Ham Radio and Preparedness
The Mission
The SCHEART (South Carolina Healthcare Emergency Amateur Radio Team) mission is to strengthen the statewide communications infrastructure for hospitals and healthcare facilities using Amateur (Ham) Radio as backup to the Palmetto 800 MHz radio system.
Why Ham Radio?
Amateur (ham) radio equipment does not rely on wires and communications facilities provided by common carriers and phone companies. When the common carriers are overloaded or they fail completely, ham radio is not affected.
Ham radio operators are everywhere in your community — near neighborhood hospitals, schools, parks, churches and local businesses. They can be quickly deployed to assist health and medical services (ESF-8) at hospitals, shelters, and alternate care sites.
Today’s ham radios are small and portable with many channels to handle short-range communications.
Regardless of the brand or model of radio equipment, ham operators can communicate with each other if they use the same frequency band and mode.
Ham operators use a selection of radio bands for specific purposes:
- VHF (Very High Frequency-144 MHz) and UHF (Ultra High Frequency-440 MHz) handles short-range communications
- HF (High Frequency) provides coverage beyond VHF and UHF, but use of HF requires additional licensing.
Ham radio operators use their equipment very frequently, ensuring it is always operational.
Bridging A Gap In Our Preparedness Communications
In 2004 the South Carolina Emergency Management Division (SCEMD) approached the USC Center for Public Health Preparedness (USC-CPHP) to help bridge a gap in preparedness communications by collaborating with the state Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) to recruit and train ham operators. The need was to provide a backup system for the Palmetto 800 MHz radio system supporting hospitals and healthcare facilities and health and medical (ESF-8) responders during public health emergencies, disasters or mass casualty events.
SCHEART is now recognized as essential to emergency response and has been written into the State Emergency Operations Plan. The USC-CPHP is responsible for activation of SCHEART in emergencies.
