[ARRL-OK] Fw: InfraGard Ham Update

[Lloyd Colston]

It's not too late to join.

The survey is for Infragard only.  No need to do it on this list.

If you are involved in Emergency Communications or if you are assisting
local government, please see http://www.infragard.net.  I would encourage
your participation in Infragard because of the information-sharing that
occurs there.

Information about the ham list on Infragard is at the bottom of the
forward.

Let me know how more I can help.

Lloyd Colston             Mayes County Emergency Management
Pryor, OK USA           http://www.geocities.com/mccem
        Homeland Security begins at HOME.

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gary Warner <gar@askgar.com>


May 20, 2003

Dear InfraGard Members,

Thanks for expressing a willingness to help InfraGard research Amateur
Radio solutions to communications problems.

I'm Gary Warner, InfraGard member.  I'm a member of the Communications
Committee, and the recent chair of Birmingham InfraGard, where we
started the HAMOps mailing list a few months ago to try to answer the
question:  

  "Could HAM Radio members in the various InfraGard chapters serve as a
means for intra-chapter communications of emergency information if the
'wired' communications infrastructure was down?"

Last year at our National Congress, a volunteer Communications Committee
was formed to discuss how to improve communications between members.  We
have met weekly by teleconference since that time, and have been working
mostly behind the scenes.  James Joyce joined our committee in October
as the InfraGard Board Liaison to the Communications Committee.  After a
few "near outages" on the Internet from things like Root Name Server
hacks and runaway worms, he asked us to brainstorm on ways to
communicate technical fixes or warnings to remote chapters in the event
that the Internet, and possibly the phone system, was totally shut
down.  We posed the question to our respective chapters, and an Amateur
Radio operator in Birmingham suggested that HAM radio would be the way
to do it.  Communications Committee members began looking for solutions,
and Melani Hernoud from Denver helped us find some training resources. 
But it quickly became apparent we needed to put a call out to the secure
members of InfraGard for help.

Which is what James did for us in April, via the InfraGard-Secured
mailing list.

The response has been overwhelming!

208 members responded that they would be willing to help with this
project.  We had several very informative emails about current use of
Ham radios for emergency services from various EMA offices, Hospital
networks, Fire fighters, and others.  Many of you responded that you
were members of RACES (the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services) or
ARRL (Amateur Radio Relay League) or MARS (Military Amateur Radio
Services).  Some of you are even presidents of your local chapters, or
have helped develop other local EM-assistance groups, like BRAG (the
Bayshore Response Assistance Group).

Some of you who do not have licenses have backgrounds in communications,
including Navy and Coast Guard Radio Operators.

Others, like me, are willing and able to learn, but don't really know
where to start.  (Don't worry!  I plan to sit back and LISTEN to the
people who DO know!  Several great candidates to help lead this thing
became apparent in your responses.  We'll be in touch.)

I promise we'll move forward as quickly as we can!  There's just one
more thing I need from you before we can take the next step.  Could you
answer the following questions?  (Some of you already mentioned some of
these, but it would help if ALL of you could!)


-------------------

1a) Do you have an Amateur Radio License?
1b) What type (Amateur / Tech / Extra / etc.)
1c) What is your call sign?

2a) Are you an InfraGard member?
2b) if so, are you a "Secure" member?
2c) WHAT LOCAL INFRAGARD CHAPTER are you a member of?

3)  Are you qualified and willing to teach Amateur Radio to others?

4)  Are you desiring training assistance to prepare for your license
exams?

5)  Are you active in any "Emergency Response" radio networks
currently?  (ARES/MARS/RACES/local/other)
5b) if so, which ones?

--------------------

We have 71 of you that made it clear that you had a Ham license, with 54
giving call signs.  About 40 of you indicated you were NOT currently
licensed.  The rest, I can't tell.

Of the 98 that specified where you are located, I *THINK* I've
identified 38 chapters represented.  The other 110 responses didn't
indicate where you were located with enough accuracy for me to take a
guess at chapter membership.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer more questions!

We are still actively looking for information, and hope to have a much
better list of questions, and information about where we're going to
"officially" discuss things, when we get back to you next.  In the
meantime, be sure to mention the idea at your next local meeting.  

The HamOps mailing list has not had much activity lately, and we aren't
ready for "official" conversations regarding our project, but if you
would like to join to discuss how your local Emergency Response radio
networks are working, or to ask questions about training or exam
preparation, please feel free to join us.  Daniel Clemens is our
webmaster/mailmaster in Birmingham.  To join, please visit:

    http://infragard.us/mailman/listinfo/ham-ops


Thanks again for your time,


Gary Warner
Birmingham InfraGard