By Richard Carrier
Contributing writer

Powhatan County’s Office of Emergency Management has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with a local citizen’s group to investigate the potential for ham radio service during major incidents or disasters.

“[Ham radio] is another resource,” said Emergency Management Coordinator Floyd Greene “and there is nothing like it when they are needed.”

Greene saw the ham radio operators in action during a July 17 drill to test the county’s shelter capabilities and evacuation procedures.

Ham radio operators have served as emergency communicators since the formation of the ARES program in 1934 and served as a part of the civil defense program during World War II.

The Radio and Civil Emergency Service has replaced ARES and operates nationally under the Homeland Security Office. However, Powhatan County has not had, until recently, an organized group of operators capable of fulfilling the potential need for a backup communications system through the county’s Office of Emergency Management.

County resident Greg Mica got involved with ham radio’s potential and its operation through his job in emergency management and as a fire and EMT volunteer.

He was licensed two years ago and began looking for similarly interested people in Powhatan, only to find there was no organized group. He did find Powhatan’s Duke Brown, however, and between the two of them they tracked down every ham radio operator in the county.

“There were 63 licensed ham radio operators in the county,” Mica recalled. He and Brown wrote letters to every one and eventually came up with a core group of eight who were willing to take on the challenge of assisting in catastrophic situations. Early this year, “we went to Mr. Green and said ‘here we are. We want to help. What can we do?’’ Mica recalled.

The drill earlier this month was the group’s first chance to demonstrate its potential.

The timing could not have been better. The OEM has reached the physical capacity of its current facility “and we are going to have to build a new communications center for our county,” said Greene. “We must have a larger space. A backup communications system may be planned for it from the beginning.”

The logistics of setting up this system include installing an antenna at the shelter site.

Goochland County has antennas installed on most fire stations and fire and EMS can actually be dispatched by ham radio from these locations, according to Goochland’s Ralph Fetty.

Typically, a licensed ham radio operator and a transceiver are dispatched to the location at the time of an emergency.

The operator plugs into the antenna, ready to provide “health and welfare traffic and communicate from the site to the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. To basically get information out,” Mica said.

Some counties, such as Goochland, have made this a major part of their emergency response repertoire and some have even committed to funding the equipment.

The situation in Powhatan is strictly in an exploratory mode.

“We are working toward forming a strategy,” Green emphasized

“It’s a great first step,” Mica added.

Anyone interested in more information about ham radio operation can contact Greg Mica by e-mail at KI4PXU@ARRL.net.