Coast Guard Auxiliary Ham Radio Operators Show Off

Flagstaff, AZ – Arizona’s Coast Guard Auxiliary Amateur Radio operators will show off their emergency communications capabilities June 28-29 at the Pine View RV Park at Camp Navajo in Bellemont, Arizona twelve miles west of Flagstaff. The public can meet and talk with these radio operators and learn what amateur radio emergency communications and the Coast Guard Auxiliary is about.

Amateur or Ham radio operators provide critical communications in emergencies. During Hurricane Katrina, ham radio - was often the only way people could communicate. When trouble is brewing, ham radio people along with the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary are often the first on scene and able to provide critical relief and communications.

This annual “Field Day” climaxes “Amateur Radio Week” sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), the national association for amateur radio. With emergency power supplies, ham operators will build emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and back yards around the country. Their slogan, “Ham radio works when other systems don’t!” is reinforced since they send multi-format messages without use of telephones, internet or other “normal” methods. More than 30,000 amateur radio operators across the country are expected to participate in this year’s event.

“We hope that people will come and see for themselves. This is not your grandfather’s radio anymore”, said Stan Klock, the Coast Guard Auxiliary’s Communications Officer from Mesa, Arizona. “Communications networks that ham radio people can quickly create have saved many lives when other systems failed or were overloaded.”

There are 650,000 Amateur Radio licensees in the US, and more than 2.5 million around the world. Through the ARRL’s “ARES” program, ham volunteers provide emergency communications for thousands of state and local emergency response agencies, all free. To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.emergency-radio.org.

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed civilian component of the United States Coast Guard. Created by an Act of Congress in 1939, the Auxiliary directly supports the Coast Guard in all missions, except military and direct law enforcement actions. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is an integral part of the United States Coast Guard. For more information visit http://www.cgaux.org/

Coast Guard Auxiliary Responds to Simulated Vessel Explosion in Long Beach

LONG BEACH, Calif - This morning several local Long Beach agencies and organizations participated in a joint operation between the Aquarium of the Pacific (AOP), U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach, and the Long Beach Police and Fire Departments. The purpose of the operation was to test the readiness of the various agencies to respond to an incident near or around the Rainbow Harbor area of Long Beach and to communicate using the Incident Command System which is a nationally adopted system for managing incidents.

The incident scenario provided for a simulated explosion and fire aboard a pleasure yacht near the Queen Mary area of Long Beach Harbor. The scenario also called for 13 simulated victims whose injuries ranged from moderate to at least one fatality. All of the victims were recovered and evacuated on to Coast Guard Auxiliary Vessels that were on simulated safety patrols, and transported to waiting ground transportation to St. Mary Medical Center.

According to Coast Guard Auxiliarist Everett Harper “what made this exercise so valuable as a training tool was the degree of reality injected into the simulation, we (rescuers on the water) had no idea what to expect.”

The Coast Guard Auxiliary routinely conducts safety patrols on coastal waters, rivers and lakes throughout the United States and it territories. All members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary are required to complete incident command system training.

The U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary is the uniformed civilian component of the United States Coast Guard. Created by an Act of Congress in 1939, the Auxiliary directly supports the Coast Guard in all missions, except military and direct law enforcement actions. The Coast Guard Auxiliary is an integral part of the United States Coast Guard. For more information visit www.cgaux.org if you are ready to join visit http://join.cgaux.org/ .