[MCARC] Covid-19 & AR

[Dave Crawford]

Ron Cowen and others,

The mayor of Blue Rapids has contacted me about amateur radio capabilities in regards to Covid-19 should the outbreak become disastrous on a local level.  Most of you would not know that our mayor is retired full Bird Colonel.  His concern is getting information in and out of the area.  Evidently there has been an increase in helicopter activity in the area and he has not been able to talk to anyone to find out why.  The area EM do not know anything about it and he tried calling both Fort Riley and the State EM and neither would answer the phone.

I told him that the emergency services in Marshall county have not seemed very receptive to any help from Amateur Radio but I would see if there are any NETS operating in regards to Covid-19.  He is also thinking in terms of an emergency response type of plan for the City of Blue Rapids in the event of a tornado, etc.  It is worth noting that there are only two licensed operators in Blue Rapids and I am the only one with HF capabilities.  We also do not have county wide coverage on the VHF or UHF bands.  We do (or at least did) have VHF capability in the MS county Emergency Response Trailer.

Additionaly, as many of you would know, I have not been very active on HF lately.

Dave Crawford
KØKSI