The Territory of\nthe U.S. Virgin Islands is comprised of three islands: St. Thomas, St. John and\nSt. Croix. St. Thomas (population 40,000)\nis familiar to most as the busiest Caribbean cruise-ship destination, with some\n1,500,000 annual passengers. St. John\n(population 1,500), just east of St. Thomas, is nearly as large, and only accessible\nby ferry. Two-thirds of St. John is a\nnational park, and hence lacks significant development. St. Croix (population 40,000), is the largest\nof the three islands and lies 35 miles south of St. Thomas. There is a robust amateur community, with\nrepeaters, nets, and clubs on each island. The USVI was incorporated into the ARRL Field\nOrganization as the ARRL Virgin Islands Section in 1982, and its current\nSection Manager, Fred Kleber, K9VV\/NP2X, has served since 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If this sounds like paradise, it is, but sometimes not so much. With its closet mutual aid responders some\n1,000 miles away, amateur radio has historically played a vital role. As category\nfive hurricanes Irma and Maria pummeled the Caribbean, amateur radio provided a\ncritical communications link for the Territory. Territory ARES\u00ae\nhams supported local and Federal partners, including communication with US Navy\naircraft and vessels. Following the devastation\nfrom hurricane Irma, first responders were in search-and-rescue mode. The priorities were rescue, medical\nevacuation, hospital recovery, damage assessment, port repairs, and shelters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On\nthe heels of Irma, hurricane Maria’s outer eye-wall crossed St.\nCroix at category 5 intensity. (185\nMPH sustained and 200+ MPH gusts!) Maria\ncaused catastrophic damage to St. Croix. \nThe majority of buildings were damaged or destroyed. Some 95% of the utility poles in St. Croix\nhad fallen, and the majority of cell telephone sites were out.\n St. John was especially hard hit with 8 of 9\ncell sites inoperable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The St. Croix\nAmateur Radio Club (SCARC) and USVI ARES\u00ae supported the Virgin Islands\nTerritorial Emergency Management Agency (VITEMA) acting under ESF-2 (Communications)\nfrom September 5 through October 2, 2017. From the St. Croix EOC, SCARC acted as net\ncontrol relying heavily on the shared 60-meter band to conduct nets involving\nTerritorial, Federal, and non-governmental agencies. Traffic was passed\nbetween the EOC, responding agencies, Puerto Rico, the Hurricane Watch Net (14.325\nMHz), and the Friendly Net (7.188 MHz). VI ARES\u00ae coordinated many medical\nevacuations, supply flights, and provided other logistical communications\nsupport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although\nnot ultimately required, Kleber planned to deploy wireless mesh network nodes\nto provide data connectivity between key USVI government locations. “We\nhave used every trick in our comms bag of tricks to make stuff work,” he\nsaid. A total of 2,232 volunteer\nman-hours were provided by the team of 13 dedicated VI amateurs. Commercial power\nrestoration exceeded 100 days in some locations. Understandably, amateur radio filled a huge\ntelecommunications gap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
More Than Just Hurricane\nResponse<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amateur radio operators serve other public safety functions across\nthe Islands. On October 3, 2018, St. John Rescue members Larry Pruss, NP2LP, and\nJennifer Pruss, NP2QT, were attending the monthly meeting of the volunteer\norganization. The meeting was\ninterrupted by a request for assistance from the VI Police Department. The police had received a report of an empty\nsmall vessel washed up on the rocks in Reef Bay. Larry\nPruss, NP2LP, and Jennifer Pruss, NP2QT, immediately headed to the search area,\nwhile other St. John Rescue members commenced the maritime portion of the\nsearch. The severely injured and dehydrated\nboater was found huddled amidst the treacherous rocks, and his life was saved. For Larry and Jennifer Pruss, it was a family\naffair: daughter Tia, NP2RE, had made the initial call for assistance using her\nnewly acquired license and traffic handling skills. Following the successful rescue of the\nstranded boater, both daughters, Tia, NP2RE, and Skylar, NP2QS, radioed the\nreports that the mariner had been located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following\nHurricanes Irma and Maria,\na devastated St. John community awoke to the realization of the critical value\nof the amateur service. The Pruss family has been the spark plug of a new\ngeneration of hams on St. John. Through the assistance of Gilly Grimes, NP2OW,\nthe support of St John Rescue, and two technician class sessions, the region\nnow has 23 new hams. This is quite an\nimpressive accomplishment in just six months! \nThese new licensees are members of the community, St. John Rescue, the\nNational Park Service, the Fire Service, and include four youngsters under 13\nyears old. Five have completed the\nrequirements to become ARES\u00ae members. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Additionally,\none of the Pruss\u2019 initial examinees, Dr. Henry Smith, NP2QP, is nearly finished\nteaching a new crop of a dozen future technician licensees on St. Thomas. Local old timers are assisting new licensees\nwith antenna building classes, public service opportunities, and well attended field\nday exercises. The bottom line is a cadre of new and upgraded hams, resulting\nin a larger, trained, and more robust, ham population to support future\ndisasters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hurricanes Aftermath: Rebuild, Enhance Amateur\nInfrastructure<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n After the 2017 storms\nrocked the Territory, media interest waned, and the mainland US turned its eyes\nto western wildfires. The USVI was left\nto pick up the pieces, but not alone. Kleber\nrecounted new relief \u201cfriends\u201d gained in helping the USVI rebuild: FEMA\nemployees, US Army Corps of Engineers, National Guard, US Army, private\nconsultants, linemen, National Park Service, etc. \u201cSome of their responders were hams who showed\nup on the local repeater and attended club meetings,\u201d Kleber said, \u201cThe\nTerritory is forever indebted to these individuals and their organizations,\u201d he\nadded. \u201cThey have made a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for amateur\nservice hardware, the Territory ham repeater network suffered extensive damage.\n The sole on-air repeater (NP2VI)\nprovided hand-held coverage to the helicopter landing zone and other critical\nlocations. Kleber reported \u201cThrough one\nof our new relief friends, who happened to be a ham, we were introduced to a philanthropic\nopportunity to purchase new repeaters, controllers, link radios, PV panels and\nbatteries.\u201d Kleber is happy to report the USVI inter-island\nrepeater system is completely connected with resilient UHF links. Additional linked repeaters are currently being\ninstalled on all islands. When commercial\npower is lacking, PV panels and batteries power the system. Echolink\/IRLP capability will have soon been added,\nas well as linking to Puerto Rico. \nLastly, there are plans to link to a 5-island system with coverage\nreaching south to Dominica. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hams and Territorial Entities Continue to Work Together<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It wasn\u2019t long ago that St John personnel got\nword that the Mamey Peak radio tower \u2014 home to mission\ncritical repeater antennas serving the Rescue service and the Virgin Islands\nNational Park Service was being shut down. Rescue members and park employees had used the tower repeater antennas to\nassist police, fire, and emergency medical services. With the help of the National Park\nSuperintendent, a new physical location for a tower was found atop Lizard Hill\nand technical challenges were overcome. Gilly\nGrimes, NP2OW, oversaw the successful project, which was an excellent example\nof government agencies and organized volunteer radio amateurs can work together.\n Logistical communications for triathlons,\nwalk-a-thons, and water based events, continue to provide venues for new hams\nto practice their communications and technical skills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n ARRL Field Day is Big for Territory\u2019s Amateur\nCommunity and Government Agencies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The 2018 ARRL Field\nDay provided a great opportunity for new and veteran hams to get out and exercise\nthe new amateur systems, operators\u2019 experience, training, and the resulting new\nresponse capabilities. Kleber acknowledged\na great promotional effort spearheaded by USVI SEC, Daryl Jaschen, NP2QD, resulted\nin the attendance of many staff and officials from local partner agencies, such\nas VITEMA, the VI National Guard, St. Croix Rescue, and the American Red Cross.\n The media was also represented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Going Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For their efforts in post storm\nresponse, Kleber and fellow USVI amateurs were awarded the ARRL 2018\nHumanitarian Award. Additionally Kleber\nwas lauded for his individual efforts with the YASME Excellence Award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n VI hams frequently attend ICS\nclasses and training exercises. These interactions form a foundational bond and\nfuture interactions with partner agency personnel. With the influx of new hams, grants, and the\nold timer expertise, the Territory amateurs are well positioned to support\nfuture responses. If you would like to follow future developments, please visit\nwww.vihamradio.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure\n1<\/strong>\n\u2013 FD \u201cClass photo\u201d at Cramer\u2019s Park \u2013 the\nSt. Croix VITEMA mobile EOC. (photo courtesy K9VV\/NP2X)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure 2<\/strong> — \u201cGraduation photo\u201d at St. John Rescue test session\n– (photo courtesy K9VV\/NP2X)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Public Service in Paradise: The US Virgin Islands The Territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands is comprised of three islands: St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix. St. Thomas (population 40,000) is familiar to most as the busiest Caribbean cruise-ship destination, with some 1,500,000 annual passengers. St. John (population 1,500), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-front-page-news","category-news-releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":476,"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.vihamradio.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/IMG_1438-1024x768.jpg\")
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