AI6YR WoolseyFire Improvement Fund

I'm AI6YR (Ben), an amateur radio operator and technology enthusiast in Newbury Park, California. I've been active helping to provide real time information on what has been going on with the Woolsey Fire, Hill Fire, Lyn n Fire, Peak Fire, and other fires which have had such a huge impact on our area in November of 2018. I was also very active similarly during the Thomas Fire in 2017, the Montecito Mudflow earlier this year, and disasters outside of the region during Hurricane Maria (particularly, for the nation of Dominica, and Puerto Rico), plus many severe weather events during 2018 (wildfires across the west, flooding, hurricanes, etc.). This GoFundMe will go towards enhancing my ability to help others in the face of weather disasters, both here and across the globe.

Please donate first to those many families who have lost their homes due to this fire, and to the many nonprofits who serve them. I have suffered no losses, and consider myself lucky. Again, please help the others who have suffered losses before helping here.

However, if you find what I've been doing useful, I'm hoping to raise some money to pay for both improving my own ability to serve the community locally in disasters like the Woolsey Fire, Thomas Fire, Montecito Mudflow, and the like, as well as to fund projects across the area run by other amateur radio operators. I have learned many lessons, once again, of how to utilize amateur radio and technology to help the local community in a disaster, and I'd love to be able to fund the equipment necessary to make those improvements.

Those improvements include:

1. Purchase of modern scanner equipment and handheld radios to replace the 1990's era equipment I have been using to provide these updates. (new Uniden TruckTracker, additional Yaesu, Mobile mobile and handheld radios). In particular, P25/trunking/digital capable equipment.

2. Ubiuqiti 2G and 5G mesh networking equipment (for multiple locations) to enhance the high speed, amateur radio network which spans from Santa Barbara to Ventura to LA County.

3. Additional ham radio mesh camera equipment for installation on hill tops across Ventura County up to the LA County line (for video streams of fires, supplementing existing public safety resources). PTZ cameras for multiple repeater sites.

4. HF and VHF/UHF transceiver for a portable "go-kit" for my use during emergencies and as an operating base in case of another evacuation, or if needed away from my normal operating base.

5. Multiple Raspberry Pi computers, cases, power supplies, and related hardware for sensor networks. ADS-B antennas, filters, SDR dongles for additional aircraft tracking sensors in multiple repeater locations across the region.

6.  Misc radio and networking equipment needs TBD to be determined from the local repeater network operators and groups in the local area.

THANK YOU to all who supported the prior GoFundMe after the Thomas Fire, which went to replace damaged equipment and for enhancements to the amateur radio network; I hope I have demonstrated our responsible use of funds from that effort.

My thoughts are with the many families who have lost their homes due to these fires (also with those touched by the Borderline shooting).  Again, I am blessed to have not suffered any losses as so many families have in our area, and I urge you to please support them first, but if you'd like to support my efforts to help improve the resiliency of the local community to local disasters, I would be eternally grateful for your support.