TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
ALL NON-WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED
WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 15.12 DATE: March 22, 2015
SUBJECT: CELLULAR - NOT ALWAYS THE ANSWER.
While Cellular Phones are another nice tool for communications, they are not the answer to all emergency situations. Even during a normal day, cellular phones can suffer from some unreliability due to inadequate coverage, especially from handheld units. Sometimes it's poor audio quality, and sometimes it's overloaded circuits.
If you are in a very rural area, off the beaten path, they also suffer from range problems. Cellular telephones are handy, however, there are some important considerations before a decision is made to use them in disasters. An article in the magazine "Dispatch Monthly", includes the following: Cell phones are tools like any other device at public safety's disposal. Some tools are inappropriate and inadequate for the situation at hand. Cell phones are generally inadequate and inappropriate based upon the vast majority of disaster after action critiques.
During and after a disaster, cell phones are sometimes a huge time waster, even when they do work. Unlike two-way radios, cell phones are normally one-on-one communications devices. How many one-on-one conversations, especially concerning essentially identical information, will you have in a disaster? The number could be large.
The article goes in detail on some solutions, and suggestions. One of the most interesting solutions, or suggestions, is the following: "Amateur "ham" radio operators are invaluable when there is a regularly exercised plan for them. They have a vast number of frequencies to use so everyone is not tying up just a few frequencies or channels. The better operators, with additional training and exercising, can also augment public safety communications personnel at communication centers and command posts. They can operate your radios on your frequencies, using your procedures and callsigns, not theirs.
Both hams and public safety agencies with fixed repeaters available should resist the urge to use them for all communications. If distance is not essential, simplex or talk- around frequencies should be used. This may require an additional logging channel to document any traffic that is handled, but this is a small price to pay. Also, low power portable repeaters are a nice compromise".
The writer of the article was Mike Gray. He has been the Missouri State EMS Communications Coordinator since 1976, providing technical, operations, planning, to all public safety agencies, the military, and federal government regarding radio, telephone, computer, and satellite communications. He serves as the volunteer State Emergency Management Agency Amateur Radio Coordinator, also assisting them in all aspects of disaster communications. Mike has been a frequency advisor since 1976 and the Missouri APCO Frequency Advisor since 1985.
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV