Ham radio operators come out to help with disaster preparedness exercise

April 15, 2008--Tampa

In what is said to be the largest exercise ever of its kind, emergency services in Hillsborough County will work with those in other areas to assume that airplane crash has occurred at Tampa International Airport during a busy weekday.

While local police and firefighters and others are accustomed to talking by radio, the various services often cannot interface with each other, a common problem throughout the United States. The exercise will provide a trial of new equipment being bought by the county to overcome this disadvantage, and a test of local amateur radio operators to provide the service.

With projections of hundreds dead or injured, and communications stretched to the limit, local ham radio operators will provide links to and from Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center, the Red Cross, hospitals, schools, police, firefighters and city, county, state, federal, and other entities in urgent need of communications support. The Coast Guard as representative of the Department of Homeland Security, the Air Force and the Central Command will receive and send reports about the "disaster."

The amateur operators, in a unique position to provide communication services, also track the busses the exercise participants travel on, and inform county and hospital officials on arrival times and personnel tracking data.

Brothers Picot Floyd Jr. and Keating Floyd, both enthusiastic ham radio operators, are helping plan the radio portion of the practice operation, which will take place April 17th throughout the county, reaching into adjacent counties.

"If the airport were to have a major crash, this area would be very affected, the airport being an important transportation hub," said Picot Floyd, “Net Control” for the exercise. "Our goal is to keep everybody in touch."

These practice exercises are played out periodically in most parts of the country, with ham radio operators providing linkups among the rescue services that can be pulled together by radio.

The planning for this event includes a large number of radio hams, serving in various locations around the county. Added Fred Nassar, the chief Ham planner for this event: "In an actual event of this nature, emergency services would be activated, with Amateur Radio operators in place, in case primary communications go down."

There are thousands of licensed hams in the area, and many of them will take part in one way or another.

Volunteers from the Tampa Amateur Radio Club, the Baycare Emergency Amateur Radio Society, the Brandon Amateur Radio Society, the MOSI Amateur Radio Club, The American Victory Ship Amateur Radio Club, the Sherriff’s Tactical Amateur Radio Club and other organizations are practicing so they will be ready for the exercise and for the remotely possible real event. While the emergency will be imaginary, scenarios are being planned to be as realistic as possible, with phones – both landlines and cell phones -- down and radio messages as the only possible means of communication.

Other ham operators are working on a program to automate messages to and from the Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center. In the coming weeks, other volunteers will become aware of their duties.

"Our radio club leadership is closely involved with the planning," said Picot Floyd. "We are particularly concerned with those who could be helpless or disabled. With our links, we can provide communications into and out of the area, keeping state and federal disaster response agencies in the loop.."

This is a big operation. Is it something new for the local hams?

"Not at all," said Keating Floyd. "We hams always get into it when there's an emergency. And not just local – groups of our operators served during hurricanes in the past few years in Florida and in other
states. It's what we do."

How long will the exercise last?

"It's planned for four hours," Picot Floyd said. "In a real emergency, it would go on for days, even weeks. Once the critical messages are handled, we connect families and friends who are worried about each other, letting them know who's okay."

-- Fred Nassar, RACES Officer, 813-224-8544