Winter Scout Camp 2002

by James Alderman, KF5WT

Severe Weather Event Generates Excitement

During the holiday period between Christmas and New Years, I set up an HF station at the Clements Boy Scout Ranch near Athens. A couple of hundred adult leaders, plus 1380 Scouts, were in attendance at Winter Camp. The purpose of the station was to make the camp's presence known on the air, and to drum up interest in Amateur Radio.

I was using a tri-band vertical and an Alinco DX-70 radio with a Dell laptop computer for operating PSK-31 and decoding SSTV. The operating position was in a classroom in the rear section of the main dining hall. The dining hall is actually a large covered pavilion which is open on the sides. The kitchen and classroom area is located on the far south end of this building.

During the first two days of camp the weather was sunny and about 70 degrees. Scouts had little interest in being inside (where we were) and impromptu games of yard football were going on outside, up on the hill just outside my window.

During the four-day camp a total of 28 contacts were made and 11 different Scouts participated third-party. Some of those Scouts participated in multiple contacts. We even talked with a 15-year-old Scout in Mass. But the biggest event of the camp was something that wasn't part of the official schedule--severe weather!

On the afternoon of Monday, December 30, 2002, it was about 4 PM. It had been drizzling off and on all day. At about this time, there was a brief break in the weather. Model rocket launches and black powder classes resumed. On the hillside out my window, homebrew sled races were gearing up to begin.

Will, Andrew, Mark and Cody from our local Troop 353 (plus two other Scouts from Dallas) had finished their other activities and were participating in QSO with a station in California.

Suddenly, all of the Scouts who had gathered on the hill for the sled races ran off the hill and into the dining hall. I quickly wound up the QSO and walked a few yards into the main dining hall to see what was going on. Word had just spread that severe weather was on the way. Camp leaders had implemented their emergency plan which involves hustling Scouts into buildings in case of severe weather.

At this point, the skies began to look ominous, and lightning was getting closer and the thunder louder. I hurried to get my station disconnected. But my greatest concern was for the safety of the campers and I knew I needed to get some more specific weather information. Our local Scouts went ahead and joined the crowd of Scouts in the dining hall.

First of all, I located the camp leaders who were in the dining hall with about 600 campers. (By this time, it had started to rain really hard.) I asked about how they were getting their weather information. Camp leaders in the headquarters building had been monitoring the local Sheriff's repeater with a scanner, and were also listening to TV news reports from Dallas.

From there, the information was being relayed by handheld VHF "construction site" radios to camp leaders who were spread out among the various buildings. When the word of impending severe weather came in, leaders drove throughout the camp ordering Scouts into the nearest shelter.

I advised the leaders that our network of SKYWARN spotters was activated and our guys were busy acting as the "eyes and ears of the National Weather Service." It quickly became apparent that the information available from our local SKYWARN net was more timely and accurate than anything else. They asked if I would relay timely information to them from the net at regular intervals.

This was no simple task since I had no portable unit in the building. I ended up having to run back and forth between my truck and the dining hall to carry reports. One leader suggested that I pull my truck half way on the sidewalk so that at least the driver's door would be under the overhang.

This sounded like a good idea, but proved problematic. Although technically the driver's door was under the building overhang, a torrent of water was pouring off the building and splashing down on my truck roof. Of course, every time I opened the truck door, water came pouring in.

As the SKYWARN net was being conducted, I had to come an go several times. The net participants were good to let me interrupt and get timely reports. On one occasion the need for information was so great that I even had my 2-meter mobile mic in one hand, and a VHF camp radio in the other hand so I could relay information to camp officials the moment I got it.

Although reports of baseball size hail were coming in via the Dallas TV stations--and local SKYWARN spotters were reporting severe weather of their own--we only got heavy rain and moderate lightning at the camp. The worst of it seemed to have missed us.

At one point there was a lot of lightning in the area and some of the high-school-age kitchen staffers began to smell smoke in the kitchen. Had lightning struck the power lines? Was there a real fire in the building? Would we have to evacuate the dining hall and head for the woods? Turns out, the smell of smoke was from a plug that had shorted out. No lightning strike. No fire.

At one point, a camp official who was driving through camp was asked by some worried troop leaders whether some of their missing Scouts might be at the dining hall. These Scouts had been out on a hike when the storm hit. Concern was that they might still be out in the woods somewhere.

This information was relayed to the dining hall vial VHF radio. Several leaders there went throughout the crowd asking about the missing Scouts. They were found to be safe in the dining hall.

While the storm was baring down on us, quite a few Scouts reported that they had to go to the bathroom. The dining hall has exactly one bathroom. Those who simply had to pee were sent to the northern-most edge of the dining hall and ordered to pee over the side. Only those who had to do "number two" were allowed to use the restroom. There were very few of them, if any.

The entire event was over in about an hour. Scouts in the dining hall were quite calm the whole time. Will, Andrew, Mark, and Cody stayed near the entry to the dining hall where the leaders were. They took advantage of this location to listen and get prompt reports. I mingled among the crowd a few times and did not sense any fear, even among the younger Scouts. They seemed to have every confidence that as long as they did what they were told, they would be safe.

After about 45 minutes to an hour, the severe weather subsided. This storm had occurred during the time when Scouts should have been eating supper. Each troop has to cook its own food. Scouts were really hungry, and more weather was on the way in about an hour and a half.

Based primarily on reports from our SKWYARN net, camp officials decided to let the Scouts go back to their campsites and quickly get supper going. When the next cell arrived in about 90 minutes--if it were severe--camp leaders would drive through the campsites honking truck horns warning campers to take shelter.

With that, the crowd was dismissed and the emergency was over. At about this time, the net was securing. But since more weather was on the way, somebody really needed to stay at the camp in case the net was called back up. I had to work the following day, so I needed to head on back to Dallas.

I asked camp leaders if they wanted one or our guys to come out and remain on the air until the rough weather was over. That was EXACTLY what they wanted! Mike (WA5MAC) brought out a portable rig, power supply, and mag mount mobile antenna.

The mag mount antenna seemed to not be happy sitting on the table. The SWR was over 2 to 1! We searched the dining hall for something metal to set the antenna on for a ground plane. One scout suggested an aluminum cookie sheet from the kitchen. But of course, the magnet would not stick to that. We finally used the detachable metal side panel from a computer. That did the trick.

I plan to have lunch this week with Jordan Ray, the camp coordinator. At that time I'll find out more about how their emergency plans work, and how we can assist them in the future during severe weather or other emergencies.

What Went Right

• Information from our spotters was relayed to camp leaders in a timely manner, allowing them to make crucial decisions affecting the lives and safety of more than 1500 individuals--most of them just boys.
• Leaders did the best they could under the circumstances by getting everybody into buildings. SOME shelter is certainly better than NO shelter.
• Quite a few Scouts and their leaders were carrying UHF FRS radios. These were handy when people got separated in the rush to take shelter. Certainly, SOME communication is better than NO communication.

How We Can Improve

• I had no 2-meter capability except in my truck. A handheld would not hit the repeater from the dining hall. A mobile with the ability to operate from battery power (in case of power outage) and a portable antenna were needed.
• The 14 FRS channels which many Scouts were using for their own logistical communications were quite busy and downright chaotic at times, rendering communications almost useless. Many young Scouts seem to have no radio knowledge. I recommend the Radio Merit Badge class.
• Information had to be relayed first to the dining hall, not headquarters because that's where I was. Headquarters had no ability to even monitor the SKYWARN net directly.
• We need liaison stations who can monitor nets in Anderson County, as well as the Cedar Creek net. One station can do this since we would need to monitor only nets that are operating where our weather is coming FROM. With a liaison station, we could know what to expect.
• Net control's radar, which comes over the internet via dial-up phone line, crashed at least once that I know of. I have no good answer as to how we can remedy this. Perhaps the cable company could be persuaded to provide a cable internet port at the fire station so radar can be monitored with a laptop when net control is operating from there. But then again, perhaps the cable company is too stingy for that.
• Our members who are able to should make provisions to go portable at a moment's notice. What if there is a mass casualty incident, or even a telephone outage as happened a few weeks back due to a software bug? We would be needed at various places such as the hospital, police station, or perhaps the National Guard Armory if a Red Cross shelter is set up. Let's work on those GO-kits.
• Perhaps we need to buy a station for the Scout camp. This could serve as an alternate command post during SKWYARN nets, and would at least provide camp officials with the ability to monitor the net. In the best case, Scout officials in Dallas could provide us an itinerary of when camps are being conducted, and one of us could go there and set up if severe weather threatens during a camp.