BOISE, Idaho — Tucked in a room full of buttons, speakers and switches - the City of Boise's radio services division manages, and maintains, all the radios used throughout the city.
The division manages about 3,000 radios across the City of Trees, between agencies like Boise's police and fire departments, Zoo Boise and the Boise Airport.
Throughout the weekend, Boise's radio services division underwent a Winter Field Day exercise, as part of an initiative where radio operators across the county test their equipment to make sure they are ready for an emergency situation.
During the exercise, Boise's radio services division works to make contact with as many other radio operators across the continent as possible.
"It really tests our abilities as operators to be efficient and quick," Buddy Jacob, Boise's radio services division manager said. "And to make sure that our equipment is working properly."
He said their radio equipment is the last line of defense for Boise, that could be used if the city's network went down or system was compromised.
The division would be able to communicate with other cities and agencies in a worst-case emergency scenario.
"This scenario can be anything from just assisting with an emergency that might be out in a remote area - all the way up to an internet outage in the Pacific Northwest, or a long-term power outage where maybe our internet capability, or our capability to communicate over cell communications is degraded or gone," Jacob said. "If we had a situation where we couldn't get communications out, I could actually get on a radio and talk to our colleagues with FEMA or DHS."
While Idaho and the Northwest doesn't see many emergency-level events that could knock out power, cell service and internet, the team stays prepared with their radios ready.
"We can send very important information, we can send a lot of text," Jacob said. "So if a [fire] division commander said 'Hey, we need 1000 Mylar blankets here in Boise,' and we just can't get out on the cell system - I can get that message out to FEMA."
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