RACES Communications

After The Hurricane...

Efficient emergency communications takes proper training, preparedness, rugged and reliable equipment, a positive attitude and DISCIPLINE! Just because a ham has a deep-cycle battery to power his 2-meter VHF mobile or portable HF rig, a AA battery case and spares for his dual-band UHF/VHF hand-held transceiver, telescoping 1/2-wave antenna, canteen of water and a pack of MREs, does not mean he will be effective in an emergency.

RACES operators do not respond as individuals, but as part of a team providing a coordinated response. If operators report to a disaster area untrained, without an assignment, equipped only with their hand held radio and an ego, rather than being prepared as part of a coordinated response, they will not be welcome, but considered in the way and not appreciated.

Emergency managers need to know that you know where you belong, whom you report to, what you are doing and that YOU know what you are doing.

To work effectively with served agencies; RACES must be integrated into local disaster plans prior to an event. Once activated, RACES is part of the emergency response team. You stay on your assignment until someone comes to relieve you, because you made a greater commitment to your community.

Do not initiate traffic INTO an affected area, offering to help. However, everyone can do something, regardless of his or her skill level or physical condition. Moving one piece of outbound traffic on the status of a family can avoid ten incoming queries from relatives seeking their status. So DO MONITOR nets near the affected area. If net control needs outlets for traffic, you know how to pass traffic and can assist, then respond!

Keep your local Radio Officer advised of storm changes or requests for assistance and provide updates.

In a real disaster, license class does not matter. In an emergency, you must use whatever assets are available to get the job done. The no-coder who can keyboard data can pass more packet traffic in a second than the best brass pounder in the world will in a minute. But when the propagation is really lousy, CW gets through when nothing else does.

Disaster response cannot be done just with us "old guys." We need to recruit young amateurs who have stamina for moving supplies, setting up tents and equipment, or shadowing busy officials in the field. Some tasks are difficult for hams over 50, the majority of amateurs in our shrinking community. Some of us are more useful at fixed locations, where our experience, technical skill and maturity are advantages.

RACES Disaster Response Teams must have durable clothing which is warm when wet, sturdy rain gear, hard hat, gloves, safety boots, drinking water, food, shelter and self-contained, portable radio equipment with backup generators and tools to be self sufficient for at least a week.

That way RACES mutual aid assets won stress upon limited local food, water, shelter or fuel supplies. Response by local government and civilian relief agencies may take 24 to 48 hours depending upon distance, transport and local conditions. While today, coordination is much better between local and State governments, FEMA, Red Cross and relief agencies than it was after Hugo and Andrew, you should still prepare for the worst.

Such As after Hurricane Hugo...

We lost ALL of our amateur, commercial, public safety repeaters and telephone service for FOURTEEN days! We were on our own for a week and actually dispatched police, fire and EMS on 2 meters!

Nobody is truly prepared for an Andrew or Hugo. The places that get to practice a lot are more ready than most of us in Virginia. We seldom get "hit," but we must be prepared to assist our neighbors in areas that don't have enough local resources to handle a major storm alone without outside help from other amateurs.

Any severe weather has the potential for serious consequences. Every family member needs sturdy shoes, hat and rain gear, wool blanket, flashlight and to know where the first aid kit and water containers are, and to fill them before the storm hits. If your loved ones dont have adequate food, water, clothing and shelter to last through a storm and its aftermath, you'll only add to the problems that we have to deal with.

Be prepared to lose electric power for more than just a few days. Public water supplies will be contaminated and unsafe for drinking, so boil everything. Food not refrigerated spoils in 2-3 days if not kept below 45 degrees, so use a thermometer, trust your instincts and your nose. Keep at home a weeks supplies nonperishable canned or packaged food, which can be eaten cold, without further preparation.

After a hurricane even getting out of your driveway may be tough. Imagine tree damage after the worst ice storm you can remember and multiply that several times, throw in high water, structural damage to buildings, broken glass, debris, downed limbs and power lines, loss of telephone service, the Internet and most amateur, commercial or public safety repeaters. The more severe the storm the longer it takes to get basic services back.

People who havent experienced a major hurricane may think they can ride it out . . . refuse to leave their homes and realize their error too late. Most hurricane casualties are very young, very old, or handicapped who are caught alone without anyone at home to care for them, because family members are at work or school and canot get home, or "cowboys" out looking for thrills or to be heroes.

NEVER go out into the storm unless assigned and trained to shadow police, fire, EMS, damage assessment or surface hydrology teams. Then, follow all of their instructions and prescribed safety procedures.

Make suitable evacuation arrangements for your family. Emphasize that they should obey instructions from public safety officials, but also pre-arrange a safe place to meet if they cannot get home and there is little warning. Get to know your neighbors and watch out for each other elderly parents and kids. Arrange for an out of state friend or relative to accept collect calls from family members, who know they are to call once they are safely evacuated.

After the storm, if any telephones still work, pay phones probably will, as will candy and snack machines which don't require AC power. You may be able to call OUT of a disaster area when local or incoming ones don't go through, so be sure to have ample change in your kit.

Most hurricane damage isnt caused by high winds, but by high water. A storm surge which occurs 4-5 hours before the storm center hits floods virtually everything below 10 feet above sea level. Not only does this require mass evacuations of coastal areas and sheltering of people, but it also means that your emergency equipment must be stored well above ground, near likely shelter sites where you will need it.

You dont want your generator, extra coax, fuel and deep cycle batteries in the basement or first floor of a building within the 100-year flood plain or have to move it across town to set up a shelter or other location.

After Hurricane Hugo we were unable to use equipment which had been staged in a first floor warehouse, where the only approach was through "choke points", blocked by high water, abandoned cars, downed trees and power lines, and which then flooded...

RACES operators trained in map, compass, GPS and APRS are valuable assets. This is because responders from outside the local area, will get lost, because street signs and landmarks are obliterated.

Lots of amateurs equipped with mobile rigs and magnetic mount antennas will be needed as "shadows," and to provide backup communications for utility companies and private relief agencies whose land mobile radios are not compatible with those of your local public safety agencies.

Hand-held work for only a mile or so on simplex if the repeater gets blown away, but you will find plenty of use for spare HTs and magnetic antenna mounts to loan officials to monitor your nets or to replace lost and broken rigs.

For emergency power the only answer is REDUNDANCY! Your NiCd packs will be depleted in three days unless you have AC power or generators to run the chargers. So, you better have a AA battery case. Then your alkaline batteries will probably run out, no matter how many you have, so you better have a fused cord to power your HT or mobile from a car or gel cell battery.

It is wasteful to run your automobile engine for ten minutes every hour to keep the battery charged for running the radio. The least expensive option is to buy a battery box with carrying strap, large enough to hold a deep cycle battery, charger and cords to connect to your radios. Another is to install a dual-battery system in a vehicle, having an external voltage regulator and isolation circuitry obtained from a marine or RV supplier to isolate the starting battery from the "comm" battery.

One deep cycle battery is not enough for emergency power, unless it is a MONSTER! After Hugo, I used a 220ah "stationary" battery, 175 pounds, as used on a workboat. That was enough, but you cannot move one without help.

I recommend not less than two BCI Group 27 96ah batteries, each is able to power an HF at 100w SSB or VHF at 50w FM carrier for 12 hours. Alternate one battery to power the radios, while re-charging the other.

To determine how big a battery you need, take the current load in amps times the duty cycle in percent, times 150 percent.

Lets look at a 50-watt VHF mobile. Typical current load is 10 amps on transmit and 2 amps on receive. So at 25% duty cycle over 12 hours: 10 amps transmit for three hours requires 30 amp hours; plus 2 amps during receive times 6 hours equals 12 amp-hours, which totals 32 amp-hours, plus a 50 percent safety factor requires 48 amp hours, so one Group 27, 96 ah marine battery will run for 16 hours, with 8 hours idle time for recharging in each 24 hours!

You say that your HT, laptop and packet TNC dont require that much juice. OK, how much DO they need? An HT at 5 watts needs 1.5A on transmit and .5 amp on receive, so at 25% duty cycle over 12 hours 1.5 amps times 3 hours equals 4.5amp-hours, plus 5 amp on receive times 9 hours is another 4.5 amp-hours, then the laptop PC and TNC, if efficient, together need only 2 amps, but run continuously, so that's 24 amp-hours, your total is now totals 33 amp-hours, either a Group U1 wheel chair battery, or pair of 17ah fire alarm batteries, with NO safety factor. So double that!

Limiting your emergency power to batteries only postpones the inevitable. This is because when the power goes off, even a pair of Group 27s at 180 amp-hours won't last more than a day or two if you cant recharge them. That means you must ALSO have either a portable generator and fuel, a solar-panels and regulating mechanism or some other means, which is entirely "off the grid. A 20 watt panel such as Siemen's SM20 produces about 1.6 amps which is adequate to maintain a BCI Group 27 deep cycle battery, weighs 5.5 lbs., is 22"x13" and costs around $200.

If you buy a home generator, be darned sure to get one with enough capacity. Total the AC wattage needed to run your radios, lights, battery chargers and refrigerator. An efficient portable generator produces about 600w at 120 volts AC for each engine horsepower. A small 3.5 HP generator is relatively inexpensive and can be carried by one person, but it produces only about 2kw. That's enough for a modest emergency station, one VHF mobile, a laptop PC and TNC, one or two lights, a couple small battery chargers, and nothing else. It wont heat your coffee while using the radio, let alone power an external 150w VHF amplifier, HF rig (unless its QRP) or a portable repeater.

About 4.5 kW is minimum generator recommended for an adequate command station and its necessary ancillary equipment. A generator of this size has an 8 HP engine, weighs 175-200 pounds, is rated for 32 amps at 120 volts and runs 8 to 10 hours on 5 gallons of gas. Yes, it is Great for Field Day! Even a military surplus 10-12kW-generator isnt too much but requires several strong people and a truck to move it around and consumes a lot more fuel. Fill Jerry cans early while there is power to run the pumps. Use a wooden dipstick to check all generator fuel tanks on a fixed schedule and always top them off well before they run out.

NEVER connect a portable generator to the house wiring, unless the breaker panel has been equipped with an approved transfer device to prevent "back-feed" from the utility when the mains come back up. Connecting one requires an electrical permit and inspections, it must be installed by a licensed electrician and be equipped a UL-listed transfer switch.

If you dont know what you are doing, stay away from generators, because a screw up can cause a fire or electrocution! Never run a generator in standing water or work on the generator or feed lines while standing on wet ground. Ensure adequate grounding of your generator as well as your "comm" equipment.

Never run a generator inside an enclosed building because it is impossible to adequately ventilate carbon monoxide and fumes. Stand a fire and gear watch on all of your equipment around-the-clock, otherwise it may be damaged, or commandeered while you are asleep! Be especially cautious of fire danger from electrical shorts, gas leaks, fireplaces, stoves, water heaters, tipped over lanterns, candles, etc.

Pedal generators originated in India with the British Army, were copied by the Imperial Japanese Army during WWII and are still common in Africa and Asia. These are built on a discarded bicycle frame and automobile alternator, using a battery to stabilize the alternator output. One can maintain a deep cycle battery indefinitely if you have enough candy bars and kids to rotate 20-minute shifts.

Every county should encourage scout troops and high school industrial arts classes to build a half dozen or more pedal generators to distribute for RACES. They are great to attract crowds for Field Day and special event stations.

My final advise is work smarter, not harder. You don't need to practice to be uncomfortable.

Your best defense not to ignore the chaos around you, but to acknowledge that it will be dark, wet, cold, crowded, noisy and you will be tired and uncomfortable, so join the club. If you realize that you aren't the Lone Ranger out there, but part of a team, you draw support from them to stay focussed on your "comm" mission.

For further information, see the Virginia RACES web page at: http://www.varaces.org