As a follow up to our RADIO DRILL on July 26, we are offering a guided workshop hosted by Pierre Landry via Zoom on Tuesday, August 4th from 7-8:30 pm. We will be covering:
As part of our preparation for our RADIO DRILL on July 26, we are offering a guided workshop hosted by Pierre Landry via Zoom on Wednesday, July 8 from 7-8:30 pm. We will be covering:
COVID-19 RULES: MASKS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING REQUIRED
“Radio Days” refers to an informal, socially distanced walkie-talkie clinic from 10am – 2pm hosted in the driveway/garage at 909 Oneonta Drive. In preparation for the MWJN Radio Drill on 7/26, our radio team will spend their weekends between now and then helping you get your FRS radios working. Maybe the batteries are dead and corroded. Maybe you never learned how to turn it on or change the channel. Maybe you’re experienced with walkie-talkies at work but unfamiliar with how we use them in this neighborhood.
We’ll have some handouts and practice scripts and information about our Radio Drill on 7/26
Masks are not optional for Radio Days and will be provided if you don’t wear your own. There will be a sign up sheet for half hour time slots to minimize waiting times.
Don’t forget to bring your radios! If you don’t have one, we can provide one.
JULY 2020 SPECIAL – Donations of $30 will receive a pair of fully programmed FRS radios with charger. $15 will get 1 radio.
Ben during the 2019 Drill – right before the sprinklers went off behind him
Every year we try to have a drill to practice our Map Your Neighborhood skills and sometimes to coordinate with our local Community Emergency Response Teams. The pandemic has made such team efforts unlikely and even unsafe. This year we will focus on Communications through a Drill using walkie talkies from our homes.
We won’t be going to our gathering sites but we can form “pretend teams” on the radio. There won’t be any incident cards to find, we’ll just discuss various possibilities over the radios.
Everyone stays at their home location, uses their radio
Block TEAMS check in with their BASE Operator (there are 22 of these)
BASE Operators check in with their HUB Operators (there are 5 of these)
HUB Operators check in with STAGING Operator (Only 1 of these)
Practice passing information through the network
Virtual Debriefing on Zoom or on FRS Channel 5
In a real disaster, being able to communicate with your neighbors is extremely important. We’ve been trained to do this by all going to the same place to coordinate a response plan. If something major were to happen during at stay at home pandemic, we would need another way to account for everyone. We have our contact lists, but if power were to go out and cell towers overloaded, our battery operated walkie-talkies would be a much better bet than phones or email/text
We will have several opportunities (see News and Events) to practice and get our radios in working order before the drill. If you don’t know where yours are, now’s a good time to look. Please plan to participate on Sunday, July 26 from 2-4 pm. What else did you think you were going to do that day??
