Good Saturday Morning, Friends,

For those who haven’t followed my previous posts, we live in a rural mountain community in Swannanoa, NC, and were hit hard by the unprecedented destruction caused by Hurricane (later Tropical Storm) Helene. I’ve been sharing regular updates to chronicle our recovery efforts and, naturally, to highlight the vital role amateur radio has played throughout.

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Let me say that it’s a comforting feeling to no longer have a tree leaning against and pinned to the roof of our home. It’s nice not to hear the creaking sounds of it rubbing against the metal roof every time the wind blows.

I’m incredibly grateful to the arborist crew that removed the trees from our vacation rental house and QTH. I mentioned that earlier this week the original arborist team we’d scheduled had informed us that they couldn’t remove the tree because they couldn’t bring a crane up our dodgy road.

Our new crew worked without a crane— which, of course, took more time— but they skillfully removed the tree using ropes, pulleys, and a solid understanding of physics. True pros!

We’re so thankful for their efforts.

This same crew ended up removing trees from several other homes on our road. They’re doing incredible work.

More Road Improvements

Our two-mile-long, steep, and curvy road has been getting a lot of attention from the Kentucky Department of Transportation this week. Even though Kentucky is two states away, crews from all over the country have come to help. This particular road crew has been amazing.

The road is now mostly two lanes again. While it’s not paved— and likely won’t be anytime soon— it’s passable by nearly any vehicle. We are all so grateful, and it looks like these improvements might even hold up against future weather challenges.

Improvements and Challenges

Now that our mountain community has electricity (and water), a stable and safer road, and access to every home (except one with a particularly long and mud slide-damaged driveway), life is beginning to normalize.

We’re feeling stable enough here to plan a visit to my father in Hickory this weekend. We’ve postponed visiting him for three weeks because of how unstable things were here, and we’ve kept all our travel within half an hour of the QTH.

After speaking with many neighbors, I feel like their experiences are reflective of everyone in WNC right now. Some are back to work, especially those who can work from home with satellite internet. Some want to work, but their employers— many in the tourism industry— were hit hard by Helene. One friend who works as a solar installer said that literally all of his company’s inventory was destroyed in the flooding along the Swannanoa River.

Tourism, the biggest industry in the mountains, has ground to a halt. A friend mentioned that many people he knows under 30 are now unemployed. For instance, the Grove Park Inn, one of our largest resorts, laid off all of its employees. They hope to reopen soon, but I imagine many guests have canceled for the rest of the year.

Helene couldn’t have come at a worse time, as the fall leaf-peeping season is upon us. Many businesses (including our vacation rental)  make the bulk of their income during this period.

While some WNC counties are still open for business, others— like Buncombe County— are discouraging tourism. I can’t imagine tourists descending on the area right now, as they would only get in the way of recovery.

A Neighborhood Radio Network

In the background, I’ve been exploring the idea of creating a robust off-grid radio communications network for our rural, remote community.

As mentioned in previous posts, we’ve been using amateur radio (VHF) to communicate within our community. While most operators aren’t licensed amateurs, in times of emergency, that’s not an issue.

As things return to normal and our mobile phone network is fully restored, I want to find a long-term, off-grid communications solution.

In an upcoming episode of the Ham Radio Workbench Podcast, I’ll be discussing this in more detail.

I recently spoke with my friend George (KJ6VU), who has gone through this process in his own neighborhood. He provided insight based on experience and I’m most grateful.

While I’d love for everyone in my community to become licensed hams, I know that’s not realistic. That said, I think we’ll gain a couple of new hams after my evangelizing! For now, we need off-grid communication options that are more accessible and use something more akin to channelized radios. Here are some options I’m considering:

• FRS (Family Radio Service): These radios are surprisingly effective but have low power output, and you can’t replace the built-in antenna. This won’t work across our entire two-mile road, especially with the 900-1,000 foot elevation change. This is really the option of last resort for us.
• GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service): This is a more viable option. GMRS radios are more robust, you can replace the antennas, and there are even 50-watt mobile/base options. The downside is that each family would need to apply for an FCC license ($35) and use the same family callsign. There’s also a lot of GMRS traffic, so even if we standardize on tone and channel settings, interference could be an issue. We could install a repeater for better coverage.
• PLMRS (Private Land Mobile Radio Service): This option would require more paperwork and upfront costs, but it has benefits. A frequency coordinator would find unused frequencies for our region, and if enough households sign up, the cost per household would drop. We could standardize on channelized DMR units, and interference from outside users would be minimal. Households wouldn’t need individual callsigns, and we could opt for a repeater if necessary.

I’ll be sorting through these options in the coming weeks and reaching out to neighbors to gauge interest. There are already enough people interested to make this a reality—it’s just a matter of deciding which service to use. At this point, I’m leaning toward PLMRS. If you have any experience or advice, feel free to comment!

Thank You

As always, we are deeply grateful for the kindness and support we’ve received. If I haven’t had a chance to respond to your emails or comments, please know it’s because I’ve been focused on helping my family and neighbors during this challenging time.

A huge thank you to Vince (VE6LK) and all the fantastic contributors on QRPer.com! I’ve read every comment and message but haven’t had the time to respond to each one. My time on the internet is limited, as most of my energy is going into normalizing life.

You are an amazing community and support network. Thank you so much!

Wishing you all the very best!

Cheers & 72,

Thomas (K4SWL)