[ARRL-OK] Fw: The ARES E-Letter for June 20, 2012

[Mark Conklin]

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June 20, 2012Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
ARES E-Letter Archive
ARES
Home
ARRL Home Page 
In This Issue:
 
	* Northeast Florida ARES Ops Work Tropical Storm Beryl
	* Hurricane Station WX4NHC Annual Station Test a
Success
	* California ARES Hospital Group to Operate Field
Day
	* Letters: ARES and Digital Communications
Standardization
	* Links of Interest
	* Letters: Surplus Pub-Safety Radios
	* Silent Key: SKYWARN Founder Merle G. Kachenmeister,
WA8EWW
	* Correction: Hurricane Watch Net
	* Letters: ARESMAT Concept
	* KI1U For a Final
Northeast Florida ARES
Ops Work Tropical Storm Beryl
Nassau County
(northeast Florida) ARES® worked closely with county Emergency Management
during Tropical Storm Beryl last month. County Emergency Manager Danny
Hinson called me (EC Brian Kopp, KC5LPA) on Saturday morning, May 26, about 40
hours prior to landfall, and told me the county Emergency Operations Center
(EOC) would be activated and that he could use some emergency
communications assistance. I e-mailed and called my Assistant Emergency Coordinators,
and then headed to the EOC. One of my AECs came along and we spent the day
calling ARES members to line them up for possible shelter and EOC work. We
also checked radio communications in the EOC communications center.
On Sunday morning, we were back at the EOC and got the word
that the County might open 1 or 2 shelters. By agreement, ARES provides
communications support from the shelters to the EOC so that meant we needed to
have hams ready to deploy. Nassau County has a barrier island where a large
percentage of residents live and there were no plans to evacuate so we
needed to have ARES operators staged on the island and on the mainland, in
case bridge access was closed. It worked out that we had enough hams on the
mainland and on the island so we were covered. 
For this
storm the county decided to use "unadvertised" shelters. This is a protocol
where the county prepares a shelter but does not actively inform the
public. When residents call the EOC with a storm related emergency, they are
"triaged" on the phone and a decision is made whether to send them to a
shelter. A typical candidate resident might be a special needs patient who has an
oxygen machine that needs power but is experiencing a local power outage
in their area. The first resident that is sent to the shelter, effectively
means the shelter is opened. Logistically, ARES had to be ready so we had
hams standing by to go into the shelters. In fact, for one of the two planned
shelters an ARES couple took their RV to the shelter location in advance
of the storm so they could support right away if the shelter opened. They
were also able to relay situational information about the shelter to the EOC;
for instance, letting the EOC know when the Red Cross had dropped off
cots, bedding, and water.
W4FSA in the EOC Comm Room during Tropical Storm Beryl (photo courtesy
KC5LPA) 
On Sunday night, the
storm hit but not before the winds increased significantly from the early
estimates. We had hams in the EOC communications room during the height of
the storm. They maintained communications with our hams waiting at the
shelter, those hams on standby and with hams at the Jacksonville EOC. As it
turned out the shelters were not needed for the storm.
One
big issue that we hadn't counted on was that being Memorial Day weekend,
many county employees were out of town. On Monday morning, after Beryl made
landfall and the county was waking up and assessing the damage, Hinson asked
us to continue to help out in the EOC since they were short staffed. When
Eric Anderson, W4FSA, one of my AECs, walked into the EOC Monday morning he
found himself answering telephone calls from the public. Soon after I
arrived there ARES was tasked with using our communications skills to collect
damage reports. The damage assessment teams included those from the Red
Cross, some county employees, and Nassau County Fire Rescue. The teams were
calling in reports on the county's 800 MHz radio system. ARES, using county
radios we had in the EOC communications room, took down the information and
then created a database and map on the fly so the EOC could assess the
impact to the county.
In addition, Hinson requested ARES
hams provide neighborhood reports of damage, which we collected at the EOC
using our ARES Amateur Radio repeater system. There were also some assessment
teams who came in from the field with hand written reports and they were
sent to us where we data based their information as well. The small
communications room was a noisy place for a good part of the day on Monday.
After 3 days of support the Nassau County ARES team was able
to stand down from performing a job well done. On the whole the county was
lucky. A handful of homes and businesses were damaged, mainly from falling
trees, but the majority of the county came through Beryl with minimal
impact.
My thanks to our team who helped out: Tony W9AFM,
Eric W4FSA, Paul AE4MM, Fred WK1F, Patti WK1E, Ron KC4MYV, Joe KM9V, Tom
KJ4WQK, Mike KF4DSK, Dwayne KQ4XF, and Tom KJ4WHK. -- Brian Kopp, KC5LPA, Nassau County,
Florida ARES Emergency Coordinator
Hurricane Station WX4NHC Annual Station Test a Success
Each year prior to hurricane season, the Amateur Radio station
WX4NHC at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, conducts a major
on-the-air exercise to test all of its radio equipment, antennas and
computers, and to practice some of the procedures used during actual hurricane
operations. This year was no exception. Julio Ripoll, WD4R, the station's
assistant coordinator, filed a report with the ARES E-Letter.
"We did have a malfunction of one of our main computers that is used
for EchoLink and APRS during the test due to a faulty fan that caused it to
overheat. We reverted to the use of a back up computer to resume operation
on the EchoLink/IRLP Hurricane Net that was in progress without missing any
contacts. This was good practice of using our backup systems while we were
on the air. The faulty main computer is being replaced this week."
Ripoll reported 144 contacts on HF and 59 on EchoLink/IRLP
during the test event. "We also received reports via our on-line reporting
webpage, Winlink, APRS and e-mail. Stations contacted were from many states,
from the west coast to New England, Canada and the Caribbean islands."
"We were surprised and honored to receive a very special
weather report from N2OBS in Camp Dwyer, Afghanistan, who relayed our
appreciation and best wishes to the men and women in uniform there," said Ripoll.
"It was also great to speak with Jean-Robert, HH2JR, in Port-au-Prince,
Haiti, and Father John, HH6JH, on Ile de Vache, who were so instrumental to
our UM/Medishare Ham Radio Mission after the Haiti Earthquake." "Mike Kelley,
KJ4YDX, Vice Chairman of Medical Administration for the University of
Miami and former Chief Operations Officer for the UM/Medishare Haiti Mission,
spoke with both Jean-Robert and Father John about the past and current
UM/Medishare field hospital missions in Haiti and thanked them for their help
with the HH2/WX4NHC communications." 
National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio station
WX4NHC tested for hurricane season, Miami, Florida (WD4R
photo) 
Ripoll concluded: "WX4NHC, a group of 30
volunteer Amateur Radio operators at the National Hurricane Center (NHC)
appreciated all of the participation and support of the stations that
contacted us during our annual test and look forward to their continuing support
during the rest of the hurricane season." [Information on the National
Hurricane station WX4NHC and an on-line hurricane report form can be found here. - ed.]
California ARES Hospital
Group to Operate Field Day
The famous Hospital
Disaster Support Communications System (HDSCS) of Orange County, California,
will participate with Huntington Beach Hospital in this year's ARRL Field Day
exercise. The group will be communicating for 24 hours straight under
emergency conditions. HDSCS ops plan to make use of the buildings, parking
stands, and flagpoles to create antennas. They will be hanging out in those
bright yellow surge capacity tents and making Field Day contacts and report
exchanges. The members will also make satellite contacts. 
District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) April Moell, WA6OPS, invited other
operators to visit: "If you live or work nearby we hope you might be able to
come and check out the setup, talk with some of our members, and maybe get
on and make a radio contact yourself. If you have kids or grandkids, bring
them too. Remember you can stop by anytime during the 24 hour time period.
We might not be able to provide as thorough a tour after midnight but you
can still have some fun checking things out. And maybe you can help keep
our radio operators awake."
Listen for the HDSCS
operation on one of the various modes, using the call signs W6H and K6MHD. They
hope to make contacts with all 50 states. -- April Moell, M.A., CHCom, WA6OPS,
District Emergency Coordinator, ARES Hospital Disaster Support
Communications System, Orange County, CA
Letters: ARES and Digital Communications Standardization
I serve as president of the Loma Prieta Amateur Radio Club (LPARC)
in the Santa Cruz mountains of California. My purpose in writing is that
our club spans two counties, and I perceive that there are some differences
in approach to digital communications between operational areas. One county
has a vigorous ARES program, and makes use of Outpost software. The other county is a bit
newer to the digital communications party for emcomm, and has recently
begun to make use of FLDIGI software using MT63-2K mode. Other nearby counties' ARES
organizations also use FLDIGI.
It's likely that each
approach has its share of advantages and disadvantages, but as a small
organization in a relatively small community, LPARC would be challenged to
maintain and train on multiple sets of software serving a similar purpose. My
question to the emcomm community is: what is being done/planned to steer our
DECs towards a common solution for digital communications? We've read about
how divergent systems in the public sector cause widespread interoperability
challenges, and we don't need to repeat that in our community! I hope
we're already working on this. Thank you for broadening visibility of this
issue. -- David Katinsky, N2RDT, President, Loma Prieta Amateur Radio Club,
California
Links of
Interest
Hughes Announces Emergency Networking
Solutions in Anticipation of Hurricane Season -- Solutions Ensure
Government and Business Networks Stay Up and Running When Disaster Strikes. --
Thanks, Bob Bauer, KC4HM; APCO International Public Safety
Communications, May 31, 2012
Letters:
Surplus Pub-Safety Radios
Has your emcomm group taken
advantage of the surplus Public-Safety radios that are being taken out of
service? The Muskegon County (Michigan) Emergency Communication Services
EmComm group has been using non-compliant commercial transceivers for APRS
Digis, APRS trackers, WinLink 2000 go kits, packet operations, portable
transceivers, repeaters, portable repeaters, and provides a newly licensed ham
with a radio to use until they purchase one.
The FCC has
mandated that commercial and public safety users must have their radio
systems upgraded to the new narrowband emission standards by January 1, 2013.
This mandate applies to users in the VHF 150 MHz and UHF 450 MHz bands.
Only a small group of users within these bands are not required to migrate to
narrowband emissions such as GMRS, FRS, Marine transceivers, and NOAA
weather transmitters.
Set up a meeting with your emergency
management agency contact to ask what their plans are for disposing of the
non-narrow band equipment. If they have no plans, put a written plan
together for donating the radios to your group, emphasizing the benefits to both
organizations. Hopefully the decision makers will see the many uses of this
older equipment to your group versus being sent to the salvage yard.
After you have secured the equipment one of the first
requirements will be to have the radios "wiped clean" of their public-safety
frequencies. Agencies with a radio shop might even re-program the radios to your
frequencies, or you might already have members of your group that have the
necessary equipment for re-programming.
Most
commercial radio equipment is capable of being used in the Amateur Radio bands.
There are many advantages to using commercial equipment. Two of the many
benefits are the capability of operating in congested RF environments, and this
is a simple radio to operate for the new ham/emcomm member.-- James C.
Duram, K8COP, Emergency Coordinator, RACES Radio Officer, Professional Emergency
Manager (PEM), Communications Unit Leader (COM-L); Muskegon County Emergency Communication
Services, Inc., Muskegon, Michigan
Silent Key: SKYWARN Founder Merle G. Kachenmeister,
WA8EWW
Merle G. Kachenmeister, WA8EWW, died May 29 at
the age of 82 in the care of Hospice of NW Ohio. He had lived most recently
in Blissfield, Michigan. A Navy veteran, he began his career doing weather
for the Navy, according to his obituary. He then worked for the US Weather
Bureau, later renamed the National Weather Service, where he developed the
SKYWARN weather warning system following the deadly 1965 Palm Sunday
tornadoes. In recognition, the US Department of Commerce awarded him a bronze
service medal in 1974.
With Amateur Radio operators at the
forefront of the SKYWARN program, the ARRL and the National Weather
Service have cosponsored SKYWARN Recognition Day since 1999. A pioneering
television meteorologist, Kachenmeister retired from WTOL in Toledo, Ohio after
stints at several other TV stations. - ARRL Web site
Correction: Hurricane Watch Net
First, thanks for mentioning the Hurricane Watch Net in your Atlantic
hurricane season article in the last issue. There was an error made,
however, in regard to when we activate the net. The HWN only activates when
hurricanes threaten land in the Atlantic, Caribbean Basin, and Gulf of Mexico.
This will be the HWN's 47th consecutive hurricane
season, as the net was begun in 1965 during Hurricane Betsy. We obtain real time,
ground truth weather observations from hams in or near these storms and
relay the info to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. While our primary
focus remains to be on 14.325 MHz, recent solar cycle fluctuations and the
resultant propagation anomalies have required us to be flexible and operate
on 40 and/or 80 meter frequencies, as well. - Brad Pioveson, W9FX [ARRL
Illinois ARES Section Emergency Coordinator; Illinois Emergency Management
Agency State RACES Officer; and Army MARS Agency Liaison. Pioveson is also
ARRL Central Division representative to the Emergency Communications Advisory
Committee (ECAC); and member of the Hurricane Watch Net (since 1995). He
serves as President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Hurricane
Watch Net, Inc. Since 1995, W9FX has served as National Training Officer for
SATERN.]
And as a
teaser...watch for information about a 2012 hurricane season webinar that will
feature presentations by WX4NHC, HWN, VOIP WX Net, and ARRL HQ staff.
Information will be made available on the ARRL website and ARRL_EmComm Twitter
feed.
Letters: ARESMAT
Concept
This concept [ARESMAT, last issue] is one that was
both cussed and discussed at several disaster debriefings that I had the
opportunity of taking part in while an active member of the Red Cross
Disaster Services Human Resources (DSHR) over the years (1994 through 2005).
Several points that need to be clearly agreed upon whenever we ask volunteers to
leave home for any period of time are the use of personal vehicles (gas
and parking), personal liability, lodging, and meals. Volunteers must be sure
that their medical insurance will cover such activities and that they will
be able to get refills of any prescriptions that they need. What may be
covered by Illinois Volunteer Laws may be quite different from those in the
"Host" state. --Tod West, KB9AIL, Illinois ARES OES
KI1U For a Final
[This
month, we defer to ARRL's Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey, KI1U, for
his compelling essay on upgrading. - K1CE]
Upgrade
Each one of us came into the Amateur Radio Service through
a gateway; for some it was shortwave listening, others knew a ham and
thought it seemed like something fun to do, and others may have got their start
through a scouting project. Many Amateurs, in recent years, have gotten
their license because of emergency preparedness or public service interest.
However you came into the hobby your second step, after
getting your license, is to put it to good use. Naturally you're going to
explore what sparked your interest first, but from there the Amateur Radio
Service can offer you much more, but you'll probably need to upgrade.
The importance of upgrading your license is critical for
those with an interest in emergency communications and public service. We have
a tendency to think that these activities are limited to the VHF/UHF bands
and a Technician license will suffice. It is true that many local emcomm
and public service activities center on local repeaters, but you wouldn't put
only band aids in your first aid kit so why would you only put VHF/UHF in
your communications tool box?
The first and most
important reason to upgrade is that it will give you more privileges on the
Amateur Radio bands. You will have more radio spectrum at your disposal and can
move past the gate and explore the rest of the Service. Remember that your
Amateur Radio license is not what makes you an asset to emergency
communications and public service; your license allows you to get on the air and
improve your operating and technical skills. It is being a well rounded
Amateur Radio operator that makes you an asset. No one got their driver's license
and expected to win the Indy 500 the next day.
Never
miss an opportunity to get on the air.
The second reason
to upgrade is to add to your communications tool box. We often think of
our communications tool box (not to be confused with our go-kit) in terms of
modes and devices, but it also includes spectrum. Adding more HF spectrum
you can use improves your tool box. It gives you more ways to improve your
skills as an Amateur Radio operator and as a communications volunteer to
your served agencies.
So, it's time to upgrade! Start by
getting a good study manual, available through the ARRL and many Amateur
Radio vendors. And don't forget to try a few practice exams before you take
the real thing. Practice exams are available online. The next step is to work
with your elmer. A good elmer doesn't quit once you pass your Technician
exam; they are there to help you learn and grow as an Amateur Radio
operator. And finally when you're ready, find an exam session. You can find
information on the license classes, exam sessions, and more at http://www.arrl.org/licensing-preparation-exams Good luck and I hope to hear you on the
air! - Mike Corey, KI1U
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