[CVRC] Two Important Articles in The ARRL Letter

[Dick Flanagan]

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The ARRL Letter
Vol. 23, No. 30
July 30, 2004
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==>FIRES MAKE JULY A BUSY MONTH FOR NEVADA ARES VOLUNTEERS

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers in Southern Nevada have
been assisting firefighters attempting to quell the so-called Robbers'
Fire. The 290-acre timber and brush blaze in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National
Forest some 36 miles northwest of Las Vegas has led authorities to close
at least three state highways. Earlier this month Nevada ARES volunteers
at the opposite end of the state assisted the American Red Cross during
the destructive Waterfall Fire.

"The activation of Clark County ARES/RACES continues for the Robbers' Fire
on Mount Charleston," said Southern Nevada District Emergency Coordinator
Glenn Hale, KB7REO, in a July 28 report to Nevada Section Manager Dick
Flanagan, K7VC. "It does appear that things are getting under control.
Clark County ARES/RACES will be active at least through the weekend
working 24 hour shifts."

Hale said that while ARES/RACES volunteers have handled some tactical
messages for supplies, their primary tasks have included programming and
issuing radios for firefighters as well as monitoring fire service radios.
He said an ARES Mutual Assistance Team (ARESMAT) request was implemented
to have Nye County ARES members assist if needed.

After the Waterfall Fire broke out in mid-July, Bruce Wade, NZ7A, the
American Red Cross disaster relief operation director, contacted Northern
Nevada District Emergency Coordinator Don Carlson, KQ6FM, seeking ARES
assistance.

"An evacuation center was being set up, and he wanted staffing for both
the evacuation center and at the Red Cross chapter headquarters in Reno,"
Carlson said. Amateurs were deployed at the chapter headquarters and at
the evacuation center in Carson City--the state's capital.

"In less than an hour from the initial call," Don Carlson said, "Amateur
Radio communication through ARES had been established, and messages were
beginning to pass between the two locations." Meanwhile, Washoe County EC
Doug Abramson, KA7FOO, put out a successful plea for operators via the
Western Nevada Noon Net.

"The operations continued as the fire raged out of control, coming
dangerously close to the state capital city itself," Carlson said. "At one
point the fire was about a quarter mile from the governor's mansion and a
local college."

The Carson City Sheriff's Office ordered evacuations, and by the evening
of July 15, hundreds of residents from communities west and northwest of
Carson City started arriving at the evacuation center--by then an official
Red Cross shelter. A second shelter opened the next day at a high school
in southern Washoe County and immediately got Amateur Radio support.

Carlson said the ARES activation continued until July 18. During the
four-day event, more than 35 amateur operators from three Northern Nevada
counties participated. The Waterfall Fire charred some 8700 acres and
destroyed more than a dozen homes. The ARES activation drew words of
praise from Wade on behalf of the Sierra Nevada Chapter, American Red
Cross.

"At all times your operators were on the ball and helped make the disaster
relief operation go much smoother," Wade wrote. "Because it took a long
time to get cell phones to all the our key people, many times you were the
only link between the headquarters and the shelters."

Carlson noted that many of the participating ARES volunteers had taken the
ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Level 1 course, and several
had completed Level 2. He said their performance during the fire
activation was testimony to their effectiveness.


* Spoofing generates new round of spurious arrl.net e-mail messages:
Recent e-mail messages purporting to be from "noreply at arrl.net," the
"ARRL.net Support Team" or some similar variation are not from the ARRL.
These messages are the result of a recent variant of a virus permeating
the Internet. ARRL has heard from members who have received e-mails
alleging that their ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service (@arrl.net) address has
been used to send out spam and urging them to open an attachment to help
resolve the situation. Opening the attachment will infect the recipient's
computer. Outside of routine correspondence, the ARRL only sends e-mail to
members who request mailings, such as W1AW bulletins and The ARRL Letter,
and none of these are sent via the ARRL E-Mail Forwarding Service. As a
defense against these kinds of viruses, we recommend installing virus
protection software on all personal computers and updating it on a regular
basis.

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Dick Flanagan K7VC NV SM
E-mail: k7vc at arrl.org