Bob,
A technical point... FRS radios have been tried in emergency situations,
including The Pentagon on 9/11, only to find the transmitters didn't have
enough range to communicate from one side of the building to the other
outside. Further, their receivers do not have sufficient filtering and
immunity from blocking in an environment where other transmitters are
operating in the 450-470 MHz band.
This is not to say that they don't have any applications during
emergencies but does say that they aren't the general solution.
Paul
At 06:54 PM 3/5/2006 -0800, Bob Vallio wrote:
>>>>
Have any of you received this missive? Mr Knight is a member, at least
until June 30. Bob
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Eric Knight
<<mailto:eknight@upaerospace.com>eknight@upaerospace.com>
Date: Mar 5, 2006 3:24 PM
Subject: I need your advice
To: <mailto:eknight@upaerospace.com>eknight@upaerospace.com
Dear amateur radio colleague,
I apologize, in advance, for the generic greeting. I'm sending this
e-mail to about a dozen experienced amateur-radio leaders, hoping to get your
advice on something that is rather important. A few of you have already given
me excellent direction on this matter... and I thank you greatly!
My name is Eric Knight, KB1EHE. I've been a ham for 32 years, and have
always been extremely proud of the way hams volunteer their time and energy to
help in disaster communications.
Last fall (after Hurricane Katrina), me and some local hams came up with
a way to help the public assist in their own recovery efforts. It empowers the
people that are directly affected by the crisis at hand. And it weaves in the
capabilities of amateur radio -- creating a communications conduit to rescue
& disaster-relief personnel.
The idea is starting to pick up steam. For instance, the Director of the
U.S. Government's SHARES (Shared Resources High Frequency Radio Program
http://www.ncs.gov/n3/shares/shares.htm ) program, John Peterson, believes it is
a good idea, and has made excellent suggestions on how to build national
traction (see some suggestions below). Emergency communication directors and
planners -- coast to coast -- are supporting it...and some are even
implementing it right now. And an entire, similar-idea organization --
DCERN (D.C. Emergency Radio Network) -- is merging their entire membership
base into our fledgling emergency-communications concept !
On top of it all, not only can this concept help save lives in a
large-scale disaster, but it can also bring new people into amateur
radio!
The idea is called "NationalSOS" -- and it essentially creates a network
of "listening posts" of hams throughout the U.S. that will perk up their RF
ears to listen to 462.5625 MHz (the frequency of Channel 1 on FRS) if a
disaster strikes. (BTW, contrary to some comments that have circulated on the
Internet, it is not an always-on emergency network. It's a network that
would only be activated during a declared emergency.) When AC power
goes out, telephone lines go down, cell-phone service fails, and / or
cell-phone batteries die, an FRS radio may be the only lifeline a person in a
desperate situation may have. It's akin to firing a signal flare on a sinking
ship. It can't hurt. And it just might help.
The sheer volume of FRS owners in the U.S. (estimated at 100 million and
growing at an amazing rate of 12.2 million per year), and the
prevalence of hams in almost every community in America, makes this idea
possible.
The reality is that there are FRS owners on almost every street in
America. And just plugging in even the smallest city or town into
QRZ.com's online database ( http://www.qrz.com/i/names.html ) reveals the
matching density of hams that can receive the public's FRS messages. That's
the enabling factor of this concept.
There's a more complete description on our simple Web site:
www.NationalSOS.com
I need your advice and counsel on how this idea can continue to
evolve.
Here are a few ideas that have been submitted so far:
* Run "drills" in various regions, to demonstrate to the public the
effectiveness of this emergency-communication tool.
* Create centralized listening posts (such as at repeater sites) that can
listen to a wide area during a crisis. The working name: H.E.L.P. (Ham
Emergency Listening Posts).
* Organize a coast-to-coast message "relay" -- a demonstration event
where hams and FRS users would collaborate in the passing of a message. (Could
be very newsworthy; the media could very well pick up on the national event.)
Of course, under normal circumstances, hams and FRS owners can't directly
communicate, as that is a violation of FCC regulations. However, hams can
easily receive 462.5625 MHz at all times. And, in a declared emergency, hams
could respond to FRS users.
The goal is to somehow reach a minimum visibility threshold in which the
idea would then percolate through the public on its own...in much the same way
that the cell-phone " I.C.E." In-Case-of-Emergency idea rapidly spread around
the world almost entirely via e-mail and Web postings. (As you know, I.C.E.
began as simply the idea of one paramedic in the UK. Then, in just a matter of
weeks, it was everywhere.)
Please check out the suggestions -- and actual implementations -- that
have been described in our public forums:
http://nationalsos.com/ideas/viewforum.php?f=3
Please help. I need the ingenuity, open-mindedness, and
creative-problem-solving ability that hams are legendary for. Jot me
any thoughts (no matter how trivial they may seem to you). Or post a
message in our forums. That would be wonderful!
Together, we can find ways to help save lives. That's a worthy objective,
in and of itself.
Thank you so much!
Sincerely,
Eric Knight, KB1EHE