Bainbridge
Island, WA: Preparing for "But When" |
How will
this island’s 25,000 residents stay informed when a
major incident severs power and compromises
communications? |
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WA: Just a stone’s throw across the
water from Seattle, Bainbridge Islanders are fully cognizant that
when it all goes south someday, help may be a very long
time in coming. The community’s emergency preparedness webpage
advises, “…make sure you are ready to survive two weeks
or more without outside help.” |
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The Winslow Ferry is Bainbridge Island’s lone
lifeline to Seattle. The Agate Pass Bridge is the
island’s only other link to the mainland. |
A
single ferry route – the Winslow Ferry - and one
two-lane highway bridge tenuously link Bainbridge Island
to the mainland. It is just a matter of time before an
incident such as a storm or an earthquake/tsunami
isolate the Island's 25,000 residents and make an
orderly response - and especially an evacuation -
challenging.
The community originally considered obtaining a low
power FM station as a means of emergency communication.
But issues with partial coverage and inflexible
content rules rendered the plan impractical. In addition,
FM antennas, which must be positioned high above the
ground on towers, are especially vulnerable to high
winds and seismic events. |
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Volunteer on cleanup patrol after storm on
Bainbridge Island. |
It was
during that investigation that island leaders learned of
the ready availability of local AM channels for an
Information Radio service. AM’s relatively long
wavelengths made total island coverage possible and,
because AM antennas are mounted nearer to the ground,
their vulnerability profile is substantially minimized.
The City of Bainbridge Island petitioned the FCC for a
waiver of signal intensity and received its grant in
2017. The community anticipates commencing the
construction phase this spring.
In the words of Emergency Management Coordinator Anne
LeSage, “The AM radio will serve as a means to provide
effective emergency communication to residents and
visitors on the island. During an emergency, we will
broadcast evacuation orders, road closures, power outage
information and other critical updates.”
Watch future editions of The Source for details
on the Bainbridge Island
ALERT
AM project.
Subscribe
here. |
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"At our Biennial
Organizational Meeting on 1 January, the Borough Council
of North Plainfield [NJ] adopted a Radon Awareness
Resolution. As a community awareness project supported
in part by a grant from the
New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, our
town is distributing radon testing kits to its residents
free of charge; and our Information Radio Station is
carrying the message. They’re listening to us in their
vehicles and at home. Residents are responding to our
campaign to test for radon. We remind residents to 'tell
them you heard it here on 1630-AM Radio;' and the
feedback is positive." |
Rich
Phoenix
Clerk & Station Operator
North Plainfield Borough, NJ |
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Can you
hear me now? |
High water
convinces Texas safety officials of the need to flood community with
additional radio signal. |
LAGO
VISTA, TX: In a town whose name means “lake view”
in Spanish, some residents got more of a “lake view”
than they had bargained for in October. Some residents
of Lago Vista, Texas, a shoreline community 40
miles northwest of Austin, were given evacuation orders
due to rising water from intense rainfall. Flood
warnings were issued by the National Weather Service.
The Army Corps of Engineers stated that nearby Lake
Travis was “131% full” due to a release of water from
Buchanan Dam, upstream on the Lower Colorado River. (See
the full article by Luz Moreno-Lozano in
Statesman, Oct 17, 2018.) |
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Fran Lehmann manages Lago Vista's
AM 1670 Information Station. |
“As
the lake rose quickly to over 30 feet above flood stage,
the City’s Information Radio Station was able to direct
victims to aid and shelter,” recalls Fran Lehman.
“Further, there are only two ways into and out of our
town; so when those roads flood - as they both did -
Lago Vista effectively becomes an island!”
Lehmann operates the town’s Information Radio Station on
AM frequency 1670. Station programming kept residents
advised of aid shelters, evacuation details and the
status of local facilities and roadways. |
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Lake Travis at 30 Feet above Flood Stage |
In the
aftermath of the event, Lago Vista safety officials
are considering additional signal coverage for
the station and are investigating
the addition of a signal booster. A booster would allow
the City's antenna system to deliver additional
range and intensity. But because the station
is already achieving its maximum allowed signal levels
with only 40% of its transmitter capacity, a waiver of
the
FCC rules is required to go to 100% power.
Waivers of the standard signal limitation (2.0 mV/m at
1.5 km) have been granted to numerous communities
recently, including Aurora, Illinois; Avon Grove,
Pennsylvania and Mentor, Ohio. According to consultant
Information Station Specialists, the application is
straightforward. “The application merely requires a
showing that the station is utilized for public safety
and that the additional signal will not cause
interference to nearby broadcast stations,” states
company representative Bill Baker. Baker
tells The Source that even though the process
is rather simple, not all communities and agencies can
take advantage of it due to local frequency spacing.
Email Baker to learn whether a field-intensity
waiver can benefit your agency or community. |
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Shutdown Showdown
Produces FCC Slowdown |
WASHINGTON, DC:
Federal agencies, as a whole, are not known for speed
and efficiency; and the recent “partial government
shutdown” certainly did not help that perception. A
hearing had been scheduled for the House Energy and
Commerce Committee January 31st to take up the issue of
how the Federal Communications Commission’s off-line
status was affecting the country as a whole. |
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Federal
Communications Commission Building, Washington DC |
Committee Chairman
Frank Pallone spoke for many when he said, “When this
shutdown began, I never imagined that it would have
lasted this long.”
For licensed Information Radio Station operators, the
impact was invisible. If a licensee needed to do a
standard license renewal, he was able to do so through
the Universal Licensing System (ULS), which remained
open during the closure. If an operator was running on a
temporary license that expired during the closure, it
was automatically extended until the day after the
Commission reopened. And, new applicants were able to
file as usual.
The real impact of the shutdown has been on the granting
of applications. New filers and those whose applications
were “in the pipe” when the Commission closed shop in
December, now find themselves in a queue of
unpredictable length. But it is important to note that
the FCC will grant emergency temporary licenses [STAs]
for applications with critical needs where the
protection of life and property is at stake.
Jim Zoss, Interim Emergency Manager for the Nottawaseppi
Huron Band of Potawatomi (Tribe) in Michigan was waiting
for his station’s license grant, when the partial
shutdown kicked in. “Of course, if we have a serious
emergency and the Tribe really needs the service, that
[Emergency STA] would be the way we would go.”
To petition the FCC for an emergency temporary license,
you may call their operations center at 202.418.1122. |
FCC Determines that
the
Need to Post Has Passed |
WASHINGTON, DC:
A federal requirement going back to the days of the
"radio telegraph" is the posting of an operator license
- typically at the station’s
transmitter site. The authorities began requiring
it in 1912, even before there was
a Federal Communications Commission. |
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Guglielmo
Marconi, the Father of
Radio-Based Wireless Telegraphy, in 1901 |
Now, after more
than 100 years, the FCC has determined that license posting is
passé, due to the ubiquitous internet. Indeed, copies of
FCC licenses can be viewed day and night from the
convenience of one’s smartphone. So why fell more trees
to persist in a practice whose pertinence has passed?
The FCC proposed the regulatory realignment late last
year. At their monthly meeting on December 12th, with no
comments being received from the public, the motion
carried.
You still need to have a license to broadcast, of
course. It’s just that now the license only needs to be
“on-line” for your station to be “on-air.” |
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Information Radio Stations is a generic term
synonymous with Travelers Information Stations (TIS), Highway
Advisory Radio Stations (HAR) / Highway Information Systems &
Low Power Radio Stations (LPR). Operation of the stations is
governed by FCC Part 90.242 Rules. A FCC license is required.
Information Radio Stations may be fixed or portable.
Subcomponents may include transmitter, antenna and ground
system, digital voice player, wattmeter, cabinet with
conventional or Corbin locks, lightning arrestors for RF, power
and telephone lines, coaxial cable. Most stations employ black
maximized antennas to discourage ice accumulation and security
measures to prevent unauthorized program access. Options include
synchronization, battery backup, solar power, remote programming
by local, network or telco, multi-station audio distribution via
RF or LAN / WAN or wireless network. |