Dennis From Sacramento

Hi all. I am Dennis Bartholomew, KE6MFF from Sacramento. Just called to be the Sacramento Central Storehouse Ham Operator/Coordinator. We have the Sacramento storehouse and 4 other storehouses in northern California and western Nevada with a total of 62 stakes in that area. It is my goal to have storehouse ERC coordinators and stake ERC specialists for each respective storehouse and stake. We presently have a 2 meter net every Saturday morning in the Sacramento area. I would like to have an HF net weekly also, if that is not happening already. I will have to upgrade to general for participation in the HF net. I have been threatening to do that for a long time anyway.

I am a private pilot and have a part ownership in a Cessna 172. I have a GMC Sierra diesel pickup that I recently converted to run on used vegetable oil. It runs great, and the fuel is free. I did the conversion after selling a Chevy S-10 that I converted from gas to electric. I work for the local city transit service as a light rail operator.

I am happy to be aboard. This blog is a great forum for ERC concerns and sharing information. For contact feel free to email at dennis7400@sbcglobal.net

Weekend Activity in Parker Colorado

We had a great time over the weekend. I was called by the Stake Presidency to chair a Parker Community Family Fair which was supposed to be a community sponsored event rather than an LDS sponsored event. We got lots of local businesses to sponsor the event to the tune of $12K and had about 4000 participants, half of which we figure were members of the community and not members. We used our local Southern Metro LDS Hams Group to supply our communications and really got a lot of experience in passing traffic. Three local members of the ARES District 24 Group volunteered to help us and brought out a portable repeater for us to use on 70cm. We were able to do lots of behind the scenes missionary work and made a ton of inroads with the community at large. The Mayor and members of the Town Council, Economic Development Council, Chamber of Commerce, Tri-County Health, Hospital, Police and Fire and others participated. We had the Douglas County Command Vehicle, Parker Police Command Vehicle, Motorcycles, crash car and lots of others things there as well.
David Lowe-Parker Colorado

Welcome aboard Brien

We appreciate your post and would encourge you to continue to ask questions and share ideas. For your information, we are in the process of re-writing the emergency preparedness section on the provident living website. A portion of this deals with emergency communications. We want to keep directions as simple as possible, because emergency situations vary so much from area to area. We would appreciate any feedback from all of you as to what type of information you feel is important to be included in the guidelines. Thanks Richard Humpherys-Church Office Building

Hello I am Brien Cushman of the Calgary Alberta Stake in Canada. I have just recently been called as the “Stake Emergency Communications Specialist.

I have also recently obtained my ham licence (VE6BLC). So all this is very new for me. I have had a limited back ground in Risk Management and have developed some recommendations from time to time for businesses and was part of an emergency response planning team more than 15 years ago. Much has changed but some things have not. Communication is vital regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in.

I’d like to get my hands on a job description for this calling but all I have been able to obtain is a couple of paragraph from the church web sit. One of which states that wards and stakes should not purchase radio equipment but rather search out local radio operators. In contrast to this direction I have been given eight CB radios complete with magnetic antennas and power supplies. These may have limitations but the geographic area of our stake is small enough that these radios could be useful tools if an emergency occurred.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make effective use of this equipment?

St. Louis Bishops' Storehouse "Doings"

Hello All!!

In June of 2003 we had 4 ARO’s in the O’Fallon Illinois Stake - today we have 67 with another course scheduled for February - when the purpose of EmComm, to support our bishops and stake presidents, is properly explained to the Saints they will respond and become licensed and participate in EmComm.

Currently we have 270 ARO’s in the 12 stakes of the St. Louis Bishops’ Storehouse with a course of 24 ongoing and another course scheduled for January. For those living "Out West" I should probably mention the St. Louis Storehouse boundaries are from the Northern boundaries of the Nauvoo Illinois Stake North of Mt. Pleasant Iowa to West of Kirksville Missouri South thru the Columbia, St Roberts and Springfield Missouri Stakes to 30 miles East of the Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri borders zig zagging East thru the Cape Girardeau Missouri and Paducah Kentucky Stakes to the Tennessee River just East of Camden Tennessee then North along the Illinois and Indiana borders into Indiana East of Danville Illinois the across the top of the Champaign, Springfield and Nauvoo Illinois Stakes to the Stating point. Inside this box are the St. Louis North, St. Louis, St Louis South and O’Fallon Illinois Stakes - 12 Stakes in all. All in the heart of the New Madrid Fault Line and of course, Tornado Alley.

As we continue to mature we are holding weekly nets and periodic drills & exercises to keep building our EmComm skills. We invite all to join us at 0130Z (8:30 PM CDT) on 3.878 for our weekly HF net.

Chris KC9EIZ KC9EIZ@ARRL.Net
O'Fallon Stake EmComm Specialist
St. Louis Bishops' Storehouse EmComm Specialist

Options to consider for Emergency Communications

1-Telephone
2-Cell phones
3-Amateur radio
4-Satellite phones
5-Fax
6-Email (Internet)
7-Citizens band
8-Personal contact
9-Varied handheld phones (limited range)

Each one of these may have advantages over the other, and each of them have their own limitations. Remember, that your communication source is only as good as your power source.

2 Meter Antenna

I recently built 2 meter antenna from an old rabbit ears antenna and use it as a dipole. If anyone would like details on what I did, contact me. It seems to work very well. This might be useful information if your regular antenna gets destroyed during a disaster.
Vernon Harris,
W7GGM
713-4454
W7GGM@comcast.net

HELP IN FINDING LICENSED HAM RADIO OPERATORS

On the internet go to http://199.245.125.13/i/names.html

Enter the city, state or Zip code of the area you wish to search. If you are looking for hams in Norman, OK, enter Norman, OK. Or you may enter the ZIP code(s) for Norman, OK. A list of all currently licensed amateur radio operators in that area will be displayed. You may then compare the list against church membership lists to locate member ham radio operators.

Richard Humpherys-Church Office Building

FAQ's

FROM TIME TO TIME, QUESTIONS MOST COMMONLY FORWARDED TO CHURCH HEADQUARTERS WILL BE POSTED HERE. BELOW ARE THE TWO MOST COMMON.

1-What frequency should we use on our stake and storehouse nets ?

The frequency to be used by your stake is selected by the emergency communications

specialist at the bishops storehouse that serves your stake. With his (or her)

background in communications, they will be able to select a frequency suited to

covering the storehouse area that includes your stake. Some, because of their

distance from the storehouse may have chosen their own frequencies on a

stake level to operate on.

2- How do we contact Salt Lake ?

Contact should first be made to appropriate priesthood leaders which will include

bishops, stake presidents, and area authority seventies. They in turn will contact

church headquarters. Area Welfare Managers, and welfare specialists should

also be made aware of emergency situations. Assistance may be requested

by priesthood leaders in contacting Salt Lake by amateur radio or other means

depending on the emergency. Some of the storehouses have church owned

radio equipment with the capability of reaching Salt Lake. Contact may

be made by relaying your message outside of the disaster area and

asking them to contact the church by using the toll free

number 1-800-453-3860. The church operator is on duty 24 hours

a day and will know who to get a hold of in an emergency.

Other than a remote possibility of a need to notify church

headquarters of an emergency, the focus should be on providing

communications capabilities for local priesthood leaders.

Richard Humpherys Church Office Building

Per Richards request:
Eric Freund, K0EWF, Ponderosa Ward, Parker, Colorado Stake. ARES AEC for Colorado District 24, Douglas and Elbert Counties. RACES through Douglas County. State EOC Comm Unit, Douglas County IMT Comm Unit. Red Cross DAT and shelter operations. Five children, three grandchildren. Current empolyment Avaya Inc., telephony computer lab manager.

Update

So far we have 12 people that have registered to post comments on this blog site and 42 who have been invited to join but have not registered yet. If you desire to participate contact me at humpherysrc@ldschurch.org or at parkergang@msn.com and I will get you listed within the same day.

For those of you have registered, take a moment and write a brief paragraph introducing yourself. Include such things as your calling, family, interests etc. Include a picture if you have one. As we move ahead and assess needs for emergency communications, we need your input.
Thanks Richard Humpherys-Church Office Building