Ham radio emergency communications groups in widely
scattered locations were called into action in December. Amateur Radio
Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers in Tennessee
provided communications for American Red Cross shelters in the wake of
evacuations resulting from the wildfires that ravaged the Great
Smoky Mountains and popular resort areas, according to the ARRL Letter.
 |
| FEMA Region 10
Emergency Communications Coordinator Laura Goudreau , KG7BQR, calls Washington state's Emergency Operations Center via amateur radio as part of a November communicatoins drill. (FEMA Photo by Savannah Brehmer) |
On the other side of the country, nearly four
dozen hams took part in an interoperability drill sponsored by Region X of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which covers the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.
FEMA's regional emergency communications coordinator, Laura Goudreau, KG7BQR (right),
told the ARRL the exercise was "very successful" and that similar drills
would be conducted in 2017.
On the other side of the Pacific, hams in Indonesia
provided emergency communications following a magnitude 6.5 earthquake there on
December 7; and the Philippine Amateur Radio Association's HERO (Ham Emergency
Radio Operations) group conducted emergency nets before, during and after a
Christmas Day typhoon battered the island nation, making landfall seven
separate times. A spokesman told ARRL that several government agencies
monitored the HERO net and occasionally joined in, seeking information.
