HIRSC Team Updates for December 2019
The HIRSC Team is making some major changes and additions to all media platforms ahead of 2020.
Aloha and Happy Holidays Everyone,
First of all, the HIRSC team would like to thank all of our followers and supporters for the last 2 years and counting. We truly couldn't any of this possible without our followers.
Here are some updates coming to all of our media platforms:
West Hawaii Scanner Feed: The HIRSC Moderators and Administrators would, first of all, like to apologize for the prolonged outages and issues our listeners have been encountering over the last month. Our Founder and Head Administrator of HIRSC Ben has met with the internet service provider and was able to obtain backup equipment to help prevent such outages from continuing. Also, he has purchased and received backup equipment such as 4 new base scanners, battery power backups, antennas, and cables to help prevent another prolong outage in the future. The backup units are set up at 3 different locations to help with the transitions of preventing a long outage in the future. Should equipment fail at the main site, team members located at backup sites will work to restore the feed from their computer until main scanner unit back up and online. We would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding while the HIRSC team worked hard behind the scenes to get the equipment up and running. Should another issue arise that will cause future prolonged outages, the HIRSC team will do our best to keep everyone up to date on the status of the feed. Just a friendly reminder, the West Hawaii Scanner Feed will go offline on Mondays from 10:30 pm to 11:30 pm for weekly equipment maintenance and updating recording database, should this date change, we will again give everyone a heads up on that date.
HIRSC North Hawaii Scanner Feed: As previously mentioned in past updates earlier this year, we have evaluated resources and feasibility of having a North Hawaii Scanner Feed (which will cover North and South Kohala, Hamakua, and North Hilo) and based on our study and research, HIRSC team will be adding a North Hawaii Scanner Feed coming in Mid-2020, we are working to secure the primary location and other backup locations (should outages occur, we have a backup site to continue feed) at this time in Kamuela (Waimea) and will update you when that process has been completed, application process is approved and equipment is set up and ready for broadcast. This feed will provide coverage to an area not heard on both East and Hawaii Scanner Feeds. So stay tuned for the latest updates coming in 2020.
HIRSC Website Updates: Ahead of the new year 2020, the HIRSC team is making some major changes and new additions to the website and will go online on January 1st, 2020. Some changes coming are: Accessibility for followers with disabilities and allowing them to navigate website better, more interactive features will be added to all pages, update of the navigation bar, search bar feature, new scanner log page view, interactive member section (for those who do not have access Facebook or social media), new library resource page for important documents added into our updates and also related to topics we discuss, addition of systems in Arizona and Central and Southern California
Social Media Platform Updates: Based suggestion by followers: Coming also in 2020, we will begin to use separate groups for our different coverages (i.e: Southern Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, and California) and will be providing coverage area updates in those individual groups. This will allow us to leave the HIRSC main page for major updates related to Hawaii Island, State of Hawai'i, and updates from our coverage areas that affect Hawai'i in any way (such as travel, recalls, news, etc). So we will begin promoting those individual pages in 2020 once the setup of each is fully completed. If you would like us to separate the individual islands in Hawai'i, please let us know and we will need assistance maintaining from those island residences.
HIRSC Instagram Page: Yes, you read that right, the HIRSC team is now coming to Instagram beginning in January 2020. We know a lot of a our followers are on Instagram more than Facebook, so our team is working on getting our graphics and also other items tied to Instagram and will be posting updates on all platforms simultaneously beginning in January. We will update you we our Instagram becomes available and running.
HIRSC Retail Section: Our Founder and Main Administrator Ben is working behind the scene on securing scanner inventory, demo models, accessories, antenna, hardware, and other items at this time and currently also working to secure a retail location as well. Based on Ben's assessment, we will start off our retail section as an online basis for the starting point and may eventually open the physical location to the community should the demand rise. We are targeting some time in Quarter 1 of 2020, so stay tuned for future updates on the HIRSC Retail Section.
HIRSC Apparel Request: We did have a few followers ask if we have apparel for purchase and at this time working on receiving a small shipment in the next couple of weeks. Apparel will primarily be the polo shirts and hats we use while out in the field. We will also have a handful of t-shirts and pens also arriving as well. We will update you when they arrive.
Sponsorship of HIRSC: The HIRSC team has received a few offers from businesses to individuals to help with covering the cost of our website, scanner feed, and other platforms and we really do appreciate it out warming support to help us out, Ben is currently evaluating the numbers and statistics at this time and will notify those on how you can help the HIRSC team. As far as advertisements on our pages, the HIRSC team has elected to keep them off of our websites and allow the viewers to our website to have a commercial-free environment.
Big Mahalo (Thank You) goes to our HIRSC Administration and Moderating team for continuing to maintain the HIRSC website and all platforms. Another huge mahalo goes to Ben, who not only helping grow HIRSC but also generously sponsoring the page for the last 2 years and counting. We also could not do it without the help of Ben.