Emergency Communications

In a regional emergency, like an earthquake or other disturbance, there's a very good chance our communications systems will fail. Experience in other disasters and emergencies tell us that the cell phone system will fail, land line phones (if still connected) will work sporadically at best, and the Internet will generally be inaccessible. There's a good chance the power will fail over significant areas for considerable time -- for days, maybe. And if it's a big earthquake, experts tell us communications and power could be out for many days -- 10 or more. And if it's a really big earthquake, it could be a week or 10 days before any professional help arrives. We could be on our own to take care of ourselves and our neighbors, and that's what CERT is all about.

Wouldn't you like to be able to communicate during an emergency? When all else fails, Amateur Radio still works. With an Amateur Radio Technician's License you will have the ability to communicate with other Hams in the region using the UHF and VHF frequencies commonly used by Hams during disasters. The Los Angeles basin is ringed with repeaters on these frequencies that could link you to the rest of California. And with a Technician's license and a Ham radio and a battery operated computer you could use Winlink2000 or other communication protocols to contact the rest of the world with email and other digital communication.

If you are a member of a CERT team you could become a CERT Ham Radio Operator and help your team and Incident Commander with real time information. Several Ham Radio Operators on a CERT team make you a instant disaster communications system that would be invaluable in effectively managing the situation.

Once you receive your FCC license, you might want to to join the Los Angeles Fire Department's Auxiliary Communications Service -- a group of Hams dedicated to providing emergency communications to the City of Los Angeles, CERT, and the LAFD.

Sounds like a pretty good deal, doesn't it? Getting your FCC Technician's License is fun and easy to do. Here's how:

To become a Ham radio operator you need to pass the FCC exam and obtain your FCC Technician Radio Operators license. The Technician License allows you to go on the air using the UHF and VHF Amateur Radio bands commonly used for local contacts and regional emergency communication.

Earning your FCC Technician's License is as simple as passing the 35 question FCC Element One multiple choice written exam. The FCC realizes that Ham Radio Technician Operators are a public safety asset and purposely made the exam uncomplicated. No Morse Code is required. All you need to do is learn some of the FCC rules and regulations and learn a little bit about how radios and repeaters systems work. With a little preparation, many people find the exam easy to pass.

Exams are given by Volunteer Examiners -- local Hams who administer the test as a public service at many local locations. Exams are scheduled frequently -- usually every week. Exam times and places can be found on the American Radio Relay League website http://www.arrl.org.

There are a number of ways to study for the Technician Exam -- Amateur Radio clubs have free classes, classes are available on line, and there a number of excellent self-study books available. My wife and I passed the Technician exam by studying "The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual" on our own a few hours a day for about 10 days and by taking the practice tests we found at http://www.qrz.com -- that's all it took.

You can take the sample tests on line and learn immediately if your answers are correct, and if not, what the correct answer is. You will eventually learn the correct answers to all the questions in the FCC Exam question pool. Many people have passed the exam simply by practicing the sample tests on QRZ.

Most people do very well on the exam by reading the "The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual" published by the Amateur Radio Relay League. It sells for $24.95 and is available from Ham Radio Outlet in Burbank and at other radio supply stores. It's also available on line from the ARRL at: http://www.arrl.org/catalog/?item=9639#top. This well written text is easy to read and contains all the questions available for use on the FCC exam.

Other books you might consider are the "ARRL Tech Q & A - 4th Edition" ( $15.95) and the "Technician Study Manual" by Gordon West ($18.95). Both are available at most radio supply stores, amateur radio stores (Ham Radio Outlet, Jun's Electronics), Radio Shack and on the Internet at either http://www.arrl.org or www.w5yi.org.

The http://www.w5yi.org , http://www.qrz.com and http://arrl.org web sites all contain a wealth of information to help you obtain a license.

I recommend self study and the taking the sample tests. It's inexpensive and you can study at home at your own pace. If there's something you don't understand in the book I may be able to help you with a phone call or two. Leave a comment to this blog entry and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can. If not, there are other highly experienced Hams who are excellent teachers and will be pleased to help -- ask around and you'll find a good one.

When all else fails, Amateur Radio works.

Jonathan Zimmerman
ACS-CERT Liaison
ACS Battalion 14 Communications Unit Leader

Phone Service During Emergencies

As most of us know, an emergency that disrupts the power grid or physical structure of the telephone system will cause mass communication outages. The standard phone system requires physical connections which must remain intact, and the cellular system can barely keep up with the demand for services at high volume times as it is. A cellular technician friend tells me that many of the cell circuits may already be in poor repair due to maintenance cuts.

The POTS phone system (Plain Old Telephone Service) that you may still have hardwired to your homes, if still intact, will continue to work when the power fails because the telephone land lines are battery powered from the telephone Central Offices. So if you have an old fashioned phone plugged into the wall, and I highly recommend you do, you may still have phone service in an emergency as long as the phone company batteries last.

If you rely on cell phones or Internet based services like Skype and the power grid is disrupted, you probably won't have service until the grid is restored. If you can't get cellular voice service, try text messaging. Because text messages are sent in short bursts, something they can get through when voice communications can't.

Even though we never use it for regular calls, my wife and I keep an older hardwired phone pluged into a phone jack. We chose the AT&T Princess phone because the handset lights up when off the hook and we can see the push buttons in the dark, and it has a smaller footprint on my desk. We saved one from an older service precisely for this purpose.

If you have a cordless phone system, I recommend you at least plug the master phone station (the one that broadcasts to the other handsets) into a UPS (uninterruptable Power Supply) like the ones sold for computer use. Then, if your power goes out but the phone lines are still working, you'll have at least a few minutes of communication time before the UPS runs out of charge.

Getting dial tone or a connection during an emergency is another problem entirely. There aren't enough phone lines or switches or data capacity to handle the increased demand during an emergency because the first thing everyone will want to do is pick up a phone and call their homes and loved ones to find out if they are safe. The system, if it works at all, won't be able to handle the demand and will probably crash.

Services nearest the disaster will obviously be affected the most, so of your phone works at all, you probably won't be able to place a local call. But if you can get a dial tone, you may be able to place a long distance call to an area away from the disaster. That's why it's a good idea for families to have a contact number some distance away -- perhaps with a friend or family member that lives in another state. If you can't make local calls, but can reach your out of state contact number, you can leave messages for your family and loved ones.

The FCC is aware of this problem and may be acting to do something about it. The phone companies, of course, are fighting it.

And remember, when all else fails, Amateur Radio works.

Moderator

Here's an article from the Associated Press:

CELL PHONE TOWERS

Wireless carriers fight FCC rules to add backup power for cell phone towers

By David Twiddy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monday, March 10, 2008

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When Hurricane Katrina assaulted the Gulf Coast in 2005, winds and flooding knocked out hundreds of cell towers and cell sites, silencing wireless communication when emergency crews and victims needed it.

To avoid similar debacles in the future, the Federal Communications Commission wants most cell transmitter sites to have at least eight hours of backup power.

More than 2 1/2 years after Katrina hit and eight months after the FCC's regulations were released, the agency and the industry are still wrestling over the issue.

A federal appeals court has put the regulations on hold while it considers an appeal by some in the wireless industry.

Although several cell phone companies agree that their networks need to be more resilient, they have opposed the FCC's regulations, claiming that they were illegally drafted and would present a huge economic and bureaucratic burden.

There are almost 210,000 cell towers and roof-mounted cell sites across the country, and carriers say many would require modification to meet the regulations. At least one industry estimate puts the per-site price tag at as much as $15,000.

In asking the FCC to delay the change, Sprint Nextel Corp. said the rules would lead to "staggering and irreparable harm" for the company. Jackie McCarthy, director of governmental affairs for PCIA-The Wireless Infrastructure Association, said the government should allow the industry to decide how best to keep its networks running, pointing out that backup power can't help a cell tower that has been destroyed by wind or wildfires.

"Our members' position is that the 'one size fits all' approach to requiring eight hours of backup power at all cell sites really doesn't accomplish the commission's stated purpose of providing reliable wireless coverage," McCarthy said.

The wireless carriers are also claiming that the FCC failed to follow federal guidelines for creating new mandates and went far beyond its authority when it created the eight-hour requirement.

FCC officials have so far stood their ground. "We find that the benefits of ensuring sufficient emergency backup power, especially in times of crisis involving possible loss of life or injury, outweighs the fact that carriers may have to spend resources, perhaps even significant resources, to comply with the rule," the agency said in a regulatory filing.

"The need for backup power in the event of emergencies has been made abundantly clear by recent events, and the cost of failing to have such power may be measured in lives lost," it said.

A panel of experts appointed by the FCC after Katrina was critical of how communications networks performed during and after the storm. The group noted that service restoration was "a long and slow process."

Panel members recommended that the FCC work with telecommunications companies to make their networks more robust. Regulators then created the eight-hour mandate, exempting carriers with fewer than 500,000 subscribers.

Wireless companies called the regulations arbitrary and said they would rob them of the flexibility to target backup power upgrades at the most important or most vulnerable sites.

They also said local zoning rules, existing leases and structural limitations could make it impossible to add batteries or backup generators to cell sites.

Miles Schreiner, director of national operations planning for T-Mobile, said it can take 1,500 pounds of batteries to provide eight hours of backup energy in areas with a lot of cell phone traffic.

"In urban areas, most of the sites are on rooftops, and those sites weren't built to hold that much weight," Schreiner said.

The FCC agreed in October to exempt cell sites from the rules if the wireless carrier proves that the exemption is necessary.

Companies would have six months to submit those reports and then another six months to bring the sites into compliance or explain how they would provide backup service to those areas through other means.

CTIA-The Wireless Association and several carriers asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to intervene, saying the exemptions would still leave companies scrambling to inspect and compile reports on thousands of towers.

On Feb. 28, the court granted Sprint Nextel's request to stay the regulations while the case moves forward.

Verizon Wireless is not a party to the appeal and has a history of installing backup generators and batteries to its cell sites. Most famously, during a 2003 blackout that kept much of the Northeast in the dark for hours, Verizon customers could still communicate.

AT&T, the nation's largest wireless carrier, would not comment on the FCC regulations.