Thirteen radio Hams from the Seal Beach / Los Alamitos Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service participated in a demonstration of emergency communications at the base of the Seal Beach Pier over the weekend of June 26 and 27.
Joining ham operators from all over the country in an annual event known as “Field Day” the local group operated four transceivers covering seven ham radio bands.
Information was exchanged with 164 stations from Florida to Hawaii and many points in between. Besides using audio based FM and Single Side Band modes of communications contacts with other stations were also made using a ham radio based email system known as Winlink and a computer based digital communications system known as PSK-31.
Three of the radios used during the exercise ran on generator power.
During the demonstration RACES members were joined by seven newly licensed hams and eight members of the Seal Beach Police Explorers group who tried their hand at sending and receiving information “over the air” under extremely fast paced and crowded conditions.
The Seal Beach / Los Alamitos RACES group meets one evening every other month at the Seal Beach Police Department.
As part of their emergency communications training members participate in 5 to 7 communications drills during the year and a half-hour once a week radio check. In addition to using their personal radios RACES members are trained to operate Winlink, amateur transceivers in the police stations’ Emergency Operations Centers, and portable Amateur Television equipment that is designed to provide video intelligence to an incident commander during an emergency situation. Anyone interested in learning how to earn a ham radio license or any hams interested in joining RACES can get more information by phoning 799-4100, extension 1121 and leaving a message for Todd DeVoe, the Seal Beach emergency preparedness coordinator.
