 Patton, this is California, over. California, this is Massachusetts. It runs when everything else goes south. Go ahead and copy it, sir. The communication of last resort. It's old technology, but it works. Sometimes you've got to go with old reliable. Over. In an age where smartphones and the internet rule, the reliability of these high-tech forms of communication are still susceptible to man-made and natural disasters. Puerto Rico, the entire island is devastated, the entire island. Assistant Chief Ben Green runs the Cal OES Auxiliary Communication Service. What's that, you ask? We provide additional information, particularly in an affected area, that may be impaired with communications to the State Operations Center. In other words, when typical communications go down, like landlines, cell phones, and the internet, he and his volunteers can tap their vast network of amateur state and federal radio operators for help. There are lots of amateur radio nets in the area. Jim Price and Lee Rominger are volunteer amateur radio operators, also known as HAMS. Each week they use these radios to conduct a roll call of other radio operators around the state. Calusa County, this is California, over. This ensures they can all talk to each other, should an actual emergency take out comms anywhere in California or its neighboring states. We're here, we train, we know both the amateur radio side and then how to interface into the OES organization. So we're bringing both those sides together. Their high-frequency radios can communicate with almost any HF radio anywhere in the state, the nation, or even around the world. Standing water, four people trapped in vehicle. These volunteer HAMS often train alongside CERT members, like they did here at Urban Shield 2017. You see, it prepares them for real emergencies. Most recently, amateur radio came to the rescue after California wildfires destroyed communications lines and towers. Before that, Jim and Lee used their radios to monitor the evacuation of residents during the Orville Dam emergency. We were monitoring the situation up there on VHF because we had a repeater that we knew they were on and their shelter was on up there, so we were able to talk to them. They fed the intel to the State Operations Center, which was coordinating the response. HF radio was also used to get voice and data communications out of Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria destroyed the island, knocking out all forms of communication. The reason HAM radios work when everything else won't is that they don't rely on infrastructure like towers, cables, satellites, or microwave signals. And it's portable. You just throw a wire antenna over a tree, and as long as you've got power, a battery, you can talk. And if conditions are right, HF signals can travel halfway around the globe. Can you hear me now? Okay, yes, it's old tech, but when human health and welfare is at risk and all other means are down... We'll use whatever it takes. For more information about the Cal OES Auxiliary Communications Service, how amateur radio plays an important role in emergency communications, and how you can parlay your own radio skills into community service, go to OESNews.com and do a keyword search. I'm Sean Boyd for OES News.