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El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club
As the most recent series of storms showed, power and communications infrastructure can be vulnerable, resulting in extended outages.
Many El Dorado County residents not only lost power during these storms but also vital phone and internet services failed and residents could not reach 911. In areas where heavy snow fell residents were cut off or trapped at home and did not know how or where to obtain vital help or supplies. Even the 24/7 emergency telephone outside the Georgetown Fire Department’s Volcanoville fire station went dead due to downed power and telephone lines.
Since 2019 the El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club has implemented neighborhood radio watch programs throughout El Dorado County. Neighborhood radio watch was developed in response to the growing concerns of wildfire destroying communications systems and placing lives at risk. Led by a team of local amateur “ham” radio operators, the neighborhood radio watch program enables residents to use powerful “non-ham” emergency radios in the event of wildfires, storms or power shutoffs that disable communications systems. Many county residents now keep these low-cost radios ready at home and in their cars so they can reach their family, friends and first responders when all else fails.
Amateur radio and neighborhood radio watch users became especially active during the Caldor Fire and most recently during the storms that blacked out Camino, Pollock Pines and the Georgetown Divide. To help restore emergency communications in the Georgetown area, 12 volunteers from the El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club and its neighborhood radio watches provided more than 112 hours of onsite radio support at the Georgetown IOOF building and the Quintette and Volcanoville fire stations.
During the extended power outage and road closures, these locations became important distribution points for donated firewood, propane, food and other vital winter supplies. The most frequent request for assistance was to get the power back on. Next came propane delivery. Next were requests for welfare checks on stranded friends and neighbors. The fourth most frequent request was for food or firewood.
Among other tasks, Volcanoville station volunteers helped an elderly man who was using only his stovetop for heat. They also brought supplies to an elderly woman who was ill, and then plowed her driveway so, if needed, an ambulance could reach her home. One woman received a frozen chicken and then returned later with bowls of hot soup for the volunteers. At one point the Quintette station volunteers took emergency kits of food, water, fireplace logs and emergency supplies door to door, looking for folks who might need them.
One major problem was that without cell or internet service, many folks did not know about support services at these locations. This, plus the ever-increasing dangers from wildfire and severe storms, only underscores the critical need for more resilient alternative communications systems like radio when disaster strikes. With that in mind, the El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club will dramatically increase its neighborhood radio watch coverage into the Georgetown/north county area this year.
About the El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club
The Neighborhood Radio Watch program helps residents throughout El Dorado County learn to use simple, inexpensive, “non-Ham” radios to help keep their family, friends and neighbors safer in the event of an emergency or power shutdown when telephone and Internet communications become unavailable. All radio equipment is provided at, or below, cost, and general support services and workshops are offered free of charge. For more information, contact club Public Information Officer Alan Thompson at Alan.W6WN@Gmail.com or visit EDCARC.net.
El Dorado County Amateur Radio Club volunteers: JR Harmon, KN6LBP, Pollock Pines; Jeff Jones, KE6AYK, Pollock Pines; Jeremy Dean, W6TKD, Placerville; Matt Silveira, KN6MXU, Placerville; JustinTabatchnick, KB2ZVD, Pollock Pines; Gary Boal, W6GLB, Camino; Roger Newman, W6WHU, El Dorado Hills; Mike Sumersille, N7MSS, Pollock Pines; Linn Small, KN6QWL, Placerville; Shannon Lile, K6TNY, Placerville; Irene Lile, WB6RAF, Placerville; Jay Harmor, KE6GLA, El Dorado Hills; Jeremiah Norrell, K6JRN, Georgetown
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