Hawaii County’s amateur radio community gathered Thursday at Aunty Sally Kaleohano’s Luau Hale for the first-ever Keanakolu Amateur Radio Summit.

Over 60 ham radio users met with personnel from Civil Defense, the National Weather Service and disaster preparedness organization Vibrant Hawaii to learn more about the critical role they can play in protecting the community during natural disasters.

“They say, ‘When all else fails, amateur radio works,’ and ham radio operators are essential for community resilience throughout Hawaii Island,” said Mayor Kimo Alameda, who named June Amateur Radio Month for the county just as Gov. Josh Green did for the state — both a nod to the beginning of hurricane season on June 1.

Some of those present Thursday worked with Civil Defense during past disasters as part of their Auxiliary Communications Service, known as ACS or AuxComm. This interconnected web of professional and amateur communicators work together to keep communities safe and informed when disasters like hurricanes, fires, earthquakes or eruptions limit or eliminate internet and telephone communication.

The Keanakolu Summit will be an annual gathering meant to strengthen that network by deepening the operators’ knowledge of disaster response protocols and tools.

The summit also gives the tight-knit group an opportunity to network in person. Some of those who attended Thursday only knew each other by their radio handles, which were included on everyone’s name tags.

Keanakolu, which translates to “the three caves,” is the name of an area near Mana Road in the Hilo Forest Reserve where warnings and other communications between ancient Native Hawaiian communities could be shared over great distances by speaking into the interconnected lava tubes in the area.

Both Civil Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno and Administrative Officer Bill Hanson repeated word-for-word the goal of all AuxComm efforts: “to get emergency messages to the last person in the last house on the last block.”

“Trained radio operators can help extend our reach — you can report damage that you’re seeing sustained in the communities, you can relay requests for aid, and you can fill critical gaps until help can arrive,” Civil Defense Officer Jesse Sceppe told the crowd. “The more we can communicate with each other now during blue skies, the better we can facilitate a coordinated incident response during grey skies. Resilience starts and ends in communities.”

National Weather Service meteorologist Sean Miller told the radio operators they could be “the eyes and ears of the National Weather Service” by reporting disastrous weather as it is developing.

Hanson said storm-spotting classes will be offered in the fall using Hawaii-specific weather curriculum developed by the national SkyWarn program, which is commonly more focused on weather related to mainland disasters like tornadoes.

“What we are trying to do is make sure that households are best prepared and communities are best prepared before disasters happen,” Hanson said.

Anthony Tillman, one radio operator at the Keanakolu Summit, spoke of an incident in Texas where he used SkyWarn to report circular patterns in the sky that triggered received any alerts. Tillman’s call allowed disaster teams to mobilize the community ahead of a tornado that did make landfall later that day.

“I think I saved some lives that day,” Tillman said.

Hanson said it makes sense for the Keanakolu Summit to continue taking place alongside the annual weeklong statewide hurricane preparation exercises known as Makani Pahili, which translates to “strong winds.”

Hanson said all counties have been developing and mobilizing county-level AuxComm networks since the 2023 wildfire that destroyed Lahaina, and the Hawaii County AuxComm team will take part in Makani Pahili next year alongside the state’s communication team.

Hanson said the Resilience Hubs central to Vibrant Hawaii’s disaster preparedness and response efforts are crucial components of the AuxComm network, along with the mixed bag of amateur radio operators present at the summit, which included everyone from Community Emergency Response Team members to novice radio hobbyists and everyone in between.

As Hanson outlined the categories of ham radio users — emergency communicators, tinkerers, contest performers, disaster preppers, and newcomers among them — Rick Ward of Hawaiian Ocean View Estates said he identifies with “all of the above.” An amateur operator since the late 1980s, Ward has lived on the Big Island since 1975 and has contributed communications during every disaster since Hurricane Iniki in 1992.

“There’s a lot of different aspects to the multifaceted jewel that is amateur radio, and each one of those facets has a part to play in it,” he said to explain why he couldn’t choose just one label. “You can’t box in a ham radio operator. Most of us end up doing everything, and it’s a lifelong learning process.”

The 10 women gaining knowledge alongside 50 male attendees at the summit also proved that the assumption about ham radio operators being a boys’ club is not true either.

“To me, it’s very important. I’ve been in different disasters, and just staying in touch and knowing what’s going on is huge,” said retired Navy commander Kyra Bernhardt of Papa‘aloa.

The ham radio stereotype of being all adults also was shattered, with the youngest person in the room Thursday being 12-year-old Ambrose Kapono. The boy’s father, Mark Kapono, is a newly licensed operator sharing his new hobby with his son using small Meshtastic handheld radios.

“We’re in the sticks, so this information here and integrating into the system may be useful for us and our neighbors,” Mark Kapono said of their remote home in Waikoloa.

Areas like Waikoloa rely on sirens to inform residents about emergencies, and Civil Defense officer George Manuel spoke at the summit about how Civil Defense relies on radio operators to both report back about the function of the island’s sirens and help Civil Defense push out information associated with the them. Manuel said that a siren test is one minute long, whereas a three-minute siren is a notification to seek more information to learn what the county is facing.

All the AuxComm members, Vibrant Hawaii and Civil Defense utilize the county’s Emergency Alerts service, a free account anyone can sign up for that will send information about any particular siren to the subscriber’s cellphone.

Sign up for free county emergency alerts at https://bit.ly/CDAlerts.

Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.