Oregon Emergency Amateur Radio in Action

When I bought my police scanner a while back, I made sure it had the capability to scan Ham Frequencies too, so I could find out what kind of Ham radio community we have here on the south coast.

At first, it seemed like there was nothing going on; my random attempts to scan ham frequencies didn't turn up much. But then I read that ham communities often hang out at certain frequencies, usually around a designated "net" that meets up on specific dates.

I discovered on-line that there is an ARES net (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) that meets up on Tuesday evenings. They do a role call check in, make Ham Club announcements, invite visitors to introduce themselves, then turn the frequency over for general amateur use. Chit chat often follows, and I've found that if I scan frequencies in that band range, there is often conversations going on. It's a pretty active community locally, and they talk to people all over the state and in surrounding states like Washington, Nevada, and California too.

I found out about our local ARES net here:

Oregon ARES District 5

Dedicated to providing volunteer emergency communications to public and private community service agencies within and around Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, and Josephine Counties, Oregon.

When all Normal Means of Communications Fail!

There are LOTS of links and resources to explore on the site. It was there that I found my local ARES net, and began to learn about ARES and what they do. And I found out how, on a local level, just how important they can be.

In early December of last year, a severe winter storm hit Northern Oregon, bringing high winds and flooding which knocked out conventional communications in several parts of the state. Amateur Radio operators, as part of ARES, provided valuable assistance in keeping communication lines open:


Amateur Radio to the Rescue in Oregon

[...] “I’m going to tell you who the heroes were from the very beginning of this…the ham radio operators. These people just came in and actually provided a tremendous communication link to us,” said Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski after a visit Tuesday to Vernonia and a fly-over there and other affected areas.

In Oregon’s northern coast, callers were again able to make and receive long-distance phone calls after floods and mudslides breached a major fiber-optic line in several places around Westport.

A network of at least 60 volunteer amateur radio operators working along the coast and inland helped from keep crucial systems such as 911 calls, American Red Cross and hospital services connected. The ARRL provided emergency communications, relaying information about patient care and lists of supplies needed in areas cut off by water.

“You are amateur in name only,” said Steve Sanders, a spokesman for District One of the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), which helped in several key counties hit by the storm.

The storm has now largly passed, but ARES is still providing communications to the coast, with more than 60 volunteers working at the coast and many more at points in between.

The District One Emergency Radio Network was activated at 8 AM Monday morning and is still in operation today; District One ARES serves Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Multnomah, Tillamook and Washington counties - the northwest corner of the state.

According to ARRL Oregon Section Public Information Coordinator Steve Sanders, KE7JSS, “We are working closely with the American Red Cross as well as the major hospitals, Heartnet radio network and district-wide emergency managers, including Oregon Emergency Management in Salem.” [...]

Read the whole thing, it's quite impressive what they were able to do. ARES sounds like sounds like something useful I would like learn more about, and perhaps even join in and help. It's yet another thing to motivate me to get my Amateur license in the coming year.

You can find out more general information about ARES, what it is and what it does, from this description on the ARRL (American Radio Relay League) website:

The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)


Related Links:

http://www.ares.org/
This site has more info about ARES and other Emergency Amateur Radio groups as well.

Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service
Another emergency service group, whose memebers often overlap with ARES. But RACES has a different history and a more specific purpose. Follow the link to find out more.

MILITARY AFFILIATE RADIO SYSTEM (M.A.R.S.)
Anyone interested in providing Amateur assistance to the US military should visit this site. I'll be looking into it.
     

NASA goes Back to the Future

I remember when I was a teenager, when the first American Space Shuttle was unveiled. It was kinda fat and chunky looking, but it was still a real spaceship. It was a beginning. I was sure that within my lifetime, we would eventually have spaceships like the elegant Orion Space Clipper that was featured in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey":




Wow. Well, here it is, 2008. NASA is going to retire our clunky space shuttle by 2010, and introduce a newer, next-generation spacecraft to replace it. Coincidentally, it's going to be called "Orion", and will be used to shuttle astronauts to and from the International space station, AND to the moon and back. That's right, we're going back to the moon, and it's scheduled to happen no later than 2020. Then, on to Mars...

Fabulous! Soon we will get to see this new Orion spaceship, which is being built right now. But we don't have to wait until it's finished to see it, NASA has already made the plans public! So here it is, the NEW Orion space shuttle:




But, but... that's an APOLLO space CAPSULE, isn't it? Well, it's a similar design. It's actually 2 and 1/2 times larger than the Apollo version, it can hold up to six astronauts for shuttle missions, and four astronauts for Lunar missions. Here is a picture of the Orion with a lunar module attached:




Looks familiar, doesn't it? I had trouble deciding wether to call this post "Back to the Future" or "Everything old is new again".

So what happened to our beautiful Orion Space Clipper? Why are we going back to designs from 40 years ago? There's two major reasons I can think of: cost, and safety.

These old designs are tried and true. We know they work. Update them with new technology, and they work really well. I also suspect that with new technology, they are cheaper to build than anything else. Here is a picture of the new Orion capsule with it's solar cells and antennae dish deployed:






We are simply building on old technology, using what we know works, and making it better. Click here for more pics of the Orion spacecraft.

The space shuttle aircraft we've used for the past three decades are made from a more bold and ambitious design, but are also more complex and fraught with dangers. Consider the Challenger accident, the shuttle that exploded after launching; the Columbia burning up while returning to earth.

The Challenger crew could not be saved. However, with the new Orion design, the crew can be saved if the rocket explodes on the launch pad, or in the air. The capsule has a rescue rocket on top, to lift it way from danger.

The Columbia crew died when their damaged heat shield failed on reentry. The Orion capsule's heat shield is protected from damage during liftoff, and is a round shape that is easier to build and maintain.

Every time astronauts die, people call for an end to the space program. By going back to old designs and improving them, we are saving both money and lives. It's hard to argue with that. So I may not see this in my lifetime:





But hopefully I will see this:





If we have to sacrifice elegant design for the safety of our astronauts and the efficiency of our space program budget, then so be it. As we learn more we can get fancier; but we need to grow into it at a natural pace. Slow but steady progress with it's attendant successes will get us where we want to go.

The new back-to-the-moon mission is called the Constellation Program. The link goes to NASA's website, where you can find out lots more details about the mission and photos of the various spacecraft being developed. I had lots of fun looking around there. If you are a space fan, be sure and check it out.






It's back to the future... are you ready? I am, let's go!





First, the moon once again. Then look out Mars, here we come...