A fireproof home

Yesterday on fire patrol we stopped by the side of the road and talked to a construction worker; they were rebuilding a home that was burned down two years ago in the Santiago Fire of '07.

What's interesting is that all the walls are made of concrete and structural steel, from 10 to 16 inches thick! And there's a fire-lookout room on top with windows all around! The concrete-made stones used for decorative siding have heat-resistant properties too.

Now that sounds more fire-proof!

At Red Cross EOC for SONGS Graded Exercise

This morning I helped out with the Orange County Red Cross for the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) graded exercise.

This was a drill simulating an emergency event, training how the Red Cross would respond.

I sat at the radio desk monitoring traffic and keeping a log.

Red Flag Warning prompts OCRACES Fire Patrols

A local Red Flag Warning starts tomorrow thru Thursday, and the OCRACES group will activate and perform our fire patrols.

We'll focus on Patrol Areas 2 & 3, Santiago Cyn areas and the Ortega Hwy. At a previous training, OCFA advised there was active arsonist activity in those areas.

Beginner's HF Rig Installed

I finished installing and tuning ny first HF rig, after many trips to the hardware and radio stores for parts and advice.

I found that the dipole antenna works best when strung out straight - 'flat-top' it is called (see roof picture); the automatic tuner seems pretty picky but has tight tollerances.

I've heard contacts across the nation and made my first brief contact yesterday from Missouri

Hopefully the rig will give me much good use.

Bendix King radio for command post response

I just received a Bendix King VHF radio (from Ebay) that I got programmed with the fire frequencies OC uses. It is quite well-built and feels like a brick - long and heavy!

I plan to use it when responding to fire command posts for comms support work with RACES.


And what timing - just last night a small fire started:

From an email -
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"A new fire started last night in the Orange County area.  This fire is known as the Ortega Incident and is based on the Ortega 7 miles west of El Cariso Village.  At this time the fire has burned 25 acres and has 0% containment.  The Orange County EOC is not activated at this time.  There have been no requests for Communications Division support at this time."

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Website launched! ... barely

I finally published an initial website, www.ocradios.com - just a cover page.

I really didn't like the rudimentary template that was offered (yuck), but I have a big learning curve to get over to design it so its both functional and attractive.