On April 20-21, 2007, we had a tornado come through our county, at that time our county was using High band VHF for communications, but that system was still tied to the low band system that was used also.
I was using my RS Pro-46 handheld scanner hooked up to a ¼ wave mag mount on my 95 Jeep Cherokee SE.
As the event progressed our fire department had some vehicles trapped in a farmers shop when the power went out. There was no way to get them out of the shop because the huge overhead doors could not be opened by hand. Fail number one.
Later, the skip started rolling in on the low band frequencies, and since that system was still linked to the high band county system, there was no way for anybody to effectively talk to anyone involved in the situation. Fail number two.
As the night went on, I heard a voice come over the radio instructing the county dispatch center to break that low band to high band link. The person calling the center was informed that only the sheriff could give that order. Fail number three. However, eventually the link was taken down. Now, communications had become much better, and they found a way to get the fire trucks out of the shop
The next day we went on a tour of our area and saw what damage had occurred, lots of property damage, one house completely removed from its foundation, one person was sucked up into the storm and later died from her injuries.
I was using my RS Pro-46 handheld scanner hooked up to a ¼ wave mag mount on my 95 Jeep Cherokee SE.
As the event progressed our fire department had some vehicles trapped in a farmers shop when the power went out. There was no way to get them out of the shop because the huge overhead doors could not be opened by hand. Fail number one.
Later, the skip started rolling in on the low band frequencies, and since that system was still linked to the high band county system, there was no way for anybody to effectively talk to anyone involved in the situation. Fail number two.
As the night went on, I heard a voice come over the radio instructing the county dispatch center to break that low band to high band link. The person calling the center was informed that only the sheriff could give that order. Fail number three. However, eventually the link was taken down. Now, communications had become much better, and they found a way to get the fire trucks out of the shop
The next day we went on a tour of our area and saw what damage had occurred, lots of property damage, one house completely removed from its foundation, one person was sucked up into the storm and later died from her injuries.
