Preparedness Planning

Whether it be identifying the best communication modes for your family or gathering items you will need if an emergency forces you to leave your home, planning is the place to start. 

The good thing is there are many resources available to support your efforts. State and Federal agencies are an excellent resource to help you plan, as are faith-based organizations.

Consider these questions, found on the planning resources mentioned above:

• What disasters could affect my area?
• How will I receive alerts if an emergency occurs?
• What is our shelter plan if we must leave our home?
• How will we get to the shelter?
• How will we communicate if the emergency occurs when we are apart?
• Do we need to update our emergency kits?

Answering these questions will help you tailor a plan specific to the needs of your family.

The process can seem overwhelming, but with perseverance and the help of those government and faith-based resources it can be accomplished.  For example, at ready.gov/plan there is a form you can complete online, allowing you to organize and print your family emergency plan - including the contact information and medical needs of each family member - and receive the written plan to your personal email.

I encourage each of you to start an emergency plan or review your existing plan in order to verify it addresses all possible hazards and is sufficient for your situation.

As it relates to radio communications, a major factor in preparedness is emergency power for your radios. Whether it be a handheld radio, or a mobile radio installed as a base station, if the power grid fails during the event, how long will you be able to stay on the air?

Backup battery systems for a mobile installation are becoming more affordable. An internet search for amateur radio emergency power will get you started. If you use a handheld for all of your communications needs, I encourage you to look for an accessory that would allow you to replenish your handheld radio batteries from a portable power source.

If your specific handheld radio is not supported with an accessory allowing a portable power source to be used, one workaround for your emergency communication needs could be to purchase one of the many inexpensive handheld radios with USB charging built in.

In a previous training I discussed a specific brand of handheld radio that incorporates USB charging. I have included the link to that post here.

As indicated above, here are links to the state, federal and faith-based resources focused on helping you complete or update your emergency plan.

Bee Ready Utah Go.

US Dept of Homeland Security site: Go.

Faith-based emergency preparedness site Go.

P.A.C.E. Plan

The net training topic in November introduced P.A.C.E. Plans. If you would like to review the text of that training follow this link.

As it relates to our goup, the P.A.C.E. Plan for the Northwest Cache Valley Net (Benson Stake area) is diagrammed below. If an emergency occurs that affects our area, communications between our net members will follow this plan.

For the net members who are Ward Communication Specialists, communicating the status of missionaries, members and meeting houses to me, and on to the Stake Presidency, will be coordinated over the easiest mode possible. If the cell networks are operable, phone calls and text messages will be used. If those modes are not operable, we will progress through the plan levels as needed.

I have cell and email contact information for most of the net members, but if you are not sure if I have your contact information please send it in an email to greg.fabricius@gmail.com.

There will be circumstances where a lot of information needs to be communicated at once. In those instances, to free up the cell or radio modes of communication for life-safety traffic, it is helpful to have the means to attach the information as a file to a text message, or an email, when using the Primary and Alternate levels of the plan. The Emergent level for data messages requires the use of amateur radio frequencies. If you are not licensed or do not have the equipment for packet communication, the P.A.C.E. Plan for data messages will stop at the Contingency level, which is courier (hand delivery).

I encourage all licensed radio operators to program the applicable frequencies found in the Contingency and Emergency levels into your radios, and create your Winlink account. You can become familiar with this program by sending messages via the internet, even if you do not have the radio interface equipment. Review the original post detailling the process of setting up Winlink here.

**Note: GMRS frequencies are outside of the amateur radio band and many radios will not allow you to transmit on those frequencies, even though you can program them for monitoring.

Also, to use the GMRS band a no-exam license is required through the FCC. The cost to apply for a license is $35 for a 10 year term. The license allows all persons in your immediate family to use the GMRS system under that one license. There are many low-cost GMRS radios on the market, making this a feesible option for your personal P.A.C.E. plan, and with the network of GMRS repeaters in use in Cache Valley you can use handheld GMRS radios efficiently as a backup for your family communications, as well as in the Contingency level of the NWCV Net plan.

Here is that diagram of the NWCV Net P.A.C.E. Plan. Please contact me if you have any questions.