| Publisher: Information Station Specialists |
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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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| Battle Creek Michigan Emergency Management | January 2006 |
| Acquires Wireless Audio Linked ALERT AM Radio Stations | |
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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 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 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 much of Interstate 94, making WAL an ideal communication tool should an incident close the freeway arise. |
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| EventCAST Alleviates Hurricane Katrina Recovery Communication Needs | |
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Before obtaining its ALERT AM stations, Battle Creek
Emergency Services took advantage of the availability of
a
temporary EventCAST station from Information Station
Specialists 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 Information Station Specialists, who supplied the interim station. The EventCAST 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 EventCAST 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 Information Station Specialists 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." |
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| The Battle Creek Emergency Advisory Radio System Today and in the Future | |
| The
FEMA-supported hurricane-recovery activity utilizing
EventCAST was a prelude to Battle Creek's more-permanent
solution of three 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 Information Station Specialists' Workstation Audio Control to allow drag-and-drop-message control of their three-station system. |
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PO Box 51, Zeeland, Michigan, USA, 49464-0051, Phone 616.772.2300, Fax 616.772.2966, Email the Editor
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