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Here is a great project our ham radio club is doing!
I am the Public Information Officer for the Calhoun County Amateur Radio Association (CCARA) in Anniston, AL and on Saturday April 7, 2012 we will be giving away, for FREE, a limited number of the First Alert brand Model WX-150 Public Alert Radio with S.A.M.E. technology and will come preprogrammed for Calhoun County.
No one in Calhoun County, Alabama or any other area that was affected by the tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011 can ever forget this tragic event. And with the push for people to not to solely rely on outdoor weather sirens to receive severe weather notifications the Calhoun County Amateur Radio Assocaiton from Anniston, AL in cooperation with the American Red Cross: Calhoun/Cleburne County Chapter will be giving away FREE weather radios to the residents of Calhoun County.
We have a few club members that work with the local Red Cross Chapter and when I first had an idea about our club members programming weather radios for those who wanted us to I found out that the Red Cross had several cases of weather radios that were already programmed for our county.
The radios are the same ones that the Calhoun Co. EMA sent out to county residents a few years ago as the incineration of deadly chemical munitions started to come to a close. Before that every resident and business had a TARS radio (Tone Alert Radio) that was used in case of a CSEPP event. These radios would also rebroadcast NOAA information.
The location we're going to at is the Mamre Baptist Church, was literally at ground zero where the tornadoes hit. As a matter of fact the old church building was destroyed and there was on fatality as this is where some had taken shelter. The new building had been heavily damaged. The gentleman I made contact with at the church is a Deacon and is the Father of the 33 year-old man who was killed. He was more than pleased and eager to help our club with this event.
As amateur radio operators we are often involved in responding to disasters such as the tornadoes in April of last year for communications purposes in the event of local public safety radio communications failure due to storm damage. The CCARA has members who are also members of the Calhoun County ARES/RACES Group and they worked almost 300 volunteer hours both during and after those April tornadoes that affected Calhoun County. We are committed to continue to serve the residents of Calhoun County during emergencies and other public service events. We are pleased to have the opportunity to provide those residents of Calhoun County that may still be in need of a weather radio.
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04-03-2012, 08:37 AM
