The Alaska Wing of the Civil Air Patrol, a U.S. Air Force Auxiliary organization, is working to prepare communities throughout the state for emergency situation response by providing radios and the training to use them in the event of catastrophic events. Homer-area community members with any level of radio experience, including no prior experience, are invited to take part in training sessions beginning in December.

This radio communication training opportunity is open to community members of all ages, including youth and adults, though they must register to become part of the Homer CAP squadron in order to participate.

The project, also known as “Twenty Seconds More,” is part of an ongoing effort to improve Alaska’s ability to respond to a disaster, according to 1st Lt. Michele Bremer. Bremer is the Alaska Wing Director of Retention and the project officer for Twenty Seconds More.

When planning for Twenty Seconds More began earlier this year, the question that Bremer and other organizers asked was, “What can we do to better serve the state in the event of a disaster?”

“There are a lot of approaches to that (question) — the specific one for this is radio communications,” she said. “We depend on cellphones, we depend on the internet, and we assume that those will always be there.”

Bremer cited the recent disaster experienced in North Carolina due to Hurricane Helene as an example of why cellphones and the internet are not always reliable means of communication.

Communication is vitally important, especially early on, in emergency situations, she said. Radio communication is more reliable due to its usage of the atmosphere, rather than wires or microwaves, for connecting with one another.

“That’s the first question — everybody wants to know what’s going on. So one of the most important things that radio can do is tell people what’s going on,” she said. “We are very specifically trying to address communications when the infrastructure is down.”

Bremer’s goal with Twenty Seconds More is to equip every community where there is a CAP squadron with radios so that, in the event of a catastrophe, radio users can provide situation reports outside.

“We don’t think about how important communications are until we lose them. So our goal is to distribute radios — we’re looking for six volunteers per community to accept radios and to receive training on how to use them,” she said.

Volunteers would be trained to use high-frequency, or HF, radios, which are used for long-distance communication.

Bremer compared the CAP radio program to other radio operators.

“This area has a richness of amateur radio operators — and they’re more than welcome. They are a wonderful asset in any community,” she said. “They have a sort of informal type network.

“CAP is an auxiliary of the Air Force, so we are a means for the Air Force to get instructions out to other locations, often in response to situation reports. Every community has different risks, and we are a very flexible way to let the Air Force know what’s going on.”

She also noted the importance of interoperability between ham and CAP radio operators.

“We have certain frequencies we use that nobody else can use, and hams have certain frequencies they use that we can’t use. So it’s very valuable if we have somebody who’s a member of both,” she said. “It extends the reach of where information can go.”

The next training session will take place virtually in mid-December.

Find more information about Civil Air Patrol at gocivilairpatrol.com. More specific details on the Homer squadron are available at homer.cap.gov/.