Grass Roots Radio Solves Rural Community’s Disaster Communication Quandary

Grass Roots Radio Solves Rural NorCal Community’s Disaster Communication Quandary

Residents living in one rural Northern California community were tired of feeling helpless during recent wildfires and public safety power shutoffs. They didn’t have the ability to communicate with friends or loved ones because cell service, land lines and interest were all down. So, they took it upon themselves to solve the problem, at least for their own community. They gathered their neighbors, communications experts and first responders and came up with a plan. Their solution was GMRS: General Mobile Radio Service. See the Video Here

In a disaster the LMRFD will have no way to communicate. When our public safety repeaters and cell phones go down LMRFD's communications will be limited to a few miles line of sight and they will have no way to communicate to the outside world.
Without communications lives and property will be lost.

The LMRFD Will Have No Way to Communicate.....
No Way to communicate with fire trucks more than a few miles
No Way to communicate with outside agencies
No Way to gather damage and casualty information
No Way to disseminate that information with outside agencies
No Way to ask for help when were left with only two firefighters

Chief Bonnee has told me that in a major disaster Mohave County Emergency Services and Kingman Fire will come to our rescue. 

Mohave County Emergency Services has told me in a major event not to expect help from them because of limited resources. 

The Dispatch Agreement LMRFD has with Kingman Fire says they will provide dispatch services and record all radio traffic, that's it. 

MARK MY WORDS
In a disaster the LMRFD will have no way to communicate. Why?Because we hired a chief with THREE years experience as a firefighter. There's a lot more to two-way radio communications than push the button. 

Just yesterday 02/27/2020 the chief responded on an ambulance on fire at milepost 15 on US93. When he arrived dispatch couldn't 
here his radio traffic because he was in one of many bad spots. Good thing he didn't have a firefighter down and need to call for help...

Chief doesn't understand the basics... When the chief got his new truck I told him he should replace his 1/4 wave antenna with a gain antenna to increase range. He ignored me, that simple change would have doubled his radios power. 

A transmitting antenna with a gain of 3 dB means that the power received far from the antenna will be 3 dB higher (twice as much) than what would be received from a lossless isotropic antenna with the same input power.

Without ham radio the LMRFD is screwed. 
Even Cal Fire with their 2 billion dollar (2016) budget relies on ham radio for California's emergency communications. 

OES Auxiliary Communications Service