the DC Emergency Radio Network in the News

DCERN in the news, ABC News (a video in Windows media format)
DCERN in the news, Fox TV (a video in Windows media format)
DCERN in the news, Newschannel 8 (a video in Windows media format)
Marc Fisher's article about DCERN
David Stephenson's blog about using DCERN in an emergency
The DC Emergency Radio Network is part of the National SOS Radio Network
Article in Telephony World
Article in Contra Costa Times
Article in MRT

Bill Adler's September 29, 2005 letter to the editor in The Washington Post

Evacuate More Smoothly -- or Stay Put
Victoria K. Hall suggests a whistle system to warn residents about emergencies ["A Low-Tech Way to Warn D.C. of Danger," Close to Home, Sept. 25]. That's a simple and effective idea.

An alternative, and also a simple communications system, is the D.C. Emergency Radio Network. DCERN ( http://www.dcradio.org ) is a decentralized, citizen-organized network that uses store-bought Family Radio Service and General Mobile Radio Service radios. These are the easy-to-use, battery-operated, inexpensive, two-way radios that families use in places such as Disney World. In an emergency, tune to Channel 1, the emergency channel, and a neighbor will be there.

What happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina shows us that any plan can fail in a crisis. The destruction of all means of communication in New Orleans -- land-line phones, cell phones, the Internet -- made the vast problems there worse. DCERN is designed to work when other modes of communication fail.

BILL ADLER
Washington
The writer is the founder of the DC Emergency Radio Network

Bill Adler's biography

Bill Adler is an author who has written over two dozen books including the bestselling Outwitting Squirrels.  He lives in Washington, DC with is family.  He is also a licensed pilot, amateur radio operator, and a practiced troubleshooter.  As a pilot he's familiar with what can go wrong with communications systems, and how important it is to be able to communicate in an emergency.  Adler conceived of the DC Emergency Radio Network after thinking about the various problems that each of the traditional communications networks --land line phones, cell phones, ham radios, the Internet, CB radios-- presents.  He wanted to develop a robust, nearly invulnerable communications system that anybody, with virtually no training, could call on in an emergency -- and that would work. 

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DCERN:  A Robust, Invulnerable Communications Network