Sidebar to "Moving Into the 21st Century"

FEMA USAR TASK FORCE COMMUNICATIONS

By Nancy J. Rigg

Communications falls under the Technical Component of the FEMA USAR Task Force. When the Menlo Park (CA) Fire District was recruiting communications specialists for CA-TF3, they turned to the local amateur radio community. "At the time, I was involved with amateur radio emergency communications," explained CA-TF3 Communications Officer George Berry. "Menlo Park Fire said, `Volunteer with us and see the world', so I signed up along with a number of other people."

The primary responsibility in urban search and rescue communications is intra-task force communications, Berry explained. He noted that the communications function is not a dispatch function, but is more logistical. "We develop a plan, issue and receive radios, manage frequency coordination to some extent, and do whatever maintenance we can," Berry said. "These days we have to be fairly adept at using a variety of technologies, from portable radios to repeater systems to satellite telephone systems, cellular phones, telephone switching systems, and so forth."

Berry has served with CA-TF3 on three assignments: Hurricane Iniki, Oklahoma City, and the Northridge earthquake. "In Oklahoma City," Berry recounted, "one of the best things we did was to forward-deploy our communications specialists. Instead of having all of our communications people at the base camp, we were on-scene at the building. When problems came up, batteries went dead, radios broke, or we had some other problem, we had people right there to fix or replace the equipment. This cut down on the amount of time necessary to resolve communications problems."

One area of concern to Berry is having all of the communications specialists trained in Rescue Systems One. "The main purpose is self-protection," Berry explained, "however, one of the things we've learned is that if you're involved in the operation, you need to understand what the other components are doing. For example, knowing intimately what the search and rescue teams are doing lets us do our job of supporting their operation a little better."

	FEMA USAR TASK FORCE COMMUNICATIONS By Nancy J. Rigg


	Communications falls under the Technical Component of the FEMA USAR Task Force. When the Menlo Park (CA) Fire District was recruiting communications specialists for CA-TF3, they turned to the local amateur radio community. "At the time, I was involved with amateur radio emergency communications," explained CA-TF3 Communications Officer George Berry. "Menlo Park Fire said, `Volunteer with us and see the world', so I signed up along with a number of other people." The primary responsibility in urban search and rescue communications is intra-task force communications, Berry explained. He noted that the communications function is not a dispatch function, but is more logistical. "We develop a plan, issue and receive radios, manage frequency coordination to some extent, and do whatever maintenance we can," Berry said. "These days we have to be fairly adept at using a variety of technologies, from portable radios to repeater systems to satellite telephone systems, cellular phones, telephone switching systems, and so forth." Berry has served with CA-TF3 on three assignments: Hurricane Iniki, Oklahoma City, and the Northridge earthquake. "In Oklahoma City," Berry recounted, "one of the best things we did was to forward-deploy our communications specialists. Instead of having all of our communications people at the base camp, we were on-scene at the building. When problems came up, batteries went dead, radios broke, or we had some other problem, we had people right there to fix or replace the equipment. This cut down on the amount of time necessary to resolve communications problems." One area of concern to Berry is having all of the communications specialists trained in Rescue Systems One. "The main purpose is self-protection," Berry explained, "however, one of the things we've learned is that if you're involved in the operation, you need to understand what the other components are doing. For example, knowing intimately what the search and rescue teams are doing lets us do our job of supporting their operation a little better."