Currently, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office leases airtime on the 700/800 MHz RACOM network, while the Polk County Fire Department (made of rural departments that are dispatched by PCSO) resides on conventional VHF frequencies that are then patched to the RACOM network.

The “Assistance to Firefighters” FEMA grant would allow the county to purchase roughly 116 mobile radios, along with 217 handhelds. A decision on the grant is expected by late May. Polk County would have one year to formalize the purchase and that would allow the county to select a new radio system.

Without the text of the grant application, it is unclear whether Polk County Fire would directly join the RACOM network or create a new standalone interoperable system, although reports surfaced earlier this year of a request for proposals (RFP) for a new, leased countywide P25 fire radio system. Westcom and Des Moines will have the option to join the project.

Ankeny Fire was selected to file the proposal, as Polk County was not allowed to apply for the FEMA grant. If the grant is approved, Ankeny, Polk City, Elkhart, Saylor and Delaware townships, Altoona, Bondurant, Granger, Grimes, Johnston, Mitchellville, Pleasant Hill, Runnells and Windsor Heights would benefit from the grant.

I found this gem on YouTube while searching for other Skywarn videos late one night. While the premise and goals of the Skywarn program have remained unchanged, this video from nearly 40 years ago emphasizes how far the science of weather and personal computing has brought the activity.

Instead of chalkboards, meteorologists now use PowerPoint, videos, pictures, and diagrams on a projection screen to teach the general public (read: not meteorology students). Spotters in the field now have laptops, netbooks, aircards, APRS/GPS, and a whole array of wireless technology to assist them in the field and communicate back to the NWS, EOC, or to other spotters.

Since then, scientists have improved the understanding and reliability of weather forecasting. While weather is a science, humans don’t have it “down to a science” quite yet. But I wonder where we’ll be 40 more years from now?

Eerie magenta-tinted clouds cover the community of Parkersburg, Iowa, after a tornado demolished the southern third of the town on Sunday, May 25, 2008. (Kevin Sanders/AP)

It was Sunday, May 25, 2008 — the day before Memorial Day — when I was on my way back home from the campus of Iowa State University when I got the call.

“There’s been a tornado in northeast Iowa. A pretty big one,” the Associated Press staffer told me on the telephone. As a photo stringer for the AP Des Moines bureau, I had become accustomed to being sent into areas around the state that had just been hit by a tornado. It wasn’t uncommon to do two or three of these assignments each year.

I hung up the phone and started getting my gear together immediately. I got my cameras and lenses together and packed an extra change of clothes. I hopped on the computer and googled where the town of Parkersburg was and how long it would take to get there.

Thinking this would be a routine tornado assignment, I went out the door in about 15 minutes and jumped on Interstate 35 and headed north towards US Highway 20. Once on US Highway 20 near Steamboat Rock, I saw towering stormclouds due east. As I got closer and closer to Parkersburg, I was encountering entire convoys of electric utility contractor trucks and trucks hauling heavy equipment.

As the sun went down and twilight set in, I left Highway 20 and got on Iowa Highway 14, the final leg to Parkersburg. Already, the road and ditches were lined with debris and downed electric poles. Another line of storms had moved in and began dumping heavy rain and nickel-sized hail. The conditions were so poor that it forced me to stop and pull over onto the shoulder halfway down the road from Parkersburg.

After the rain let up, I continued further north on Highway 14. I approached the state trooper blocking the road into Parkersburg, identified myself, and he let me pass. I took a left onto Iowa Highway 57, the main southernmost road in Parkersburg. I stopped a few blocks down and parked the car, gathered up my equipment out of the backseat and continued on foot.

As I stopped to take a look around me and size up the situation, I couldn’t help but be a little spooked by the silhouettes of splintered, barren trees and collapsed buildings against the magenta-tinted sky. It was truly an unforgettable feeling that still puts pits in my stomach to this day.

A firefighter searches what's left of homes and businesses for victims. (Kevin Sanders/AP)

The entire southern half of Parkersburg had been evacuated, and only first responders were in the area. Police and firefighters were still searching the collapsed structures for any survivors or victims. Heavy machinery and generators were the only things that could be heard in the background. As the daylight quickly gave way to darkness, I had only seen one section of the destruction before I determined it was too dark to work safely. I left Parkersburg that night to crash at Matthew’s house, a friend that worked at the Waterloo Courier as a photographer, who was also covering the disaster.

What I saw that night in Parkersburg — trees stripped bare, pieces of lumber that were lodged in anything and everything after being projectiles in the storm, houses wiped clean off their foundations — was only a small part of the picture and I underestimated the magnitude of the destruction as darkness obscured the disaster area.

The next day — Memorial Day — Matthew and I woke up early and headed out. Matthew went to a neighboring town of Parkersburg, New Hartford, and I went straight to Parkersburg. When I arrived, Iowa Homeland Security was keeping the media out of the area while residents return to their homes to salvage items. Iowa HSEMD’s handling of the media that day is not routine for disaster areas, and it was frustrating for all of us.

Not wasting any time, I began calling around to private aviation contractors in the area to go up and do aerial photos of the town in mourning. Everyone in the area was closed for Memorial Day. Finally, I got lucky with a company I had worked with out of the Ankeny airport near Des Moines when a pilot answered the phone and said he could be in the air in 20 minutes. I arranged for him to meet me at the Waterloo Airport, about a half hour drive for me from Parkersburg.

When I arrived at the Waterloo Airport, I discovered that they were actually clipped by the very same tornado. The airport had minimal damage but no electricity, and no fuel pumps. Thankfully, my plane was able to land and pick me up. We received permission to fly above the no-fly zone that was established around Parkersburg. Less than 5 minutes after landing, we were back in the air and heading west towards Parkersburg.

When we got into the air, the big picture finally became visible. It was impossible to see the magnitude of destruction from the ground. From the air you could certainly see the path that the tornado took. Homes, businesses, trees, and everything else that was upright before the storm was spread out for miles.

A day after the tornado hit, the tornado's path could clearly be seen from the air, looking from the southeast of Parkersburg, Iowa on Monday, May 26, 2008. (Kevin Sanders/AP)

We spent about 20 minutes in the air, shooting at various focal lengths and angles, before returning to the Waterloo Airport. I sat in the lobby of the hangar and edited then filed the pictures before heading back to Parkersburg.

When I arrived back in Parkersburg, the HSEMD lackeys went home and let the media have some elbow room to work on their reports. When I got back in town, people wanted to tell their stories to anyone that wanted to listen.

They told stories about their experience when the tornado passed over the house they have lived in the entire lives, they talked about their faith in God, talked about what they called a near-death experience, told me about how their houses collapsed inwards and fell into the basements and told me what they were praying for as they were in their basements.

But every single resident told me how fortunate they felt that they had early warning for the storm. While still a significant number, only six people died immediately from the EF-5 Parkersburg-New Hartford-Dunkerton tornado and left 70 injuries in its path of destruction.

A resident surveys tornado damage in Parkersburg, Iowa on Monday, May 26, 2008. (Kevin Sanders/AP)

Thanks to Doppler technology and ground-truth spotting, the lead time on the warning was substantial. What would have been the number of fatalities if the National Weather Service couldn’t use these tools to their advantage?

At 4:22 p.m., the first tornado warning went out for the storm. The warning included the cities of Aplington and Parkersburg. The next statement came at 4:46 p.m., warning that the tornado will be near Parkersburg at 5 p.m.

At 4:59 p.m., the tornado started cutting a swath of destruction through the southern half of Parkersburg. Residents had 37 minutes of warning. The tornado continued until just before the Buchanan County line at 5:58 p.m.

Amateur radio was one of the first outside entities to enter Parkersburg. A tornado was first reported as it developed east of Ackley by amateur radio at 4:47 p.m. and the first reports of damage in Parkersburg came into the National Weather Service via amateur radio at 5:01 p.m.

These are the points that I like to tout when I get asked “is amateur radio still relevant?” and if we really need storm spotters out there with modern technology and more high-tech forms of communication.

That fall in 2008, I went and tested for my amateur radio license at Iowa State University on a whim. And I passed. When I was a kid playing with scanners listening to the storm spotters, this was something I wanted to do. In a sense, I think this is something that I felt I had to do for others.

My experience in Parkersburg and other disaster zones I have worked in as a photojournalist has given me a call to serve. I’ve been back to Parkersburg a few times since the tornado hit, and every time I enter the town from the south on Highway 14, when I get to the top of the hill I just get this pit in my stomach, my palms begin to sweat, and everything just comes back to me. My mind replays the image of pulling up into the town in the heavy rain with barren trees and building rubble silhouetted against an oddly pink-colored sky. It’s a feeling like none other.

Not only have I bolstered my emergency preparedness at home, but I now proactively use amateur radio and the latest technology to spot storms, and as cliche as it may sound, but to also keep others safe through the benefit of advance warning. The Parkersburg disaster emphasized the importance of amateur radio’s role in the process of issuing severe weather warnings.

After being elected last month as the president of the Mid-Iowa Skywarn Association, I’ve been working on enhancing the organization to be more connected with spotters and the general public. It’s not a position for me to take lightly, and I take great pride in what I’ve been tasked with. This is only the beginning.

Listen to Hawaii County Police live via RadioReference, where you can hear agencies responding normally to the usual calls and others moving to higher ground. It was just announced as I’m writing this that dispatch is now moving to higher ground at the Hawaii Civil Defense EOC. Lots of tones are being sent, but I’m not sure if they are regular fire tone-outs or tones that activate the tsunami sirens or other equipment used to alert officials or the public.

Monitor (and assist if needed) the HF frequencies that were announced by Radio Club Argentina:
- 20m: 14.200 and 14.350 MHz (Chilean Red Cross), 14.300 MHz (IARU)
- 40m: 7.050 and 7.095 MHz (Chilean Red Cross), 7.060 MHz (IARU)
- 80m: 3.738 and 3.750 MHz (Chilean Red Cross)

Monitor (and assist if needed) the HF frequencies for the Hawaii tsunami:
- 20m: 14.246.50 MHz
- 40m: 7.088 MHz
- 80/75m: 3.888 MHz

Amateur radio operators are requested to keep these frequencies clear and to avoid harmful interference to any of these nets taking place.

Do you know of any other ways to monitor the situation? Add your information in the comments below.

This, of course, meant that there would be new blood coming into those various leadership positions. I am pleased to announce that I was elected through a close write-in vote to serve as the next president of Mid-Iowa Skywarn, which is effective immediately. I am grateful to be elected to this position, and I do indeed have some big shoes to fill and expectations to exceed. I learned this evening that Jim and I have very similar reasons for joining Skywarn, which I will likely write about later down the road. I plan on hitting the ground running, and I have plans to act on. Tom N0VPR was also elected to the role of secretary/treasurer — Tom has been working with Skywarn and ARES for quite a while as well, and we have worked with each other as president/vice president for the local club.

The Mid-Iowa Skywarn Association is the organization that mans the amateur radio station in the Des Moines National Weather Service office, using call sign K0DMX. It takes storm reports from all corners of the NWS Des Moines’ 51-county warning area through an extensive VHF/UHF linked repeater network. We’re lucky to have a great relationship with the Des Moines meteorologist-in-charge and warning coordinator.

After the brief meeting, we moved on to our annual two-hour spotter training class presented by the NWS. It was a great presentation, I thought. It included some new pictures and videos. It was certainly a good crowd, probably more than last year. If maybe a half-dozen more people showed up, we would have run out of seats. A lot of new faces I haven’t seen around — either they are hams that don’t usually come to our “normal” club meetings or this was their first time attending a storm spotter course.

Tom set out some amateur radio information brochures and fliers, along with business cards that listed information about the DMRAA and its meetings. After the presentation, non-hams were mingling with the hams asking how to get involved in amateur radio, and most of those business cards were gone, so I’d say the training session also sparked some interest in amateur radio. It turned out pretty well.

Do you think phone patch is really outdated and useless? An amateur radio operator in Miami provided a phone patch to a Haitian to pass along a welfare message from Port-au-Prince to Miami. From the video description:

When telephones, internet, and power are cut off, Amateur Radio fills vital communications needs. Fred Moore of Florida, callsign W3ZU provides a radio/telephone patch for Jean-Robert Gaillard, callsign HH2JR, of Port au Prince. Audio captured by Brian Crow.

This is a great example of hams pulling together to assist in passing health and welfare traffic and assisting in disaster relief in other ways. This is an international, ham-to-ham, non-ARES effort, and it’s what’s been on several of the designated frequencies around the clock over the past several days.

• 7.045 and 3.720 MHz – IARU Region 2 nets
• 14.265, 7.265 and 3.977 MHz – SATERN nets
• 14.300 MHz Intercontinental Assistance and Traffic Net
• The International Radio Emergency Support Coalition (IRESC) is also active on EchoLink node 278173.

Unfortunately, IARU Region 1 is reporting that a convoy of amateur radio operators from Radio Club Dominicano (RCD) had to abort their mission after they were fired upon.

The beauty of amateur radio is that it’s many things to many people. Amateur radio is what you make of it, whether it’s HF, VHF/UHF, ATV, CW, PSK, Hellschreiber or even internet modes like CQ100. It’s not anyone’s place to tell you that whatever you enjoy in a hobby is incorrect. This isn’t a “that’s not amateur radio” post, I’m not going to say emcomm has no place in amateur radio. That’s like telling a stamp collector that he’s collecting the wrong kind of stamps or an artist using acrylic paint isn’t a real artist. I would, however, like to offer some points for your consideration.

I had never made up my mind about what to think about the growing emcomm section of amateur radio, until I happened to see Steve KB9MWR’s YouTube video (embedded below) via Steve K9ZW’s blog. I have struggled to find a stance on all of the issues surrounding it — I had some basic thoughts about it, but I couldn’t put it into words. Steve does an outstanding job of summarizing the words that I’ve been trying to put together:

Let’s first recognize that ARES/RACES/MARS/CAP/REACT and other acronym organizations do good work. Overall, they are trained very well and put a lot of time and effort into their hobby. I usually participate in Skywarn on my own activation, and have done a few ARES events as well.

However, you can be the most well-trained organization and your served agencies still won’t see the need for your services. What I mean is after 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and other emergencies and disasters, radio system engineers have wised up and made their systems more redundant. Systems will still fail, but they have at least one more redundant system to fall back on, and if that system fails, there is usually a plan for that as well, and it likely involves something like simplex communications using their own frequencies — not amateur radio operators.

Not only does radio system redundancy make amateur emcomm obsolete, but some hams still insist that their services be used even when the served agency’s radio system works perfectly fine. When the county emergency manager spoke at our club meeting earlier this fall, he also spoke about how he handled the flood emergency last year and mentioned there were people equipped with radio walking the levees regularly to report any problems or weaknesses. He tried to make the point that radio communications are extremely important in emergency situations.

A well-intentioned ham chimed in and asked “what kind of radios were they?” When the EM responded that they were EMA-rented radios, the ham started to go down a slippery slope. “Where are all the hams involved in this? Why wasn’t ham radio used?” This continued for several minutes while I began to grind my teeth until another ham stepped in.

The other ham made the point that basically said if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it. EMA had a radio system that worked for them, and it’s their call whether to use them or not. If the radio infrastructure is there, all the EMA employees have to know is how to use the push-to-talk button.

Many hams aren’t seeming to cope well with the fact that today’s modern systems are more reliable than they were in previous decades. They still insist that amateur emcomm needs to play a role in an emergency whether their served agencies need them or not. Nothing will burn bridges faster with agencies than hams trying to elbow their way into emergency operation centers and disaster areas.

Here in Iowa, we have a couple recent examples. The Cedar Rapids public safety system stayed online even as the downtown area was inundated with water during last year’s epic flood. The EF-5 tornado that tore through Parkersburg last year took lives, homes, vehicles, and power — but not cell phone systems or radio systems.

Steve also makes the point that some emcomm organizations are being taken for granted for free labor. In my county, the ARES emergency coordinator has made it clear several times in no uncertain terms that the ARES operators are allowed to only perform duties related to radio communications — not transportation, not lost and found, not first aid, not barricades, not traffic control. Only setting up radio systems and radio communication itself are allowed. This is an excellent policy that should be implemented ARES-wide to prevent agencies from exploiting the organization’s manpower outside of radio.

That also brings me to the point of hams going above and beyond their job descriptions to “help out” — which often involves getting in the way of the real professionals trying to do their job. I’ve heard horror stories of hams showing up uninvited to large-scale structure fires or vehicle accidents and end up getting in the way. Thankfully, this hasn’t happened in my area. These are usually well-intentioned hams, bless their hearts, but their desire leads them astray.

There’s a up-and-coming mindset that amateur radio’s sole purpose is emergency communications. According to §97.1(a), yes emcomm is one of the purposes of the amateur radio spectrum, but let’s not forget about (b), (c), (d), and (e), which promote the hobbyist aspect of amateur radio through advancement of radio innovation, community education, and the advancement of international goodwill. It troubles me when an emcomm radio operator carries a “holier-than-thou” attitude over other hams just because he or she has “special Homeland Security training,” whether it’s in the incident command structure or otherwise. Again, I’ve been fortunate enough that I haven’t seen this in my area, but in other regions it runs rampant.

Even without the ARRL establishing ARES, amateur radio operators have — and always will — help out in emergency situations when needed. We don’t need several formal organizations for this.

The ARES command structure established by the ARRL is ridiculously elaborate enough to be the shadow government for the United States. Have you seen it? It’s obscenely bureucratic, once you see it you’ll know the cause for most ARES screw-ups. Not to mention the politics that take place among ARES leadership.

Most of the positions within ARES command requires membership with the ARRL. What’s the reason for that? So that the ARRL can make more money. Not only is that a terrible reason, but it also keeps radio operators that are otherwise qualified out of contributing to ARES because they choose to not give their money to a greedy organization for one reason or another. I wonder how many outstandingly talented operators this keeps out of the ARES leadership roles that could have helped the organization run more efficiently and improved the organization overall?

Inefficiency. The basic plan for an ARES event if the governmental radio systems fail, then hams will either use their own pre-existing infrastructure or improvise and build a new temporary system for the event. Then, due to FCC regulations, the ARES operator will partner up with someone in a served agency. The person that the ARES operator is partnered with will have to give the message to his ARES partner, then the ARES operator will say the message over the radio, where the ARES operator on the other end will receive the message and pass it on to their served agency. See where governmental agencies would rather spend money to reinforce their infrastructure and use their own systems? In one of my other jobs where we use radios on a regular basis to administer athletic events, I could not imagine having hams do this instead of just using our own radios, even if it is free labor. It would be absolutely agonizing.

In a true emergency, I’d be willing to bet a large number of the same hams that continuously do ARES drills won’t be able to help in a true, unnanounced emergency for several reasons — medical problems, family, work — after all, it is a true emergency. A large number of hams could be displaced. Their equipment could be destroyed.

The only trait that separates amateur radio operators from everyone else are their technical abilities — the ability to troubleshoot, improvise, build/rebuild systems, and the knowledge of all the different bands and modes available to complete the task. Yet those skills are diminishing with the new emcomm generation. I have admittedly been guilty of being an “appliance operator” at times, for several various reasons that will probably be covered in another post. But once we lose these traits, we have no more of an ability than any other human being that knows how to squeeze a push-to-talk button.

It’s another stigma to all of amateur radio that comes along with the new emcomm generation. It’s not just a stigma, but a phenomenon, too. Most people think it’s a taboo subject. I’m talking about the new hams that are infatuated with putting blinky lights and official-looking stickers on their cars more than they’re interested in learning about the technical aspect of amateur radio. If you are a visitor of Hamsexy, then you probably know what I’m talking about. If not, head over to a thread on Firehouse for an official definition from real professionals. These people are a danger to the public, but luckily, I haven’t observed this kind of behavior in my area whatsoever.

Since KB9WMR’s video has been passed around the internet, there’s been a lot more chatter about the “big tent” theory. As I said in my opening few paragraphs, amateur radio is what you make of it. I accept anyone’s passion for whatever their niche is in amateur radio. I will never interfere with what they enjoy doing with their ham license. It’s not my business to do so unless they are interfering with any of the rights I am granted with my license. We’re all working together, doing different things under the same tent.

Along the same lines, K9ZW has proposed the “freecom” theory. Apparently, I have been doing freecom since I took my test. Freecom emphasizes self-preparedness as opposed to a crowd-sourced ARES-oriented system. The ARRL states that emcomm is one of the biggest reasons new hams get their tickets. I didn’t get my license for emcomm, aside from participating in Skywarn.

When my job as a photojournalist took me to the devastation in Parkersburg after the EF-5 tornado ripped the town in half, my entire viewpoint of self-preparedness and disaster situations changed drastically. I’ve wanted to get my ham ticket since I was a kid, but when I drove into Parkersburg just at sundown when there were still livestock in the trees, it changed everything and it pushed my desire to get a ham ticket. I would encourage you to read more about freecom on K9ZW’s blog.

Should we have emergency communications in amateur radio? Yes. Should we be educated about preparedness? Yes. Do we need to keep maintaining an inefficient, overly-political, antiquated, bureaucratic emcomm-specific radio organization? No. Amateur radio operators have always been willing to help in times of true emergency, and that won’t change if ARRL didn’t have its grubby little hands all over it. ARES-type emcomm as we know it could use some restructuring and attitude changes. When all else truly does fail, agencies will still want us, whether we’re trained in ICS or not, and whether we’re ARES or not.

Team K0DMX - NWS Des Moines - after sunrise

Field Day and SRD are the only times I really get to work on HF for several varying reasons. Not to mention it’s a very laid-back event, not really as competitive as Field Day (although we do log QSO’s… and Des Moines has been at the top for the past few years), and it gives me a reason to stay up all night.

When I got to the office, George KK7FM and Shane N0ZXJ were still there. Eventually they both left, as George was tired and Shane had already worked a full day at the NWS on Friday. We kept at least two operators on the rigs at all times. While I was there, 80m seemed to be the only open band and for quite a while the only ones on the band were stations we already worked.

Most of the chatter was about the cold weather all around. It hovered around 14-18 degrees most of the night, but there was one sub-zero station in northern Minnesota and a decently balmy station in Florida. It had just snowed in several parts of the southwest as well.

Right around 5 or 6 a.m., new operators on the east coast started waking up and spinning the dials, getting ready to check into nets. Before activity started to pick up, I plopped myself down on 3.850.00 and called CQ. At 7 a.m. I had a deluge of stations calling me on that frequency. I worked about 200 stations on that frequency within about three and a half hours, including both coasts and some Canadian stations. It was a good feeling. Of course I had the sporadic bursts of smartasses interrupting and asking in several rude ways what the hell kind of contest “Skywarn” is without identifying themselves, but it was overall a fun experience.

I ended up leaving to go back home around 10 a.m. — I planned to stay longer than 8 hours, but my ability to form coherent, non-rambling sentences together was quickly deteriorating and so it was time to step away from the mic.

Next year I hope to have D-STAR capabilities for SRD, and I hope that NWS advertises a reflector number on the website and lists NWS offices that will be using D-STAR for the event (like they do already for Echolink/IRLP). I also thought about setting up a live video stream like NWS Detroit K8DTX did — they seemed pretty popular and heard a few comments over the air about their stream.

I have created a Facebook Page for Iowa ARES. I invite ham radio operators who are registered on Facebook to become a fan and invite their family and friends to do the same.

Click here to view the fan page.

The merging of ham radio and social networks interests me greatly. We are seeing a lot of technophobic hams jump on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon. Some are “good at it,” some aren’t. I’ve been wanting to write about it for some time now, and I will very shortly. For now, I will say that Iowa ARES is definitely taking a step in the right direction with their fan page.

Yesterday, on the eighth anniversary of 9/11, the media reported that the United States Coast Guard had fired on a suspect vessel on the Potomac River, not far from where President Barack Obama was participating in a memorial service.

At some point in time, someone — not necessarily the media outlets themselves — intercepted transmissions on a marine frequency and reported that a vessel had been fired upon. Without confirming this with the USCG, the media outlets heard this communication (and CNN even aired a portion) and aired it as a genuine, newsworthy incident.

What resulted in an unacceptable breach of journalistic integrity, ripples of panic ensued.

Even the FBI rushed to the Potomac, apparently responding to CNN’s report. Takeoffs from the National Airport were grounded. And numerous people in the District were panicking.

One of the first things you learn in journalism school in your freshman year is to check your sources. CNN said it checked with the USCG’s public information office and the PIO said it hadn’t heard of anything happening on the Potomac. First of all, it sounds like the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. Second, if one source said it didn’t know what was happening, then either wait for confirmation or check with another source.

CNN anchor Kyra Phillips said on-air that a CNN employee in Washington called the Coast Guard about the scanner report, “and they said, ‘We don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So we went forward with what we learned.” Phillips, reporting in Atlanta, cited CNN employees in Washington for her information.

– Radio Traffic Led to False News Reports of Gunfire on Potomac, The Washington Post

In the words of my journalism professor — if you mother says she loves you, check it out.

Anyone who has been scanning the public safety bands should have a trained ear, and most realize that information broadcast over police radio isn’t 100% accurate. Therefore, it is not a valid source for journalism. The Potomac incident proves that.

If USCG protocol is to say “this is a drill” or “this is an exercise” before every transmission and that policy wasn’t followed, then the blame still rests on the media. If they had bothered to confirm what could have been a major event and then learn that it was just a drill, the public would not have panicked. The buck should have stopped there.

When I was working at the Des Moines Register, we heard what sounded like a police chase over the scanner. We went over to the Big Map of the City on the wall in the newsroom and figured out on our own that it was an exercise since they were doing circles in the state fairgrounds.

There will be other ramifications when the USCG completes their internal investigation on the matter. This will be an example that the federal, state, and local governments will use to justify use of P25 encrypted radios. The government needs more reasons to go encrypted like America needs more Wal-Marts. The media will suffer as well with damaged credibility and a tarnished public image.

Since this was a training exercise, I’d hope that everyone involved has learned a valuable lesson. But it’s already too late.