Clinton Memorial Hospital recently donated 14 laptop computers to the Highland Amateur Radio Association (HARA) and Clinton County Amateur Radio Association (CCARA) on behalf of the hospital that serves both Highland and Clinton counties.
Accepting the computers on behalf of the HARA was club president Jim Hause. Paul Jellison, president of the CCARA, accepted the computers on behalf of the Clinton County Club.
A computer was also presented to Mike Boyle for SkyWarn storm spotting use at the National Weather Service office amateur radio station and for the administration of area Federal Communication Commission amateur radio license examinations.
According the Hause, the computers donated to the Highland County club will be used during events related to emergency service training, community events, license training and examinations, as well as the publishing and distribution throughout southern Ohio of the club’s award-winning weekly newsletter the Monday Morning Memo.
According to Atwell, over time CMH accumulates laptops that can longer run the software and applications
needed and thereby are no longer usable by the hospital or Wilmington Physicians Group. Normally, these laptops are disposed of through recycling. However, following discussions between the CMH COE Lance Beus, FCO Eric Jost and IT Director Lori Savage, it was decided that once the computer’s hard drives were cleaned and then reloaded with factory software, they would be donated to the two amateur radio clubs in the hospital’s service and and each county’s Amateur Radio Emergency Service )ARES).
HARA Information Office John Levo said the local ARES groups consist of FCC licensed amateur radio operators who come together for the common purpose of providing emergency and/or auxiliary communications service to public safety and public service organizations. As a condition of their license, they are federally mandated to provide communications support to the local, state and federal government and their agencies or departments, if called upon during emergencies, disasters or time of need.
The ham radio community provides the service with no charges to the taxpayer as well as uses its own equipment to provide the service. Many are certified National Weather Service storm spotters.
The HARA is a group of more than 125 federally licensed amateur radio operators mostly residing within Highland County.
More information about amateur radio can be found at the American Radio Relay League website — www.arrl.org — or by contacting Levo at 937-393-4951 or [email protected].
Submitted by John Levo, Highland Amateur Radio Association.
