of bed and turned on my little dual band radio. The vast majority of the repeaters were still up and hams started reporting what was happening and where. Within about thirty minutes we had a pretty fair picture of what was hit the hardest and what damage there was. Today, I think the repeaters on our local mountains are built even better. But even if they don't work well, I can just dial up 146.520. I have about a twenty-mile circumference I can cover so I'll find out what's going on. The locals around here are very active on simplex. If all else fails I can use HF to get into a WinLink gateway in Las Vegas or Tijuana. All I need for my emergency communications is to let my family know I'm okay and to get information as to the situation. I can do that with what I have. I always tell people, the first radio to buy is an AM/FM pocket radio!

 

[Robbie1984]

Now I like the sound of evacuating to the Pub!

In Kalangadoo of which is my QTH the pub was a main evacuation center during Ash Wednesday 1983 given its strategic position in central part of town but 40 years later ever since South Australia's city centric big wigs in-charge of emergency management have come along and did an overhaul of all safe refuges in each town they have only labelled multiple safe places in Penola ,Millicent and Mount Gambier whilst classifying sports ovals outside these 3 main townships as last resort locations which literally stinks as there's plenty of locations to assemble during a major fire

If does ever hit the fan with my QTH in firing line my priority will be establishing a staging area at either the pub, school or footy oval using 2 meter and 70 cm amateur radio in addition to UHF CB as well because mobile networks will fall over or overload during a major emergency thankfully I graduated with a distinction mark on my final assessment late last year from studying undergraduate in emergency management through Charles Sturt Uni

 

[MUTNAV]

In KalangadKoo of which is my QTH the pub was a main evacuation center during Ash Wednesday 1983 given its strategic position in central part of town but 40 years later ever since South Australia's city centric big wigs in-charge of emergency management have come along and did an overhaul of all safe refuges in each town they have only labelled multiple safe places in Penola ,Millicent and Mount Gambier whilst classifying sports ovals outside these 3 main townships as last resort locations which literally stinks as there's plenty of locations to assemble during a major fire

If does ever hit the fan with my QTH in firing line my priority will be establishing a staging area at either the pub, school or footy oval using 2 meter and 70 cm amateur radio in addition to UHF CB as well because mobile networks will fall over or overload during a major emergency thankfully I graduated with a distinction mark on my final assessment late last year from studying undergraduate in emergency management through Charles Sturt Uni

It's always interesting to here how things are done in different places.

Some things might be lost in translation on me though.
Like a "Pub" in the U.S. is a Bar, or Tavern, where people tend to drink, eat, talk, play darts, and watch sports. Is that where you mean you want to set up staging area for an emergency?

I mean it makes sense to a point, like using a school, (where school children would feel more comfortable staging out of), a pub could be the same way,... a comfortable place for a certain part of the population (have a drink and bite to eat while waiting, maybe catch some games on TV).

Thanks
Joel

 

[Robbie1984]

It's always interesting to here how things are done in different places.

Some things might be lost in translation on me though.
Like a "Pub" in the U.S. is a Bar, or Tavern, where people tend to drink, eat, talk, play darts, and watch sports. Is that where you mean you want to set up staging area for an emergency?

I mean it makes sense to a point, like using a school, (where school children would feel more comfortable staging out of), a pub could be the same way,... a comfortable place for a certain part of the population (have a drink and bite to eat while waiting, maybe catch some games on TV).

Thanks
Joel

I can fully understand the confusion in regards to difference when it comes to translation from locations that called something completely difference over there to what its known here in Australia but you have got the one correct being Pub which is translated as a Bar or Tavern over in the states

A staging area here in Australia is referred to a central location anywhere between 5-25 kms away from the fire line where a forward command center is established by the lead agency in event of a major fire is generally SA Country Fire Service it serves also as mustering, water refill and crew change over point

If the day should come where mobile phone and internet is overloaded due to a bushfire barreling towards my QTH the local pub is a main go to for establishing an emergency communications due to 3 reasons

1. It's central locality

2. Open paddock adjoining to it with plenty of room to set up communications staging area and emergency shelters

3. The pub itself has a big kitchen capable of providing sandwiches and other food to evacuees until Salvation Army is able to get into town to assist with catering

 

[K6GBW]

Ah yes, the land of Oz! You guys have UHF CB. a much better wavelength for such things than we have here in the USA. CB at the top of the HF band kind of sucks for local communications.

 

[KB2GOM]

You may have trouble finding one antenna that covers all of those bands with a fair amount of gain. There are vertical antennas with modest gain that will cover 2m, 70cm and GMRS. As far as hitting all repeaters within 50miles, impossible to say without more information. Most situations would require you to accept hitting some of the repeaters once they are past 30mi as opposed to all of them, given a tower that most hams likely have at their QTH. Regarding mobile use, same thing, and in my experience in flatland here, reliable 2m meter mobile coverage out of 50-60 miles needed repeaters with antennas high up on towers like 600ft plus. However, throw in some hills/mountains and things can change a lot.

Concrete simplistic example assuming flat terrain the vhf uhf line of sight calculator says if you have a 200ft repeater and even with a rather tall (for a ham) 100ft tower, your range is still only 34 miles.

For a more realistic ham tower height of 60 feet you get 35 miles for a repeater at 600 feet. In practice, at least on 2m, you can often do a bit better than line of sight calculations, but they give a useful starting point.

All of this assumes you are using a vertical. If you find a suitable beam antenna, you can stretch range even further, but at the cost of not hearing everything you want to hear at the same time given directivity.

For the Commuter Assistance Network -- Commuter Assistance Net -- I run two Motorola CDM1250 mobile rigs from my base at home. One radio is VHF; the other, UHF. (VHF has the net's 2 meter frequencies; the UHF radio covers 440 and GMRS.) Both radios run into a diplexer and then to a Comet GP-1 antenna which handles all the frequencies. The commercial radios have a lot of great qualities, but they are not frequency agile . . . they have to be programmed from a computer. I have found them to be reliable and produce great audio.

Also, another thing worth considering is the duty cycle you anticipate. I also run the Radio Monitoring Net (which you can find in the navigation of the link I provided above). During the Radio Monitoring Net, the Motorola is transmitting on 2 meters almost continually for 60-75 minutes. The Motorola get very hot . . . but it has not failed. By contrast, my fellow ham who runs the Trader Net burned up two ham mobile rigs in just a few weeks (they just couldn't take the extreme use); now has a Motorola 1250. He reports that his Moto gets very hot as well, but has been dead reliable.

 

[prcguy]

My staff and I practice that particular evolution most Friday afternoons, and repeat frequently to keep the muscle memory thing going.

Hasn't let us down yet.

This is a key point here, develop a plan and test it many times prior to the emergency, prove that it works. This might include finding out which amateur repeaters have battery or other backup power, racks installed to survive earthquake, etc. Make sure people who you intend to contact have needed comm equipment and have practiced with you. If you plan on hitting up a random ham repeater for comms or help make some friends on that repeater so they know who they are dealing with when a disaster hits. Yada yada......

 

[mmckenna]

This is a key point here, develop a plan and test it many times prior to the emergency, prove that it works. This might include finding out which amateur repeaters have battery or other backup power, racks installed to survive earthquake, etc. Make sure people who you intend to contact have needed comm equipment and have practiced with you. If you plan on hitting up a random ham repeater for comms or help make some friends on that repeater so they know who they are dealing with when a disaster hits. Yada yada......

I prefer to sample the local brews to see which ones make me happy and not care about SHTFing.

 

[prcguy]

I prefer to sample the local brews to see which ones make me happy and not care about SHTFing.

Radios are used extensively during disasters to see what bars or brewerys are still open.

 

[KevinC]

Radios are used extensively during disasters to see what bars or brewerys are still open.

Which is why they should be linked. I need to know what bars are open 300 miles from me when the zombies are attacking.

 

[prcguy]

Which is why they should be linked. I need to know what bars are open 300 miles from me when the zombies are attacking.

You have a point. I think GMRS linking should be legal for the duration of a disaster to find the best bar/brewery. Then shut it back down.