Saratoga News

Hams stand ready to help in all emergency situations

By Sarah Lombardo

If El Niño brings more trouble than the city can handle this winter, there is a certain group of amateur radio operators ready to aid the city in getting assistance and communicating with other cities--about 56 operators, in fact, according to Saratoga Amateur Radio Association treasurer Lou de Give.

"We don't have plans for [El Niño], but whenever there's an emergency, out we come," he said. "We can't plan for something like this. We are communicators. Whatever the city plans, we go with."

SARA works with the city to provide communications in the case of emergencies. With a station at the Emergency Operations Center at City Hall, another at the Saratoga Fire Station and stations at their own homes, SARA members can keep the city in contact with the county should other means of communication go down.

"They are very important," said Saratoga Mayor Gillian Moran, who is also the chairwoman of the Emergency Preparedness Council for Santa Clara County. "[Ham radio operation] is one of the most basic emergency networks that we have."

The group checks city and firehouse ham radio equipment on a monthly basis and checks in weekly on "nets," which are on-air meetings of the operators.

SARA also has hookups in all the local schools in case the city needs to open a shelter and needs a communicator on-site. If an emergency arises, said Paula Reeve, emergency services coordinator for the city, the city first contacts de Give, who in turn contacts other hams in the area and notifies them of the situation.

"They have been very, very effective in the past emergencies that we have had," Reeve said. In past winters, when rains were heavy, Reeve said, the hams have been able to report flooding and damage throughout the city to City Hall, from which city crews could then be sent out.

In preparation for the forecasted harsh and rainy winter this year, Reeve said the city already has about 1,500 filled sandbags in the corporation yard on Allendale Avenue and has heavy equipment, such as saws, ready in case trees fall.

In a time, however, when almost anybody has access to a cell phone, some may wonder what use the hams still serve.

"Sometimes people say, 'How can this work in the '90s?' " said Anni'e Barrett, the Santa Clara County District Emergency Coordinator for ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service). "And then there is something like the Los Gatos fire." Barrett pointed out that medical personnel often rely upon ham radio operators to inform them about injured people in cases like that fire. Barrett said she can sometimes understand misperceptions of the need for ham radio, but added that many people's reliance on cell phones is unrealistic.

"There is the perception that cell phones are adequate in an emergency and that many times cities and agencies might not need to maintain an affiliation with these groups," she said. "But the fact is that in an emergency, cell phones jam almost immediately."

Of the more than 200 known ham operators in Saratoga, only about 56 are signed up as part of the city's emergency communications network.

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