From left, David Butler, East Palestine Amateur Radio Club (EPARC) president, Randy Dunlap and Ron Caratelli work from inside the club’s new ECOMM trailer during Radio Day Saturday at East Palestine City Park. The trailer is equipped with radios and equipment and can be set up onsite at disasters to handle emergency communications. (Photo by Stephanie Elverd)

EAST PALESTINE — The East Palestine Amateur Radio Club (EPARC) used National Radio Day to introduce the public to its recently completed ECOMM (emergency communications) trailer — a game changer in emergency preparedness and response — at East Palestine City Park June 28.

The trailer which can be used as a base of communication operations at emergencies and disasters was donated by Norfolk Southern. The trailer was then renovated and outfitted with donations from various businesses in the village and surrounding communities.

According to EPARC president David Butler, the donations accounted for most of the renovations. All told, the club itself spent just north of $300 on items not donated.

“I really can’t thank the public enough for the donations we received,” Butler said. “When we needed something we asked for it and someone stepped up. Someone came through. Really, this was a team effort.”

An ECOMM trailer is a specialized trailer equipped with communication and operational tools for managing major incidents and designed for rapid deployment. A trailer can serve as a mobile command center, a space to coordinate response efforts, access vital information and more importantly decipher information coming in and get accurate information back out.

And it could have been used during the 2023 train derailment when communications were replaced by commotion. Radios from different responding emergency departments do not work in unison and there is not one designated frequency different departments use when responding to the same emergency. On the night of the derailment, emergency crews could not communicate with crews on the other side of the tracks that were blocked by a chemical inferno and a jumble of burning rail cars.

Butler said amateur radio operators have the knowledge and the equipment necessary to prevent the kind of miscommunication crisis that unfolded on Feb. 3, 2023.

“We would have been able to hear all the emergency radios that night and relay what was happening to the incident command and relay information to all the departments,” Butler said. “Communication is what we do. That’s what we train for, but we didn’t get the call. We had the ability to do it then but now we have the trailer and the equipment is all here, all onboard, and now we can be on site of an emergency in minutes, set-up and ready to go.”

Don Kemp, a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trainer the Columbiana EMA and member of Lisbon Area Amateur Radio Association said that when disasters strike, infracture like telephone lines and cell phone towers are vulnerable. Radio is often a lifeline and has been since World War II and its golden age. He said radio communications were utilized locally during the tornado outbreak of 1985 when a Niles was hit by an F-5 twister.

“Amateur radio is used during hurricanes and other disasters like the outbreak when communication infrastructure gets knocked out,” he explained. “Emergency broadcasting is vital. We are a communication service. In World II, amateur operators intercepted messages and sent messages. That same technology is what we use today with advancement in that technology, of course.”

Kemp, like Butler and EPARC vice president Dave Kibler, has been involved in amateur radio for most of his life while their respective clubs have been around for decades. The EPARC is one year shy of eight decades.

“We’ve been around for almost 80 years. This year is our 79th,” Kibler said. “And we’ve come along way. We now have the ability to test on our own for FCC licenses. Before you had to go to an FCC office in Pittsburgh or Cleveland to take the test. We are one of the few clubs who can give it.”

The EPARC was founded in 1946 by veterans returning from World War II and its members have met monthly ever since.

Currently, EPARC is the most active club in Columbiana County which countywide has 400 amateur radio operators, a number much higher than the national average. The EPARC said its club can support and furnish emergency communications during severe weather and other events when the normal communication lines are down. The club participates in the Nuclear Drill from the Shippingport Nuclear Plant and provides emergency communication by radio and computer to EMA in Lisbon during the drill.

The ECOMM trailer has only elevated the club’s already-robust emergency response capabilities. The trailer is completely self-contained and is powered by batteries, generators and solar panels. It can be deployed at any time at any location and in any situation. The EPARC said it can coordinate communications from the trailer via amateur radio UHF/VHF and HF frequencies. The trailer is also equipped to communicate with CBs, GMRs and FRS frequencies.

The EPARC thanked the following business for their donations which helped turn the ECOMM trailer dream into a reality: Norfolk Southern, DX Engineering, Home Depot in Chippewa, Auto Zone is Chippewa, Advance Auto Parts in Chippewa, Lowe’s Boardman, ME Lumber, NAPA in East Palestine, Fullers Hardware, T&M hardware, CJ Fletcher Felting, Brittain Motors in East Palestine and Don and Dianna Elzer.

Aside from the trailer, EPARC maintains a local repeater — a station that receives and retransmits radio signals and extends the range of communication for handheld and mobile radios within a local area. A local repeater typically operates on a pair of frequencies, one for receiving and one for transmitting which allows users to communicate over a wider area than direct radio-to-radio contact.

The EPARC ECOMM trailer will be on display this weekend at the East Palestine 150th celebration and the EPARC can be found online at W8GMM.Club and on Facebook.

selverd@mojonews.com