Stop static on interoperable radio system plan

Stop static on interoperable radio system plan
(Original publication: June 30, 2007)
The county has jumped through hoops to get municipalities and first-responders on board to put together a countywide emergency radio system that better fits the emerging needs of Rockland and is far more reliable than what we have now.
On Tuesday, the Legislature is due to vote on bonding for a deal with Motorola to build an interoperable system. The upgraded radio system would allow direct communication among first-responders of different agencies. Currently, some must rely on a central relay to get messages to each other. Not only must legislators push the project through, municipalities and first-responder agencies should pledge to join the effort.
Rockland officials have already had to lobby the Federal Communications Commission once to be allowed to hold onto frequencies that lay fallow because the project has taken so long to launch. It's a use-'em-or lose-'em deal - if the county doesn't show progress on the system, it won't be allowed to keep the licenses for the new frequencies it needs to operate it.
Still, there is foot-dragging as deadlines loom for the radio project, most of it from lawyers who want contracts that put all liability for the radios on the county. How much more responsibility does the county have to take for a system that will benefit us all? Rockland already has agreed to cover the costs and has altered parts of the agreements at towns' requests.Weak links risk safety
This system needs the full support of every municipality and emergency response agency. Rockland has seen events that revealed weak links in the current low-band communications network. When a fuel tanker truck slid down a ramp connecting Interstate 287 to the Thruway in Suffern in 1995 and began leaking its hold, Rockland emergency officials had to borrow radios from New Jersey in order to coordinate a shutdown of roadways and commuter train lines while they cleaned up the mess and avoided a fiery explosion. The communications system was overwhelmed during Hurricane Floyd in 1999.
Unforgettable is the tragic cost of poor communication modes between New York City police and firefighters on Sept. 11, 2001. That problem had been identified during the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, but went unsolved, contributing to the loss of life in the later terror attack.
Any countywide undertaking - evacuating one part of the county to another, for example - would be stymied by the current system. Myriad scenarios, beyond a natural disaster, demand the capabilities of an interoperable system. Most of the county is within 20 miles of New York City and the Indian Point nuclear facility. Rocklanders also have a major mall and a key highway bridge in our front yard.
It's time to join in the hard work done by County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef and county Fire and Emergency Services Coordinator Gordon Wren Jr. to realize a radio system that will make the county more secure and Rocklanders safer.

Westchester rejects bus ad by nurses union

Westchester rejects bus ad by nurses union
By MELISSA KLEINTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 30, 2007)
Westchester County rejected a bus advertisement about a contract dispute between nurses and Westchester Medical Center, saying it was too controversial.
The ad showed a stock photo of three smiling nurses with the tag line: "We save lives every day. Westchester Medical Center nurses need a FAIR contract. It's a matter of RESPECT."
Mark Genovese, a spokesman for the New York State Nurses Association, said yesterday that the union wanted to spend about $3,000 to put the ad on the outside of 30 Bee-Line buses on three routes that serve the Valhalla hospital.
The hospital and nurses union are at odds over a proposed change to retirement health benefits. The nurses have been without a contract for a year.
Larry Salley, the county transportation commissioner, said policy forbids several types of advertisements on the bus line, including ads for firearms, tobacco, alcohol, political candidates and anything that advocates positions about controversial public issues.
"This would fall into the category of positions with regard to controversial public issues," Salley said.
He said that if the medical center were to submit an ad advocating its position, that, too, would be rejected.
Salley said he reviews all bus ads and rejected this one. He said there was no pressure from County Executive Andrew Spano to do so.
The county no longer runs the hospital, but in recent years has provided millions in funding to help it pull out of a financial crisis.
Genovese said the union would review its options about fighting the rejection.
Ralph Stein, a professor at Pace University Law School who specializes in constitutional rights, said the union could make a claim on First Amendment grounds in federal court.
But, he said, there have been cases in which courts have backed municipal transit lines in their effort to regulate ads.
"Not just with regard to such obvious things as sex, bad taste, stuff like that," Stein said.
The county has rarely rejected bus advertisements.
Salley said he remembered only two cases in recent years. One involved an ad by Entergy Nuclear Northeast highlighting the benefits of its Indian Point nuclear power plants. The other was a 2001 promotion for the "Opie and Anthony" radio show with the word WOW. The county pulled the ads from buses after learning that "WOW" stood for "Whip 'em Out Wednesday" a reference to women baring their breasts.
The nurses union spent about $800 to print its ads before learning this week that the ads had been rejected, Genovese said.
Nurses have become more vocal about their contract dispute in recent weeks. They held a protest outside the medical center's ball earlier this month.
The union contends that the medical center wants to eliminate a provision that gives full health care coverage at no cost when employees retire, as long as they've had five years of service.
Genovese said he was not aware that any contract talks had been scheduled.
"We have scheduled a meeting with them in the near future," said Kara Bennorth, a spokeswoman for the medical center.

Review not enough to ensure safety

(Original publication: June 29, 2007) letters to the editors- journal news
Review not enough to ensure safety
No matter where one stands on the issue of Indian Point, it is well past time for The Journal News to stop characterizing the relicensing process as "an in-depth review of whether the plant can operate for an additional 20 years." The facts state otherwise.
What "in-depth review" does not take into account the population density surrounding the plant? Or terrorism factors in a post-911 world? Or spent fuel rod storage issues, ongoing leaks and the massive fish kills from super-heated water to name just a few. More importantly, what in-depth review is possible without an independent safety assessment?
Reasonable people on both sides of the issue are asking these questions. In the interim, The Journal News does us all a disservice by employing such phrases that, in the end, represent a fundamental change in the viewing of reality.
Maria Cudequest
Croton-on-HudsonCan't afford to close Indian Point
In a Monday letter, "Stop wasting money on more studies," Laurent Lawrence of New Rochelle urged a stop to spending money on "studying" Indian Point. I agree, for different reasons.
Nuclear power can be a safe energy source. With few, but widely known, exceptions, it has long provided safe relatively inexpensive energy worldwide. Obviously, there are dangers. If you live in the area of a nuclear plant, you can either accept the risk or move to somewhere with different risks - maybe hurricanes, earthquakes or war. Even if the plant were decommissioned tomorrow, my understanding is that risks still remain.
If there is a major disaster at Indian Point, many could die, as occurs in any kind of disaster. So far, although people in this area die from a variety of causes every day, none has been because of Indian Point.
The official pretense that a warning system and evacuation plan are useful, much less necessary, insults our intelligence. No one pays attention to those sirens; gridlock would keep us here anyway.
Instead of more studies or fake evacuation plans, use available money to keep Indian Point as safe as possible With all due respect to Rep. John Hall, whom I admire greatly and usually agree with, and the others, until we find another economical, non-polluting energy source, we cannot afford to close Indian Point. Stop studying, worrying and whining, and start maintaining.
Diane Selker
Peekskill

NRC begins Indian Point relicensing procedure

NRC begins Indian Point relicensing procedure

Cortlandt – About 300 people packed a banquet hall in Cortland Manor for the public start of the license renewal process for the Indian Point Nuclear Power plant. The evening information session was one of two held Wednesday, by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
If there was one thing unique compared to past NRC sessions held in the area, the crowd seemed to have a bit more balance.
The majority of speakers were, as usual, critical of the 30-year-old plant in Buchanan, but there was no shortage of support, from Village of Buchanan Mayor Daniel O’Neil, to former Assemblyman Jerry Kremer, now with the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance, and an unabashed Indian Point supporter.
“What you’re talking about is a facility that should be kept going because the region needs it badly.”
That was a claim made by a large contingent of organized labor.
A quickly-drafted news release from the Coalition of Labor for Energy and Jobs noted the massive power outages from the Wednesday afternoon storms, arguing power shortages would be much more frequent without the 2,000 megawatts Indian Point pumps into the downstate power grid.
During a news conference before the formal NRC session, Bob Seeger, business agent with the Millwrights and Machinery Erectors, Local 740, said it about more than just jobs.
“None of us are going to send our members into a place that’s not safe.”
During the NRC session itself, Marilyn Elie, a co-founder of Westchester Citizens Awareness Network, suggested the union members could get quality jobs, and safer ones, by working for alternative energy.
Peter Harckham, of Katonah, was a student at Dickinson College, in 1979, and was among more than 100,000 evacuated from the area around Three Mile Island.
Harckham argued the tentative Indian Point renewal review has some significant omissions. “You can’t effectively have a strategic planning review when you take half of that process off the table. I respectfully disagree with your assessment that it is a duplication, and would ask you to put emergency planning and security back into the license renewal.”
Another speaker raised the issue of leakage. Division of Licensing Environmental Branch Chairwoman Rani Franovich responded, saying they have not decided exactly what will be examined in their review of Indian Point. “We’re not at that juncture yet where we decided what it is they need to demonstrate to us.”
The license renewal review typically takes 22 months, if the NRC decides a formal public hearing is not needed. Thirty months would be the timeline if there is a hearing.

Opponents of Indian Point fire questions at NRC

Opponents of Indian Point fire questions at NRC
By GREG CLARYTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 28, 2007)
CORTLANDT - If yesterday's Nuclear Regulatory Commission public meetings are any indication, Indian Point's bid to operate for an extra 20 years will bring plenty of detailed debate in the agency review that will take two years to complete.
At informational sessions in a catering hall next to Cortlandt Town Hall, opponents of the nuclear plants lined up to fire questions at the NRC that dealt little with the relicensing protocol the agency was there to publicize.
"The NRC has a big job to do," said Cortlandt resident Karl Jacobs, a mechanical engineer who said he reviewed the nuclear plants' license renewal application in detail. "I want Entergy to realize that there are people out there who are very knowledgeable about this plant."
The questions and comments of Jacobs and others weren't general. In some cases, speakers brought up regulatory specifics and details about the plants themselves that NRC relicensing staff said they needed to research further.
Indian Point's owner, Entergy Nuclear Northeast, has applied for license extensions for the two working plants that would allow the company to continue producing electricity until 2035.
A flashpoint of controversy for years, especially after the 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, Indian Point has been dealing since 2005 with radiation leaks at the plant, problems with warning sirens throughout the 10-mile evacuation zone and a rash of unplanned shutdowns.
Without the 20-year extension, Indian Point 2 would have to close in 2013 and Indian Point 3 in 2015.
Yesterday's meetings were supposed to focus on the NRC's relicensing procedures, but after half-hour presentations by agency staffers at afternoon and evening sessions, audience members pushed for everything from more public involvement to tossing the application altogether.
"The same rules that apply in the current operation will apply during the license extension," said Bo Pham, the NRC's project manager for Indian Point's relicensing application. "There will have to be mitigation of issues we consider significant."
NRC officials noted that the application Entergy submitted April 30 has not finished a prescreening and thus has not been officially accepted. That normally occurs within 45-60 days, officials have said.
Pham acknowledged in response to one resident's question that the agency has not turned down any of the license renewal applications it has accepted. One application was not accepted because it was "fraught with errors."
Nearly half of the 104 plants overseen by the NRC have received approval to continuing producing electricity for an additional 20 years.
Indian Point had plenty of supporters among the hundreds of people at the meeting, as well as organizations that backed its efforts to extend its license in prepared statements.
The Coalition of Labor for Energy Jobs - Boilermakers Local 5, Millwrights and Machine Erectors Local 740 and Utility Workers 1-2 - were joined by members of the Carpenters Union and the Teamsters International in announcing their support for Indian Point, noting that the remarks coincided with an estimated 350,000 New York City residents enduring a power outage.
"We have to look at the greater picture for New York, that the Indian Point facility employs hundreds of highly skilled professionals and contributes more than $750 million annually to the downstate economy," said Jerry Connolly, a spokesman for the group.
Reach Greg Clary at gclary@lohud.com or 914-696-8566.
E-MAIL ARTICLE
PRINTER-FRIENDLY FORMAT
E-MAIL ALERTS
TOP OF PAGE

Post a Comment View All Comments
These meetings may be the rope that the anti-Indian Point cadre will ultimately hang itself with. At least in the public eye, that is. I heard a lot of demands for specific but irrelevant information, none of which the NRC had on hand. The antis knew they wouldn't; the NRC wasn't there to address issues like greenhouse gases from the nuclear fuel cycle, or Strontium 90 in fish bones (here come the baby teeth again), so there were many smug faces among the cadre when the NRC confessed that they weren't prepared to discuss those issues. However, that doesn't mean that the NRC doesn't have an answer already. The whole dog and pony show allowed a few celebrities of the cause to get up and publicly recite their mantra yet again, and that was the purpose of their request for a separate hearing. It's just another venue to publicize themselves, since the media and the public at large seems to either disagree with them at worst, or are simply apathetic. Later on, many of the anti’s claims and concerns will have to face the light of day, and will be addressed. They will be answered and most likely categorically refuted. One lady, after expressing her allegiance to the many Union workers present, also expressed concern for the future of the healthy newborn infant that she helped deliver as a midwife in the shadow of Indian Point. I thought this was odd that she would be concerned, given that the health threat to a newborn from radiation exposure (assuming that there is any) occurs in the first trimester of the pregnancy. She, as a midwife, certainly knew this. It was another example of how the anti movement uses drama bordering on farce, and broaches complex discussions (like nuclear-fuel cycle greenhouse emissions) without fully understanding their own questions, in an attempt to agitate a public that is not as gullible or paranoid as they wish it to be.
Posted by: SPQR on Thu Jun 28, 2007 7:06 am


The furious networking that I've monitored over the last few weeks among the small but vocal "anti" cadre, is a marvel of self organization, dedication, mutual cross-briefing in what issues to raise, and resulted in the entire cadre showing up for the NRC meeting last night. The fact that you can fit the entire anti nuke "army" in a single room (albeit in two sessions) is a very telling fact. There are not many of them. I once saw a Journal News article listing about 60 "holdout" activists, mainly older people, left over from the 60's & 70's peace movement, and now living in the Hud Valley. These semi-famous figures form a core, and a few organizers like Mark Jacobs of Longview school continue the emailing, the networking, the meetings at the Unitarian churches (partly as a civics lesson for his students).... resulting in the total count of around 300 people dedicated to shutting Indian Point down regardless, at any cost. That is who Greg Clary's story is about. That's a good story, actually! ...Think about it: "Handful of Dedicated Revolutionaries Attempts to Argue Away Region's Electrical Infrastructure" might be one title. Or another title: "300 Luddites Invade Informational Meeting to Harrass NRC". Essentially, a new shadow organization exists, which one might call the "NRC Camp Follower's Club". They only meet at NRC meetings, and pretend to speak for the 20,000,000 people who need Indian Point's services. They do not. They speak, at most, for the 33% minority who think negatively about these issues, and in fact, they speak absolutely, only for themselves. They do not speak for the 67% expressing positive inclinations toward keeping Indian Point running, and they do not speak about what way they intend to remake our society should this needed infrastructure be trashed. So what is their point? It seems their only point is to attend NRC meetings, and turn them into self-aggrandizement circuses, harrassing the dour, serious, responsible NRC staff with confounding questions, like pygmies shooting darts at some governmental elephant. A cynical revolutionary hootenanny, not even paying attention to the program NRC came there to reveal to the public. Unfortunately, because all the chairs were taken by the hootenanny attendees, the public never got to participate. My suggestion to NRC is to stop inciting these useless circuses, and simply take an ad in the New York Times, outlining their program.
Posted by: howard on Thu Jun 28, 2007 6:03 am

Helicopter school a threat to security

Helicopter school a threat to security
6/7/07
Considering that a helicopter training school is to open at Stewart Airport, our county government would do well to determine exactly how Rockland's airspace is to be protected.
Dangers to the nearby Indian Point nuclear plant were discussed many months ago at meetings of the Rockland County Conservation Association board of directors. While attack by airspace posed a threat, attack by chopper presented some frightening aspects on the local level.
It is assumed that federal authorities will take a long, hard look at those who apply to become helicopter pilots at a Stewart field school.
A good county Homeland Safety committee might determine how (or if) helicopter flights can be monitored. Palisades Interstate Park police might be invited to a New City meeting. Those from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, an obvious target, might also want to take part in Rockland discussions, if such a meeting were to be held.
Frank Leonard
Haverstraw
The writer is a member of the RCCA Board of Directors.

Indian Point schdules test of all sirens

Indian Point schdules test of all sirens
All 156 Indian Point sirens will be activated at full volume during a 10-second test to be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday by Entergy Nuclear Northeast.
The sirens are in a 10-mile emergency planning zone surrounding Indian Point, including 79 in Westchester County, 51 in Rockland, 16 in Orange and 10 in Putnam.
During an emergency, the counties would sound sirens simultaneously for four minutes at full volume, alerting the public to listen to emergency alert system broadcasts on local radio or television stations for further information and instructions. Sounding the sirens is a signal for residents to listen to broadcasts, not to evacuate.
Information booklets are available through local county emergency management offices by calling:
Westchester: 1-800-942-1452.
Rockland: 1-800-942-1450.
Putnam: 1-800-942-1457.
Orange: 1-800-942-7136.

First public meeting on Indian Point's license extension coming this week

First public meeting on Indian Point's license extension coming this week
By GREG CLARYTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 26, 2007)
BUCHANAN -Members of the public will get their first chance tomorrow to learn the steps Indian Point must go through if nuclear plant officials want to extend its license to create electricity for another 20 years.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two meetings - one at 1:30 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m. - at Colonial Terrace, a catering hall in Cortlandt, to lay out the agency's highly technical relicensing process in every day language.
"It's the perfect opportunity for the public to learn the issues that we're going to be dealing with," said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan, who arrived in the Hudson Valley yesterday with some of the two dozen agency experts expected to participate. "The timing couldn't be better because we're still reviewing the application license renewal to see if we will accept it."
Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which owns and operates Indian Point, applied at the end of April to extend its license from 2015 to 2035.
Indian Point 2, the older of the two working reactors at the site, has a license to generate electricity through 2013, while Indian Point 3's license expires two years later. The company is filing for extensions for both reactors in the application, each for 20 years.
Tomorrow's meetings will not get into the substance of the application; that will be reserved for meetings likely to happen in the next few months.
The environmental group Riverkeeper asked the NRC to increase its public outreach for the 22-30 month relicensing review period and to hold as many of the meetings on the subject as possible so that local residents could participate.
"To the NRC's credit, they respected our request to have these meetings," said Lisa Rainwater, Riverkeeper's policy director. "A generic meeting is just going to explain the process in detail, but that's what the public deserves. The next meeting will be on the environmental scoping process and that's when appropriate questions can be directed on the application itself."
Riverkeeper and other environmental organizations as well as some elected officials have worked to close the nuclear reactors, which generate enough electricity to power about two million homes. Opponents generally say replacement power should come from renewable sources, such as wind and solar power.
Tomorrow's presentations will also include NRC officials who will discuss the specifics of various issues facing Indian Point, such as groundwater contamination from continuing leaks of radioactive tritium and strontium-90.
The agency will also provide information on emergency planning and the safe storage of used uranium fuel rods at the site.
Other organizations such as Riverkeeper and Clearwater were invited to staff their own informational tables, as was Entergy, Sheehan said.
There won't be much else for officials from the nuclear plant to do during tomorrow's meetings.
"We're just audience members," said Entergy spokesman Jim Steets. "We expect to make ourselves available to people who have questions about what we're doing in connection with relicensing, and we'll take the opportunity to say why we think these plants ought to be relicensed."

NRC review leaves out many factors

(Original publication: June 25, 2007)Journal News
NRC review leaves out many factors
Greg Clary's description of the Indian Point relicensing process as "an in-depth review of whether the plant can operate for an additional 20 years" (Friday story) is a portrayal that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission loves, but is really a gross overstatement because of the narrowly defined NRC regulations.
Among the things that the relicensing review does not include are the ongoing leaks of strontium 90 and cesium 137 from Indian Point 1 that pool under the plant and go into the Hudson River. The plant was shut down decades ago and the leaks were only discovered two years ago. Also excluded are the ongoing leaks of tritium from Indian Point 2 that were discovered by accident during construction work two years ago while the NRC often talks about their larger than normal presence at Indian Point because of the problem-plagued history of the plant.
The regulations exclude consideration of the corrosion of inaccessible pipes from using salt water for cooling. The NRC regulations also exclude the population density around the plant and a review of the laughable evacuation plan. The process excludes consideration of terrorist vulnerability and impact of a successful attack, and that the spent fuel pools are so overloaded that older wastes will now be stacked on an open concrete platform on the property to allow for more fresh high level wastes to be placed in the pools.
If this is an in-depth review, what is a cursory review? Come and ask the NRC yourself at the Colonial Terrace in Cortlandt Manor on Wednesday.
Gary Shaw
Croton-on-HudsonStop wasting money on more studies
Your June 18 article ("Spano seeks another $20G in nuke suit") begs the question: When are our legislators going to stop shelling out significant taxpayer money to go after Indian Point?
Already, County Executive Andrew Spano spent more than a half-million taxpayer dollars funding the redundant Levitan Associates study on Indian Point in 2005. At the federal level, $1 million went to the National Academy of Sciences study from 2006, and now Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, wants to drop $10 million on a ridiculously wasteful "independent safety assessment" of the facility. Taxpayers should be up in arms.
The fact is that Indian Point's safe and reliable energy are crucial to the well-being of the region. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will also be thoroughly assessing Indian Point as part of the plants' license renewal application. Let's not waste any more taxpayer dollars on expensive law firms and redundant assessments, when common sense is all we need.
Laurent L. Lawrence
New Rochelle
The writer is executive director of the New York Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance.

Natural gas pipeline construction begins

Natural gas pipeline construction begins
Pearl River – Construction of the 182-mile-long Millennium Pipeline has begun. The 30-inch diameter buried natural gas pipeline, being built by Millennium Pipeline, LLC, will run from Greenwood in the Southern Tier of New York to Ramapo in the Hudson Valley and pass through Delaware, Sullivan, Orange and Rockland counties.The project will be constructed over a two-year period, with some restoration work extending into 2009.The pipeline is anchored by its customers KeySpan Energy Delivery Long Island, Consolidated Edison of New York, Columbia Gas Transmission Corporation, and Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corporation.The line will serve markets along its route in the Southern Tier and Hudson Valley as well as provide service to the New York City markets through its pipeline interconnections.Millennium will transport up to 525,400 dekatherms per day when it goes into service in November 2008.The company is jointly owned by affiliates of NiSource, Inc., KeySpan Corporation, and DTE Energy.

Amateur radio broadcasters test their skills in Carmel

Amateur radio broadcasters test their skills in Carmel
By REBECCA BAKERTHE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 24, 2007)
CARMEL - Alan Lounsbury doesn't think he'll win bragging rights today as the best ham radio operator in the world.
But the 44-year-old amateur broadcaster from Lake Carmel plans to have fun trying.
"There's three stations in Antarctica we'll try to reach," he said yesterday. "You try to make as many contacts as possible."
Lounsbury is among roughly two dozen ham radio operators from Putnam County who are taking part in what some consider the World Series of amateur radio - the national Field Day event.
The annual contest involves tens of thousands of ham radio operators nationwide, who give public demonstrations of their communications skill and emergency preparedness.
The Putnam Emergency and Amateur Repeater League, or PEARL, spent hours yesterday setting up generators, antenna and broadcasting equipment at Carmel's Veterans Memorial Park.
The 24-hour contest, which is open to the public, began at 2 p.m. yesterday and will wrap up this afternoon.
Lounsbury, PEARL's president and one of the youngest ham radio afficionados of the group, said he learned about ham radio from his father, who took up the hobby as a way to relax. A band director in Armonk schools, Lounsbury (KC8NPW) said he is looking forward to spending more time on the air now that school is out.
Ham radio has taken 69-year-old Jay Judell of Carmel all over the world. Judell, a sound engineer for CBS television, has visited other ham radio enthusiasts in Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
"I like to shoot the breeze and get to know people," he said. "I've talked to Barry Goldwater and King Hussein of Jordan." Their radio handles, for anyone interested, were K7UGA and JY1, respectively.
Judell (K2DXU) discovered ham radio as a student at Samuel Gompers High School in the Bronx. One day, he found some classmates at the school's radio station talking to a man in Germany.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I never saw a ham station before."
Jim Burke's ham radio has allowed him to talk to people in more than 100 countries and 300 locales, including a reef in the South China Sea.
Burke, a director with Orange & Rockland Utilities Inc., outfitted his car with ham radio equipment, turning his red Subaru into a mobile broadcasting station. His on-air identifier, WT4Q, is on his license plate.
"It's a lot of fun," the 54-year-old said.
It's also serious work. PEARL supplies communication during safety drills at the Indian Point nuclear power plant and works with the Red Cross and Salvation Army during emergencies. Burke uses his ham radio setup and a weather station at his Carmel home to help the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y., with local weather.
The club also runs ham radio classes and gives exams that amateur operators must pass to get licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. There are 660,000 Amateur Radio operators in the U.S. and more than 2.5 million worldwide, the Amateur Radio Relay League said.