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Director Jim Zoss
of Emergency Services (above) records a
message at Fort Custer Airfield, while waiting with other public-safety officials
(below) for arrival of the next plane load of Hurricane Katrina
evacuees. An antenna system, located in Downtown Battle
Creek, ensures coverage throughout the area. |
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Wireless Audio Links (WAL) are now available
for the ALERT AM® Emergency Advisory Radio system. Battle Creek,
Michigan, was the test site and the first US community
to have the capability.
WAL distributes audio to multiple synchronized ALERT AM
satellite locations. The advantage: they do not need expensive
telephone/cellphone links (subject to overload and severing
during emergencies) to distribute audio. Moreover, the WAL
system is totally owned and operated by emergency agencies
themselves, such that during emergencies no issues with
a third-party providers arise. The linking system is also fully
supported by backup power.
The City of Battle Creek located their synchronized antennas at
their EOC building downtown, at Firestation 6 (near Interstate
Highway 94) and at the US Customs Building (5 miles northwest of
the downtown area). This arrangement allows them good signal
coverage over the river valley in which the city is situated as
well as over the higher ground the freeway covers. The three
locations enable listening to 1610-kHz-broadcasts over an
18-mile stretch of Interstate 94, making WAL an ideal
communication tool should an incident close the freeway arise.
Radio Express
alleviates Hurricane Katrina recovery communication needs.
Before obtaining its ALERT AM stations, Battle Creek Emergency Services took advantage of the
availability of a temporary Radio Express system from ISS to help
with Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.
"We set the system up in a hurry, so it would be operational the
weekend evacuees began to arrive," said Bill Baker of ISS, who
supplied the interim station. The Radio Express antenna was
installed atop the city's Emergency Operations Center, downtown,
to ensure adequate coverage.
Dictated from the field by Emergency Services director Jim Zoss,
the initial Hurricane Katrina recovery broadcast began airing
September 9, 2006. It was structured to help evacuees coming into the
area in their own vehicles and to help local residents who need to
know the location of and where they can support recovery efforts.
With the touch of a button, director Zoss can easily update the
6-minute Radio Express hurricane-recovery message.
As it happens, the City already had the necessary FCC operating
license, because they were in the process of purchasing a series of
ISS emergency advisory radio stations. "Even so," said Baker,
"special temporary licenses are usually pretty quickly obtained
from the FCC. We often use them until permanent licenses come
through, if stations need to get up and running right away."
The Battle Creek Emergency Advisory Radio
System Today and in the Future
The FEMA-supported hurricane-recovery activity
utilizing Radio Express was a
prelude to Battle Creek's more-permanent solution of three
RealTIME Synchronized ALERT AM
Stations for ongoing community service and emergency
announcements. "We are even doing live storm-spotter
announcements with our new system," explains emergency director Jim Zoss. "Funding
came from a Homeland Security grant. We kicked off the new program with a press conference. And
signs are strategically located throughout the city to alert
motorists to tune in on a continuing basis," Zoss promises.
Battle Creek soon plans to install ISS' Workstation Audio Control to
allow drag-and-drop-message control of their three-station
system. |
