How many Petalumans know that "Great ShakeOut Drills" have been held annually since 2008 in California? Participating is a great way for your family or organization to be prepared to survive and recover from quickly. Locally, the Petaluma CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) program that was initiated in Petaluma, in [...]
On September 1st., the beginning of National Emergency Preparedness Month, the Sonoma County Radio Amateurs sponsored a panel presentation and discussion devoted to how Sonoma County will be able to communicate when a major disaster (like an earthquake) occurs and most normal communication systems are inoperable. The following amateur radio [...]
My twilight moment on May 1st, once again, dealt with emergency communications, when all normal sources of power (especially electricity) fail due to a local emergency or disaster. Most government EOCs (Emergency Operation Centers) and non-profit groups who maintain emergency networks (Red Cross, Salvation Army, and Amateur Radio Emergency Services [...]
Several years ago, volunteer neighborhood emergency response teams in Petaluma promoted the use of amateur radio operators (Hams) as communicators when most normal communication tools might be inoperable due to a major disaster and the loss of power. One of my earlier blogs, "Calling All Hams," was posted on January [...]
How many readers saw Marian McDonald's "Close to Home" column titled, "Preparing for the improbable" in today's Press Democrat ? (11-17-2012) After defining a "Black Swan" event like a major earthquake along the Hayward fault (i.e., the impact of the highly improbable), what can we do? How can we prepare [...]
Once, again, seven years to the day in the Gulf Coast area, another tropical storm (Isaac) is following a path similar to Hurricane Katrina (2005). After it made landfall (6:45 p.m., CDT, 8/28/12), the winds gradually increased to a Category 1 Hurricane (80 mph, with gusts up to 100 mph). [...]
Quite by accident, I "discovered" on the "Discovery Channel" last night, a TV show titled ... (see above.) This 1938 natural event "was one of the most destructive and powerful storms to ever strike Southern New England." It came up the Atlantic coast and on September 21 hit the shoreline [...]
Over the past 10 days, 10 Petaluma Neighborhood Ham Emergency Radio Operators (HEROs) volunteered their time and amateur radio equipment to field test the "signal strength" of their message transmissions to and from various public school sites in the greater Petaluma area. A final signal check, that included public parks [...]
At approximately 10:51.03 a.m. (our time - EDT), USGS reported that a 5.9 Mag. earthquake struck an area 4 miles from Mineral, VA (in Louisa County) which is 41 miles from Richmond, VA and 83 miles from Washington, DC. Parts of the Pentagon, White House, and Capitol were evacuated. Earlier [...]
Leo Laporte, a local Petaluman, now known worldwide as "The Tech Guy" and founder of TWiT Netcast Network, passed his Technician Class amateur radio exam. He is the newest Ham radio operator in Petaluma and his call sign is "in the mail." For those readers who follow TWiT.tv also know [...]