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46 | LIFE IN SOLERA | OCTOBER 2023 | Making Calls Aer An Earthquake The month of October is recognized as being "Earthquake Awareness Month." Residents are encouraged to prepare for the aftermath of a quake. Clearly, preparing after the quake hits is not a good strategy. The best time to prepare for an earthquake is before it strikes. Now, would be a great time to prepare and plan for communication outages. Cellular engineers have admitted that if a large and disastrous earthquake hit the region, most of the cellular towers will be misaligned and hinder microwave connections with servers. This would mean the cellular towers would become inoperable and your devices will not work. The engineers added that repairing failed systems could take several days or even weeks. Most of us could not live without a functional cellphone for five minutes; could you imagine being without a cellphone for a day? Family Communications Plan When a disaster like an earthquake strikes, your family might not be together, and communication channels might be down. It is important to plan how you will contact one another and discuss how you will communicate in different disaster situations. When creating a family communications plan, keep the following tips in mind • Agree on a family meeting place, both in your neighborhood and out of town, in case you cannot get in touch or are unable to go home. • Program "I.C.E" (in case of emergency) numbers into your phone and family members' phones. If someone is injured, emergency personnel can use these numbers to notify friends and family. • Prepare a family contact sheet with the names, addresses and phone numbers of important contacts. Include an out-of-town contact for family members to get in touch with when they are unable to contact other family members. Often, during disasters, it's easier to make long-distance calls than local calls. • Subscribe to alert services. Many communities have systems that will send out text messages and emails with the latest information during a disaster. The Solera Radio Club (https://www.kc6src.net) is the auxilary communications component of the Solera CERT Cadre (https://www. solera-cert.info). We offer a disaster alert service to the residents; as well as an alternative means of communications when cellular service is inoperable. The club meets the second, third and fourth Friday of each month in the Arts & Crafts Room of the Clubhouse at 9 to 11 am. TRIVIA ANSWER FOR SEPTEMBER: Question: Operating your radio "barefoot" means to operate it how? Answer: In Ham-speak, the word "barefoot" has nothing to do with going shoeless in the shack. It means transmitting without the aid of an amplifier. TRIVIA QUESTION THIS MONTH (Answered next month) What does Ham mean, as in "Ham radio?" is article was brought to you by Ray C. Gayton-Jacob (N6KZM) ray.n6kzm@gmail.com. e Solera Radio Club is part of the West Riverside County - Amateur Radio Emergency Radio Service (ARES) Division/Banning Pass District. RADIO CLUB Did you know that Bocce Ball is the oldest game known to mankind? As early as 5000 B.C., the Egyptians played a form of Bocce with polished rocks. You can play right here in Solera every Sunday evening starting at 6 pm. If you would like to join our fun-loving group, call Dorothy Hoffecker at (951) 217-5357. SUNDAY EVENING BOCCE