Wasatch Back Tri County Amateur Radio Group

MEMBER PHOTO ID BADGE

NEW DATE STICKERS FOR ID BADGES ARE AVAILABLE. SASE TO SCOTTY OR BE AT THE UTAH VHF SOCIETY SWAP MEET SATURDAY TO GET UR STICKER.

QUESTIONS ON MEMBER PHOTO ID BADGE GO TO OPERATING STATEMENT (GROUP BY-LAWS) PAGE 10.

HIGH VALLEY AR CLUB MONTHLY BREAKFAST SOCIAL and HH programming training

The High Valley Amateur Radio Club in Wasatch County will hold their monthly Breakfast Social at the Soldier Hollow Golf Course Restaurant starting at 0900 hours on Saturday, 3 March.

Following the breakfast, starting at 1000 hours will be a training session on how to program Hand Held Transceivers. Bring ur HH and Operators Manual and get help in getting it programmed for simplex and duplex use.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARRL HAM CONVENTION/UTAH HAM FEST

Rocky Mountain ARRL Ham Convention/Utah Ham Fest will be held 27, 28, and 29 July at Ruby''s Inn, Bryce Canyon. Info at www.utahhamfest.org

Group Registration Submitted

THE WASATCH BACK TRI-COUNTY AMATEUR RADIO GROUP HAS BEEN ENTERED AS A PARTICIPATING "COMMUNICATION GROUP" FOR THE UPCOMING "SHAKEOUT"; A SIMULATED UTAH EARTHQUAKE EXERCISE.

ENTRY WAS BASED ON COMMUNITY MEMBER RADIO OPERATORS FROM WALLSBURG, CHARLESTON, HEBER CITY AREA, PARK CITY AREA, SUMMIT PARK, KAMAS/ MARION/OAKLEY, HOYTSVILLE/COALVILLE/UPTON, MORGAN, ENTERPRISE, AND MOUNTAIN GREEN; LOCATED IN WASATCH, SUMMIT, AND MORGAN COUNTIES. ALSO, INCLUDING MEMBER OPERATORS IN OREM (UTAH COUNTY), HOLLADAY, FRUIT HGHTS, AND SANDY (ALL IN SALT LAKE COUNTY). PARICIPATING MEMBER NUMERS WAS PLACED AT 35.

STARTING TUESDAY, 17TH APRIL (A THREE DAY EVENT)

REFERENCE: www.shakeout.org/utah

UTAH VHF SOCIETY SWAP MEET; 25TH FEBRUARY

The annual Utah VHF Society Swap Meet will be held Saturday, the 25th of February, at the Utah State Fair Park, SLC. Doors will open for vendors at 0700 hours and for others at 0800 hours.

Individual membership in the Utah VHF Society is $12.00 per year, for couples or families living under one roof membership is $20.00 per year. For non-members entry fee to Swap Meet is $5.00. Money goes to support repeaters and their maintenance.

THIS IS WELL WORTH ATTENDING.

ERC TRAINING MEETING NOTES - 15 SEPTEMBER - SLC

Summary of EmCom meeting held Saturday, 15 September in Talylorsville, UT, under the auspices of the LDS Church Emergency Communications Department.

The Master of Ceremonies, Doug Reneer WA7UAH, introduced the emergency communications staff at LDS church headquarters. Also present in that group were the 3 EC Specialists for the areas surrounding Salt Lake City. Larry Jacobs WA7ZBO is the fairly newly appointed specialist for the Salt Lake Valley and Summit County. Dan Peay AD7HI covers the Utah North Area. George Oates K7BFI is over Utah Valley and Linden South areas, including Wasatch County. He reminded everyone that the LDS Church does not have Ham Radio Program; it gives callings as Emergency Communications Specialists.

There were only three speakers: Doug R., who talked about our responsibilities as EC Specialists; Roger Van K., who gave a presentation on the psychological impact of a disaster event; and Bob Craven, who walked us through a major Wasatch Front earthquake-in-December scenario to give us an idea of the enormous scope of what we would be facing.

Concerning our responsibilities, "Act" is the key word. We need to learn what is expected, and then do it. Those acting as Emergency Coordinators for whatever agency have one duty, and that is to facilitate communication when normal channels are not available. In a church reference, it is not our job to sell ham radio or tell the administrators what to do. We are only to act as counselors and advisors.

Modern technology has given us many types of communication tools. The principles of reliable communications are: simplicity, redundancy and diversity which give flexibility, and ownership or control of the mode. Ham radio meets these principles better than other modes, but is not always the most appropriate to the situation. However, we all know that phones, cell phones and the internet will most likely be useless very quickly, and even satellite phones will be so overloaded that they will not work.

Here are a few things to remember in considering our responsibilities as EmCommunicators: Prepare for the WORST CASE scenario.....that way you will not be caught short. You must first SURVIVE the disaster yourself to be of help to anyone. Keep yourself physically fit to reduce your stress during a disaster event. You must be self-sustaining. If you cannot take care of your own needs, you are a burden! You must have some type of valid credentials; at least 2 forms of photo ID. Be prepared to do other things than operate a radio. VERIFY any info before passing it on.

Concerning the psychological impact of an event: the CRISIS of an event is the intense emotional REACTION to a trauma or a critical incident, NOT the event itself. Just as people are very different in all their perceptions of everything, people will have very different reactions in a disaster event. There are four categories of victims in an event: primary victims, or those directly affected by what happened; secondary victims, relatives and friends of the primary victims; tertiary victims, who are the helpers and first responders, and fourth level victims, people anywhere that were not directly affected by the event but are very concerned by what happened. Traumatic stress may affect people''''s abilities to function on several levels, such as cognitive functioning, physical health, and interpersonal reactions (snappish, grouchy, stress enhibiting.) Problems in a crisis can be emotional, physical, mental, behavioral, and/or spiritual, each with various symptoms. Many crisis repsonses are viewed as abnormal, but actually are normal responses to an abnormal situation.
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