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Upper Freehold ready in the event of emergency
The Examiner – Allenstow, NJ
UPPER FREEHOLD [NJ] – The township’s Office of Emergency Management conducted a communication drill Aug. 11 from its Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

The purpose of the drill was to test radio communications and message handling between all area emergency responders during a disaster, according to a press release from the township’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM).

The scenario for the drill was a category two hurricane, dubbed Hurricane William. Participating agencies in the drill were the New Jersey State Police from the Hamilton barracks, the Allentown First Aid Squad, Allentown’s Hope Fire Company, the Upper Freehold Regional School District, the Upper Freehold Department of Public Works (DPW), the Monmouth County OEM, the Salvation Army and the ham radio Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES)-Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), according to the press release.
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Armstrong [PA] County to use ‘Smart Cards’ to identify responders
by Tom Mitchell
LeaderTimes

KITTANNING — Armstrong County Emergency Management Coordinator Randall J. Brozenick said his office is ready for an flood of applications for uniform, statewide identification cards for police, fire, emergency responders and local amateur radio operators.

Brozenick said the new cards will identify about 1,000 emergency personnel and volunteers throughout the county, allowing them access to emergencies.

He said the photo ID cards are scheduled to be issued to comply with Presidential Directive 12 for the Department of Homeland Security’s Counter Terrorism Task Force. Brozenick said the cards issued in the county will be valid anywhere in what is known as Southwestern Pennsylvania Region 13, a 13-county region with includes the City of Pittsburgh.
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Dime- or nickel-size hail? Skywarn volunteers give the National Weather Service the nitty-gritty details radar can’t.
by: Bill McAuliffe
StarTribune.com

Nick Elms isn’t much interested in blue skies. Warm breezes leave him cold. But a blast of thunderstorms like the ones that ripped through the metro recently? He’s there.

Elms, a volunteer severe-weather spotter, spent seven hours out in the meteorological melee, and his reports to the National Weather Service helped Twin Cities residents take the measure of the storm that hit Aug. 13: Golf-ball-sized hail. Winds at 62 mph. Flooding. Blowing dust. Other points of interest included three straight minutes of zero visibility and mud coating one side of his vehicle entirely.
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Italian Job Sees Radio Hams Steal Record
by: Matt Chapman
vnunet.com

A company that develops wireless broadband equipment has collaborated with a group of Italian amateur radio operators to set a new world record for a 5GHz Wi-Fi link.

The connection, which achieved a distance of 304km, was set up by Ubiquiti Networks and the Italian Center for Radio Activities (CISAR).

The link extended from Sardinia to central Italy and achieved data rates of about 5Mbps.
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Loud and clear – Ham radio enthusiasm still resounds in an age of e-mail, cellphones
by William Nettleton, Special to the Times Union
Albany Times Union

As Steve VanSickle scanned through frequencies on his radio, listening for any voice or Morse code communications, only the sound of varying high-pitched squeals broke through the static.

“This is WB2HPR in Troy, looking for someone on the TARA repeater for demonstration of the station,” he said into a small microphone. “WB2HPR standing by.”
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Licking, Fairfield, Perry agencies at Buckeye Lake
By Kent Mallett, Advocate Reporter
Newark Advocate

MILLERSPORT — Hundreds of police, fire, medical and other emergency personnel from Licking, Fairfield and Perry counties responded Saturday to terrorist threats around Buckeye Lake.

It was a not a real emergency, but rather a training exercise to prepare emergency responders from various agencies and jurisdictions for a major threat. Funding for the exercise comes though the Ohio Emergency Management Agency.
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Mighty Mo memorial re-creates a powerful history
by: Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin

It’s common knowledge that World War II formally ended with the signing of the Instrument of Surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945. Less known are the following facts about the famed battleship, which is now a nonprofit floating museum known as the Battleship Missouri Memorial.

Mo is Mighty
True to its nickname, Mighty Mo is three football fields long and more than 20 stories high. Steel armor plating — more than 17 inches thick in some places — lines the hull.

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ARRL September VHF QSO Party

When:
The second full weekend of September.
Begins 1800 UTC Saturday and ends 0300 UTC Monday (September 8-10, 2007)

Object:
To work as many amateur stations in as many different 2 degrees X 1 degree grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz. Foreign stations work W/VE amateurs only.

Rules:
http://www.arrl.org/contests/rules/2007/sepvhf.html

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by Hugh Muir
The Free Lance Star – Fredericksburg.com

Alert action by two ham radio operators recently helped bring speedy assistance to the scene of a recent two-car collision near northern Stafford County.

During a heavy rainstorm on July 27, KG4UCM was driving south on State Route 612 in Fauquier County along the western edge of Quantico Marine Corps Base. “I took that route,” he said, “because, in that weather, I thought it would be safer and easier than I-95.”
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by Emily Kaiser, Lee Newspapers
LaCrosse Tribune, LaCrosse Wisconsin

As multiple agencies, the Red Cross and people searching for lost loved ones try to communicate, the Winona Amateur Radio Club was on the scene assisting with the connections.

Club member Lens Litvan said 15 to 18 ham radio operators had been running an emergency network since 11 p.m.

“We have placed amateur radio operators at key points with key people in the agencies,” he said. “We are providing backup and bridge communication.”

Radio operators work by shadowing the people in charge and transmitting information between agencies that might not have an easy way to communicate.
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