Maryland Fire Fighters Rescue “HAMS” Field Day

Local 2000 fire fighter Kenny Coyle (right) with Howard County RACES officer Dave Prestel

July 15, 2008 – When disaster strikes and traditional lines of communication go down, amateur radio operators -- or HAMS -- have the backs of Howard County, MD Local 2000 fire fighters. Fire fighters were able to return the favor recently by donating needed diesel fuel when the fuel supplier for the HAMS’ annual field day went out of business.

“The two organizations hosting the event were going to have to pay for the fuel out of their treasuries,” says Richard Ruehl, president of Local 2000. “The annual dues for these organizations are not very much. With the rising cost of fuel, we wanted to help. So, we agreed to pick up the fuel tab.”

Annually, the American Radio Relay League encourages amateur radio operators to hold “field day” events. The goal is to set up a post-disaster scenario to evaluate how far and how well they can communicate.

In Maryland, Columbia Amateur Radio Association (CARA) and the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC) host one of the nation’s largest events. This year, on June 28-29, the organizations set up tents and broadcast from a field continuously for 24 hours, making contacts locally and worldwide.

Nearly 25 members of CARA also participate in the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) program administered by Howard County Fire and Rescue, Office of Emergency Management. RACES is designed to back-up fire station alerting, as well as provide a link in the event of a 9-1-1 phone outage.

“If disaster strikes and our communication lines go down, the amateur radio operators are pre-deployed to our fire stations,” says Local 2000 member Kenny Coyle, who works in the Office of Emergency Management. “If our dispatch or 9-1-1 isn’t operational, they are the ones who make sure we hear those important emergency calls. They have our backs when we need them, so donating the fuel money for their event was the least we could do.”