Amateur Radio Club
We provided training on Family Radio Service (FRS)
handheld radios at the regular club meeting in April for
members of the community who were interested in expanding
their skills as Emergency Preparedness Program (EPP)
volunteers and/or joining the club.
Pete Hersey provided an hour of hands-on instruction on
the club's FRS radio of choice: the Motorola Model 350. The
350 comes in a variety of colors and options but each of them
functions in much the same way providing about a watt of
output power that's generally good for covering most, if not all
of the community, depending on your location.
Training covered the basics, including how to power on,
change channels and set privacy codes as well as some more
advanced techniques like tuning in NOAA weather channels
and setting call alerts. Pete also covered some of the concepts
of using your radio in a controlled network or "net."
We sponsor a weekly net on Wednesdays at 5:45 pm where
members and interested residents may check in on FRS channel
2 and share information on communications or EPP subjects all
while learning about protocols necessary for keeping order on a
single radio channel shared by as many as 20 communicators.
Participating in the net is fun and provides experience that
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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | JUNE 2013 | clubs & Groups
could be valuable in an emergency situation.
We encourage you to get active in the club and the EPP and
get yourself a pair of FRS radios! You can find the Model 350
on Amazon.com or locally at Home Depot or even Costco for
around $60 — pretty inexpensive for the security (and fun)
that they provide.
Join us at June 28, at 10 am, in the Lodge Game Room and
we'll show you how to use a "350!" Visit our website – W6FSB.
com. ~ Jim Peterson
Pete Hersey (KJ6NRR) leads a training session on emergency
communications using FRS radios. Seated left to right, Ron
Goodrich (K6IRG) , Bill Taylor, Dena Cortez, and Susan Wilson.
