New York City ARECS

On a recent trip to New York, John, EI7IG, met with Charles J. Har­grove, N2NOV. New York City ARECS/RACES City­wide Radio Officer/Skywarn Co-ordi­na­tor, and his wife Karen, N2ZYF, to dis­cuss var­i­ous aspects of Emer­gency Communications.
Charles was involved in the imme­di­ate after­math of 9/11 where the Office of Emer­gency Man­age­ment request­ed that their organ­i­sa­tion pro­vid­ed com­mu­ni­ca­tions for the Red Cross.
The wide rang­ing dis­cus­sion cov­ered all aspects of emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions. Charles, gave great insight into how their Emcomm Group oper­ates from an organ­i­sa­tion­al, train­ing and oper­a­tional per­spec­tive. John, EI7IG relat­ed how AREN as devel­oped over recent years, and has engaged in demon­stra­tions, exer­cis­es, and indeed some joint events with oth­er organisations.
Dis­cus­sions includ­ed the APRS and voice repeater net­works, their use in AREN events, the recent dona­tion of the trail­er and the ongo­ing work to con­vert it for use as a Mobile Com­mand Post. It is planned to keep the com­mu­ni­ca­tions links open for fur­ther exchange of infor­ma­tion in rela­tion to Emer­gency Communications.
Inter­est­ing­ly Charles and his part­ner have roots in the Water­ford and New Ross area and were in Ire­land ear­li­er this year.