For us in the Hawaiian Islands, September 11, 1992 will always be remembered. Hurricane Iniki ripped through the Island of Kauai causing massive devastation. The storm also damaged parts of West Oahu.
In that emergency normal means of communication in and out of Kauai failed completely for a time. Providing emergency communications between civil defense officials on Kauai and Oahu were Amateur Radio Operators.
Amateur Radio Operators always participated in hurricane exercises, but in 1994, there was a more concerted effort to interest healthcare institutions to include Amateur Radio in its emergency preparations.
Amateur Radio Operators from key hospitals and the Blood Bank began to coordinate their testing and training efforts.
One of the first testing efforts was to test the effectiveness of using simplex operations among healthcare institutions, the Blood Bank and Oahu Civil Defense.
In 1997, the group of Amateur Radio Operators supporting emergency communications for healthcare institutions composed a Mission Statement and adopted the name Health Comm.
In addition to the regular exercises for readiness, Health Comm members participate in a radio net on the first working day of each month at 11:45 am., immediately after the CD-EAS (Emergency Alert System) warning sirens, on repeater KH6ICX, frequency 147.22+ and repeater NH6WP, frequency 444.00+. Both repeaters are linked via 220MHz.
The purpose of the net is to check the radio equipment at each institution and pass timely information.
Health Comm has participated successfully in the last two State's annual hurricane exercises (Makani Pahili '97 - '98) and expects to continue its annual participation.