[Alexandria Radio Club Reflector] FW: DC Volunteer Drill on Saturday, September 25

[Rick and Karen Bunn]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack Gunther [mailto:jackgunther at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 8:43 PM
To: Tom Azlin N4ZPT
Cc: gary at sessums.org; ec at pgares.org; ec at pwcares.org; n4asx at w4hfh.org;
wi3n at arrl.org; n3sb at qis.net
Subject: Re: DC Volunteer Drill on Saturday, September 25

I understand that this may be a surprise to everyone.  I follow FFX ARES on
the Fairfax ARES GOOGLE Group (joined when I joined FFX ARES when I was
working in Tysons, not active now that I live/work in DC), also I'm a member
of Arlington ARES and stay up to date with their activities.

for all it's worth the DC HSEMA people also didn't have this on their
calendar.  I was called by the folks who arrange CERT and Neighborhood Corps
and when we originally thought we'd be at the UCC I contacted the comms
folks there and they had no idea.  since then, the scenario has changed and
we won't be at the UCC.

This is a link to the announcement: http://preview.tinyurl.com/25cymg4

Here is a copy of the announcement (for Fairfax) that I received from my
company's office of volunteerism:

Emergency Response Exercise - September 25
Be a part of making Fairfax County's response to future emergencies a
success! Volunteer Fairfax needs your help on Saturday, September 25th in
their emergency Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) exercise. Standing in line
has never been so important! By simply passing through each station of the
VRC (role-playing a local disaster volunteer), you will help improve our
ability to direct actual volunteers in future emergencies. This is a great
indoor event for ages 14 and up, as there is no prior training requirement
and no physical limitations. In addition to volunteering, participants will
have the chance to gain valuable information on personal preparedness from
some Volunteer Fairfax's community partners.

The event will be held in the Fairfax County Government Center lobby on
Saturday, September 25th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. There will also be
additional information and resources on hand to help you better prepare your
family, business and property for an emergency. If you are interested in
acting as an emergency volunteer for this event, please email Volunteer
Fairfax at ERexercise at volunteerfairfax.org. If you plan on volunteering with
a group, please include the number of individuals that will be joining you
at the exercise. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

I can't explain why the surrounding Counties didn't decide to use emergency
radio support (maybe they didn't think through that part).  All I know is
that DC asked us to participate and when we were going over the scenario,
the DC coordinator suggested that we try and locate some of our folks at
other intake centers around the area (those were the sites in my original
msg).

We will be using this as our annual SET here in DC and it looks like
Arlington will be participating as well.  It's a fairly short mobilization
so it shouldn't be too painful for us.

I have reached out to arrange the following resources:

VOA 2m and 440 Repeater (in downtown DC)
NERA 440 System (wide-area coverage) - permission not yet received
W4WVP Repeater (Thanks Chuck !)
I still have a concern about how we are going to get 2m to/from PG County's
site; NERA should work well on 440.

Scenario will be volunteer intake centers for a major disaster. Our traffic
will be periodic messages to/from other centers with number of volunteers,
status/stage of intake, other info as required.  Will also prep some
exercise radio messages to pass as traffic.  Finally, will send/receive one
or two messages formatted for NTS which I will try and get out on Virginia
Traffic Net Saturday eve. to check our ability for long-haul messaging.

I will be typing up some more info for our folks who are participating in
the exercise and providing it later in the week.

Again, I'm NOT trying to burden anyone with this, we look to be able to meet
DC's needs just fine.  If anyone would like to participate on Saturday, like
Arlington did, we'd certainly love to have you, but remember, NO
EXPECTATIONS.  I and the folks at ServeDC understand very well that you
weren't engaged by your local county folks.

thanks and 73.

jack/KB3KKY

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tom Azlin N4ZPT <n4zpt at cox.net>
>Sent: Sep 21, 2010 7:34 PM
>To: Jack Gunther <jackgunther at earthlink.net>
>Cc: gary at sessums.org, ec at pgares.org, ec at pwcares.org, n4asx at w4hfh.org,
wi3n at arrl.org, n3sb at qis.net
>Subject: Re: DC Volunteer Drill on Saturday, September 25
>
>Thanks Jack,
>
>I did not know about this in Fairfax nor did I see any evidence that the 
>FFX OEM folks knew that the District was using hams to provide emergency 
>backup communications on Saturday. Or had considered it for themselves. 
>In fact we are doing a work party over at the new EOC from 9AM to 2PM. 
>And I am meeting the EOC manager at the Gov Center at 8AM to pick up our 
>laptops from the alternate EOC.
>
>I always learn more by asking the emergency manager we report to so can 
>do that.
>
>What Fairfax reflectors do you follow?
>
>73, tom n4zpt
>
>On 9/21/2010 6:13 PM, Jack Gunther wrote:
>> Hi, DC ARES was asked by ServeDC (the CERT People in the District) to
provide emergency backup communications capablilities for a volunteer drill
on this coming Saturday morning 9 till Noon.  We've lined up some folks to
support it.
>>
>> Today I spoke with our liaison at ServeDC and she indicated that the
following facilities are involved:
>>
>> Prince Georges Co.
>> Ellen E.  Linson Complex
>> 5211 Paint Branch Parkway
>> College Park, MD 20740
>>
>> D.C.
>> Turkey Thicket Recreation Center
>> 1100 Michigan Ave NE
>> Washington, DC 20017
>>
>> Alexandria
>> Alexandria Red Cross
>> 123 N. Alfred Street
>> Alexandria, VA 22314
>>
>> Fairfax Co.
>> Fairfax County Government Center
>> 12000 Government Center Parkway
>> Fairfax, VA 22035).
>>
>> Arlington Co.
>> Patrick Henry Elementary School
>> 701 S. Highland Street Arlington
>> Virginia  22204
>>
>> Prince William Co.
>> VA Department of Health, Environmental Health
>> 8470 Kao Circle
>> Manassas, VA 20110
>>
>> I've only got a few folks mobilizing for this because we originally were
only supporting one volunteer site in DC and one operator at the DC Unified
Command Center.  We've been asked by DC to spread some of our operators to
other jurisdictions (e.g., PC and Arlington) in order to demonstrate
cross-jurisdiction coordination and our DC contact has offered to let the
other jurisdictions know that we are coming.
>>
>> I just wanted to make sure that nobody else was going to be there (I
haven't seen any traffic from the FFX, ARL, or MDC reflectors that I
follow).
>>
>> My plan is to locate folks in DC, PG County, and Arlington for this
exercise.  We will pass some traffic between our locations (number of
volunteers arriving, number processed, etc.)
>>
>> Again, NOT asking for help, just want to keep you all in the loop.
>>
>> We are doing this as our SET for DC this year, wish us luck (and see you
all at the MCM!)
>>
>> 73 de
>>
>> jack/KB3KKY
>> Washington, DC ARES EC
>> (202)489-8914 (mob)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>