City of Snoqualmie Employees Get Licensed En Masse

kd7oac writes "By Pat Anderson, Snoqualmie City Attorney.


On February 28, 2001, the Nisqually Earthquake rocked the small East King County town of Snoqualmie, Washington, as it did most other Washington cities. Cell phones were rendered useless. More surprising, so were the expensive 800 Mhz radios the public safety department had beem counting on.



What did work during the "Big One"? No surprise, amateur radio was virtually the only communications medium unaffected by the disaster.


Mayor Fuzzy Fletcher "suggested" (and we all pay REAL CLOSE ATTENTION when Hizzoner makes suggestions) that everyone who might need to be "in the loop" in any future emergency obtain a ham license. The City sponsored a series of three day classes with the much appreciated assistance of local hams as instructors, and most City employees in departments as diverse as Legal (yours truly), Finance and Administration, and Planning, as well as Public Safety and Public Works, are newly licensed no-code Techs, as well as a number of elected officials.


The City has a grant application in to FEMA to supply all critical City workers a handheld transceiver for use during future emergencies.


Me? I have wanted to be a ham since I was a kid anyway, so I went to Ebay and bought myself a couple of htx-202s just for the heck of it. I am not waiting for another earthquake or other disaster to get on the air!"