Disaster Communications Service Sends Data Without Internet
Members of the Los Angeles County Disaster Communications Service met at Temple Station to practice sending data without the use of the internet and without the use of any infrastructure.
Members of the City of Rosemead staff also participated in the demonstration and training on using open source software that allows error free communication of data without the need for internet infrastructure or network switching equipment.
Disaster Communication service volunteers from San Dimas, Temple City, Rosemead, and Pasadena gathered at Temple Station to practice and gain valuable experience.
Most used battery power for their computers and battery powered radios to send messages during the training. The messages consisted of message types used in the national Incident Command System to request support, report damage, and provide health and welfare traffic, again without the use of the internet or telephone.
The communications were accomplished via the use of the Amateur Radio Service and the Narrow Band Emergency Messaging Software (NBEMS) this software is capable of running on various computing platforms and operating systems making it easy to implement especially in a disaster Most of the Disaster communications Service volunteers were able to install and use the system in less than an hours time. But it is an important aspect of disaster preparedness to train in order to ensure a good result in real world applications.