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Southern California Monitoring Association
[Updated 2018 November 13 @ 1024 UTC] Amateur Radio volunteers have been active or are standing by on several fronts as wildfires continue to rage in large sections of California. Camp Fire In Butte County, in Northern California, the Camp Fire, the state’s deadliest wildfire, triggered a call up of ARES members for communication support….
With President Trump heading to the Los Angeles area Tuesday for a high-dollar campaign fundraiser on his first White House visit to California, law enforcement will be ratcheting up in preparation for potential protests. While details of the Trump visit remain clouded in secrecy, he is scheduled to attend an evening fundraiser for his reelection…
A team from NBC News’ digital news unit Left Field was in Hawaii to visit with some radio amateurs to produce a report when the false nuclear missile alert happened on January 13. Left Field’s report points out how much we rely on cell phones and 21st-century technology…and what we would do if these…
At least eight false Mayday calls since the start of the year have the U.S. Coast Guard’s Los Angeles/Long Beach command center concerned, and the public’s help was sought Thursday to find the man who’s been making them. The false distress calls date back to Jan. 3, according to the Coast Guard, which reports that…
In the minutes after the false missile EAS alert was delivered in Hawaii, there was a great deal of general confusion — a lack of communication, general perplexity about the next steps, and phone call after phone call that didn’t get through to the right recipients. But one group, in particular, said it knew exactly…
By Rich Carlson, N9JIG So what does Signal Strength really mean? Most scanners these days have a Signal Strength indicator, usually with up to 4 or 5 bars to indicate a strong signal. How are these calibrated? Is 4 bars twice as good as 2? Do I need a full-scale signal to hear my local…
Drill rigs and concrete trucks crawl up mountaintops at the break of dawn, forming silhouettes along LA basin and northern desert hillsides. Delivery trucks loaded with tower steel and heavy earth moving machinery mark the start of 2018 in grandiose fashion for the Land Mobile Radio (LMR) construction throughout LA County. “Construction activities over the last month have picked-up…
The following is a statement from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department: Effective February 1, 2018, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department radios will switch from analog to an encrypted digital communication system. The improved communication platform is vital to the safety of our first responders. It will enhance coverage throughout the county, improve the…
Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) firefighter flight paramedic Greg Sanderson has retired after 32 years of service, with 18 years assigned to the Air Operations Section. During Sanderson’s time at Air Operations he interrogated many skills, equipment, and rescue techniques from his time as a U.S. Navy CSAR Corpsman. When asked what some of his…
