[FADCA] Emcomm Network Guidelines

[bud Thompson]

I was recently asked to review a major document on EMCOMMs planning by W3QA,
the Chester County PA RACES Radio Officer, Amateur Radio Eastern
Pennsylvania EC for Digital, and a member of the ARRL ARES Digital Network
Management Team.  He was specifically requesting my review/comments on the
digital portion.  I responded along with some minor details for possible
revision, and compared 'status' and near-term plans for the Florida Layered
Packet Network.  I also included my spin on the overall level of support and
acceptance of Ham Radio EMCOMMs, by hams and served agencies  in
Florida.

Here is Lor's response. . . I found the part of 'Commonwealth'  compared to
'State' government systems most interesting.

bud N0IA

Hi Bud,

I want to thank you for your comments and ideas. I travel to Florida at
least twice a year and have used your system. I have used a few others, too,
and I find yours to be the premier packet radio network in the nation. I
salute you.

That you are frustrated with your local ham community and its slowness to
become more interested is understandable. I hope local politics soon smooth
out and efforts to involve more operators take hold. Meanwhile, it is guys
like you and your group who usher a valuable resource through tough times.
Keep up the good work. It will pay off. If it saves one life, it will have
been worthwhile! I bet it already has.

It's obvious to me that across the country, the local environments are quite
different. Our packet infrastructure dissolved years ago, and there is
almost nothing left. All the efforts to give rebirth to a network stems
entirely from Emcomm, has us starting completely from scratch, and is driven
by excellent relationships with County and State emergency management
agencies. Our political structure as a Commonwealth imposes a very different
dynamic, too, especially regarding funding opportunities. Here, the power of
municipal and local governments trumps county and state governments. That
makes for many smaller centers of influence, and an environment of
cooperation among them in regard to emergency management (sometimes!). It
helps a small fish like ARES/RACES be a bigger fish in a small pond. The
spirit of volunteerism is solid here, too, because the Commonwealth
political structures cause municipalities to rely upon volunteer services,
where they would be unable to afford paid services on their own. This
attitude spills over to our ARES/RACES groups, and municipal and county
governments are quick to take advantage of the services we can provide. They
treat us very well--exactly like employees in fact. We also have some
talented grant writers, and federal money is being well taken advantage of
at the local levels.

We are also lucky to have a high percentage of members who are actively
participating in our programs, which integrate the digital side with equal
weight as voice. Our Emcomm program is dominated by the needs of County and
Municipal emergency management, which in turn is mainly driven by the
proximity of several nuclear generating stations. Mandated, demanding
exercises (3-Mile Island was a local event), drive the need for more modern
and non-(ham)-traditional approaches to network building. They need 50-75
emails piped from PEMA (state HQ and JIC for radiological events) to the
affected county EOCs, and then to all the municipal EOCs within an affected
zone surrounding  a power station (as many as 30). The messages contain
large attachments of governor's proclamations, spreadsheets, working
electronic documents, as well as press releases and simple IC-213 messages.
50-75 such messages compressed into 3-4 hours to 30 sites simultaneously
means we need big pipes if ham radio is to be of service at all! Our voice
capabilities simply fail to do the job. We first built a very good packet
network, and it works very well. But it still does not measure up to the
task. Thus, our governments want us to build something better and more
modern. That's what we are doing.

Some don't understand why we have included some of the items in our
guidelines, but perhaps some of the above background offers a glimpse at a
reason.

Your ideas have us adjusting a few points, and I sincerely appreciate your
effort to provide us with the benefit of your expert advice.

If there is anything I can do for you, please do not hesitate to let me
know, anytime.

73,

Lor Kutchins W3QA

-----Original Message-----
From: bud Thompson [mailto:budt at cfl.rr.com]
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 1:50 PM
To: lor at w3qa.net; Steve Waterman; Jerry Reimer
Cc: 'Bob at WB3W'
Subject: Re: Emcomm Network Guidelines

See my comments below.

bud N0IA