Mt Diablo Amateur Radio Club (MDARC)
Club Meeting
Open to All!
Join Us for Dinner and a Show!
Cash Sales Dinner available right outside the room.
Friday Evening, Oct. 14, 2022
7:00 PM
Salon E
Topic TBA
Alan Thompson W6WN
Neighborhood Radio Watch
Since its inception in 2019, the Neighborhood Radio Watch program has helped hundreds of citizens discover the magic and power of radio, not as some novelty from a bygone era but as an indispensable, life-saving tool in the event of emergencies or disasters. There are now over 500 Neighborhood Radio Watch users in El Dorado County alone, and similar Community Radio programs have formed in Sonoma, Butte, Amador, Nevada and Tuolumne counties.
Surprisingly, these programs have not only benefited non-Ham communities but have also benefited sponsoring Clubs. In this presentation we'll cover why these Community Radio programs started, and how they might actually help to ensure the growth of our Clubs and even shape the future of our Amateur Radio Service.
Alan Thompson, W6WN
Alan was first licensed at age 11, and is a satellite Internet Field Engineer. In 2018, he was part of a Disaster Recovery Team that helped restore cell-phone service in Paradise shortly after the Camp Fire cut emergency communications and killed 85 people. What Alan witnessed there turned him into an "Accidental Evangelist" for community fire and communications safety.
Alan is a member of his local El Dorado County and Sierra Foothills Amateur Radio Clubs, and serves as the Public Information Officer for CERA, The Community Emergency Radio Association, a newly-formed 501C3 non-profit. He has lived most of his life in Placerville where he and his wife, Debra, now share their home with two dogs and 12 cats.