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News From 91.3 KUWS
Radio hams to the rescue
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Story posted Tuesday at 6:24 p.m. 7/27/2010 |
Many northern Wisconsin counties want amateur radio operators to provide information during emergency situations when phone lines fail and power lines are down. Laura Podgornik reports from Superior.
NorWesCo Amateur Radio Club President Lee McMahon is native of Webb Lake in Burnett County. As a “radio ham” McMahon works with the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“FM mobile radio or handheld radio, we use mostly for our emergency communications. We have three different locations here in Burnett and Washburn County and Sawyer County, which was have repeaters that we can talk on one of them and hear everybody on the other two. And if we have bad weather, we can link up to repeaters up in the Superior area and talk directly to the weather bureau up there.”
McMahon says they can also talk to each other through television and microwave frequencies. Burnett County Emergency Management Director Bobbi Sichta says she’s worked with ham radio operators for more than ten years.
“In any kind of emergency, they are active. We can put people in the field, hams in the field that can connect to our emergency operation center. And keep us hands-on with what’s going on in the field, which is really nice because it frees up our law enforcement and fire to do their other jobs and not strictly do communication.”
Sichta wants to see more “hams”.
“This is kind of becoming somewhat of a lost art. I wish more young people would take the classes because it’s really a great system for us in emergencies. I mean, you know when we have an emergency, the cell phones always go down and sometimes the phone systems go down and the power goes down and these guys can really help.”
Sichta says McMahon and other hams were instrumental in 2001 when an F3 tornado hit Siren. They were able to give citizens a 50 minute advanced warning.
Another great thing about “Radio Hams”, they work for free. If you’re interested in becoming a “Radio Ham”, you can visit NorWesCo’s website by googling NORWESCO radio.
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