Amateurs Turn Professional For Emergency Times

The tent shielded Darryl Presley from the afternoon sun as he leaned into the microphone and laptop in the fresh air—and on the air.

“That’s right, CARES,” Presley explained to his far-away conversation partner, an amateur radio station in Utah. “We are running an EOC. That’s why the Foxtrott designation.”

An EOC or Emergency Operations Center is what Presley and 15 to 20 other volunteers of the Cupertino Amateur Radio Emergency Service (CARES) set up on the lawn in front of Cupertino City Hall for Field Day on June 25.

The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors the annual Field Day to prompt amateur radio stations across the nation to test their ability to set up and operate an emergency station to prepare for earthquakes or similar emergencies.  As part of Field Day, CARES set up its station using generators and batteries along with several short range and long range antennas and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and showed the the public the ins and outs of ham radio along with information of emergency prepardness.

“There are a few people that we have actually gotten to be on the air,” said Phil Harris, CARES Engineer in charge.

Harris and his group operated a go-to station where interested members of the public had a chance to radio other amateur stations in the San Jose/Santa Clara region that were also participating in the nation-wide event.

“(It’s) an opportunity for someone who has never even experienced ham radio to get on the air and talk to somebody,” he said.

In the process of Field Day, CARES’s reach extended far—Presley said he communicated with an amateur station as distant as Kentucky.

“The nice thing about ham radio is, there’s no restrictions distance wise except for sunspots and atmosphere type things,” said Harris, who on his home station has transmitted a signal as far Hawaii and Japan.

The set-up was similar to what the group would use during an actual emergency, when cell phone and landlines may be down, Presley said.  All or most active CARES members have go-kits for use during earthquakes and would use that to build this emergency station, he said.

“This was a great day,” Harris said. “It was an opportunity to demonstrate even to myself that we can, as a group, have the equipment up and running...and be ready to go with whatever the city needs for communications.”