[ARRL-OK] Fw: The ARES E-Letter for November 21, 2012

[Mark Conklin]

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November 21,
2012Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
ARES E-Letter Archive
ARES Home
ARRL Home Page 
In This Issue:
 
	* Superstorm Sandy Hotwash
	* Georgia ARES Team Supports National Guard
COMMEX
	* Tennessee Amateur Radio Club Participates in
Exercise "Winter Storm 2012"
	* New England Forest Rally 2012: Challenging and
Rewarding
	* ARRL Public Service/Emergency Communications
Training Program Changes
	* Letters: On Recruitment Challenges
	* Florida ARES Group Supports Great Floridian
Triathlon
	* Training Ops
	* K1CE For a Final
_____________
Superstorm Sandy Hotwash
ARRL HQ coverage of massive
storm Sandy and responses can be found here. Amateur Radio operators who wanted to assist those
Sections affected by Hurricane Sandy were advised not to self-deploy to
those areas. "There are many ARRL Sections involved in the impact area, and
each has different requirements on how they locate, credential and deploy
volunteers," explained ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey, KI1U.
"If a need for manpower is identified that cannot be met locally or in the
Section, Section leadership may contact other Sections for assistance. If the
need is still not met, Section leadership may then contact ARRL HQ for
assistance." ARRL HQ also sent Ham Aid radios and equipment in response to
requests, and Corey was active on major disaster response nets from
Connecticut. The following are summary after-action reports received by your editor,
by state or section. Many sections that were active during the storm are
not represented here, as their leadership are still gathering reports from
their operators for compilation and forwarding to ARRL. Further reports are
welcomed by your editor at k1ce at arrl.org and will be considered for future issues accordingly.
The reporters represented below are to be commended for their efforts to
include what went right and what went wrong, lessons learned and lessons
applied from past events. And, of course, the field operators that worked so
hard while in harm's way for the safety and security of citizens and property
deserve the most credit and the thanks of a grateful Amateur Radio
community and public at large. - K1CE
Eastern and Western
Massachusetts
Eastern Massachusetts ARES was put on standby
on Friday evening, October 26, 2012 to obtain availability of Amateur Radio
operators for deployment at EOCs and shelters, reported Rob Macedo, KD1CY,
Eastern Massachusetts Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC). Western
Massachusetts ARES was placed on standby on Saturday evening.
Eastern Massachusetts ARES activated its Amateur Radio command centers at
the Town of Acushnet Emergency Management Agency and at the Clay Center
Observatory co-located at the Dexter-Southfield School in Brookline,
Massachusetts to assure the section would stay connected if widespread 2 meter
repeater outages occurred. The City of Boston 
Long Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts (photo courtesy
KD1CY) EOC requested Amateur Radio support, as did the Red
Cross for several regional shelters within Eastern Massachusetts. Cape Cod
ARES supported several regional shelters on the cape, and had radio amateurs
at several area hospitals. Operators ran net control for their district net
out of the Red Cross Chapter office in Hyannis under the call sign
K1PBO.
The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)
Region Two Office in Bridgewater was also active as WC1MAB through the
efforts of Region Two RACES Radio Officer Mike "Sparky" Leger, N1YLQ, and John
Miller, N1UMJ. Finally, operators at the National Weather Service office
(Taunton) Amateur Radio SKYWARN station, WX1BOX, were active. Macedo and
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant SEC Carl Aveni, N1FY, staffed and operated
WX1BOX.
In Western Massachusetts, SEC John Ruggerio,
N2YHK, reported that several Red Cross shelters were opened in his section.
One shelter in Northampton was staffed with an Amateur Radio operator, but
for the other shelters, hams were not requested. The Worcester Emergency
Communications Team (WECT) ran a resource net and supported Amateur Radio
SKYWARN operations with reports of damage across Worcester County.
During Hurricane Sandy, the WX1BOX team handled several hundred
reports of wind damage (including roof structural damage reports in some areas
as well as many trees and wires down), wind measurements, rainfall
measurements, storm surge and urban flooding reports from heavy rainfall.
Reports came through over a dozen local area VHF/UHF repeaters
with liaisons as well as through the use of the New England Echolink/IRLP
Reflector system IRLP 9123/Echolink conference *NEW_ENG* node: 9123, which
was combined and linked into the VoIP Hurricane Net IRLP 9219/Echolink
conference *WX_TALK* Node: 7203 system. This created one large hurricane net
covering from the Delmarva region into New Jersey, New York and New England.
The Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, WX4NHC,
was also linked into this network. The damage reports and meteorological
information was shared with other agencies such as the Red Cross, local and
state emergency management and the media to provide situational awareness
and disaster intelligence during Sandy's impact on the region. This has
become a very critical role for Amateur Radio in the region and is viewed as
equally important to providing communications when all else fails.
At the height of the storm, numerous wind gusts exceeding
hurricane force (74 MPH) were recorded across southeastern New England with wind
gusts as high as 70 MPH recorded across interior locations of southern New
England. Two critical reports from Westerly, Rhode Island, of sustained winds
of 64 MPH with a wind gust to 86 MPH as well as a wind gust reported by
Cape Cod ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC) Frank O'Laughlin, WQ1O, of
76 MPH in the Marstons Mills section of Barnstable, Massachusetts were
received by WX1BOX and relayed to WX4NHC and appeared in the 5 PM Monday,
October 29, National Hurricane Center Advisory.
Power
outages numbered 386,000 in Massachusetts, 122,000 in Rhode Island and 630,000
in Connecticut. This meant over 1.1 million people were without power in
southern New England at the height of Sandy's impact. Despite that many people
without power, southern New England was luckier than New York City/Long
Island and New Jersey where power outages lasted longer and affected over 3
million people. "I never thought I would say with close to 400,000 people
without power in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that we would say we were
lucky but that is definitely the case in comparison to the other areas,"
Macedo said.
Surge flooding was heaviest in southern New
England. Beach erosion with sand as deep as 4 feet covered beach roads with
homes damaged and even knocked off their foundations by the storm surge in
Charlestown, Rhode Island. The south coastal areas were restricted to
residents only and required a pass to get into those locations. However,
Amateur Radio operators embedded with local town Emergency Management and Public
Safety teams facilitated reports on the damage from storm surge and
pictures after the situation passed for the NWS Taunton SKYWARN program.
Lessons Learned
What Worked:
There was significant reporting of conditions across the region from Amateur
Radio operators including those embedded with Emergency Management and
other agencies as well as APRS/CWOP weather stations. On-air operations were
professional and efficient. There was seamless transfer of information from
the local to regional to national level as seen in reports from southern
New England making it into NHC advisories by contact with the National
Hurricane Center via the VoIP Hurricane Net and the Hurricane Watch Net. There
was strong contact with the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA)
Region 2 Office and Emergency Management agencies that were on the air at
various local cities and towns. There was good PR generated with various
local TV and newspaper outlets mentioning Amateur Radio efforts in their
publications and on-air programs. A tremendous amount of pictures and videos
that were generated by many Amateur Radio operators and SKYWARN spotters will
allow for a historical guide for what Hurricane Sandy's impacts were in the
region.
What Needs Improvement: Several agencies
waited until the last minute to request Amateur Radio operators unlike during
Hurricane Irene when these agencies made requests upfront. This may have been
due to the lack of Hurricane Warnings issued up the coastline. This could
potentially be addressed via tabletop exercises with various agencies. The
number 
Amateur Radio Command Center, at
the Clay Center Observatory, Brookline, Massachusetts (photo courtesy
KD1CY) of Amateur Radio operators needed to create depth
to do multiple shifts for a situation that is over a 24-hour period
remains an issue. This will be addressed through more aggressive training
programs, district ARES meetings and drills. And finally, getting SKYWARN Spotters
embedded with Emergency Management to see storm surge areas if safe to do
so for near real-time reporting is a goal. This is an issue that will also
be coordinated with the National Weather Service in Taunton. - Rob Macedo,
KD1CY, Eastern Massachusetts SEC
Eastern Massachusetts
Section Manager Phil Temples, K9HI, said that "Macedo and his ARES staff
did a stellar job in the planning stages. They held numerous teleconferences
in the days leading up to our near-brush with disaster. Our section's
seamless integration of ARES and SKYWARN gave the players an excellent window
into what lay ahead. And, of course, NWS benefited greatly from our real-time
weather criteria reporting via VHF/UHF repeaters tied into the
IRLP/EchoLink/VoIP network."
North Carolina
Newport SKYWARN was activated on Saturday, October 27, after a conference
call briefing conducted by Richard Bandy, Meteorologist in Charge of the
Newport NWS office, with check-ins from numerous areas. ARES operators
participating in the net monitored their local repeaters, reporting flooding and
damage reports. Reports came in from Down East Carteret County of storm surges
more than 2 feet above high tide. Highway 70 was flooded. Bulkheads were
breached and wind gusts went up to 50 mph. Rob Shonk, N4JKL, reported that
his yard in Buxton was flooded with 4-5 feet of water. Shonk also witnessed
a house sliding into the sea and two nearby houses leaning on each other in
Rodanthe. -- Janice Hopkins, KJ4JPE, ARRL PIO, Newport, North Carolina
SKYWARN Net Control
Connecticut
Connecticut SM Betsey Doane, K1EIC, and SEC Wayne Gronlund, N1CLV, reported that
80 stations checked into the SM/SEC planning net held on Sunday night,
October 28, before the arrival of major storm effects there. Doane and Gronlund
briefed the group, and recruited volunteers to fill gaps in operations
where needed. Doane also took calls from served agencies to fill their
requests. All requests were met and problems were solved quickly by the ARES
leadership pair and the entire section ARES team.
SEC
Gronlund worked from the Division of Emergency Management and Homeland Security
(DEMHS) Region 4 Headquarters. The SEC's leadership nets met every two hours
on the KB1AEV linked repeater system. Some members of these nets were
operating from their respective DEMHS Region Headquarters stations. All
participated, giving reports of current conditions in their respective regions.
SKYWARN was busy, with Assistant DEC for SKYWARN Jim
McBride, KD1LD, keeping the nets updated on conditions. SKYWARN ECs coordinated
activity in their respective counties, performing very well as trained.
Well known SKYWARN operator Roger Jeanfaivre, K1PAI, coordinated 10 weather
nets for Hartford County.
Craig Lang, W1MHZ, ran a net
while camped out at his neighbor's home, as he had to be evacuated.
Assistant SEC Art Fregeau, AF1HS, posted alerts on the CTARES Web site, while others kept the ARES
Discussion email reflector operational. In general, repeaters went down, but
backup repeaters and power quickly restored communications.
Operators were deployed by the Greenwich American Red Cross office. In
Stamford, operators were recently CERT trained and were under the umbrella
of the City of Stamford as they provided backup communications for the
city. Led by EC Jon Perelstein, WB2RYV, operators were deployed to the
shelters as needed, and provided valuable support to the Stamford Office of
Emergency Management, manning phones; they had over 700 evacuees. The town of
Darien had one operator deployed for the Red Cross. In Norwalk, the shelter
was staffed around the clock by ARES, with one operator also being an
evacuee. In Wilton, one operator was on site at the EOC. Greater Bridgeport
Amateur Radio Club operators were at their EOC -- their area had over 800
evacuees in three evacuation centers.
Many other shelters
throughout the Section were supported by Amateur Radio operators, some of whom
are also CERT trained. EC Perelstein reported that eight volunteers and two
Red Cross disaster leaders, most of whom are members of the Stamford
Amateur Radio Association, supported the three Stamford shelters, manned the
City's Citizen Service Line, and provided backup communications for Red Cross
between the shelters, the EOC, and the Darien Red Cross chapter house.
Those manning the shelters did everything from intake to cooking to support for
the elderly and infirm. Those who manned the Citizen Service Line were the
City's direct communication to residents as they called for advice on
evacuation. Doane said that ARES operators also became involved as "expediters"
in dealing with various problems such as untangling a (non-radio)
communications issue that was interfering with food deliveries to the Stamford
shelters.
In the aftermath of the storm, the Mayor was
careful to single out participants to various visiting politicians, including
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. Both the Mayor and the Director of Public
Safety made specific mention of Amateur Radio in thanking the various
volunteer groups who helped the City of Stamford.
In Region
2, DEC Douglas Sharafanowich, WA1SFH operated for two days from DEMHS Region
2 Headquarters and ran nets every hour on Monday. This region was recently
reorganized, and Doane commended the DEC and his team on getting so many
trained people out in the field for this storm.
In
Eastern Connecticut, the following towns in Region 4 opened shelters that were
supported by ARES and/or Red Cross Amateur Radio operators: East Lyme, New
London, Groton, Stonington, Norwich, and Colchester and the Area 4 Waterford
Office of the Red Cross (K1ARC).
The East Lyme
Regional Shelter was opened on Sunday, October 28, by the American Red Cross.
Amateur Radio assistance was requested to link it to the Waterford American Red
Cross Headquarters. The link was established by a shelter radio, go-box,
and antenna that had been assembled by ARES from a Homeland Security Grant.
A Region 4 Resource net was operational with 31 stations checking in for
duty.
In Region 5, DEC Dave Hyatt, K1DAV, manned the
Torrington EOC. The War Memorial Shelter was supported by hams. Herb Kommritz,
N1KWV, managed the Red Cross operation in Bethel. The Region 5 Resource Net
run by Hyatt had 17 towns represented. In Bethel, Tom Cheslock, K1TJC,
acted as a Red Cross shelter manager for seven days and six nights. He and his
wife Carol looked after clients, manned radios, and handled many difficult
situations. Laura Vasile, KB1SOM, Bethel's Health Director handled all of
the health decisions. Ken Weith, KD1DD, ran shelter communications,
assigning town radios to key people. CERT training served the volunteers well in
this long term shelter assignment, reported Weith.
The
Stratford EOC was supported by Gary Moyher, WE1M, and SM Doane. The pair set
up EOC VHF/UHF radios and antennas at Bunnell High School (the Stratford
shelter). The EOC and shelter were then continuously manned by additional
operators.
On the digital front, Assistant SM Larry Buck,
K1HEJ, reported that the Flexnet packet nodes maintained connectivity.
There was good use of Winlink gateways, Buck said, and also 29 nodes were
connecting to the W1HAD packet network as platforms for disaster response
messages. NTS nets ran as scheduled but stood by to handle only emergency record
traffic to accommodate repeaters on backup power. Many operators stood by;
lots took part actively. Those at shelters supported communication
functions when asked and helped out with other related tasks. Doane thanked her
ARES operators: "We're a team!" -- Betsey Doane, K1EIC, Connecticut Section
Manager
Southern New Jersey
Ocean
County ARES was activated and conducted status nets on the WA2RES repeater
twice each day during the emergency and response phases. The Ocean County EOC
requested Amateur Radio communications for each Red Cross and municipal
shelter, which was met by Ocean County EC Robert Murdock, WX2NJ. Six shelters
were opened, but county ARES did not have enough equipment to serve all
shelters, so a request was made to Southern New Jersey SEC John Zruba, K2ZA,
and ARRL HQ responded by sending six transceivers, power supplies, coax and
antennas to the ARES group under the Ham Aid program.
Murdock went to the EOC, took possession of the equipment and returned to
his home, where he worked through the night to inventory the gear, program
the transceivers, assemble antennas and test all power supplies and coax for
proper operation. There was no commercial power at his home, but his ham
shack was being powered by a 9KW propane-powered emergency generator.
By Thursday, November 1, the emergency phase changed to the
recovery phase, which will take a long time to complete in the nine counties
of the ARRL Southern New Jersey section. Commercial communications systems
were being restored in most parts of the section, but Amateur Radio
operations continued in Ocean and Atlantic counties under the direction of their
ECs. Murdock said the ARRL Ham Aid VHF radios worked very well. Both
shoreline counties will continue to determine their long term Amateur Radio needs
daily based on Red Cross sheltering plans, and the state of commercial
communications restoration.
Zruba was also the Incident
Commander for this event. He polled other counties in the section for mutual
aid operator support for Atlantic county to relieve weary operators there.
The ARRL Eastern Pennsylvania, Northern New Jersey, and Western
Massachusetts sections all offered operators and ARESMAT teams.
The last session of the Section Resource net on the SNJ ARES repeater was
held on Thursday morning. Thanks were given to all ARES/RACES operators who
showed that planning, regular monthly tests, and dedication pay off when it
comes to helping their fellow citizens in a major communication emergency.
When all else fails, Amateur Radio works! -- Gary Wilson, K2GW, Assistant
SM, Southern New Jersey Section
Virginia
Virginia Section Manager Carl Clements, W4CAC, reported that ARES
groups in Fairfax County, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Virginia Beach
staffed EOCs and the Isle of Wight was also activated. "Most of our damage
here in the Tidewater area (Norfolk, Portsmouth, Chesapeake, and the Beach)
was a few downed trees and power lines with minor flooding. When our folks
were activated, they responded!"
Delaware
The ARRL Delaware Section ARES/RACES was tasked with providing back
up communications for the State EOC in Smyrna and each of the three
individual Delaware county EOCs at New Castle in New Castle county, Dover in Kent
county, and Georgetown in Sussex county. (Delaware has only three counties).
The team also provided back up communication for the City of Wilmington in
New Castle county and several small towns in Sussex County.
Communications provided during the storm consisted of essential
elements of information in the form of local road and weather reporting, high
water, downed trees and power outages. There was exchange of local welfare
information about open shelters. Updates were communicated to the National
Hurricane Center during the storm's progress. There were about 100 radio
amateurs involved throughout Delaware. Section Manager Frank Filipowski,
KB3QQZ, managed his team from the State EOC.
The primary HF
frequency used was 3905 kHz for the Delaware Traffic Net with check-ins from
each of the EOCs. HF communications were also established using Winlink,
Army MARS, and CAP frequencies. VHF and UHF communications were maintained
during the storm without power outages in most cases. Most of the traffic
and messages were passed using local VHF and UHF activated nets for each
county.
SM Filipowski said "Although the eye of Hurricane
Sandy passed over the state of Delaware, we escaped much of the damage that
was reported to areas north of us." Sussex County ARES provided emergency
back-up communications during Hurricane Sandy from October 28 through
October 30. ARES members furnished over 360 hours of communications support at
served agency locations as well as from their homes and mobile units.
Preps
Based on the
increasing potential of a damaging storm, Sussex County ARES encouraged members to
check their Go-Kits and overall readiness. As the storm continued to
develop a bulletin was issued on October 26 giving details of potential shelter
and hospital activations. On October 26 and 27, the EC attended statewide
conference calls at the county EOC. Information obtained from these calls was
helpful in creating the ARES plan for Sandy response. A special
pre-hurricane net was called on the evening of October 27 to answer questions and
discuss assignments and operating requirements. The detailed ARES plan was
issued on Sunday morning, October 28, which included frequencies, personnel
assignments, reporting requirements, and a request for additional personnel.
Activations began at 1200 on October 28. Sussex County ARES operators
deployed to several served agency locations and shelters.
The operating environment was generally high, gusty winds with heavy to
moderate rain. Winds peaked late afternoon and evening of October 29. Nearly all
traffic was "tactical." Information requests from the EOC were made in
this format, as were most responses. The Indian River High School shelter ARES
team used the ICS-213 message format for shelter head count reports. They
obtained Shelter Manager signatures on each. Practice/test WINLINK messages
were exchanged between the hospitals and the EOC.
Accomplishments/Lessons Learned
Sussex County
ARES provided communications at two shelters housing over 500 residents.
For many Sussex County ARES members, this was their first opportunity to
operate during an emergency and each of them stepped up. Net discipline was
greatly improved. With our training emphasis and the importance of the actual
situation at hand, chatter and general comments were at a minimum. The
radios that were recently installed at Nanticoke Hospital worked very well.
Data communications using WINLINK and WINMOR/PACTOR as well as voice were
available throughout the storm. The pre-net offered an opportunity to announce
and discuss final plans.
Permanent antennas at
shelters and hospitals are essential. This has been stated after several SETS and
drills and following Hurricane Irene. The marginal communications attained
with portable J-Poles and jury rigged solutions stands in stark contrast to
the success with the permanent antennas at Nanticoke Memorial hospital. On
a positive note, ARES has learned that Sussex County has procured
equipment for permanent installation at five shelter facilities. At Beebe Medical
Center, antennas have been purchased with the next step being installation.
Completion of these installations will mark a significant milestone. It is
hoped that the shelters and Beebe hospital will have permanent antennas in
time for the next emergency.
WINLINK was available at
Beebe and Nanticoke and at the EOC, but none of the shelter operators had
this capability. ARES is continuing to train and emphasize the importance of
this digital mode. The goal is to have WINLINK at each deployed
location/served agency. The ICS-213 is a useful tool in traffic handling. During
Sandy, only one site used the form in submitting shelter headcount reports. The
operator obtained Red Cross Shelter Manager signatures on each message. We
will continue to underline the value of the 213 in our training and at the
same time emphasize the need to send messages slowly and only after
direction from the NCS to begin transmission.
We must redouble
our efforts to encourage members to deploy to served agencies. During
Sandy, we satisfied our mission, but had the storm lingered, our deployed
manning level would have been insufficient to the task. ARES leadership has
identified several members who will be contacted individually and asked to
deploy during the next activation.
NCS and served agency
operators used ICS-309 for communications logging. Newer members were unsure
about the form, but tried their best to fill it out. ARES will conduct
training on the use of ICS-309, ICS-213 and ICS-214 forms.
The initial NCS operator was on duty for twelve hours. After that, with the
addition of two more operators, shifts were six hours. This still proved
to be too long, so in the future we will use three-hour shifts so that
operators do not become so fatigued. Reporting criteria need to be emphasized.
We did a much better job in reporting than we did during Hurricane Irene.
The EC requested a list of reportable information from the EOC and this was
generally provided by radio amateurs accordingly. A few unnecessary reports
("it's raining in Lewes") mean that we must continue to emphasize that only
information requested by a served agency is to be reported.
Individual operators reported radio, home generator, and TNC problems
as they attempted to use their equipment during the storm, pointing to the
importance of regularly checking out our equipment.
Summary
During the storm we received an
inquiry from the Delaware State Police asking about our ability to provide
support if it became necessary. The storm concluded without our activation,
but we were pleased to be considered as a potential resource. Beebe and
Nanticoke hospitals were very complimentary, frequently expressing their
appreciation for our support. Shelter managers were very cooperative in helping
the ARES teams find operating areas that were separate from the actual
shelter areas. This marked an improvement over the situation during Hurricane
Irene. An ARES press release was provided to local media outlets. Based on a
September meeting with Sussex County, ARES provided a listing of all
deployed operators so that they could be covered under the county's insurance
plan.
Sussex County ARES provided 365 person hours of
communications support to our community. An additional 21 hours were dedicated
to the pre-storm planning net, 13 hours to planning and coordination
including two meetings at the EOC, and 10 hours of after-action analysis and
reporting. In total, 409 hours of service. -- Frank Filipkowski, AD3M, Delaware
Section Manager
Northern New York
Two days after the ARRL Northern New York section's SET, superstorm Sandy
hit the east coast. In most of the Adirondacks, the storm seemed almost a
non-issue. We had some trees down and power outages for a short time, but
nothing too serious or prolonged. However, this was not the case elsewhere,
obviously.
As a member of the Air Force Military Auxiliary
Radio System (MARS), I spent the better part of three days checked in to
the USAF MARS emergency communications nets -- monitoring, relaying
messages, or acting as net control. MARS and ARES/RACES are complementary volunteer
emergency radio services, with ARES/RACES primarily supporting civilian
agencies and MARS supporting the military and other federal government
agencies such as FEMA. MARS members are Amateur Radio operators who have special
training in military communications procedures and operate on assigned
military frequencies outside the ham bands.
During one of
my net control shifts we handled a message to the FAA about loss of tower
lighting at a nuclear power facility, a potentially hazardous situation
especially with disaster relief aircraft in the area. The problem was observed
by a mobile station in New Jersey and relayed by an HF station in Virginia
to a military station in New York who in turn contacted the FAA, which in
turn issued a bulletin on the situation to warn pilots. - Pete Newell, KC2WI,
Lewis County ARES Emergency Coordinator/RACES Radio Officer; Lewis County Emergency
Communicators; AFA2CQ, Military Auxiliary Radio System
Georgia ARES Team Supports National Guard COMMEX
Zero-dark-thirty hours comes early for anyone, but
especially for civilians getting up to be part of a military communications
exercise! But members of the Cobb County (Georgia) ARES team, along with their
counterparts from Chatham County were up (literally!) for the Saturday,
November 3, 2012 National Guard COMMEX with time to spare -- or so it seemed
right up until net operations began.
Cobb ARES Emergency
Coordinator (EC) Ed Humphries, N5RCK, along with his wife Dawn, KI5EV, were
joined by Anthony (Tony) Gaito, KC0CSG and James (Jim) Wingate, WA2EIU, to
meet up and convoy together to Georgia's Clay National Guard Center,
recently opened on the site of the former Naval Air Station (NAS Atlanta). Gaito
towed the group's emergency communications trailer, which recently
completed build out, to the site. Working in two teams, the group
set up the trailer and its antennas for HF/VHF/UHF and weather along with
the emcomm generator and a DIY 40 meter folded dipole erected as an NVIS
antenna in an inverted V configuration. Everything was in place and tested
prior to the 0800 "STARTEX."
After EC Humphries visited
the Georgia National Guard Joint Operations Center inside the Guard's newly
completed headquarters building, the COMMEX began in earnest. The
objectives for Amateur Radio included making contact with the Chatham County ARES
group deployed to Fort Stewart via HF voice and data, D-STAR, and, if time
allowed, Echolink. ICS-213 style messages were successfully passed via HF
voice and PSK-31 and delivered to the intended recipients. Although the Fort
Stewart team could hear the Cobb ARES group via D-STAR emergency
communications Reflector 30C, a programming glitch prevented them from replying; the
Chatham hams solved the problem shortly before the exercise ended.
LTC Jeffrey Olive of the Headquarters Detachment, Joint Force
Headquarters at Clay National Guard Center led the way for a series of VIP
briefings given by Cobb ARES concerning the capabilities of Amateur Radio as
exemplified by the group's emcomm trailer and functioning. The Guardsmen
all seemed to be impressed with the possibilities for interoperability,
especially in the first 12 to 24 hours of any possible National Guard callout
such as for Hurricane Sandy that had just hit the northeast and Atlantic
states. This citizen soldier group has plenty of sophisticated communications
gear, but they also understand that the Guard's mission often puts them in a
position of needing to communicate and coordinate with civil authority and
NGO support groups. Amateur Radio already plays a key role in disaster
scenarios with those groups; a little synchronicity may come into play,
meaning it is a good thing to interact and practice interoperability!
As the "ENDEX" was being sounded there were cries heard above the
background noise of the generator, "Wait! I want to try ..." As usual the
time flew by and all the communications exchange ended with that one last
thing yet undone: The Cobb County ARES group enjoyed lunch with the National
Guard team courtesy of LTC Olive and then packed it all up, tired but happy
to have had a successful deployment.
The Amateur Radio
part of the exercise could not have taken place without the other end to
talk to: Chatham County ARES deployed to Fort Stewart, Georgia, near
Savannah. Newly appointed Metro Atlanta Assistant DEC Guy McDonald, K4GTM, was
there along with Greg Bandish, W5GKB; Dwight Bliecher, K4YPM; and Dan Scott,
KF4MND. Also, a special thanks goes to SFC Tiffany Warren for her
coordination efforts and arranging access to the Clay National Guard Center. Thanks
to LTC Olive and all the Guard crew for letting Cobb County ARES be part of
their communications exercise. -- Ed Humphries, N5RCK, Cobb County
(Georgia) EC
[Editor's note: ARRL Southeastern Division Vice
Director and Metro Atlanta District EC Jim Millsap, WB4NWS, commented "The
importance of our providing communications services to our National Guard
during a disaster is evidenced by their now second request for support for
their COMMEX. Our folks performed well providing solid radio communications
200 miles apart. At one point, a soldier went down due to heat, military
comms became overloaded and Amateur Radio VHF was utilized to communicate
messages to command from the field.
Data and voice were used to provide
support also."]
Tennessee Amateur Radio Club Participates in Exercise "Winter Storm
2012"
Members of the DeKalb/Cannon County (Tennessee)
Amateur Radio Club participated in an emergency exercise on Saturday, October 6,
2012. The Simulated Emergency Test was titled "Winter Storm 2012," and was
conducted with DeKalb and Cannon County EMAs. The exercise scenario was a
winter storm that entered Tennessee from the west near Memphis and moved
into middle Tennessee west of Nashville by noon on Saturday. The storm shut
down all major Interstates and highways across the state, with major
widespread power outages.
Portable HF and VHF/UHF stations and
antenna systems were constructed, evaluated for performance, and deployed
at several locations including DeKalb West School, Woodland School, and
atop Short Mountain. Stations at Cannon County High School, DeKalb Community
Hospital, and Stones' River Hospital were also activated and evaluated for
effectiveness.
The Amateur Radio station at the DeKalb
County EOC located at the Smithville Fire Hall was the command center for
the exercise. Messages were sent to the State EOC at the Tennessee Emergency
Management Agency (TEMA) in Nashville via wireless computer-radio links.
These messages contained SITREPs for DeKalb and Cannon counties, and were
sent from either the DeKalb EOC or the mobile station setup atop Short
Mountain by HF radio to an automated station in another part of the U.S., outside
the local simulated disaster area. Messages then went via one of five
hardened servers located worldwide (for redundancy), and then into the regular
Internet, to be delivered via e-mail anywhere that e-mail is available.
Thus, if the Internet were down locally or even regionally, by using the
Winlink 2000 system, we would still have some e-mail capabilities. This was in
addition to and separate from the usual local and area VHF/UHF operations.
A total of 14 radio amateurs from throughout middle
Tennessee checked into the emergency radio network. Local amateur repeaters were
used as well as VHF/UHF and HF point-to-point networks. Check-ins included
ARRL ARES officials DeKalb County EC Kathy Kujawski, NF9G, and Cannon
County EC Freddy Curtis, KC4GUG. Additional stations checking into the radio
network were John O'Conner, KD4WX, ARES District 6 Emergency Coordinator;
Dallas Rife, KK4ISW, Shelbyville; and Gary George, WB4CWS, of McMinnville.
The club thanked DeKalb County Emergency Management
Director Charlie Parker, and Cannon County EMA Director Faye Morse, as well as
DeKalb Community Hospital and Stones' River Hospital for their support of
local participation in this annual state-wide exercise. The club is affiliated
with the ARRL. -- Wm. Freddy Curtis, KC4GUG, DeKalb/Cannon County Amateur
Radio Club, Smithville, Tennessee
New England Forest Rally 2012: Challenging and Rewarding
Using your radio to serve the public is not only a great way
to give back, but it's also quite rewarding on a personal level. A
secondary benefit to volunteering your time to perform public service through ham
radio is that it's an excellent environment in which to hone your skills in
case you're needed in an emergency. The protocols employed at a public
service event are much like those used by hams called out to assist in
disasters and emergencies.
This past spring, I worked the
Boston Marathon. Weeks ago I was at the summit of Mt. Washington in New
Hampshire braving sustained winds of 50 mph while logging cyclists crossing the
finish line of the grueling Newton's Revenge race. At the end of the second
week of July, 2012, thousands of people descended upon Newry, Maine for the
classic New England Forest Rally (NEFR). If you were anywhere near this
remote western part of Maine, you saw street legal racing cars covered with
decals roaming Route 2 side by side with cars and trucks sporting Amateur
Radio antennas and operators providing safety communications. The NEFR is an
event that provides excellent training for disaster response operations:
there are dense forests, hills, dust, heat and no fixed repeaters nor
commercial power.
The team I was assigned to worked the
prestigious Concord Pond stage on the first day of the rally and both Lost Weekend
stages on the second day of the event. The Lost Weekend stage is a loop
road raced counterclockwise (CCW) in the morning and clockwise (CW) after
lunch. For operators, an H-T was quite limited unless it was paired with a
mobile 50-watt radio that can cross band repeat. That's how I worked the rally
this year: I used my Yaesu VX-7R on 439.000 MHz set on low power, and had
my Yaesu FT-8900R in my truck to capture my H-T signal and boom it out at 50
watts on the primary simplex 2-meter frequency we were using. I was
usually no more than 300 feet from my truck, so the low power setting on my H-T
was perfect. This helped preserve battery power in the H-T and allowed me to
work all day with one battery.
It's helpful to have a
portable mast-mounted antenna that you can connect to your car, truck or a
tree. You suspend from the top of the mast a 2-meter J-pole antenna that
allows you, in most cases, to hear every other ham on that stage. Using a
rooftop antenna on a car or truck will work, but I was not able to hear all
the other radios on my stages all the time. Next year I'll have a mast
antenna that I can erect in minutes and connect to the mobile 50-watt radio in my
truck.
If you like bugs, dust, mud, the woods, fast
cars, food from plastic bags and challenging work, then the New England
Forest Rally is the place for you. In all seriousness, I highly recommend
working this event, or any other rally event, if you want to see how you might
perform under pressure in a real disaster. -- Tim Carter, W3ATB, Meredith,
New Hampshire
ARRL
Public Service/Emergency Communications Training Program Changes
Revised Field Instructor (FI) and Mentor
Qualifications/Requirements have been implemented for the ARRL Public Service/Emergency
Communications Training Program. Our continuing effort to improve and adjust our
training program to adapt to the role we play in public service and
emergency communications response with other local and national agencies
necessarily results in changes from time to time. Based on feedback from individuals
and leaders in our community and changes in FEMA training we are making
some changes to strengthen our training program. Effective November 1, 2012
we are updating the qualifications/requirements for those who wish to serve
as Field Instructors or Online Mentors for ARRL's Emergency Communications
training program. Changes to qualifications include the addition of SKYWARN
training and some changes in the list of FEMA training required of
instructors and mentors. Updated requirements include listing field classes with
the ARRL Continuing Education Program office, and filing student rosters and
student evaluations with the CEP office. We are also adding a 3-year term
of service to this appointment. You can review the updated
qualifications/requirements on the ARRL website at: www.arrl.org/requirements-for-field-instructors and www.arrl.org/mentoring-online-courses.
The list of prerequisites for completion of the Public
Service and Emergency Communications Management for Radio Amateurs (EC-016)
Course has also been updated to reflect changes in the FEMA training program,
as well as other appropriate training for field leadership. Review the
updated list of prerequisites in the course description at: www.arrl.org/online-course-catalog. -- Mike Corey, KI1U, ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager
and Debra Johnson, K1DMJ, ARRL Education Services Manager
Letters: On Recruitment Challenges
In response to the thoughtful letter in the last issue from
John Lawrence, W1QS, about getting new operators into your organization, we
can honestly say in more than 20 years serving the Medtronic Twin Cities
Marathon we have never had a problem getting staffed up to around 130
volunteers for a seven hour event, and running a year round technical/Linux
development team that is world class. Here's what we do:
1.
Run a big tent -- we take anybody with a license or even without a license
for certain jobs like checking in patients in our medical tent or looking up
the status of missing runners.
2. Have an obsessive
focus on the needs for health care support and safety in your event/served
agency -- we are introduced and assigned as "part of the Medical Team."
3. Take related duties as assigned and do them perfectly --
some of these, like driving medical carts can be interesting.
4. Embrace the newest technology - this year we were asked about
supporting iPhones and sending text messages to family members of injured
runners.
5. Follow ICS/NIMS best practices, including
decentralizing operations. This provides us with more leadership
opportunities.
6. Drive to a mission statement -- ours is to deploy
world class Amateur Radio infrastructure and highly trained volunteers to
help make our community safer.
7. Show off a little. I
will never forget the gratitude on the faces of the fledgling medical
department at a new running event three years ago who called us in to help. On a
hot steamy race morning we brought in an Incident Action Plan co-written with
the City/County, two multi-million dollar communications trucks, 20 hams
and eight EMTs from our local Native American community. Two of the MDs from
that event now volunteer for us.
8. Work seamlessly
with Public Safety professionals and under their direction. Led by our
energetic Medical Director, we have been recruiting new health care volunteers
and are helping to glue our various agencies together to improve the overall
level of emergency response. -- Erik Westgard, NY9D, Volunteer Medical
Communications Coordinator, Twin Cities in Motion, www.14567.org
I feel the
pain of John Lawrence, W1QS. As the leader for a successful VE team we have
developed a comprehensive means to meet our recruitment goals. A good PIO or
PR person is a must. You need a strong person or team to get your message
out as well as manage your message. We actively go after CERT volunteers,
Public Safety officials, Boy Scouts, Civil Air Patrol, Library patrons,
pilots, boaters, Senior Center residents, and so on, to get interested persons
licensed and ultimately on our team. Use some imagination.
Look at your served agencies as a potential recruiting pool,
especially. Going after them also promotes communication, cooperation and
coordination.
Bring people together by generating training and
activities, as well as social events. Networking and getting people to work
together as a team are major factors to a healthy organization. People will
be involved if they feel engaged and that they can contribute. -- Bill
Neill, NE1LL, Westerville, Ohio, ne1ll at ymail.com
Florida
ARES Group Supports Great Floridian Triathlon
The
Lake County (Florida) ARES took an active support role in the Great
Floridian Triathlon that was held on October 20, 2012 in Claremont, Florida. The
major contest is the "Iron Man" where athletes complete a 2.5 mile swim, a
112 mile bicycle ride and a 26 mile marathon run. There were participants
from several different countries and many from all over the United States.
There were 300 people who took part in the Iron Man event and another 100 who
competed in an intermediate contest.
Lake County ARES
(LCARES) provided radio communications along the 112 mile bicycle route
consisting of three laps of nearly equal mileage. ARES was there to make sure
the ride was safe and those riders who broke down or had a medical problem
could get help quickly. Several ARES volunteers had put in a 12 hour day by
the time the communications trailer was pulled out at dusk.
LCARES turned out 13 volunteers to provide the necessary radio
communications using their own radio equipment and vehicles as well as the ARES
mobile communications trailer. The trailer was set up at the Lake Minneola
Park site in Claremont next to the event headquarters. A VHF/UHF vertical
antenna was placed on top of the 40 foot crank up tower, which served very
well as contact was established with all the mobile and hand-held 2 meter
radios throughout Lake County. The N4FLA repeater on 147.000 MHz was the
primary frequency, with simplex 2 meter frequencies also used for short range
contact to the trailer from event headquarters and staging area. The Lake
County EMS provided ARES with one of their portable radios for use in the
trailer to report cases that needed medical attention. We had to use this radio
on three occasions when Amateur Radio mobiles reported medical
emergencies.
We also had Nextel communications with event personnel
and with the mobile bicycle repair vans who also provided the SAG wagons.
There were three rest stops along the route with Amateur Radio operators at
each of them to report rider progress, request supplies, or look out for
certain riders. We had 10 requests for the mobile repair vans when
mechanical breakdowns were reported by Amateur Radio operators who were patrolling
the course.
Lessons Learned 
Everything was going smoothly until for some yet undetermined reason
in the afternoon our primary repeater locked up and made it unusable.
Being flexible ham radio operators, we quickly switched to our secondary
repeater on 146.255 MHz without missing a beat. Taking part in events such as
this gives the ARES personnel practical experience in setting up emergency
radio equipment, how to function as a team in an emergency and to properly
communicate by radio under these circumstances. This is important as we are
sometimes called upon to support public safety first responders in times of
natural disasters such as hurricanes and tornados, which are not strangers
to this part of Florida.-- Ted Luebbers, K1AYZ, Lake County ARES PIO,
Tavares, Florida www.k4fc.org or www.n4fla.org 
Training Ops
I found this while browsing a Utah state government site,
which seemed of interest to ARES. AUXCOMM Training Description: This workshop is designed for the amateur radio/auxiliary
communicator or group who provides emergency communications backup support
for planned or unplanned events at a State/Territory, Tribal, regional, or
local level. This offering is designed for amateur radio
operators/organizations who work with public safety and cross-disciplinary emergency response
professionals and coordination/support personnel with an amateur radio
background. The course focuses on educating attendees about auxiliary
communications interoperability, emergency operation center etiquette, on-the-air
etiquette, FCC rules and regulations, auxiliary communications training and
planning, certification and accreditation and emergency communications
deployment. It is intended to supplement and standardize an operator's basic
knowledge of emergency amateur radio communications in a public safety
context. Prerequisites: General Class or higher amateur radio license. Also,
IS-100, IS-200, IS-700, and IS-800. The IS courses can be completed online at: http://training.fema.gov the FEMA
Independent Study Website. -- K1CE
K1CE For a Final
Here's what I took away
from reading and compiling the reports received after the disaster responses
were wrapped up from storm Sandy: ARES and Amateur Radio emergency/disaster
response communications have evolved exceptionally well in this post 9/11
and Katrina era. ARES has kept pace, step for step with the emergency
management community at large as we have embraced digital modes, new technology,
and especially more and better training, professionalism and maturity as a
critical component of the overall radio communications emergency support
function. We should be proud of our efforts that have produced a better,
more valuable service for our neighbors and communities, our served agencies,
and indeed our own Amateur Radio community.
______
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