Laarc Information

The Los Alamos Amateur Radio Club, since its founding in 1948, has been involved in many emergency communications operations. In the 1950s, Los Alamos was considered a prime target for a nuclear attack. Plans were made to evacuate the town to communities in southern Colorado. We participated in evacuation drills and set up HF radio communications among several locations. After international tensions eased we joined several other volunteer groups to form a search and rescue organization. This continues to be our primary public service activity. We are not strangers to forest fires. When the La Mesa fire threatened Los Alamos in 1977 we were very active in assisting the U.S. Forest Service with communications. 1 Over the years we have developed a very well equipped club station, W5PDO. We have excellent HF facilities as well as numerous VHF and UHF radios. Four telephone lines, a FAX machine, and several computers add to our capability. An emergency electrical generator can power the station. Field Day has always been our favorite club activity. This experience was very useful during the Cerro Grande Fire. We were first activated on Sunday evening, May 7. W5PDO was opened and we were to be in service for two weeks, including many days and nights of continuous operation. Our first duties were to staff three Red Cross shelters and the Los Alamos County Emergency Operations Center (EOC.) About 500 residences in Los Alamos were evacuated that evening. Many persons occupied shelters in nearby White Rock; others went to locations in the Rio Grande valley. Hundreds of messages were passed among the shelters regarding supplies, staffing, and location of shelter residents. Operations continued this way on Monday, May 8.