Biography

The Cottonwood Heights Amateur Radio Club (CHARC) was organized in 2014 with the mission of providing Emergency Communications Services to the city of Cottonwood Heights, Utah. The group has close working relationships with the city and with the Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) to supply timely city infrastructure and residential status to emergency response officials when normal communications are not available. The relevant status is delivered in data file, audio, and video formats.

In order to provide an effective emergency response, the CHARC group has developed, and trains with, a set of operating procedures, which describe the equipment and processes employed when the group is activated. The procedures have been developed around two different emergency scenarios, one is a “Localized Event”, such as a flood or fire, which as the name implies is localized in scope. The other, requiring an entirely different type of response, is the “Major Event” affecting the entire city which could entail working in conjunction with the Red Cross and FEMA.

The city utilizes a sophisticated Geographical Information System (GIS), containing a data base of all buildings and residences, which is used to display the family status of each home in the event of a major disaster. This information is gathered by block captains who pass it to Emergency Communications Specialists, where it is entered into spreadsheets, converted to data files and sent by digital radio, either packet or Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio (D-STAR) data, to an Emergency Response Center (ERC) where it is ingested in the GIS system. At the ERC, the status of each home is displayed on a large screen for the Incident Command Team, which then makes informed decisions about deployment of first responders.

To send this data, CHARC employs a variety of amateur radio technologies to accomplish its mission, including VHF/UHF FM voice, packet data, D-STAR data augmented by Dan Smith’s DRATS software, TeamTalk4 running over BBHN Mesh, as well as streaming IP Video. D-STAR high-speed data on the 23 cm band has particularly proven useful in quickly moving larger data files, such as compressed still images of disaster sites. In addition to continually honing skills and processes, the club also evaluates new technologies such as portable solar panels, quadcopter streaming video, and low cost home built Raspberry Pi devices for possible use in our emergency communications tools arsenal.

Multiple training drills are held each year to exercise and improve operator skills of equipment and procedures. Drills include participation in a state-wide “Great Utah Shakeout and support of community events of parades and athletic competitions.

CHARC has 35 members dedicated to providing life-saving information should a significant event in our city prevent the operation of normal communications.

Note: Videos describing CHARC Participation in the Great Utah Shakeout can be viewed at:
http://youtu.be/rQfYEQZl8qo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWNzC1WANNA