SPARCS Ham Radio Emergency Communication

HURRICANE DOLLY EMCOMM: The Real Story

Rio Grande Valley
Hurricane Dolly After Action Report
From K5REW
Former DEC District 3 ARES
South Texas Section

August 5, 2008

Although a couple of active hams who are key stations in the local EmComm plan and the subsequent Dolly operations were severely affected by the Hurricane strike, no injuries or serious loss of property were reported at this point to our group.  Active in the Brownsville EOC at request of the EMC were K5VC and KF0MP who braved much more than the storm to maintain amateur communications at that location. KB5TMC bravely stood by at Cameron County EOC blocks away, and Harlingen EOC ham radio positions were operated by ham operators recently licensed from a group of Police Department communications dispatch employees.  WA9IES and XYL stood by at National Weather Service Brownsville on two meters and WB5GFU with KC5RFW and WA5ZIP provided the best Net Control Station talent available in the State or Nationally, by far.  This effort without any doubt continues to be the only significant ham radio effort that took place in the Rio Grande Valley especially in Cameron County which was the focus and location of Dolly’s landfall.

Dolly didn’t force any severe communications blackouts but there were situations where specific cell sites failed, public safety radio systems lost channels and telephone outages were reported in South Padre Island and Port Isabel. City and County EOC operations along the river were able to maintain their collective electronic communications means, and therefore our official mission “to provide communications when all else fails” was not required from hams in the area.  We dodged a huge bullet.

As in any emergency such as a hurricane our public safety and public works responders were overtaxed and overwhelmed. Ham radio operators were pressed into service to assist local shelters and fire stations, Salvation Army, Red Cross and the Baptist Men’s Kitchen feeding unit during the response and recovery phase of Dolly.  These agencies and others enjoyed tremendous support by STARS (South Texas Area Repeater Society) using the only wide area coverage repeater that remained operational due to it’s advanced emergency backup generator system with associated linked stations in the Rio Grande Valley.  The STARS network operates it’s cornerstone repeater on 146.70 MHz with Echolink and IRLP nodes with “autostart - drop load” or “ADL” emergency generator status.

We are making recommendation to our served agencies (CUSTOMERS) that permanent EOC locations be selected and allowed to have ham radio equipment including outside antennas installed as soon as possible. No EOC in Cameron County except the Harlingen Police Department had any ham radio or antenna equipment installed and available. Hams had to bring their own antennas along with their own radios and power supplies in order to operate. This made it very difficult to setup services such as WinLink and Airmail as well as other digital modes, not to mention plain voice communication. 

Our very dedicated ham operators listed below by call sign were very active in providing emergency communications before, during and after Hurricane Dolly with operations support. Ham elements of the Salvation Army and Red Cross including Baptist Men’s Kitchen enjoyed the use of the wide area repeater network through 146.700 repeater.  During the relentless and slow arrival of the storm and it’s subsequent stall just offshore of Brownsville and South Padre Island communication was established via WinLink with the State EOC (SOC), MARS and SHARES HF stations and which continued during the recovery phase of the operations.

Although the Ham Operators mentioned below were active through STARS EmComm Group there appeared to be no other organized ham radio response or recovery efforts outside of MARS and DHS SHARES (who also are closely coordinated with STARS) in the Rio Grande Valley.  Many thanks go to the following hams who made it all happen for the EOC and local government response plan, including Salvation Army, Red Cross and Baptist Men’s Kitchen:

KF0MP, K5VC, KB5TMC, W5CZI, WA9IES, K5RAV, KD5ZZE, N5SLI, WB5GFU, KC5RFW, WA5ZIP, N5PVL, N5RGV, KC5MOL, K5REW, WA4BEW, AB0EG, and many others who call the Rio Grande Valley their home.

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