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HARC has recently purchased a new Emergency Communications trailer. We bought an empty cargo trailer and are converting it for use at Community Events and to assist local, county, state, and federal agencies.
Locally, HARC provides communications for events such as the Redwood Marathons, Tour of the Unknown Coast, Trucker’s Parade, and the Kinetic Grand Championship. Some of these events are in areas where normal radio reception is challenging and cell phone service is unreliable. We are more than happy to assist the organizers of these events to help keep the participants as safe as possible. If you have such an event and would like us to help, please visit the contact page and let us know!
In an emergency, this equipment could be used to assist with communications between shelters, hospitals, and logistical centers, and to help citizens let their families know they are okay. In the event that our internet infrastructure is interrupted or destroyed, we could even use digital radios to send and receive important or emergency email over the air to stations hundreds of miles away – outside the area affected by disaster.
The trailer’s primary power source will be deep cycle batteries charged by solar panels. That means it won’t be dependent on fossil fuel to operate. HARC also has a back-up AC system to be used in conjunction with a gas generator.
Please be aware that if you see the trailer ‘out in the wild’ with the back open and an antenna on the roof, those inside might be busy with an event and might not have lots of time to chat, but we love the moral support.
In-person FCC amateur radio license exams are again being offered locally in Eureka and Fortuna, with the location alternating monthly between the two cities. Please visit the Testing Page for times and dates.
If you ready to dive right into the test, the Humboldt Amateur Radio Club is offering a class to prepare students for the Federal Communication Commission’s Amateur Radio Technician license examination. Join with other local community members who wish to learn about radio and get federally licensed to operate with our local Technician Class
The Technician Class license is the entry-level license for Amateur Radio. Get your free materials here, including a complete guide and class handouts. You can also take free sample tests with the real questions at HamStudy.org.
When you are ready to take the test, we offer in person testing once a month, in Fortuna and Eureka.
EmComm covers a wide array of topics, but the easy way to think of it is practice exercises coordinating a response to whatever took out normal communications channels. While the last 20 years has brought many improvements to emergency management communications systems, it has also shown us that defense in depth is required to overcome unforeseen problems.
So who has the skills and equipment to communicate distances, off the grid? Why amateur radio operators, of course! We have field days where a community of ham radio enthusiasts take an empty field and turn it into a global radio communications hotspot for fun. Seems like a perfect group to organize into emergency response communications teams.
Every Monday night starting at 6:30pm local time, you can listen and participate in several Emergency Nets on the air.
Be prepared to help your community during a disaster. Get the special training required to be an ARRL emergency communications volunteer.
The FCC especially appreciates those FCC Amateur Radio Licensees who provide volunteer emergency radio communications to the governments and residents of State and local governments and Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs).
While not strictly a HARC project, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services’ Auxiliary Communications Team, or AuxCom Team for short, is a newly-formed volunteer team of local amateur radio operators who can be activated during an emergency incident where normal modes of communication are disrupted.
If you are interested in joining the AuxComm Team, there is some training and a background check. Please contact KE6HEC for more information. To learn more, read about the Mission and Responsibilities of the AuxCom Team, on the OES’s page about it.
If you are a radio operator and want to put your skills to use when your local community is in need, this is the place to learn what’s needed & train to fill the gaps during unforeseen events.
The Humboldt Winlink Wednesday Net was started to encourage amateur radio operators to become familiar with and expand their skills using Winlink. What is Winlink? From the Winlink website Winlink “is a network of amateur radio and authorized government-licensed stations that provides worldwide radio email using radio pathways where the internet is not present.”
For more informatoin, click the button below.
Information about Member Workshops, and both local and global radio contests are coming soon
Like using the repeaters? Enjoy meeting new friends with similar interests? Than join our club and do it all, and more!
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