[FLARES] Statewide SET

[Keith Kotch]

Well Ron,

Dave's on this list and I'd certainly expect some comments from him
shortly. There's definitely a "positive spin" put on the reporting and
rightly so when it's going out to the public.  Fox News Channel is "fair
and balanced" (another "spin").

I'm not upset in the least with the way the SET was summarized.  I
wasn't listening to the North Florida ARES net as I was working in St.
Pete on that Thursday when the QNC was purported to have been sent.
But, the definitive words here are "All _NET STATIONS_ Copy".  If you
weren't on a net, then the QNC wasn't really directed at those who
weren't participating in the net.  

I've started carrying a dual-band radio with me in the company vehicle
when traveling around the state and pulled out my repeater directory and
started monitoring some of the Pinellas and Hillsborough repeaters.  I
even got on a couple of active repeaters to ask which was the local ARES
repeater in hopes of checking in to their net.  I heard nothing Thursday
evening after work on the way back to Orlando.  I could hear the Orange
Co. ARES repeater active and did QSO with the guys back home while on
the road.  Not really ARES net stuff going on but they were aware of it
anyway.  Never heard any ARES activity through Lakeland either.

Orange County had already pre-planned an SET for the 4th.  They were
already scheduled to hold a SET so they just modified what needed to be
in order to "participate" in the statewide SET as far as I know.  They
sent hams to several shelter locations to set up ops but in a real power
outage, I don't think shelters would necessarily be needed with the
exception of special needs shelters.  So don't be mislead into thinking
that Orange County had this great response to a "surprise" SET scenario.
I think they pretty much carried on as they had already planned.  They
closed up shop around noon, not long after the state "officially" closed
the statewide portion of the SET which happened between 11 and 11:30am I
think.

I wasn't going to waste my ARES members time on a precious, good weather
Saturday, by actually deploying them anywhere for such a short time
without making pre-plans to make it worth their while.  We, Seminole
County, normally don't participate in the October SET as we have one or
more earlier in the year with our County and Cities' Depts. of Public
Safety.  What I did ask those responding on-air to our informal Net call
was to remain operating on emergency power sources at least for the rest
of Saturday, preferably as long as they could to see how long they could
operate under typical operating conditions.

Had this been a real emergency my reaction and our response would have
been different towards getting things rolling. The only thing we could
"pre-plan" was to tell everyone to try and be listening for radio
activity on the morning of Oct 4.  If the power had really been out, I
think more people would be on the radio automatically to see what's
going on.  Trying to "spur of the moment" simulate how you'd notify
people during a massive blackout is difficult.  You're not really sure
what communications infrastructure would be operational and you can't
really find someone to ask.  Since the SET, we've been discussing the
scenario and getting answers to some of those questions such as, "How
much can we rely on the POTS working?", "Will internet connections be
available provided the ham has emergency power at home to power the
computer and modems?", "Will CATV based broadband services be working?",
"We can probably write off cellular service pretty quickly into the
event can't we?".  Of course no one really knows for sure what will
happen until after it happens.  But, the systems would fair better in
this type scenario rather than a weather or geophysical disaster event
where infrastructure physical damage might occur.  I did work through
the given scenario in my mind and did discuss with my County Emergency
Manager and others in my group.

I wish more on the FLARES list would respond with what they did or
didn't do and why.  It's still a good learning experience.

73,
Keith, KF4BXT
Seminole ARES/RACES Group, Inc. EC


-----Original Message-----
From: flares-admin@mailman.qth.net [mailto:flares-admin@mailman.qth.net]
On Behalf Of Ron Wetjen
Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2003 9:51 AM
To: Florida ARES/RACES list
Subject: Re: [FLARES] Statewide SET

 From The ARRL Letter
Vol. 22, No. 41
October 17, 2003

 > A QNC ("All net stations copy!") went out to all Florida amateurs
 > October 2 to advise of the SET.

Last time I checked, I was a Florida amateur.  I did NOT receive this 
QNC.  How was this sent?  I need to find where the breakdown on my end 
was so I don't miss these in the future.

 > "Special nets were called and scheduled with checkins from stations
 > operating on emergency power."

Must have missed this as well.  I monitored the local repeater for 
several hours, and heard no such net.  (I did hear an Orange County net 
in progress on the same repeater frequency.)