[FLARES] Statewide SET

[Paul Womble]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:  Dave Armbrust
> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2003 7:15 PM
> To: 'Florida ARES/RACES list'
> Subject: RE: [FLARES] Statewide SET
> 

> The QNCs did not call for a full scale activation of ARES.  
> Instead ARES was asked to prepare to deeply on short notice.

Do different levels of activation exist in each section?  Are they the
same?


> You said there were no nets in your area.  I know that the 
> Sarasota Emergency Radio Club has an net at 7:30 PM on 
> Wednesday.  The QNC sent by Rudy that day should have made it 
> to that net.  You also stated that you monitored an Orange 
> County net and then added that you monitored an Hillsborough 
> net.  At least in theory you should have heard the QNCs read 
> on all three of these nets.

Lots of "should haves" that obviously did not occur.  Hopefully all of
these will
be reflected in the after action report.

Who is writing that?  


> 
> "After listening to the State wide check-in to various nets 
> ARRL West Central Florida Section Manager Dave Armbrust, 
> AE4MR, states "I was very impressed with the number of 
> stations that did seem to have good emergency power 
> capabilities.  A large number had generators and large 
> quantities of fuel on hand."
> 
> In this statement I am referring to percentages more then 
> physical numbers. 

What was this percentage based on?

If 10 stations check in, and 6 are on emergency power, that's 60%.

Which is a huge difference from 60% of 1000 checkins.


>Of the stations that did check in to the 
> nets that I did monitor the majority did have emergency 
> power.  Of those that did have emergency power a large number 
> of them had generators and large quantities of fuel on hand. 
> The physically number of stations I did hear check in would 
> not have much meaning as I was not able to monitor all ARES 
> nets in the State.  Part of the drill was for all counties to 
> report to the SEC and then to the State EOC the number of 
> stations on hand with emergency power.  The real number that 
> you are looking for was reported directly to the State EOC.  
> Clearly by reporting the real number directly to the State we 
> are not providing the misleading information you suggest.  
> Since this information went to the State and not the Section 
> Managers I do not have the State wide numbers you are asking 
> for, but the State of Florida does!  The same people you are 
> implying we are misleading!

Who reported this "real number" to the SWP?  Did the folks that did the
reporting save the reports from each county?
The data had to start somewhere...unless the report to the state was
made up.


> Of course any numbers would be misleading.  The number of 
> amateurs that would show up in a real State wide power outage 
> would be different then the numbers that show up for a mostly 
> unannounced drill.  Regardless I do think we did show the 
> State of Florida that if hit with such an State wide power 
> failure that amateur radio would not be off the air.  

This is like saying that a garden hose can be used to put out a house
fire.  Yea...eventually it will get the job done...but how effective is
it?

>Rudy 
> did share with us that the State was pleased with the drill.  
> Prior to this drill I question if the State would even have 
> considered activating ARES for a State wide power outage.  I 
> bet now they would at least consider it!

This is a good thing.  However...are promises being made that can not be
kept in a real activation?


> You also ask "why didn't a WCF official pass the QNC on local 
> repeaters?"
> You also stated "<deep sigh>   There   was   no   net   to   
> check   into."
> How are the WCF officials able to pass this information when 
> there are no nets?  How are the WCF officials to know what 
> two hours of the 72 hour SET you will be listening?
> 
> I also think that you may be hitting at the heart of the 
> problem with QNCs. Perhaps many think that only ARRL 
> officials or even "official stations" can pass on the QNCs.  
> This certainly is not the case.  Every net stations should 
> copy the QNC and bring it to as many other nets as they can.
> 
> The primary purpose of the National Traffic System is to be a 
> vehicle for us to pass traffic during an emergency when other 
> forms of communications fail. That is why we have NTS.

There was discussion on this list several weeks ago about an overhaul of
the NTS.  Clearly
the results of this exercise demonstrate a need for this. 


> Last, but not least, there is only so much that ARRL 
> officials can do on their own.  We must be able to rely on 
> ARES/RACES, NTS and ALL FLORIDA AMATEURS to do the rest.

Right.  The ARRL officials, at the section level, should not be the
doers.  They
should be the facilitators of the process which has to start at the
county level.


Paul K4FB