By Joe March
Despite the Internet, cell phones, e-mail and modern communications, every year whole regions find themselves in the dark. Tornadoes, fires, storms, ice and even the occasional cutting of fiber optic cables leave people without the means to communicate. In these cases, the one consistent service that has never failed has been Amateur Radio.
“We need nothing between us but air,” said Cicero resident Mike Alley of the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service for Hamilton County, a group that trains under and reports to the emergency management agency during severe weather episodes and disasters.
On June 28 and 29, the 24-hour off-the-grid Amateur Radio Field Day exercise successfully tested the full deployment capabilities of the teams to respond to, and operate without the benefit of electrical power. The local exercise, carried out by RACES members, was held at Quaker Park in Westfield. The event simulated potential responses to establishing and maintaining communications following a tornado outbreak, earthquake, large HAZMAT event, EMP pulse or other natural or man-made disaster.
“The fastest way to turn a crisis into a total disaster is to lose communications,” said Thomas Sivak, executive director of the Hamilton County EMA and a licensed radio operator. “From the earthquake and tsunami in Japan to tornadoes in Indiana, ham radio provided the most reliable communication networks in the first critical hours of the events.”
Mayor Andy Cook and Westfield City Council President Jim Ake, officially called the exercise to life at 2 p.m. June 28 by “cutting and coax” and directing all members to “start your contacts.
The purpose was to test and refine field operations by setting up, transmitting and receiving message traffic from many of the estimated 35,000 other hams around the county holding a similar exercise. During operations, visitors were treated to hearing live communications with NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, aboard the International Space Station during three separate orbital passes over Quaker Park.
