no other articles link to it . please introduce links to this page from related articles ; try the find link tool for suggestions . july 2010 heartland react type non profit industry radio communications ; volunteer founded omaha ne 1969 as douglas county react headquarters omaha nebraska key people jeremy barrett president paul mathenia vice president glen flint chief of operations jeremy barrett weather officer joel ellis public information officer joel ellis board of directors chairman derek loseke board of directors vice chair glen flint board member mark gillett board member jerry toussaint board member number of employees 45 website www.heartlandreact.com heartland react is a chapter of react international based in omaha nebraska . it was founded in 1969 and incorporated as a non profit organization in 1972 to provide communications as a public service in the event of emergency and non emergency events around the omaha metro area . 1 contents 1 purpose 1.1 events 2 communications methods 2.1 citizens band radio 2.2 gmrs 2.3 amateur radio 3 external links 4 references purpose edit heartland react provides communications in the event of severe weather . there are over 45 trained storm spotters that rapidly deploy to set watch points in order to relay weather and damage reports to the national weather service and the douglas county and sarpy county emergency management agencies . members also are located in three local news stations to provide meteorologists with visual reports . in the winter such as during a blizzard members of the 4x4 patrol scout roads for citizens who have encountered trouble such as accidents and driving into the ditch and will transport them to a warm safe place until help arrives . they also will provide transportation for essential hospital personnel to their place of work if they are not able to get to work safely in their own vehicles . in the event of special events as determined by local law enforcement heartland react can also be called as a first responder by the omaha police department as a first responder for missing children searches and similar emergencies . heartland react provides free communications services for various events such a parades bike rides and walks runs in order to ensure the safety of those participating in such events . events edit communications are provided for multiple events each year . some of the events worked are american diabetes association tour de cure cinco de mayo parade american heart association corporate cup run corporate cycling challenge elkhorn days parade florence days parade halloween patrol nami walk project jason offutt air force base mare drill omaha metro health fair bike ride omaha metro heart walk omaha safety expo ralston days parade susan g. komen race for the cure heartland react is an exhibitor at this event rather than providing communications services communications methods edit heartland react currently uses a combination of radio services to communicate . when first started cb radios were used but the team soon evolved into more reliable forms of communications . citizens band radio edit in the early days of react its primary purpose was to monitor channel 9 on the citizens band radio for emergencies . heartland react too used class d cb radios . however as the cb craze began to dwindle this service was eventually discontinued . however cb radios were used by the team for communications early on . gmrs edit after a massive 1975 tornado that hit omaha damage assessment was taken by react members around the city . however class d cb radio communications proved unreliable due to radio skip . after enough donations were received the decision was made to abandon class d cb radios and the team moved to class a cb radios which eventually became the general mobile radio service . a repeater was purchased and installed which operated at the frequency 462.700 mhz . because this frequency is an interstitial frequency the public was able to listen directly to the organizations communications using frs radios . in 2010 heartland react began streaming a feed of its gmrs repeater to the internet for the public listening via the radio reference website and several mobile phone applications . though the repeater was later upgraded and replaced in the late 1970s the frequency was never changed and was in use until march 2011 when it was repurposed as an amateur radio repeater . amateur radio edit in 2009 a member vote was taken and it was decided to move the organization to the amateur radio service . many members were already licensed amateur radio operator s. because gmrs radios are type accepted by the fcc it was determined that a move to the 70cm 440 mhz amateur band was most feasible as many of the team s existing radios could be programmed to run on these frequencies incurring minimal overhead in equipment costs and downtime during the transition . in april 2010 a uhf ham repeater was purchased for use . by september 1 2010 all members of heartland react were required to hold a technician class amateur radio license or higher . the former gmrs repeater was repurposed and relocated to a different tower in sarpy county and currently operates at 443.975 mhz . in 2012 a used motorola repeater was purchased programmed and established in elkhorn operating at 442.950 mhz . both repeaters utilize a ctcss tone of 146.2 hz and are open to the public except when a react net is in operation . future plans involve possibly relocating the sarpy county repeater into eastern douglas county to provide better downtown omaha coverage and linking the two repeaters . external links edit heartland react website heartland react twitter feed references edit about us retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title heartland react & oldid 731737728 categories communications in nebraskacompanies based in omaha nebraska501 c 3 nonprofit organizationsorganizations established in 1969hidden categories orphaned articles from july 2010all orphaned articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 27 july 2016 at 06 10 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view