EMCOMM Integration into Society

This is an example on how the integration of amateur radio into the local society can work. Shenandoah Valley is in the Appalachians, about 80 km NW of Washington DC, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Fletcher, K3JYD, provided the following information.

This area is sparsely populated. Valley Health is a consortium of hospitals serving the Shenandoah Valley and environs. There are about 10-12 of these hospitals. Valley Health has purchased and installed amateur radio stations for all of them.

In Hampshire County, the station is located just off the main conference room for the hospital. Hampshire Countyis a rural West Virginia county with a population of about 24,000. It is agrarian in nature and very mountainous. Infrastructure is minimal. The Hampshire Emergency Amateur Radio Team (HEART) is a group of hams supporting Hampshire County WV Emergency Management. HEART operates WV8EOC at the county Emergency Operations Center (EOC) as well as at Hampshire County Hospital (WV8EOC-3)

We have not been utilized in the real world yet although there was an ideal opportunity several months ago to provide comms during a forest fire. The manager of that operation was not yet familiar with our capabilities and did not think to call on us.

The Hampshire County, WV, Hospital is part of Valley Health. but sort somewhat of an outlier from the other hospitals in the system: It is in a different state and about 70 km from the nearest Valley Health facility.

Weekly Training

Each week the Valley Health group sends out a scenario for the weekly drill. This can be virtually any situation encountered in an emergency situation from Health and Welfare checks to requesting medical supplies. The operators respond to the scenario as appropriate using the local stations to pass traffic from hospital to hospital. Most of the scenarios currently in use are designed to teach a particular aspect of either the station or type of messaging. We also conduct Winlink Wednesday check-ins from the EOC.

Equipment and Operations

The stations have a common hardware and software build. This way any operator from any station can transfer to another station and operate with no confusion as to setup, controls etc.

Each station consists of shortwave and VHF/UHF-FM equipment with the typical accessories. The communication within the Valey Health group uses shortwave because of the distances. VHF/UHF is available for local communication.

Traffic is passed using PACTOR modems on the lower shortwave bands. We also use Winlink Express on a weekly basis from both the Hospital and Hampshore County EOC and just received our Winlink Century Award this week for 100 straight Winlink check-ins.

The antennas for this EMCOMM station have been set up permanently. In an emergency the operators open the container, set up microphones etc. on a table and start to operate.

Integration into the Surroundings

We also are fairly tightly integrated with the Hampshire County EOC management staff, providing volunteer support for multiple tasks both within the EOC and within the community. We sit on the local emergency planning committee and are active participants in all of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) local and regional drills and tabletop exercises. We have an active educational program to provide FEMA required training and certification as well as WV Auxcomm Training. We also encourage members to take the SKYWARN and ARRL Emergency communications courses.

Our group is relatively small, only about 20 or so associated hams with about 6-8 doing most of the work. We are fortunate that the local Emergency Management people realize how much value we can add to their programs and go out of their way to support us with space, network, power and access.

Future Developments

Currently we are praparing to improve email connectivity through Winlink as currently throughput on both HF and VHF is nowhere near what could be called adequate here. We are buildung a Winlink gateway (RMC) for shortwave and VHF that will be installed at one of the Hampshire County facilities to serve a gaping hole in available resources.

This automated, stand alone system will provide radio and internet access, as well as store and forward capability in the event of internet or RF path interruption.

Hardware is identical to the WV8EOC station at the County EOC so in the event of a failure hardware can be swapped and operation maintained without major problems.

Other digital modes could be implemented easily as such installations can be considered as computers with specialized radio frequency soundcards".

Comment by DL4NO

Much of what I have proposed for years is being done in Hampshire County: The local authorities have recognized how ham radio can improve resilience and support the activities.

Regular training and identical equipment on all stations ensures that the support can really work when needed. Common training enables radio amateurs to effectively interact with other groups in disaster relief. But even here not everyone resposible for disaster relief thinks about the radio amateurs when they could help.

This goes way beyond everything I have experienced here in Germany. My major, police officer by profession, sees communication problems the other way: If something happens, we always get way too much information. End of discussion. Power outages are beyond of his imagination.