TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
ALL NON-WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATERUS
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED
WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 11.16 DATE: April 17, 2011
SUBJECT: RAIN BRINGS OUT THE WORST
As emergency communicators you don't always get to sit inside where it's nice and dry. Sometimes you have to do your operations standing in the rain.
If you have an idea that you may be doing your operations in the rain, you need to think about keeping you and all of your equipment dry. Be sure to have some kind of protective covering for your radios, computers, papers, and anything else that you don't want to get wet.
Having rain gear for yourself helps but you need to think about you equipment. If you can put up some kind of shelter to get into, that will help, but when the wind blows, you equipment can still get wet.
Sandwich or ziplock bags will help keep your handheld radio dry. You can tear a small hole in the bag to place your antenna through. There are some clear trash bags that you place your computer or larger equipment in, and still be able to see most of the operations through it. A clear piece of transparency paper will help keep the papers on you clipboard dry.
There's no sure way of keeping completely dry when working in an open environment. But every time you have to do it, you'll learn a new way to stay dry for the next time.
Don't just complain about the rainy weather that you may have operated in, learn something from it. When the real emergency comes, it may not be the best weather. Don't be a fair weather radio operator. You might be able to learn something that you can pass on to someone else.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV