[CTSARA] newsletter from EC Frank KB1IFX

[iceink at aol.com]

>From the SET Committee:

Although the actual SET (Simulated Emergency Test) scenario remains a 
top secret we can disclose that it will be held on the weekend of

Saturday, October 4th, 2008 and
Sunday, October 5th, 2008.

As in previous SET events, emergency power will again be an important 
element in this year’s SET.

You have ten days left to make sure your batteries are charged and in 
good working condition and that you can operate at least a good part of 
the time on emergency power.

You don't have to be an ARES member to participate - all you have to do 
is be a licensed ham radio operator interested in learning how to 
operate and provide emergency communications when normal 
infrastructures are interrupted.  Packet and WinLink will also be used 
so get those TNCs tuned up and operating as well.

It promises to be an exciting and busy weekend.

We are going to need volunteers so plan ahead.

You said you wanted to get involved, well here is your chance to check 
in and find out what is going on.

Remember my saying; there are those of us who have great intentions of 
getting involved and there are those of us who get involved.

On another note, I recently attended the Darien Stamford American Red 
Cross meeting in Darien.  Discussion topic was a debriefing of those 
volunteers who went down and assisted in the shelters in Baton Rouge, 
Louisiana.  The folks 
in the shelter were grateful that the American 
Red Cross assisted them until all of those Hurricanes passed.  
Hurricane  Gustav, and Ike grazed by them although they were not 
directly hit by them.  They did sustain damage to their homes and were 
in the shelters for two weeks.  Texas much worse off there are still 
several hundreds of folks still in shelters two weeks past the hitting 
of Hurricane Ike.

I asked a question to the Red Cross volunteers if they had a chance to 
use the Amateur Radio Emergency Services down there.  They said they 
were around and assisted however not in the shelters where these 
particular volunteers were sheltered at.  I asked how their 
communications held up and what type of communications did they 
utilize.  They use satellite cell phones and during the passage of the 
hurricane they had no communications.  They had a generator to recharge 
their cell phones and used them sparingly.

Go to the ARRL.ORG site and read up on how to take radio health and 
welfare messages, it is a good time to revisit these topics.


Good news and congratulations to Jon Perelstein, KB1QBZ is our newly 
assigned Assistant Emergency Coordinator. Jon will work with me to get 
us up and running with all kinds of good energy and ARES.

73
Frank Cassella, EC Darien, Stamford & Greenwich