Solano County Emergency Communications on Display this Weekend

From the Solano County Sheriff

As part of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) 2013 Field Day event on June 22nd from 12:00 PM to 3:00 PM, the Solano County Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) Team will be demonstrating amateur radio emergency communications in action. The demonstration will be held at the Solano County Emergency Operations Center, 530 Clay Street in Fairfield.

Sponsored by the Solano County Office of Emergency Services, the Auxiliary Communications Service trains volunteers to provide communications and other support to the county, and cities within the county, in time of need. Incidents supported by these trained volunteers include: natural disasters, public events, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) efforts and Search and Rescue missions. ACS is open to amateur radio operators or anyone else interested in volunteering to support emergency communications throughout the county. For those interested in joining ACS, applications will be available during the demonstration.

As part of Field Day, Solano County’s “hams” will join with thousands of other amateur radio operators showing their emergency capabilities this weekend. Over the past year the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications during unexpected emergencies in towns across America including the California wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes and other events worldwide. When trouble is brewing, amateur radio operators are often the first to provide rescuers with critical information and communications.

This annual event is the climax of the week long "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by the ARRL. Using only emergency power supplies, ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country. Their slogan, "When all else fails, ham radio works,” is more than just words to the hams, as they prove they can send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, Internet, or any other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

"The fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications,” said Allen Pitts of the ARRL. “From the earthquake and tsunami in Japan to tornadoes in Missouri, ham radio provided the most reliable communication network in the first critical hours of the events. Because ham radios are not dependent on the Internet, cell towers or other infrastructure, they work when nothing else is available. We need nothing between us but air.”

Amateur radio is growing in the U.S. There are now over 700,000 amateur radio licensees in the U.S., and more than 2.5 million around the world. To learn more about amateur radio, go to www.emergency- radio.org. The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern amateur radio can do. They can even help you get “on the air!”