[ARRL-OK] Fw: The ARES E-Letter for March 20, 2013

[Mark Conklin]

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Subject: The ARES E-Letter for March 20, 2013
 

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March 20,
2013Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
ARES E-Letter Archive
ARES
Home
ARRL Home Page 
In This Issue:
 
	* Next
Week! National Hurricane Conference: Amateur Radio Sessions
	* Mississippi Tornadoes; ARES Responses
	* Freak Snowstorm Hits Billings, Montana: Hams
Rally
	* Hillsborough County (FL) Active in Operation RADAR
II
	* Hams Work When Cell Phones Don't in Florida
Swamp
	* US NATIONAL GRID - A Geo-Spatial Tool for Public
Service Communications
	* Letters: CERT Members are Qualified, Not
Certified
	* Visit the New Citizen Corps and CERT Web
Pages
	* Letters: Professional Commends Amateurs After
Operation RADAR II
	* Books: Snow Info
	* Tips: Batteries at the Heart of Portable
Comms
	* FEMA Tip: Test Your Readiness
	* K1CE For a Final
Next Week! National Hurricane Conference: Amateur Radio Sessions
The National Hurricane Conference will be held next week, March 25-28 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside in New
Orleans, Louisiana. There will be several Amateur Radio activities going on during
the week, especially on Monday. The National Hurricane Conference (NHC)
leadership continues to recognize the valuable contribution of ARES and again
invited us to participate with three sessions, as follows:
NHC Session #1: Monday, March 25, 2013 from 10:30 am to 12:00
pm. This is the main Amateur Radio session of the National Hurricane
Conference and will cover Hurricanes Sandy and Isaac Amateur Radio responses. 
NHC Session #2: Monday, March 25, 2013 from 1:30 pm
to 3:00 pm. This session will cover Amateur Radio at the National
Hurricane Center, the WX4NHC Haiti Earthquake Mission, VoIP Hurricane Watch Net and
will feature special guest speaker Dr. Rick Knabb, Director of the
National Hurricane Center. 
NHC Session #3: Monday,
March 25, 2013 from 3:30 pm to 5:00 pm. This session is designed for Emergency
Management personnel and is entitled "Amateur Radio Rap Session - The
Emergency Manager's Hidden Resource." This is an increasingly popular session
where Emergency Management personnel from all over the country interact with
ARES personnel on aspects of disaster communications. 
The three Amateur Radio presentations will be recorded and streamed live
on the Internet by James Palmer, KB1KQW at, www.nsradio.org/stream.htm and www.voipwx.net/files/stream.htm 
All hams are invited, at no
cost to attend the Amateur Radio sessions at the National Hurricane
Conference. 
For additional information:
http://www.hurricanemeeting.com
http://www.southeastern.arrl.org/2013NationalHurricaneConferenceActivities.pdf
https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_gi_new&groupID=10994405
http://www.southeastern.arrl.org
http://www.voipwx.net 
National Hurricane Conference Presenters:
Special Guest Speaker, Dr. Rick Knabb, Director of the
National Hurricane Center
John McHugh, K4AG, WX4NHC
Coordinator for Amateur Radio, National Hurricane Center
Julio Ripoll, WD4R, WX4NHC Assistant Coordinator for Amateur Radio, www.wx4nhc.org
Rob Macedo, KD1CY, Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net and ARRL Section
Emergency Coordinator, Eastern Massachusetts Section
Dennis Dura, K2DCD, Assistant Director of the Office of Emergency Management,
New Jersey DHS
Joe Stepansky, KQ3F, Hurricane Watch
Net, Net Control
Mike Corey, KI1U, ARRL Emergency
Preparedness Manager
Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, ARRL Southeastern
Division Director
We encourage you to visit and
participate in all the activities you can and learn more about ARES communications in
the context of hurricane disasters. Hope to see you there! -- Greg
Sarratt, W4OZK, ARRL Southeastern Division Director, http://www.southeastern.arrl.org
Mississippi Tornadoes; ARES
Responses
On February 10 a line of severe storms
pushed east across Mississippi resulting in numerous severe thunderstorm
watches and warnings, as well as tornado watches and warnings. The storm produced
heavy rains, flash flooding, and tornadoes that left behind widespread
damage, debris, and injuries. One tornado track measured approximately 75
miles long with touchdowns in Marion, Lamar, and Forrest counties, with Forrest
County the most heavily impacted.
DEC Larry Morgan,
AG5Z, reported that as the EF-4 tornado approached Hattiesburg informal
emergency nets were started on two local repeaters. The nets eventually merged
on the 146.775 MHz repeater. When the net got a confirmed report of a
tornado on the ground, it went into a more formal mode. Calls were made to
Forrest and Lamar County EOCs to see if ARES support was needed. Since their
communications were not disrupted, the net was asked to stand by to be called
if needed. Several stations sent damage reports, and those needing
forwarding were sent to the Forrest County EOC. Gerald Shannon, KF5AQN, reported a
gas leak near the CVS Pharmacy on Hwy 49. Morgan forwarded the message to
the Forrest County EOC by telephone.
There were several
other informal H&W and damage report messages handled as well. During the
same storm event Jasper County EC Albert Mcdonald, WV1Q, reported that the
South Central SKYWARN and Jasper County ARES activated an emergency net
session for adverse weather in their served counties, taking check-ins and
emergency traffic during the storm. A host of storm spotters and ARES members
reported on this dangerous cell in the areas of Jones, Jasper, Wayne, Smith,
Lamar, Forrest and Clarke Counties. Operators played key roles in listening
for emergency traffic out of the affected areas. Partial phone and
numerous power outages were reported as well as building damage.
Central Mississippi SKYWARN Coordinator Linda Goodman, KE5PYM, reported that
the Central Mississippi SKYWARN net activated on February 10 at 10:30 AM
and closed at 12:00 midnight for a total of 13.5 hours of operation. The net
had 40 check-ins on VHF and passed 15 pieces of traffic. 
There was no rest for ARES in Hattiesburg. The Red Cross requested
assistance on February 21. Hams were asked to provide back-up communication
between two active shelters and the Red Cross Headquarters facility.
Operators met with Red Cross officials and others to work out an activation plan.
Hams were advised that there was no equipment on site and responders would
need to bring their own rigs and antennas. Hams provided a rig and coax for
the Headquarters site, with which the licensed Red Cross personnel
operated.
James Lee, NE5P, activated the shelter in Purvis,
and Thomas Webb, AE5QX, activated the Hattiesburg shelter. Sam Williams,
N5SP, stood by as relief operator if needed. The Red Cross secured the
activation around 8:00 PM. Storm activity increased later that night, and hams
were called back in. The stations were secured once the severe weather passed
around 1:30 AM.
The Red Cross again requested backup
communications assistance on February 25. Hams were dispatched to the
Purvis shelter at 2:00 PM and the Hattiesburg shelter at 2:45 PM. Both
locations lacked on-site antennas, so operators managed to configure an adequate
antenna from items they brought with them. James Ebner, N8JE, operated the
Red Cross Headquarters Station that he had installed.
As a result of the ARES effort, the American Red Cross South Mississippi
Readiness and Response Manager, Susan Laney, sent a letter of commendation to
DEC Larry Morgan, AG5Z, recognizing the efforts of the ARES operation in
Hattiesburg. -- Mississippi Section Manager Malcolm Keown, W5XX 
Freak Snowstorm
Hits Billings, Montana: Hams Rally
At 1445 on
Sunday, March 3, the sunny 53 degree day suddenly clouded over and snow
started to fall from the sky. The NWS reported that the temperature had dropped
20 degrees in 50 minutes. Within minutes, Billings was enveloped in a total
whiteout, with visibility of less than 100 feet in some areas. Most hams
were out performing their activities of daily living when the storm hit.
At 1505, Ron Glass, WN7Y received a text message from Linda
Cornetet, KF7ITX, that power to her home just west of Shiloh Road was out.
At 1510, the Great Clips hair salon at Grand Avenue and Rehberg where
Glass was experienced several power bumps in a row - enough to cause the
point-of-sale computer to have to be manually rebooted three times in about five
minutes. Glass worked his way home through the slushy roads and poor
visibility.
Upon arrival, Glass turned on his D-STAR base
radio (on 147.360 MHz), and APRS station, and began streaming live radar feeds
from NWS. He put his handheld on the public safety bands, scanning for
reports. By this time, Richard Wilson, KF7ITU, had started an informal
"Standby Net" from his spotting location near the airport, and was receiving more
reports from hams of power outages, white-out driving conditions, and also
reports over the public safety channels of slide-offs and vehicle crashes.
Soon thereafter, Zimmerman Trail hill was closed and traffic westbound from
the airport traffic circle toward Lavina was being diverted back into
Billings. Wilson said traffic was still allowed eastbound in front of the
airport, but the vehicles appeared out of the snow, drove by, and disappeared
back into the snow - all within 200 yards! Air traffic was suspended.
1625: In preparation for a possible call-up to help the City
and County, Glass sent out a shared Net Control Log on Google® Drive
and began logging all check-ins and radio traffic.
1639:
Several hams heard over the public safety Sheriff West VHF repeater a
broadcast from the 911 Comm Center that "the only way you can reach us now is
via this VHF repeater and by cellphone. We will be contacting officers
directly in the field via cellphone." Glass assumed that the new 800 MHz trunked
system that was just upgraded last month must have faltered with the power
outages.
1650: Glass decided not to spin the Standby
Net up into a full Yellowstone ARES (YARES) Emergency Net at this time for
several reasons: (1) the Comm Center had a workaround in place - cellphones;
(2) the cellphones appeared to be working with no expectation of dropping;
and (3) NWS radar showed clearing skies and almost zero precipitation
behind the initial violent frontal boundary. The latter was confirmed with four
hams who had good visibility to the west and northwest - clearing skies,
almost blue skies already. Planes were again allowed to take off and land at
the airport.
1659: Hams reported that Northwestern
Energy power had been restored to their homes west of Shiloh Road. At 1700,
Glass as NCS closed the Standby Net and completed log entries in the Google
Drive online log. "We had 18 check-ins during the net, with some via
cellphone text messages only, some on D-STAR, and others were monitoring D-STAR,
some on 147.360 MHz, some on 145.410 MHz, and several hams on repeaters,"
Glass reported.
Some wonderful, awesome, but frightening
photos came out of various sources after the storm - it was definitely one
for the record books and one that Billings residents will be talking about
for quite some time. Glass received several e-mails from people asking "did
you say your group does Storm Spotter Training in April? When and where
can we attend?"
Thanks to everyone that helped, either by
checking in with reports, or standing by in listen-only mode in case we
were activated. - from a report submitted by Ron Glass, WN7Y, Yellowstone
County Emergency Coordinator, Billings, Montana 
Hillsborough County (FL) Active in
Operation RADAR II
Hillsborough County (Tampa Bay
area), Florida ARES/RACES was very active in Operation RADAR II, Florida's
statewide Interoperability exercise held early last month, with over 35
amateurs involved. We were requested to participate by Preston Cook, Hillsborough
County Fire Rescue's Director of Emergency Management.
Three teams were deployed by the county. The first team comprised four
first responders: Thurnell "Chip" Shields, Steve Lawton, Mark Fisher and Chris
Tallent. Two became involved in leadership positions during the exercise:
Shields as Region 4 COML and Tallent as Region 4 Safety Officer. All four
of these first responders have earned their amateur licenses over the course
of the last couple of years.
Two ARES/RACES teams were
sent up to the exercise location at Camp Blanding, one responsible for
deploying the Region 4 MARC unit (a state asset consisting of a cache of
radios and a 100' trailer-mounted tower), and the third team operating primarily
as a remote HF base.
ARES/RACES officials deployed
Bill Williams, AG4QX, operating as AUXCOMM leader, Larry Gispert, KR4X, Jim
LaFollette, W4WBL, Ian Renton, W4RIR, leader of the MARC unit team, Warner
Budd Johson, WB4J, and Robert Chapman, KK4GKH. All teams successfully
deployed long-haul and local stations and communicated back to Hillsborough
County, and to other points around the state, and the State Warning Point.
In Hillsborough County, Keating Floyd, KC4HSI, ARES EC and
RACES Officer, coordinated operations with local and remote teams from the
Hillsborough County Emergency Operations Center, with several nets ongoing
during three days.
Hillsborough County ARES/RACES has a
strong MARS presence, with operators from all branches of MARS involved.
That bond with our military was strengthened by coordinating with the
290th JCSS of the Florida Air National Guard. We communicated with
elements from the JCSS in person and over MARS circuits. That amounts to 150+
hours for the firefighters, and over 500 volunteer hours from Hillsborough
County during the course of a one-week exercise!
Positive
items from this exercise included the opportunity to participate in a
statewide communications exercise, remotely and locally. This simulated
real-world conditions, with the need to communicate with deployed Hillsborough
County ARES/RACES personnel having been experienced after various hurricanes
and the Haiti earthquake.
There were issues in-county,
which included interesting slip-ups in passing message traffic. All messages
eventually got through, and everyone kept up their spirits and had a good
time, but we learned that we need to practice message handling more.
Volunteer organizations have the critical need to ensure
there is something for volunteers to do, and an exercise is a great outlet for
that need. Many operators checked in, passed traffic, and monitored the
various nets, both local and remote. Activities that would be needed in
disaster communications were performed in the safety and comfort of a normal day,
without the stress of a real event over our heads.
Perhaps most importantly of all of these details, there was great camaraderie
during the course of this exercise. The deployed and local teams, fire
fighters and amateurs, military and civilians, developed stronger and, in some
cases, new, working relationships. The next time we are called up, for an
exercise or real-world disaster, everything will be easier because of these
good working relationships with our communications partners. -- ARES
EC/RACES Officer Keating Floyd, KC4HSI, Hillsborough County, Florida
Hams Work When Cell Phones Don't
in Florida Swamp
After a day of exploring the
Green Swamp Wildlife Management Area -- which covers 50,692 protected acres in
Florida's Lake, Polk and Sumter Counties -- with his grandson, Joe Cody,
KE4WDP, of Winter Haven, Florida, saw that the roads were flooding and
becoming hazardous. As he tried to drive out of the area, Cody's small pick-up
truck got bogged down in the mud. Since he was out of cell phone range, Cody
tried calling for help on the Dade City 146.880 MHz repeater. Richard
Parker, KF4ORW, of Dade City, Florida, heard the call and answered.
After hearing the situation, Parker called 911 in Pasco County, who
put him in touch with the dispatch in neighboring Polk County. Cody passed
his location on to Parker, who in turn passed it on to the Polk County
Sherriff's Office. "Polk County 911 took over trying to get help," Parker
said. "They called me back several times for more information and I was able to
relay information from Joe to them. Then Ted Bulmanski, W4TKB, who is also
from Dade City, started monitoring and copying Joe's information."
About 30 minutes later, Parker saw a helicopter fly over and
around Cody's position, and after another 30 minutes, Cody radioed back on
the repeater, saying he was on his way home -- thanks to a Lake County
Deputy in a Sherriff's Office truck that had a winch. "We learned that Joe was
eight miles inside Lake County," Parker explained. "That's why the Lake
County Sherriff's Office responded instead of the Polk County authorities. The
Polk County Sherriff's Office called me back to say that the helicopter
from Lake County found the truck inside Lake County and sent both a deputy
from Lake County, as well as a Fish and Game Officer and winched him out of
the mud. They called me back to thank us for assisting the stranded pair.
Ham radio still works when other forms of communications don't." --Thanks
to ARRL West Central Florida Section Public Information Coordinator Kevin
Poorman, KV4CT, for the information; ARRL Letter
US NATIONAL GRID - A Geo-Spatial Tool for Public
Service Communications
As a result of Hurricane
Sandy, northeast responders were certainly faced with response situations in
unfamiliar areas or where common navigation aids were gone, flooded or burned
over. When such conditions exists, what should be the tool employed to
quickly allow for positional reporting and navigation? The answer that many
may not be familiar with is: US National Grid (USNG), a national standard
coordinate system designed for land-based operations and which is consistent
with military operations since 1949.
Amateur Radio
operators staffing EOCs and supporting emergency communications should be
familiar with USNG as responders and emergency managers will be using it. In
October, 2012, the Florida Division of Emergency Management issued a new Field
Operations Guide that describes how Florida emergency services will use
USNG. USNG has been a part of Florida's high level planning documents since
2010 with references going back to 2006. 
USNG is
effectively the same as Military Grid Reference System (MGRS), and is a derivative
of the Universal Transverse Mercador (UTM), which hikers employ routinely.
USNG can be displayed on your smartphone easily. However, a GPS receiver
is not mandatory. Paper maps are always a priority and all should include
USNG grid lines when created. Fire and law enforcement computer aided
dispatch and mobile data terminals can also be made to display properly labeled
grids.
All maps need a grid system in order to be most
usable. Maps already in use or those found in office supply or convenience
stores typically display non-interoperable "bingo" grids. Maps from the
Internet are generally devoid of grid lines and thus are effectively just
"pictures." What responders and emergency communicators need are properly
labeled, gridded USNG maps. USNG can specify areas of 1 Km, 100 meters or 10
meters with as little as four, six or eight digits respectively and without
dashes, decimal points or degrees. This facilitates easier radio communications
of coordinates. 15S UB 6912 0927 represents a coordinate with precision of
10 meters square (33' x 33'). When the components 15S UB are truncated by
local users, 691 092 represents 100 meters square (330' x 330') and 69 09
is the 1 Km square area. In words, 6912 0927 is a location 12% right and 27%
up in 1 Km grid 69 09. 
USNG area references will be
used tactically. 100 meter or 10 meter grids can identify helispots,
structures, homes, bridges, specific damage, etc. in combination with or in place
of the paradigm of street address, as appropriate. Out-of-area personnel
may have no familiarity with local addresses, but when versed in the simple
x-y nature of USNG, finding a location can be less stressful and certainly
more efficient. USNG coordinates for all locations such as shelters,
points-of-distribution, staging areas, etc., should be added to all planning
documents.
USNG is designated by the States of Minnesota and
Florida as the preferred coordinate system. Federal agencies comprising
the National Search and Rescue Committee have designated USNG as the
coordinate system for all land search and rescue operations as of November 2011.
When the street addressing system is unfamiliar, blown
away, burned over, flooded or is non-existent in a rural or wilderness areas,
the interoperable coordinate system to report position and to navigate by
is US National Grid. -- Al Studt, CFPS, KF4KIR, Florida Fire Instructor
III, kf4kir at gmail.com, Cocoa, Florida
Letters: CERT Members are Qualified, Not
Certified
In your last issue, a writer said "pleased to see
your article The Future of ARES is CERTain in January 2013 QST.
I am CERT trained and certified along with being a licensed operator. In
our group, . . ."
CERT members are "qualified" after
taking certain specified courses (IS-317), not "certified." This is a small
point but may have legal ramifications. - Tom Ponte, WB1CZX, EC,
Perquimans County, North Carolina 
Visit the New Citizen Corps and CERT Web Pages
The Citizen Corps website and CERT web page have relocated to new
homes. FEMA has consolidated all of its online content, including content
currently on the Citizen Corps website, into two websites: FEMA.gov and
Ready.gov. In addition to reducing costs, this website migration provides an
opportunity to increase the visibility of our programs to an entirely new
audience and to recruit new volunteers. The new website locations also give you
easy access to more resources than ever and an updated look and feel for
online content. 
Now when you try visiting the original
Citizen Corps website, you should be automatically redirected to the new page
at www.ready.gov/citizen-corps. Likewise, if
you try visiting the original CERT website, you should be automatically
redirected to its new page at www.fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams.
The
new web pages should have all of the functions of the original Citizen Corps
and CERT websites, including program registration and profile updates. We
also intend to build out State-specific pages to
drive more traffic to the State websites. If anything is missing or does not
work properly, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at citizencorps at fema.dhs.gov.
Be sure to check
out the new Citizen Corps and CERT web pages today for the latest
program news and updates! -- FEMA
Letters: Professional Commends Amateurs After Operation RADAR II
In re Florida's major interoperability exercise held last
month and reported in last month's issue, a professional participant wrote:
"As someone who has been involved in first responder communications for
many years, this type of training is what is needed on an annual basis.
Regardless if you're a volunteer or a communications professional, any
opportunity to train in a real environment validates what you as an individual or as
a member of a team can offer. There was excellent participation by the
amateur community; Amateur Radio operators surprised a lot of us with their
level of professionalism." -- David P. Byrum, Communications Engineer,
Communication Maintenance Manager 1, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, DHS/FEMA
ALL-HAZARDS ICS COML Instructor, KA4EBX, SKYWARN; thanks Kevin Poorman,
KV4CT, ARRL West Central Florida PIC
Books: Snow Info
The book The Snow Booklet, a Guide to the Science, Climatology, and the Measurement
of Snow in the United States by Nolan J. Doesken and Arthur Judson,
contains a good description of measuring snow depth under difficult
conditions as well as instructions for the measurement of "new snowfall" and the
water content of the "new snowfall." The publication is sold out, but
available free on-line at: http://ccc.atmos.colostate.edu/snowbooklet.php --Jim Hastings, K9AUC, St. Louis, Missouri
Tips: Batteries at the Heart of Portable
Comms
Back about 20 years ago, NiCd batteries were notorious for having a
pronounced memory effect caused by a special type of crystal formation within the
battery. This particular mechanism has been eliminated in current NiCd cells
but our memory of it, so to speak, is long.

Today's batteries all have some kind of memory in which the
capacity of the battery changes with patterns and depths of discharge. Each type
of battery chemistry exhibits this effect for different reasons - some
types stronger than others. Unfortunately, it's also referred to as a "memory
effect" which is confusing to those of us who remember the old "memory
effect." Nothing like calling two different things by the same name to generate
a lot of confusion!

Because this
effect varies with battery type, blanket statements about it are unwise.
Isidor Buchmann's *excellent* and very readable book, Batteries In a Portable
World, and its sibling website, www.batteryuniversity.com, tackle the full
spectrum of battery types and how to apply them. On the website, I highly
recommend taking the opportunity to read the section "How to Prolong Battery
Life." The book is available from the ARRL Store and other book sellers. Both should
put a charge into your understanding of this important energy source that
is crucial to effective emcomm operation. Good luck and may your batteries
live long and prosper! -- Ward Silver, N0AX, Contributing Editor, QST;
ARRL Contest Update Editor; St. Charles, Missouri
FEMA Tip: Test Your Readiness
FEMA Private Sector Resilience Tip of
the Week 3/11/13: Assess your organization's emergency preparedness
with the Ready Rating system: http://www.readyrating.org/.
K1CE For a
Final
I enjoyed this word of wisdom, relayed
from Ward Silver, N0AX, from the CQ-Contest reflector: "In my experience, I
can say with certainty that spending time running in a contest is excellent
preparation for operating as a Net Control Station during an emergency. The
hours spent handling Sweepstakes exchanges reinforces a level of discipline
needed to accurately handle H&W traffic during a relief operation that
comes during and after a natural catastrophe. If one is ready to face it, one
usually arrives at recognizing the part of the equation that usually needs
the most improvement is... the OPERATOR." -- Geoffrey Way, KA1IOR
__________
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