Using 2-Way
Radio
for Neighborhood Safety
Coordinating a
Neighborhood's
Response to Public Safety with the
Neighborhood Radio Network (TM)
Homes Associations and neighborhood
groups have an excellent opportunity. The one half watt radios of the Family
Radio Service and the more powerful GMRS portables can all be used to
coordinate a neighborhood's response to crime and other public safety
situations or organized neighborhood events.
Many neighborhood groups already carry
and use cellular telephones on directed neighborhood patrols. FRS or GMRS
cannot and should not replace the cellular telephone, but FRS can supplement
your communication. Not everyone can afford cellular service but almost
everyone can drop fifty bucks for a simple single channel two way radio.
Improving neighborhood communication can improve your quality of life by
improving public awareness and improving readiness and organization.
Two way radio makes sense depending on
the application. Let's look at a few ideas.
Disaster
Preparedness: Neighborhood Alerts
The Family Radio Service hand held
radios can become an integral part of your neighborhood's response to an
emergency. Families can keep an FRS radio plugged in or at the ready so that in
an emergency they can use it to hear broadcasts from neighbors involved in
relief activities. Many Neighborhood Watch groups form cells of homes that are
part of a larger area in a neighborhood. These cells are all represented by a
neighborhood disaster volunteer or cell captain. After an earthquake it might
be a lot easier to call your neighbors on an FRS radio than it would be to run
through down wires, flames, or broken glass to check on their welfare.
Neighbors and emergency services will eventually have to make personal contact
of course, but immediately after the disaster getting tuned in to the neighbors
across the street could be a good idea.
Crime
Prevention
FRS radios could be monitored
continuously making neighborhood broadcasts or alerts for neighborhoods
possible. Let's examine a few scenarios. Using an authentication method of some
type - secret word or number or voice recognition, neighbors can alert one
another to speeding vehicles, suspicious persons, unwanted door to door sales
people, loud disturbances, unauthorized parking or trespassing. Suddenly the
neighborhood has a two way radio consciousness it never had before. A
consciousness that can help fight crime and neighborhood nuisances.
Setting up the
Network
Set up your network at two or more
levels, using radio channels and tone coded squelch as the common tool for
breaking up the neighborhood into broadcast groups. The smallest neighborhood
may need only two groups. Group one are your neighborhood leaders and decision
makers. These people select a radio channel different from the rest of the
neighborhood and agree on methods of authentication and code words for various
situations. The second level of the network is the radio channel and squelch
tone code assigned to everyone in the neighborhood. Command and control is done
through the leaders on their channel and distributed to everyone else.
In the beginning involve those
neighbors that attend your meetings. People that are serious about crime
prevention will take the use of the radios seriously. Involve everyone in
periodic tests or drills so they can see and hear the radios actually working.
When you have an enthusiastic group involve everyone else through your
newsletter.
You might have already wondered about
this as you started the article. Do bad guys carry radios? Well they could but
not likely. If your group regularly changes squelch tones and works on
authentication schemes no one is going to succeed at breaking into your network
as it were.
So join with us and build your own
Neighborhood Radio Network(TM). Share with us your experiences in
getting set up and actually operating the net to make your neighborhood safe.
There will be more about the NRN in coming issues.
Doug Smith
KAF9830
WA6GON
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