LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Rotary gives $5,000 for better Lamorinda emergency communications


Barbara Bontemps, acting President of the Rotary Club, delivers a check for $5000 to Cathy Dausman, President of LARIG. Photo provided

A $5,000 dollar Orinda Rotary Club donation will boost the effectiveness of wireless communications throughout the Lamorinda area.

The recipient is the Lamorinda Area Radio Interest Group, an amateur radio club serving the community's event and emergency communication needs. The gift paid for a system of LARIG-built radio repeaters in Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda. These hilltop repeaters boost incoming signals from walkie-talkies and other radios and effectively overcome the losses caused by distance and hilly terrain. Each site has two repeater systems (each one with a radio receiver, transmitter, controller and antenna). One is for amateur radio band frequencies, the other for Family Radio Service and General Mobile Radio Service frequencies.

LARIG and other ham radio operators, Community Emergency Response Team members and first responders will use these repeaters.

Now in its 68th year, the Rotary Club of Orinda is part of a worldwide network of 1.2 million members serving their local communities and collaborating on major international projects. To learn more about Rotary, visit http://www.orindarotary.org/. For LARIG, go to https://www.facebook.com/pg/K6ORI/about/?ref=page_internal.