Gretchen Hoffman
GLENDALE -- Members of the Glendale Emergency Amateur Radio Service
tested out high-tech gadgets as they celebrated the completion of their
new headquarters.
Some of the more than 600 amateur radio operators on Wednesday dropped
by the new site, which consolidates the group's radio equipment into one
room. The radio station is in the Glendale Emergency Operations Center in
the basement of City Hall.
"You bring all the key people into the same room, so they can make
decisions," said Jim Olliff, an officer of the group. He estimates it
took the group between 750 and 1,000 hours to get the new site up and
running.
During an emergency, telephones and cell phones are often jammed as
people call their loved ones, or not functioning at all, said Steve
Silsbee, a ham radio operator and a cell site technician.
"If anything happens here, you have a good link of operations that,
No. 1, don't cost anything," Silsbee said. "[The amateur radio operators]
are trained and they're willing to work."
The radios are flexible and can be used to transmit immediate
information, such as the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake,
said Sam Cramer, a volunteer with the Disaster Communication Services.
The group recently set up a communication network for Glendale
Memorial Hospital when an underground cable was damaged, cutting off its
telephone, fax and computer lines. In two hours, the amateur radio
operators enabled doctors and nurses to communicate within the hospital
and rerouted telephones to another site.
In addition to emergency services, the group provides communications
support at community events such as the Montrose Christmas Parade and the
Days of Verdugo. They also conduct weekly training exercises via amateur
radio.
