Radio Operators Preparing For Disaster

Lanae Smit,14, comes from a family of ham radio operators. She picked up the trade a few years ago during family campouts.

“I thought it would be fun to talk on the radio with dad,” said Smit, who recently got her radio operator license.

And when a disaster strikes her hobby will be our lifeline. Members of the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, Coachella Valley Amateur Radio Club and other radio operators spent Saturday at Bogert Park in Beaumont preparing for an emergency. The event was held in many places all over the country to bring awareness to their craft, which during a disaster, could be the only way to communicate if phone service goes down.

“When you think now Northridge really wasn’t that big of an earthquake. What they’re predicting out here now will really be devastating and we’ll be without a lot of services for a lot longer period of time,” said Bobby Grassi, president of the Coachella Valley Amateur Radio Club.

Grassi and other local radio operators camped out to simulate those conditions. They powered their equipment through generators and car batteries and talked to as many people as possible. They plan to be busy in case a large earthquake strikes the Southland. Communication technology has come along way since the morse code. Now there are cell phones, fax machines and e-mails. According to Grassi, this older technology is the most reliable in an emergency.

“We’re actually making contact with a station here to a station in Washington or Maine or Hawaii. So there’s nothing going between us. We’re point-to-point communication and that always works,” said Grassi.

New technology can now give police, firefighters and schools some time to prepare seconds before a quake. But after that it’s the radio operators time to take the lead. A responsibility Smit hopes to be ready for.

“It would just be nice to be able to help and communicate with family if they’re in different places, you know they’re ok and stuff,” said Smit.