Apr 2005
HAZMAT ATV
April 12, 2005 13:47
NEWS RELEASE: City of Huntington Beach RACES
For immediate release
For more information, contact
Wayne Yoshida, Huntington Beach RACES Public Information Officer
Phone: 714-846-1230, or 310-252-7726
E-mail: kh6wz@arrl.net
Huntington Beach Radio Communications Volunteers Demonstrate ‘Visual Reconnaissance’ Capability for City Fire Department Hazardous Materials Unit
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — April 8, 2005 — On Tuesday, April 5, at 10:30 AM, Huntington Beach Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) communications volunteers demonstrated an amateur television (ATV) system newly-installed in the City Fire Department Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Unit. The ATV system enables live, real-time video images for “visual reconnaissance” to supplement radio (voice) communications and descriptions of accident scenes.
RACES communications volunteers were stationed in the HAZMAT vehicle and in the HBPD helicopter, to operate the ATV equipment. HAZMAT personnel interfaced with the HBPD helicopter crew via a radio link, to direct and request images from the airborne ATV camera.
Huntington Beach City Fire Battalion Chief Bill Reardon said, “Our RACES team is really showing the Fire Department how valuable they are to the City with this new and exciting technology.”
The demonstration was a success, and everything worked as planned. Special thanks go to the RACES leaders on this project: Steven Graboff, MD, Larry Henderson and Peter Shores. Additional participants in the demonstration included Bill Pratts, Jeff Turlis and George Turlis.
In addition to the ATV equipment, the RACES volunteers used a ham radio repeater system to ensure reliable communications. A repeater is an automatic radio relay device, usually located on hilltops or tall communications towers, and is used to boost the effectiveness of radio signals from small hand-held and mobile portable radios. The HB RACES repeater system was designed and built and is maintained by HB RACES members at no cost to the City.
City of Huntington Beach Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
The Huntington Beach Fire Department Emergency Services Office administers the RACES team. RACES (pronounced “RAY-sees&rdquo
is not a club, it is a volunteer group within a government agency. There are 18 city RACES groups within Orange County, operated under their respective city and county emergency management departments. Using the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), the California Office of Emergency Service (OES) adds additional support during wide-scale disasters such as earthquakes and forest fires.
To learn more about HB RACES, go to http://www.hbraces.org
About Amateur Radio
Ham radio is an interesting public service as well as an educational technical hobby. Whether it’s contacting someone across the street or across the globe, or even outer space, ham radio operators are ready to supply reliable communications when normal lines fail. There are more than 670,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the United States and more than 2.5 million worldwide. Ham operators range from ordinary citizens to astronauts and athletes to film stars and musicians. For example, during off duty hours, the first manned Amateur Radio operations in space were conducted by US astronaut Owen Garriott aboard STS-9/Spacelab-1 in 1983. Musicians Joe Walsh and Patty Loveless, baseball star Joe Rudi, and others are licensed ham radio operators. More ham radio information is available via the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) http://www.arrl.org
For immediate release
For more information, contact
Wayne Yoshida, Huntington Beach RACES Public Information Officer
Phone: 714-846-1230, or 310-252-7726
E-mail: kh6wz@arrl.net
Huntington Beach Radio Communications Volunteers Demonstrate ‘Visual Reconnaissance’ Capability for City Fire Department Hazardous Materials Unit
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — April 8, 2005 — On Tuesday, April 5, at 10:30 AM, Huntington Beach Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) communications volunteers demonstrated an amateur television (ATV) system newly-installed in the City Fire Department Hazardous Materials (HAZMAT) Unit. The ATV system enables live, real-time video images for “visual reconnaissance” to supplement radio (voice) communications and descriptions of accident scenes.
RACES communications volunteers were stationed in the HAZMAT vehicle and in the HBPD helicopter, to operate the ATV equipment. HAZMAT personnel interfaced with the HBPD helicopter crew via a radio link, to direct and request images from the airborne ATV camera.
Huntington Beach City Fire Battalion Chief Bill Reardon said, “Our RACES team is really showing the Fire Department how valuable they are to the City with this new and exciting technology.”
The demonstration was a success, and everything worked as planned. Special thanks go to the RACES leaders on this project: Steven Graboff, MD, Larry Henderson and Peter Shores. Additional participants in the demonstration included Bill Pratts, Jeff Turlis and George Turlis.
In addition to the ATV equipment, the RACES volunteers used a ham radio repeater system to ensure reliable communications. A repeater is an automatic radio relay device, usually located on hilltops or tall communications towers, and is used to boost the effectiveness of radio signals from small hand-held and mobile portable radios. The HB RACES repeater system was designed and built and is maintained by HB RACES members at no cost to the City.
City of Huntington Beach Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES)
The Huntington Beach Fire Department Emergency Services Office administers the RACES team. RACES (pronounced “RAY-sees&rdquo
is not a club, it is a volunteer group within a government agency. There are 18 city RACES groups within Orange County, operated under their respective city and county emergency management departments. Using the Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), the California Office of Emergency Service (OES) adds additional support during wide-scale disasters such as earthquakes and forest fires.To learn more about HB RACES, go to http://www.hbraces.org
About Amateur Radio
Ham radio is an interesting public service as well as an educational technical hobby. Whether it’s contacting someone across the street or across the globe, or even outer space, ham radio operators are ready to supply reliable communications when normal lines fail. There are more than 670,000 licensed Amateur Radio operators in the United States and more than 2.5 million worldwide. Ham operators range from ordinary citizens to astronauts and athletes to film stars and musicians. For example, during off duty hours, the first manned Amateur Radio operations in space were conducted by US astronaut Owen Garriott aboard STS-9/Spacelab-1 in 1983. Musicians Joe Walsh and Patty Loveless, baseball star Joe Rudi, and others are licensed ham radio operators. More ham radio information is available via the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) http://www.arrl.org