[FLARES] RE: The new ARES/NTS system

[Paul Womble]

This new system needs to really start from the beginning and ask:

What really are the needs of the served agencies?  Perhaps getting
together with all of the agencies the ARRL has MOU's with.  It is very
important to know the needs of the served agency...especially at the
local level.

With my county EM hat on...I can't really think of a time when I would
need to send a message outside of the state.  The State EOC, the NWS in
Ruskin and the Hurricane Center, and surrounding county EOC's would be
the most likely "long haul" stuff for us. Fire districts, law
enforcement, public works, utility companies, city halls/eoc's,
shelters, etc are who we need to talk to locally.  

This could be different for other agencies...it's all based on how they
do business. 

Based on that...I think this new system should continue to have some
type of error correction/data validation (the check count) and some type
of signature to authenticate the message.  I need to know that the
resource request or situation report was received just as it was
written...on either end.

The other big issue I see is trained volunteers.  Based on my needs
above...if we really had a major communications failure, and had to
deploy ARES staff to each of those locations, I do not think we would
have enough trained people with the proper equipment.  Here in West
Central Florida several counties are trying to offer the ARECC courses
and encourage people to take them...but the percentage of folks actually
taking a classroom or online course is a small percentage of the number
of hams.  There are many free training classes out there too...but again
people don't want to take them.  

When I first got interested in Emergency Management I asked one of the
county EM directors what's the best way to get a job in EM.  His advice
was to make myself as marketable as I could...have a varied background
and many skills.   ARES groups need to do the same thing.  If a group
only wants to use 2m, and wait around for a hurricane to go to the
shelter to work, then that group is not going to be very successful.

73
Paul K4FB