Local ham radio operators band together to lend emergency services

BANGOR – The Pine State Amateur Radio Club is sponsoring Amateur Radio Emergency Services, an effort coordinated through the American Radio Relay League and its field volunteers.

The importance of amateur radio operators became clear when communications were lost during the Sept. 11 tragedy in New York City, explained Al Cormier, county emergency coordinator for the service.

“Volunteer hams from all over the country, more than 500 in all, coordinated the needs of firemen, policemen, hospitals, Red Cross and Salvation Army. In 12-hour shifts, around the clock, hams used their equipment to keep everyone in touch with one another,” he said. “Individual hams had to be self-sufficient and provide all the mobile radios, power packs, antennas, dust masks and even respirators.”

Hams provided similar services in Washington and Pennsylvania that day, and during floods, earthquakes, ice storms and other disasters throughout the world, Cormier said. They also provide services locally when communications towers are damaged, for example.

Cormier is putting together a team to work with the Red Cross, local hospitals, fire and police units.

The clubhouse in Bomarc Industrial Park, off Burleigh Road, is being prepared as an emergency communications facility, he said, and it already has the capability of reaching stations all over the nation, and in many parts of the world.

For information on ARES, contact Al Cormier, K1ONY, at 941-6474.