Butte County Community GMRS Team is composed of citizens within Butte County California, that have come together with one common goal. That goal is to ensure radio communications as a means of emergency communication for community members should another disaster strike our community. Year after year, Butte County has been riddled with natural disasters and massive evacuations, such as potential flooding from the Oroville Spillway, to fires throughout our county including the Camp Fire in 2018, the North Complex Fire better known as the Bear Fire in 2020, and many more fires each fire season prompting community evacuations. We strive to have a place where information can be directly broadcast with up to date information about incidents, as well as a place for citizens to be able to communicate should they find themselves in need of emergency help. Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea seen the need for additional communications in our county, prompting the Butte County Sheriff Dept. to put up the Bloomer and Platte repeaters to cover the Butte County area.
We hold a Net Control check in each Tuesday evening at 2000 hours (8:00pm PST) on the Bloomer repeater. The repeater is a public use repeater that follows FCC regulations. To join the check in, simply join us on Tuesdays and check in during the "additional check in" portion of the check in. The weekly check in gives users a chance to test their station, be it portable, mobile, or base, and make sure their equipment is operating correctly and clearly should the need to use it in an emergency arise. It also gives a chance for mobile users to change locations and check in anywhere they'd like and make sure their radio works at that location.
The Net Control Operators consist of ordinary citizens in Butte County who volunteer their time to host Net Control . We currently have 7 Net Control Operators who do an amazing job both during check in as well as during any situation that may arise should someone need help.
Following the fatal Camp Fire, November 2018, the urgent need for an alternative method to alert rural communities of an emergency became a priority. During the Camp Fire, as with many other fires, cell towers, land line phone and power lines were destroyed. That created an inability to provide residents with critical, lifesaving information. Our Sheriff, Kory Honea, was instrumental in encouraging his department to assist in finding a solution to this problem.
It was out of this history that the GMRS Radio system was adopted. Lois Miller, Mt. Ida Neighborhood Watch, organized a large meeting in 2019 between many Mt. Ida residents and several employees of Butte County, along with other volunteer groups such as AERS (Amateur Radio). It was at this meeting that the concept of Community based GMRS radio groups was born. The community of Mt. Ida jumped on board to be the first to try this concept out. Several residents were able to put up a repeater and many community members purchased GMRS repeater capable radios. The Mt. Ida Neighborhood Watch GMRS radio group was formed.
In November of the same year, the Community of Cohasset invited a Butte County Communication volunteer and Lois Miller, up to Cohasset to introduce Cohasset to the community based radio concept and demonstrate radio equipment. Maggie Krehbiel, who created the Cohasset Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC) in January of 2008, initiated the Cohasset GMRS radio group along with several long term members of the Cohasset EPC. By January 2020, the Community of Cohasset was up and running. In late Spring Cohasset had a designated repeater also.
PG&E made a donation to Butte County Sheriff's Communications Reserve for the purchase of several repeaters. Thanks to the Butte County Communications Department, the additional equipment, manpower and locations were found and the Butte County Repeaters were prepared to go online. The first official Butte County Net radio meeting was held at 7:30 pm on December 8, 2020.
As they say, the rest is history! Butte County Community GMRS is spreading across the county and several other small communities are organizing their own community groups. These groups, and the Butte County Net, are comprised of volunteers, dedicating a small amount of time weekly to help increase the safety for all of Butte County. The concept of Community groups interacting with each other, over the County Net, enables different rural communities to have others to reach out to in the event of a local emergency. In the event of a major emergency, then the Butte County Sheriffs Department will utilize the County Repeaters to broadcast Code Red alerts utilizing the services of CERT/AERS communication members.
The Butte County Community GMRS group holds their weekly Net call every Tuesday at 8:00pm on GMRS frequency 22. This Net is open to all. You only need to have an FCC GMRS call sign and a GMRS repeater capable radio to participate. We even have members participating from Olive Hurst and Rocklin! Please contact us through the contact page on this website or email us at bloomernet530@gmail.com for any questions you may have.
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