Emergency management conducts radio drill in S.R.
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

SOUTH RIVER — The borough's Office of Emergency Management and the Raritan Bay Radio Amateurs spent the overnight hours last weekend contacting others through radio transmissions across the nation.

"We have participated for about 10 years," said Charles Benn, who has been South River's director of emergency management since 1982.

Along with the nearly 60 emergency management workers and volunteers from the borough, members of the Middlesex County Office of Emergency Management participated in the drill. The large group set up shop at Edward A. Grekoski Park on Whitehead Avenue with three trailers donated to South River by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

"They were giving the trailers away for free two years ago after they were used during Hurricane Katrina," Benn said.

Every year, the nonprofit National Association for Amateur Radio — American Radio Relay League (ARRL) holds this Field Day, which attracts radio buffs but also serves as an emergency preparedness exercise. The purpose of the drill is to test the nationwide radio operations system.

ARRL was founded in 1914 and is the primary source of information about what is going on in amateur, or "ham" radio. A person needs a Federal Communications Commission license to communicate with a ham radio.

Benn said a generator was used to power the three stations. One of the stations is set up to make contact solely through Morse code.

The group, which came by in shifts, started setting up the equipment at 2 p.m. on June 27 and started contacting people by 4 p.m. By 6:30 p.m., the group had already contacted several hundred people.

"We mostly contacted people in the United States so far; however, we just got in contact with someone on a boat in Stockholm, Sweden," he said.

The test ended by 2 p.m. on June 28.

"This is a great way to test our communication systems while having a lot of fun doing it," Benn said. The emergency management director added that the communication systems can directly contact the U.S. federal government and military agencies.

"We haven't had to reach that level [in real situations]; however, we hold practice exercises where we talk to the military back and forth," Benn said.

According to the ARRL, ham radio has consistently been the most reliable means of communication in emergencies when other systems failed or were overloaded.

Benn added that even when the Internet is down, an email can be sent through a radio line and locate where the Internet is up and running.

For more information visit www.arrl.org.