SATERN Seminar Prepares the Community

Salvation Army of San Bernardino held its 19th Annual Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) Seminar late last month. SATERN, the official emergency communications service, is a group of amateur radio operators that offer emergency communications support in various emergency situations. According to SATERN San Bernardino Team Leader Paul Bennet, the SATERN Seminar is an annual event that works as a preparation workshop teaching SATERN volunteers and operators, as well as other attendees, how to help the community communicate and reach others during a disaster. Each member of SATERN is a licensed ham operator. “Ham [amateur] radios can be instrumental in communicating during disasters,” Bennet said, while explaining that during a disaster various power sources and technologies used to communicate could potentially be knocked out. Amateur radio is different, however, in that the sound waves of ham radios are never damaged. The seminar presented several opportunities for learning, aside from the informative guest speakers; it also offered basic disaster preparation and radio antenna matching. The event's keynote speaker was Caltech seismologist Kate Hutton, who spoke specifically of preparation techniques during an earthquake. “That part was great,” Bennet shared about Hutton’s speech. During her speech, she shared a “hypothetical video” that showed, hypothetically, what could happen if the San Andreas Fault broke in the San Diego area through an aerial view. “That was probably the most memorable part of her speech. Everything she shared with us was great,” Bennet added. Interim Section Leader at SATERN, Paul Hager, Dennis Deaton of the SATERN Committee, Administrator of the Salvation Army Corps Major Dan Henderson and retired Salvation Army officer and current SATERN Member Major Russell Fritz spoke at the event, as well. “Hager brought up an important and interesting fact during his speech,” Bennet said. “There are major infrastructure lines under the Cajon pass and that is where the San Andreas Fault is,” he said, explaining that presents an opportunity for serious disaster, and calls for intensive emergency preparedness. With about 60 attendees, the seminar also included a drawing in which two hand-held ham radios and a nostalgic, older ham radio model were given away. These valuable radios were donated from SATERN members. There was no cost of raffle tickets; all attendees were automatically put into the drawing. Bennet chuckled, “I was sitting next to one of the members that donated one and she said, ‘I’ll just put it back if they pick me to win.'” This year’s seminar was a great turnout and they hope to gather even more people next year, Bennet said.