ECRV

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The ECRV, or Emergency Communications Response Vehicle, was designed and created by the American Red Cross to provide communications links between disaster relief operations and the Public Switched Telephone Network, the Internet and other public and private communications networks. They include an interoperability switch which allows agencies and the Red Cross to communicate with each other while using their own radio systems.

The nine base vehicles for the original design, Ford Excursions, were donated by Ford Motor Company; subsystems and components were primarily acquired through in-kind donations. The vehicles were extensively modified to add an 8.5KW alternator driven by the diesel engine (keeping weight down, thereby avoiding significant safety hazards), a 52' pop-up pneumatic mast capable of rotating while holding a large shortwave yagi antenna and which also has a video camera with telephoto lens for disaster assessment purposes, a VSAT two-way satellite antenna system, a one-way DirecTV DBS antenna, and sixteen HF, VHF, UHF, WiFi and microwave antennas feeding its radios and data systems. Second-generation ECRVs use a variety of other, similar, vehicles.

ECRVs are garaged in secure locations around the United States, and deployed when significant disasters require communication support. Training has a major emphasis on safety, as multiple severe injuries, amputations and fatalities have led from improper operation of similar television ENG vehicles. Fortunately, none of those include ECRV operators.

After training, ECRV operators are enrolled in the Disaster Services Human Resources system of the American Red Cross. Operators are called on as needed to drive the vehicle(s) to and from disaster locations and operate the systems until communications can be otherwise restored.

They have been used in multiple relief operations, including but not limited to Hurricane Katrina and the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season.