[ARRL-OK] Fw: The ARES E-Letter for February 18, 2015

[Mark Conklin via ARRL-OK]

 Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2015 11:12 PM
 Subject: The ARES E-Letter for February 18, 2015
  
Preview#yiv1246365051 #yiv1246365051nlad {width:210px;margin:10px auto;text-align:center;}#yiv1246365051 #yiv1246365051edcont {font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:16px;width:503px;padding-right:10px;border-right:solid #ccc 1px;}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051addiv {text-align:center;padding:10px 0;border-top:solid #ccc 1px;border-bottom:solid #ccc 1px;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody {font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:14px;width:723px;background:#fffff8;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody h2 {color:red;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody p {margin-top:8px;padding-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px;padding-bottom:0px;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody div.yiv1246365051itemTitle {font-family:times-roman, times, serif;font-size:160%;color:#c00000;margin-top:15px;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody div.yiv1246365051itemuTitle {font-family:times-roman, times, serif;font-size:160%;color:#c00000;margin-top:15px;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody p.yiv1246365051flushleft {text-indent:0px;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody p.yiv1246365051subhead {font-weight:bold;margin-top:14px;color:#c00000;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody p.yiv1246365051caption {margin-top:3px;font-size:90%;color:#666666;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody td {font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10pt;}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody ul {}#yiv1246365051 .yiv1246365051nlbody ul li {list-style-position:outside;}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051issueblok {font-size:90%;font-weight:bold;color:#000080;width:100%;padding-top:5px;}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051linkblok {padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:20px;margin-bottom:5px;}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051linkblok div.yiv1246365051toplink {width:227px;height:20px;text-align:center;background:#c00000;}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051linkblok div.yiv1246365051tl31 {}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051linkblok div.yiv1246365051tl32 {}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051linkblok div.yiv1246365051tl33 {}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051linkblok div.yiv1246365051toplink a {color:white;text-decoration:none;font-size:90%;}#yiv1246365051 table.yiv1246365051linktab {width:100%;margin:10px 0px;}#yiv1246365051 td.yiv1246365051tlt {width:227px;height:20px;text-align:center;background:#c00000;}#yiv1246365051 td.yiv1246365051tlt a {color:white;text-decoration:none;font-size:90%;}#yiv1246365051 div.yiv1246365051footer {font-size:90%;color:#000080;}#yiv1246365051 a:link {color:blue;}#yiv1246365051 a:visited {color:blue;}
| If you are having troublereading this message, you can see the original at:
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/?issue=2015-02-18February 18,2015Editor: Rick Palm, K1CEARES E-Letter ArchiveARES HomeARRL HomePage  |
| In This Issue:    
   - Mt. Hamilton Classic Road Race: Communications ChallengesPosed to Operators
   - Tip: Blackout Buddy
   - Letters: On the Importance of Reporting
   - Lake Amateur Radio Association (Florida) PresentsPresident's Award
   - Letters: Web-Based Reporting
   - Letters: Follow-Up on Five Year Old ARESMember
   - Amateur Radio Saved My Life
   - ARES Reporting
In Brief:The Government ofCanada will provide more than $25,000 (CDN) to the Saint Lucia Amateur Radio Club toimprove Amateur Radio coverage and communication in the small Caribbean islandnation in the event of a disaster. The project will install two repeatersystems including solar back-up power, train 90 radio operators, and increasecoverage for all of Saint Lucia's 18 districts. Full story here.TheDepartment of Homeland Security's Office of Emergency Communications will offerits Auxiliary Communications (AuxComm) course May 12-14 prior to Hamvention® 2015 inDayton, Ohio. More than 1000 Amateur Radio operators have completed thecourse, which trains qualified hams to assist local, county, and stategovernment with emergency back-up communication. The AuxComm course covers emergencycommunication in a public safety context within the National IncidentManagement framework. It also introduces the auxiliary communicator to theCommunications Unit Leader function. More here.Amateur Radio Emergency Service® teams andSKYWARN weatherobservers along the US Eastern Seaboard went on alert Monday, January 26, asa winter storm began working its way into the Northeast. The storm, whichbrought blizzard conditions to some areas, shut down transportation and keptresidents at home in several states. Eastern Massachusetts and the City ofBoston may have been hardest hit, with record or near-record snowfallamounts and storm surge flooding in some coastal communities. ARES units onCape Cod deployed to staff six shelters and the Multi-Agency CoordinationCenter, which serves Barnstable County. More here.TopMt. Hamilton Classic RoadRace: Communications Challenges Posed to OperatorsThe Mount Hamilton (near San Jose, California) Classic Road Race is a63.5 mile road course for bicycles that climbs 4,500 feet in the first 20miles to the top of Mt. Hamilton, and then continues 43 miles through remoteranch lands to the finish in Livermore. Total elevation gain exceeds 6,000feet. The bike race is sponsored by Summit Bicycles and the San Jose BicycleClub. A water bottle handout station is sited at Isabel Creek, mile 25.And a feed zone is at mile 40 at a fire station. Every year for at least 15years theLivermore Amateur Radio Klub with help from San Jose Races supports the eventwith radio communications.The bicycle riders are trulyracing and the fastest rider last year (2014) reached the summit in onehour, 11 minutes. That's an average speed of 17 mph for 20 miles and climbing5000 feet.Amateur Radio operators are assigned to thedownhill portions, the dangerous spots where accidents are more likely tooccur. Bottoms of downgrades are chosen for checkpoints. The operator willeither see the accident or other racers will inform the operator of anaccident as they pass the checkpoint. The net control station then directs theappropriate investigation of the incident. Often, the rider has gotten up,back on his bike and continued, or the injuries were minor. Unfortunately,some of the accidents require a hospital visit, and some victims areairlifted to the facility by helicopter.Of course, theproblem faced by hams at the bottom of downgrades is that they are in the worstplace for radio communications coverage. Hills or canyon rims block ordiminish VHF signals that travel mostly by line of sight, posing tactical andstrategic challenges.Over the years, however, thecommunications plan has evolved to a point where it works well. Formerly, a netcontrol station on the mountain could hear and communicate with mostcheckpoints, but the checkpoint stations/operators could not hear each other, soall traffic needed to be repeated by net control (use of repeaters was notan option at that point). Stations that couldn't communicate directly
| Med-evac helicopter airlifts a victim from the Mt. Hamilton race course.(photo courtesy Arnold Harding, KQ6DI) |

needed the relay. A larger problem occurred when one checkpointwas transmitting important information, and another station, hearing nothingon the frequency, also began transmitting. More "doubles" were occurring,and less real information was getting passed. A repeater would solve most ofthe problems, so constructing a portable repeater system was started. The geologic aspects of the western side of Mt. Hamiltonhad posed problems for communicators until the last couple of years. Thereare two ridges between the summit and the race's start line, which is on theedge of a hill at the bottom of the mountain, so that operators therecould not hear a station at the summit. The work-around first tried was forcommunications to be handled/relayed by simplex to another ham checkpoint in aclear location, with a relay to the net control station. Multiple 440 MHzrepeaters were then tried over the years, but the locations of all involvedjust didn't quite work. Finally, an existing, but closed, linked 440 MHzrepeater was tried, after coordination with system operators who opened therepeater for the day for the race operation. This repeater now provides theefficient and effective coverage needed, working perfectly on the westside of the mountain, and to the net control station on the mountain.The portable 2-meter repeater was finished and placed on asmall hill part way down the east side of the mountain, providing coveragefor a large portion of the rest of the race course route. All of the checkpoints on the first 25 miles of road from the summit can access thisrepeater, even with just an H-T. An unanticipated benefit was that newer hams withjust an H-T were equipped to help effectively!Betweenthe checkpoint at 25 miles from the summit and a checkpoint called "Relay"at 35 miles from the summit is an area called "The Narrows," a narrow, deepcanyon. For coverage here, a cross band repeater is sited at the Relaypoint. The cross band repeater links the portable 2-meter repeater to all ofthe checkpoints from The Narrows to the Finish line.There are two EMT vehicles providing medical emergency support, followed byham operators using FRS radios to provide communications between thevehicles. There is also a ham assigned to a CalFire station, also using an FRSradio to communicate to the engine if needed.There are tencategories of racers for this race, and they are stretched out along theroad. Once the last rider has passed mile 25, the primary communicationschanges to another 2-meter repeater that reaches into the Narrows, and theportable repeater is removed. Also, at this time, primary net controlfunctions are transferred from Mt. Hamilton to the Relay check point. Four primaryamateur frequencies are used, with another four frequencies available asbackup as needed. For the 2014 event, 43 radio amateurs were involved inproviding communications support. - Arnold Harding, KQ6DI, Livermore(California) Amateur Radio KlubTopTip: Blackout BuddyJust got an ad from Radio Shack and saw this device -- Red Cross Blackout Buddy -- that might be good for a ham's go-kit,especially for not having to worry about batteries going bad. -- FrankKrizan, KR1ZAN, Sachse, TexasTopLetters:On the Importance of ReportingIn re your openingeditorial in last month's issue, I would like to call your readers'attention to a Report to America -- Amateur Radio:Science and Skill in Service to your Community -- on the subject of theimportance of Amateur Radio as a national resource. The documentation forit comes from field reports of public event, disaster and emergencyresponses. The report showcases these responses and should convey to ARES officialsand members the importance of reporting their activities to ARRL HQ andother officials for such purposes. Not all reports will be showcased orotherwise published as anecdotal evidence, but almost all of them are includedin hard numbers supporting our significance as a major public asset beforeregulatory agencies and the public at large.I hope theresults of web-based ARES reporting will be summarized each year at thenational level and will be included in future editions of this report. --Art Goddard, W6XD, Costa Mesa, CaliforniaTopLake AmateurRadio Association (Florida) Presents President's AwardOn January 17, 2015 the Lake Amateur Radio Association of Floridapresented its 2014 President's Award to John Walton, WB4HV, at their club housemeeting in Leesburg, Florida. Walton is the first recipient of thePresident's Award. This award will be presented annually to the Amateur Radiomember who has demonstrated meritorious service.Walton hasdemonstrated his dedication for many years and in many capacities. Heworks closely with the Lake County Amateur Radio Emergency Service by helpingto provide for emergency radio communications between emergency shelters andthe Lake County Emergency Operations Center. Walton works with Lake Countygovernment to provide for official recognition of Amateur Radio operatorswho support Lake County Emergency Management to make sure they are properlyvetted. For more information about LARA, click hereTop Letters: Web-Based ReportingI enjoyedreading your lead editorial in last month's issue. Here in Kentucky, we havebeen using a web-based form to allow all ARES members to report theiractivities. The forms are completed and get sent to a specific e-mail box. I thentake the e-mails and compile the information in an Excel spreadsheet. Oncecomplete, I provide the spreadsheet to the Section Emergency Coordinator(SEC) and ARES leadership team. The SEC then uses the summary information tocomplete his report to HQ. I would say it takes about three hours a monthfor the manual processes I perform. Readers can find our main Report page here. -- Roman Rusinek, KE6YCW, KYHAM Administrator, ke6ycw at kyham.net,www.kyham.netTopLetters: Follow-Up on Five Year Old ARESMemberIn a follow up to last month's issue news item onColton Ragsdale, KE0CRD, the five year old newly licensed ham, here is a greatvideo piece about this achievement from ourlocal channel 9 NBC News affiliate in Denver. Ragsdale also became an ARRLLife Member. -- Jack Ciaccia, WMØG, ARRL Colorado SectionManagerTopAmateur Radio Saved My LifeSeptember 30, 2013 started out as a beautiful day in theeast-central Iowa town of Clinton, on the Mississippi river. I had just left my jobat the end of the day and wanted to enjoy the fabulous weather. I decided tothrow my leg over my motorcycle and see what the Fall countryside lookedlike.After an hour of riding, the wind whipped up tothe point where I decided to head home. My route took me by a constructionsite on the edge of town. This is where everything went wrong. I must havebeen gawking at the construction site and not paying attention to the road. Abig gust of wind hit me and I landed in a 10 foot deep ditch.I was unconscious and when I awoke in the ditch, by estimate anhour later, I had to figure out where I was. The motorcycle was on top of mepressing me into the dirt wall of the ditch. I looked up and could see theedge of the road, six feet above my head. I removed my helmet and consideredmy options deep in the ditch and unable to move my lower body.I heard cars approach and stuck up my hand and waved -- nobodystopped. They could not see me in the ditch. I thought about trying to throwmy helmet onto the road to attract attention but could not get my arms towork well. That is one of the last things I remembered for six days.The balance of my ordeal was conveyed to me long after theaccident by friends and two daughters. I had been riding the motorcycle withan H-T hooked into my pants pocket with a speaker mic attached to mycollar. I was informed later that I had put out an emergency call on the 145.430MHz machine in Clinton.Two ham-friends heard thedistress call and responded. One called 911, and the other drove to the area Idescribed on the radio. He drove by my location twice and even the policecould not find me from their cars. The other operator stayed on the phonewith the dispatcher and tried to get me to give a better description of mylocation. My speech was slurred when I responded and then I apparently lostconsciousness. The 911 dispatcher wanted me to call on my cell phone and givethem a better description of my location - I never heard the request.The officer that found me in the ditch said he and hispartner had exited the squad car and walked along the side of the road untilthey spotted me at the bottom of the ditch, which had washed away at thebottom, wedging the bike and me into the wash out. Having lost consciousness, Inever saw nor heard anyone until one of the emergency personnel woke me,stating they were going to get me out and to the hospital.The next day October 1, 2013, I was transported by ambulance to thehospital in Iowa City. CT scans revealed a broken back pinching the spinalcolumn, five cracked vertebra, a fractured pelvis, broken elbow and a bleedingbrain injury. A year of surgeries, infections, pneumonia and physicaltherapy followed. I am grateful to be able to tell my story.Amateur Radio, good friends, and emergency and medical professionals savedmy life. -- Gerald Johannsen, K9STP, Clinton, IowaTopARES ReportingFollowing up on Rick's article inlast month's E-Letter on the importance of reporting on ARES activity Iwould like to share with our readers the HQ side of reporting.ARES reports begin with the local Emergency Coordinator. Each monththe EC submits a report to the SEC providing information on the health ofARES in their area of responsibility. This information comes from two forms;the EC monthly report and the public service activity report. The monthlyreport gives the overall picture of the local ARES group and the publicservice activity report gives details on specific ARES activations. Additionallythe EC submits to ARRL HQ an EC annual report.Thenext level of reporting comes from the Section Emergency Coordinator. The SECsubmits a monthly report to ARRL HQ based on the information he/sherecieves from the DECs and ECs in their section. This is the report that HQ usesto determine how many ARES members there are in each section, number ofnets, and how many hours were spent on various ARES activities.When Amateurs go to local government agencies, whether to offercommunications assistance or to seek permission to put up an antenna, our role inemergencies and disasters is often a focal point. To back up our caserequires data, specifically numbers that tell the story on what we do. Thiscomes from the ARES report forms. They tell what we do locally, in our state,and nationally. Well...in an ideal world they do.Unfortunately we have a reporting problem. I often hear from SECs that say theirECs are not reporting regularly either with monthly reports or activityreports. And the total number of EC annual reports received at HQ do notrefelct the actual number of ECs in the field organization. Likewise we're nothearing from our SECs either. In 2013 only 32% of ARRL sections submittedan SEC monthly report. The reports received that year paint a picture ofonly 12,000 ARES members in the entire United States, that's less than 175members per section. Not an impressive number at all, but we know it is notaccurate and a better picture can be painted by estimating the amount of ARESactivities in the non-reporting sections. Unfortunately it does not heldus when we go to state or national partners and don't have accurate numbersto back up what we do. Granted we may never see 100% reporting, but weshould see better reporting numbers that what we have in the past.There are many causes of the reporting problem. Many sections havetheir own online resources for managing ARES, but generally these systemsdon't have a mechanism to provide data to ARRL HQ. On the HQ side our onlineforms need a tremendous amount of work. They lack standardization and dataprocessing capability on the back end. These are issues we're working onand hopefully you'll see progress in the next few months. And finally, as Iknow from my own experience in the field organization, boredom is an enemyto reporting. Simply put, you're less likely to submit a report if nothinghappened that month; and as we know missing one month's report makes iteasier to miss the next month's report.So, what do weneed to do? Here at HQ we need to continue working to improve the reportingmechanisms for the field organization. At all levels of ARES we need to bebetter about submitting the necessary report, even when nothing is going on.These reports are useful at all levels to support the ARES mission. And allof this information needs to be more useful to all levels of ARES. --Mike Corey, KI1U, ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager   _________ARRL -- Your One-Stop Resource for Amateur Radio News andInformationJoin or Renew Today! ARRL membership includes QST, Amateur Radio's mostpopular and informative journal, delivered to your mailbox each month.Subscribe to NCJ -- the National Contest Journal. Published bi-monthly,features articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores,NA Sprint and QSO Parties.Subscribe to QEX -- A Forum for CommunicationsExperimenters. Published bi-monthly, features technical articles,construction projects, columns and other items of interest to radio amateursand communications professionals.Free of charge toARRL members: Subscribe to the ARESE-Letter(monthly public service and emergency communications news),theARRL Contest Update (bi-weekly contest newsletter), Division andSection news alerts -- and much more!Find us on Facebook.Follow us on Twitter.ARRL offers a wide array of products to enhance your enjoymentof Amateur RadioDonate to the fund of your choice --support programs not funded by member dues!Click here to advertise in thisnewsletter, space subject to availability. | 



 |
|  TheARES E-Letter is published on the third Wednesday of each month. ARRLmembers may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member Data Pageas described at http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/ares-el/. Copyright© 2015 American Radio Relay League, Inc. All RightsReserved |