On Saturday February 2nd, the San Bernardino Salvation Army Citadel Corps held its 22nd Annual Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (S.A.T.E.R.N.) seminar. Salvation Army Corps Major Timothy Carr hosted the event, and S.A.T.E.R.N. Coordinator Paul Hager Organized the seminar. Major Timothy welcomed the guest and gave a brief history of the Salvation Army and how in 1886 the Salvation Army first established the San Bernardino Citadel Corps! S.A.T.E.R.N. is a group of volunteer amateur radio operators that provide emergency communications between Salvation Army locations and pass important messages onto the general public.
Several speakers addressed the attendees on various topics. Mario Janesin from the Community Access Center in Riverside; spoke on the importance of “Disaster Preparedness for the Elderly and Disabled”. Nicholas Minh Nguyen, the newly appointed Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services & Service Extension Director for the California South Division, address the group of emergency ham radio operators on the current status of the Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Services and deployment procedures.
This year’s seminar included an antenna construction workshop that enabled participants to construct their own handmade “2-meter Ground Plain Antenna” or a “Tape Measure Directional Antenna”. Dennis Deaton from Apple Valley and Tracy Lenocker talked on the topic of “Time and the Frequency Standard”, which may not mean much to the general public; but certain radio bandwidths may soon be “shut down”. These bandwidths include the frequencies that Ham Radio Operators use to calibrate their equipment. Also affecting the general public, these bandwidths include the frequencies that most consumer “atomic” clocks use to keep accurate time.
For about the 20th year in a row, the Boy Scout Troop 428 from Perris California prepared the lunch which fed all the attendees.
This yearly S.A.T.E.R.N. seminar is free and open to the general public. The importance of having a trained dedicated group of emergency ham radio operators is that during a major disaster such as an earthquake, normal modes of communications (cell phones, land lines telephones, Police and Fire radio equipment) may be disrupted due to a variety of circumstances. Trained ham radio operators can help bridge the information gap during these emergency situations.
There are several other emergency radio groups operating in the local San Bernardino Area including the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), American Radio Relay League (ARRL), and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). Several Disaster organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) use their internal ham radio operators as emergency back-up communications sources.
All ham radio operators must be licensed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Each licensed operator must pass an approved FCC written test.