From BillLennox@aol.com  Mon Dec 23 01:00:35 2002
From: BillLennox@aol.com (BillLennox@aol.com)
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 20:00:35 EST
Subject: [Ares-races] Guam hammered by Supertyphoon Pongsona
Message-ID: <64.2a17fafd.2b37ba33@aol.com>

From:  <A HREF="www.arrl.org">www.arrl.org</A>

***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 21, No. 49
December 20, 2002
***************

==>HAM RADIO HAS ROLE IN GUAM RELIEF, RECOVERY

After a supertyphoon struck the Pacific Territory of Guam earlier this
month, an opportunity for hams to step in and provide emergency
communications never materialized, mostly due to a lack of fuel on the
stricken island. Nonetheless, ham radio is playing a role as Guam
residents get back on their feet.

"Most of the guys are trying to get themselves back together," said Dick
Manns, KH2G, "but one of the main problems immediately after the typhoon
was fuel for generators, as the tank farm was burning and no fuel could be
brought out and what little was available was being reserved for emergency
vehicles." The Marianas Amateur Radio Club has discussed setting up
emergency communications systems, he said, but insufficient funding has
hampered the effort.

Supertyphoon Pongsona hammered Guam December 8. Manns says FEMA, the US
military and the nongovernmental relief organizations have been helping a
lot in the typhoon's aftermath. But, it would have been nice, he
suggested, if local hams had been able to reciprocate with some
communications help using portable repeaters and packet radio. Another
problem: The storm pretty much devastated amateur antenna systems, he
said.

Duncan Campbell, KF6ILA/KH2, was one of the few hams able to get on the
air in the first few days after the storm hit, felling the island's lone
2-meter repeater tower in the process. Island hams used 2-meter FM simplex
as a major means of communication, Campbell said. The repeater reportedly
is back up. He was able to make several stateside HF to relay needs, but
fuel to run emergency generators for radio use became scarce, and he had
to shut down after December 10.

Manns said electrical power remains out for most residents and that only
about a third of the electrically powered water wells on Guam were
functional. Telephone service remains out "pretty much island-wide for
varying amounts of time" due to the power outages, he said. It's expected
to be several months until electrical power is fully restored on Guam.

At one point, despite an active listening campaign, Amateur Radio
operators on the air from Guam were simply not to be found. "We have six
amateurs engaged in this, almost our entire complement of HF operators,"
said ARRL District Emergency Coordinator for the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Tim Hayes, NH0H, December 15. Amateurs on
Saipan monitored the agreed-upon emergency frequency of 7085 kHz almost
continuously for a week without hearing a single Guam signal, he said. The
Pacific Inter-Island Net on 14,320 kHz also made a special effort to
listen for Guam stations.

Meanwhile, the American Red Cross, The Salvation Army and 28 US Government
agencies have combined to provide relief and recovery services. Reports
say 1750 homes were destroyed or left uninhabitable by the typhoon.

The Salvation Army is operating 12 temporary shelters and housing an
estimated 3000 residents left homeless. Salvation Army Team Emergency
Radio Network (SATERN) Coordinator Pat McPherson, WW9E, said SATERN this
week established contact between Guam and the SATERN national office in
Chicago via an EchoLink connection--a marriage of Amateur Radio and the
Internet. McPherson credited Al Paja, WH2Z, on Guam with helping to set up
the EchoLink connection.

Campbell, Manns and others have been able to maintain communication to the
outside world via the Internet after December 11. The fiber optic line
between Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands survived
the storm, and local Internet Service Providers were able to reconnect to
the backbone. With semi-reliable cellular telephone service available,
Campbell was able to post updates on local conditions to several Internet
bulletin boards.

The Guam Pacific Daily News Web site <http://www.guampdn.com/> also has
remained active and current. It continues to provide a major conduit for
those outside the island to leave messages for friends and relatives on
Guam.

Amateurs affiliated with the US Department of Health and Human Services'
Office of Emergency Response flew to Guam. "We're very active here with
disaster relief and have two sites operational on HF," said Steve "Sid"
Caesar, NH7C, the team's communications officer. Others on that team
include Satoshi Manabe, WH6CTO, and Jayson Kohama, WH6BXK. Caesar has been
in regular contact with amateurs in Hawaii over the past week.



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From BillLennox@aol.com  Mon Dec 23 01:00:32 2002
From: BillLennox@aol.com (BillLennox@aol.com)
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 20:00:32 EST
Subject: [Ares-races] PARTNERSHIP PAYS OFF IN HUNDREDS OF HAM RADIO EMERGENCY TRAINEES
Message-ID: <d5.20caa437.2b37ba30@aol.com>

From:  www.arrl.org  
***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 21, No. 49
December 20, 2002
***************

==>PARTNERSHIP PAYS OFF IN HUNDREDS OF HAM RADIO EMERGENCY TRAINEES

The $33,000 grant from Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies
Corporation (UTC) announced last spring has fueled a more than 20-fold
increase in the number of trained Amateur Radio emergency communicators in
Connecticut. In just six months, 258 Connecticut hams have completed the
ARRL Level-I Amateur Radio Emergency Communications course tuition-free,
thanks to the grant.

"UTC has helped us lay the groundwork for taking this training
nationwide," said ARRL Emergency Communications Course Manager Dan Miller,
K3UFG. "The grant from UTC was worth far more than a dollar amount."

Before UTC offered its support last June, just a dozen Connecticut hams
had become certified via the Level I emergency communications course. The
number certified now stands at 270. "We've learned from the experience in
Connecticut and will be able to move ahead quickly and effectively to roll
out the national program," Miller said.

Some of the Nutmeg State's newest trained ham radio communicators found
themselves put to the test November 17, when an early ice storm clamped
down on northwestern Connecticut. The ice storm cut off power to more than
130,000 residences and businesses. For Jim Ritterbusch, KD1YV, an ARRL
emergency coordinator, the way hams handled themselves in their roles as
emergency communicators during the storm was a direct result of the ARRL
Amateur Radio emergency communications training subsidized by the UTC
grant.

"The value of the training was apparent in many of the operators who had
taken Level I," he said. "The nets ran more accurately and efficiently
than we have seen in the past." As an example, he pointed out that during
the ice storm, several specific-purpose nets were in operation rather than
the single multi-purpose--and sometimes chaotic--nets of the past.

The partnership between UTC and ARRL has served as a model for
dramatically expanding Amateur Radio emergency communications courses. So
far, nearly 1700 amateurs nationwide have gone through at least one of the
three emergency communications course levels since the program's inception
in December 2000. ARRL offers three emergency communications
courses--introductory, intermediate and advanced.

ARRL Chief Development Officer Mary Hobart, K1MMH, said the League hopes
UTC now will approve a three-year grant to help fund further expansion of
the Amateur Radio emergency communications course program to the national
level. "A second grant from UTC for a national scale program will enable
ARRL to certify 5000 radio amateurs in Level I, II or III of the emergency
communications course, and have an even greater impact on homeland
security and disaster relief efforts," she said.

More information on the ARRL Certification and Continuing Education
Program is available on the ARRL Web site
<http://www.arrl.org/cce/courses.html>.



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From BillLennox@aol.com  Mon Dec 23 01:00:33 2002
From: BillLennox@aol.com (BillLennox@aol.com)
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2002 20:00:33 EST
Subject: [Ares-races] MISSISSIPPI ARES TEAMS RESPOND IN TORNADO-STRICKEN COMMUNITY
Message-ID: <120.1b54ce72.2b37ba31@aol.com>

From:  <A HREF="www.arrl.org">www.arrl.org</A>

***************
The ARRL Letter
Vol. 21, No. 49
December 20, 2002
***************

==>MISSISSIPPI ARES TEAMS RESPOND IN TORNADO-STRICKEN COMMUNITY

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) teams from Jackson and Meridian,
Mississippi, have converged on the tiny community of Newton to provide
emergency communication support following a devastating tornado December
19. ARRL Mississippi Section Manager Malcolm Keown, W5XX, said about a
dozen amateurs from the Metro Jackson ARES and the Lauderdale County ARES
groups were taking turns supporting relief agencies in Newton, which has
no ARES organization of its own.

The mid-day twister struck a Wal-Mart filled with holiday shoppers,
blowing out the front windows and collapsing part of the roof. The tornado
also damaged a furniture factory. Newton is located roughly halfway
between Jackson and Meridian in the Interstate 20 corridor. According to
news accounts, some 70 people were hurt, but no one was killed. Property
damage in the town was said to have been widespread, and Gov Ronnie
Musgrove has declared a state of emergency in Newton.

Keown said the ARES teams were helping the Red Cross with damage
assessment and with shelter communication. In the tornado's immediate
aftermath, telephone service and electrical power were out in much of the
town of nearly 4000 and in surrounding Newton County, he said. The hams
also have been assisting The Salvation Army and the Southern Baptist Men's
Kitchen canteen operations as well as making themselves available to local
emergency management officials.

Although some reports indicated the tornado hit without warning, Keown
said SKYWARN teams had activated all along the I-20 corridor in
anticipation of the severe weather, and the National Weather Service had
issued tornado warnings.

"We were up all day long," he said of the SKYWARN activity. "The first
damage estimates to the National Weather Service came from ham radio
SKYWARN reports."



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From kc5fm@juno.com  Tue Dec 24 12:48:07 2002
From: kc5fm@juno.com (Lloyd A Colston)
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 06:48:07 -0600
Subject: [Ares-races] Alternative Communications for CIP
Message-ID: <20021224.065120.-300465.82.kc5fm@juno.com>

 
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/dhtml/fire-service/igdec1902.cfm
 
contains this information pasted below.  Of course, there is more
information than this there.  I recommend all subscribe to this list so
they can learn what's going on in the Infrastructure Protection realm.
 
In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist incidents, licensed
operators of amateur radio stations, also known as "hams," played a
public service role by setting up radios at the Pentagon and near Dulles
International Airport so that they could communicate when the phone
network was jammed and cell phones went dead from too much traffic.
The ranks of hams have diminished, largely because younger people find
that using the Internet is easier, but there is a growing role for the
amateur radio operators: their service in providing communications during
emergencies. In the first days after the terrorist incidents, the radio
frequencies on which they operated were not subject to the same
frustrating chaos that froze telecommunications lines. Loudoun County,
Virginia, home to Dulles International Airport, gives the radio operators
space at the county's emergency management center, and county officials
are revising their emergency management plan to delineate the role of ham
radio operators during a crisis. In July, the American Radio Relay League
(ARRL), the national ham radio organization, received a grant from the
Corporation for National and Community Service to train ham radio
operators to respond in emergencies.
The CIPIC suggests that given the potentially important public service
role of hams, local and county emergency managers might consider
identifying the radio operators in their jurisdictions and enlisting
their support for future emergency operations.
Information about amateur radio activities, courses, licensing, and
public support is available at the following URL:
http://www.arrl.org/cce/courses.html

Lloyd Colston             Mayes County Emergency Management
Pryor, OK USA           http://www.geocities.com/mccem
        Don't let Yesterday take up too much of Today.
 

From w3sj@tampabay.rr.com  Tue Dec 24 13:53:33 2002
From: w3sj@tampabay.rr.com (Dave at RR)
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 08:53:33 -0500
Subject: [Ares-races] Season's Greetings !
Message-ID: <0f6b01c2ab53$d9cfba60$f1011c18@tampabay.rr.com>

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all !

Dave Haney
W3SJ
List Moderator


From BillLennox@aol.com  Mon Dec 30 04:32:29 2002
From: BillLennox@aol.com (BillLennox@aol.com)
Date: Sun, 29 Dec 2002 23:32:29 EST
Subject: [Ares-races] SKYWARN, ARES/RACES Activate for Arkansas, Missouri Storms
Message-ID: <a3.3609a4f3.2b41265d@aol.com>

From:  www.arrl.com

NEWINGTON, CT, Dec 24, 2002--The same front that produced tornado activity in 
Mississippi on December 19 earlier touched Arkansas and Missouri with 
devastating and deadly effect. After nearly a year without any significant 
tornado activity, Arkansas was again at the heart of severe weather December 
18. Tornadoes hit several counties in Missouri December 17 and 18. One person 
died in each state a direct result of the severe weather. 

The National Weather Service (NWS) activated SKYWARN at approximately 2 PM in 
Arkansas, and participants remained active until after 11 PM. Little Rock 
Emergency Coordinator Dale Temple, W5RXU, reports that the NWS issued 48 
warnings during the nine-hour net. Temple also is president of Arkansas 
SKYWARN. 

Temple said NWS Warning Coordination Meteorologist John Robinson and 
Meteorologist-In-Charge Renee Fair praised the accuracy and dedication of the 
Arkansas SKYWARN volunteers. 

In Arkansas, hail up to two inches in diameter, heavy rain up to six inches, 
damaging straight-line winds and tornadoes developed in Desha, Faulkner, 
Lincoln, Prairie, Saline, Woodruff, Jackson, Lonoke, White and Cross 
counties. 

At the request of American Red Cross Arkansas State Disaster Director Roger 
Elliot, Richard Thompson, W5SUB, fired up the Amateur Radio station at Red 
Cross Headquarters to help coordinate the organization's efforts to provide 
needed services to about 85 families whose homes had been damaged or 
destroyed by the severe weather. "Mr Elliot credited ham radio operators in 
assisting the Red Cross to mobilize more quickly and accurately to needy 
victims," Temple said. 

Arkansas SKYWARN, the Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net, Pulaski County, 
Little Rock and North Little Rock ARES/RACES actively supported state and 
local emergency management agencies as well as the Red Cross, The Salvation 
Army and area hospitals. 

In central and southern Missouri, several Amateur Radio Emergency Service 
(ARES) teams activated the night of December 17 when severe weather struck. 
There were multiple instances of rainfall greater than one inch per hour, and 
hail was reported in several counties. Missouri SEC Don Moore, KM0R, said 
that in a couple of instances, the NWS issued severe thunderstorm warnings 
shortly after ARES reports came in. 

Reports filed with the St Louis NWS Office included heavy rain, hail and 
damaging wind speeds. "There was a tornado reported in Laclede County that 
moved into Pulaski County, along with damaging wind speeds in excess of 75 
MPH in another area during the early morning hours of December 18," Moore 
said. Tornado activity was also reported in Springfield and the surrounding 
area. Hams also worked with the Springfield NWS Office. 

Linked repeater systems were used to pass information to the respective NWS 
offices and among local nets. Some five dozen hams involved in the response 
in three ARES districts logged double-digit work hours. Several county 
emergency coordinators said they monitored the statewide HF frequency for the 
Missouri Emergency Services Net in case there was traffic to pass. They also 
kept in contact with local governments and other served agencies in case 
Amateur Radio volunteers were needed. 




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