[HIham] ARES ANNOUNCEMENT 2009.01.18 --- TSUNAMI DRILL

[Eric Grabowski]

Aloha,

The Hawaii County Civil Defense Agency will conduct an island-wide tsunami exercise on Tuesday 27 Jan 09 starting at 0830 hours local time. The duration of the exercise will be about four hours, which is the normal window of preparation for a tsunami approaching Hawaii island from the north.

The Hawaii County Civil Defense Emergency Operation Center (EOC), located in Hilo, plans to activate their amateur radio station on both HF and VHF for this exercise. Harvey, AH6JA, will be the operator-in-charge.

Please check in directly from your base, mobile, or portable station; or, from one of the ARES key stations participating in this test. Harvey, AH6JA, will announce the exercise scenario at the beginning of the exercise and make the final call at ENDEX.

On HF we will use 7088 kHz and/or 3888 kHz depending on band conditions.

On VHF we will use both the BIWARN and the RACES repeater networks. On the Big Island, the frequencies of the state RACES repeater system are 147.04 MHz on the east side and 147.02 MHz on the west side. As always, we will use 146.52 MHz for on-site intra-team communications.

If you have Winlink 2k capability, you may use it during the exercise; however, you must first send an e-mail to motomura at hawaii.edu in order to be added to the Winlink 2k whitelist. 

If you have packet capability, you may send messages directly to KH6EJ at arrl.net (the call sign used for the station at the EOC) through the AH6JA WL2K RMS Packet network.

To comply with FEMA policy, all formal messages should begin and end with the sentence: "This is an exercise message." When creating a message in ARRL format, this will add ten words to the CHECK field. 

If you haven't already done so, now would be a good time to take FEMA courses ICS-100, ICS-200, and ICS-400. These are introductory level on-line courses that you can access from your home computer. The courses are free and you receive certificates for passing them.

This Tsunami Drill not only provides us with an opportunity to practice our emergency communication skills but also it serves to demonstrate the value and versatility that amateur radio operators can provide to various agencies on the Big Island. Please support this communications exercise by checking into at least one of the nets. 

Big Island ECs, please forward this message to all Hams in your district. I will issue additional announcements regarding this event should they be needed.

73 and aloha, Eric KH6CQ
DEC, North Hawaii ARES