Final details were completed on McMinnville Water and Light’s communication trailer in June, just in time for a test run at a ham radio operator field day event June 22.
Steve Wendell, MW&L civil engineering supervisor, has been working for months on outfitting a trailer with equipment that will enable MW&L to communicate in the event that a disaster damages or wipes out communication systems regionally or nationally. The most likely emergency scenario would be a major storm, earthquake, or even a terrorist attack. Any of those scenarios could take out cell towers or other forms of communication.
The communication trailer started in 2019 but progress slowed during and after COVID. Wendell stepped in recently to complete the trailer. Equipment that Wendell has installed in or on the trailer includes radios, laptops, tuners, maps and quick-start guides plus antennas, a weather station, television monitor, solar system and propane tanks.
“I wanted to set it up so that we can communicate locally – amongst ourselves – but also to the city and county and then statewide and then countrywide if we have to or even worldwide,” Wendell said. “All of which I’ve done some testing on and we can do, depending on the conditions and who’s out there at the time.”
If standard communication modes are knocked out, ham radios operators step in to share information about the nature and severity of an emergency and connect government and emergency managers to needed aid and resources. Wendell brought the trailer to the Yamhill County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (YCARES) Field Day event on June 22 in Yamhill, and the ham radio operators were eager to help test it out.
The trailer’s radios pick up traffic from emergency frequencies, so we can monitor and talk with them, Wendell said. We’ll be able to share information going on in McMinnville and let others know how we need help or how we can help. “Ham radio is something that is looked to for disaster help and relief,” Wendell said. “Ham radio operators typically will monitor those stations and provide information to key personnel.”
“It’s all set up for emergencies – it can be other types of emergencies too. This could be a portable office. This could be a way of communicating with our crews – a dispatch.”
The trailer also has electromagnetic pulse (EMP) bags that protect sensitive equipment such as hard drives, computers, cell phones, or radios by blocking electromagnetic pulse signals from solar flares or weaponized EMP attacks.