HAM Radio Communications & Emergency Preparedness

PHOTO: Desert Rat Lifetime Club Member, and Spring Valley Lake resident Father James Steele, right, chats with Hal Kempfer, an expert on Terrorism during the Palm Springs Hamfest event.

The Palm Springs Hamfest was held on February 4th at the Palm Springs Air Museum. In its second year, the event was presented by the Desert Rats amateur radio club. With over 1000 attendees from far and wide, it has become one of the largest hamfests in Southern California.

Attendance at the Hamfest included entry to the air museum with its restored, preserved and operating legendary American fighters, bombers and trainers. It contains one of the world’s largest collections of flying WWII airplanes.

Speakers included: Hal Kempfer, Gordon West, Dick Norton, and Kate Hutton.

Hal Kempfer spoke on the importance of the general public in reporting suspicious behavior in preventing Terrorism. Kempfer is CEO & Founder of KIPP (Knowledge and Intelligence Program Professionals), offering classes, workshops, seminars and Homeland Security exercises.

Gordon West presented information on how emergencies cab affect communications. West publishes instructional books, & has trained students and instructors throughout the country over the last 40 years.

Dick Norton spoke on the ARRL and current happenings in amateur radio. Norton is currently the Southwest Division Director of ARRL (American Radio Relay League).

Dr. Kate Hutton presented factual information on how a major earthquake would unfold in Southern California. She is a retired Caltech seismologist who spent 37 years tracking earthquakes and interfacing with the news media. She became ham operator in 2009 and uses her experience to convince residents to get prepared for the next disaster.

In addition to the informative speakers, the event included a vendor “swap meet,” information booths, entertainment, and time to explore the museum’s planes, exhibits and historical videos.

Find out more about becoming a “Ham” radio operator by visiting one of several clubs in the local are:

• Victor Valley Club meets 2nd Tue/month @ 7 pm, Sitting Bull Academy, 19445 Sitting Bull Road, AV 92307. www.vvarc.org
• Spring Valley Lake Club meets 1st Thurs/month @ 7 pm, SVL Community Bldg., Rolling Ridge Dr., VV 92395. www.SVLARC.org

For more information about the Palm Springs Air Museum, visit: www.palmsprings.com/airmuseum

A special invitation was given to MOSAIC / Fr. James to attend both Terrorism Recognition for Early Warning (TREW) & Terrorism Recognition, Awareness, & Prevention Partnership (TRAPP) Training Presentations by Instructor Marine Col. Hal Kempfer, Terrorism Expert. Hal is CEO and Founder  Knowledge & Intelligence Program Professionals (KIPP) and advices the U.S. Department Of Homeland Security on immediate Terrorist Threats and Strategies to combat such threats, as well as a featured expert on KABC-7 TV News and 89.3 FM National Public Radio on military affairs, intelligence & terrorism www.KIPP-Intelligence.com.

MOSAIC / Fr. James attended the TREW & TRAPP Trainings, March 6th, 2017, on a special invitation by Hal Hempfer held at the LAX Administration Building in the Auditorium.

TREW was a 90+ minute presentation on terrorism pre-incident indicators and suspicious activity recognition with the goal to prevent deadly attacks. This comes from a stated mandate after the horrific attack in San Bernardino in December 2015, where too many of “the terrorists” co-workers, neighbors and others saw or heard things they knew were out of place and implicitly suspicious, but for a variety of reasons didn’t appreciate or understand what they were dealing with or why and how they should report it. NOTE: TREW is not a component of InfraGard’s ILO (Infrastructure Liaison Officer) certification program, but is a separate stand-alone seminar aimed at training everyone who could potentially see and hear suspicious activity and alert the proper authorities. The particular objectives of said course are:

1. How to identify suspicious activity and pre-incident indicators of terrorism;
2. How and why to report suspicious activity;
3. TREW is about enabling everyone to help prevent terrorism; and
4. Make the entire workforce part of the “Terrorism Prevention Team.”

TRAPP was a 4 hour presentation designed to familiarize attendees / students regarding terrorism-related indicators, and how to effectively report this information. The objectives of this said course are:

1. To educate attendees / students in recognizing indicators of terrorism;
2. To identify domestic and international terrorist groups, ideologies, and methods of executing terrorist acts; and
3. How to report suspicious activity.