Mountain Emergency Radio Network (MERN)
was created in conjunction with Boulder County Amateur Radio Emergency Services (BCARES), Inter-Mountain Alliance (IMA), and Boulder County Office of Emergency Management. The mission: To facilitate community emergency preparedness and insure uninterrupted communication between and within six mountain communities in Western Boulder County, county emergency services, and their resources prior to and during an emergency event via a Amateur 'Ham' radio network.
Following the Four Mile Canyon Fire, BCARES conducted a review intended to assess overall response, identify weaknesses, and generally determine what could be done in anticipation of future catastrophic events affecting our served mountain communities. It was no surprise one issue was the lack of viable communications. Mountain communities are subject to frequent power outages which interrupt electricity-based modes of communication. During forest fires and other emergency situations, telephone, internet and electricity are often nonexistent.
One main objective of this project includes increasing reliable radio coverage in the six communities by installation of a radio repeater infrastructure. Click on the Current locations listed below for coverage area and additional site-specific information:
MERN Repeaters
Gold Hill (146.805MHz, -600 KHz Offset, PL 100Hz)
Allenspark (147.030MHz, +600 KHz Offset, PL 100Hz)
Airlink
Lyons Prepared
is an organization that was formed after the massive 2013 Flood that impacted the entire town of Lyons Colorado.
For details about this organization, CLICK HERE to access their website.
Preparedness
Citizen preparedness and involvement is a critical component, allowing members of the community to receive high quality, accurate information during an incident. While first responders are involved in dealing with the crisis, community members are able to support each other with evacuation and other critical needs of the community and incident responders.
Resources: