[KYHAM] Ky ARES Program in 2006

[Ron Dodson]

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year this past week. I ask that we
continue to hope for the best for our neighbor, Randal McCloy Jr, KC8VKZ
as he remains in critical condition from the mine collapse in WV last
week. Let's also continue to remember his family as this is a very
difficult time for them.


CHALLENGES

2006 will hold many new challenges for the amateur radio community. It
is too early to predict yet, but the 2006 hurricane season may prove
every bit as violent as the last. While 2005 was not incredibly active
as far as local storm spotter activations go, when it rained- IT POURED!
Lessons learned from all of the 2005 deployments and improved planning
and readiness should be the main issues all through this year. 

Many communities are adding amateur radio stations in EOC's, hospitals
and health departments to increase their ability to communicate in
disasters. Manning them will take planning and trained bodies. Training
and the recruitment of new members while retaining and building interest
among existing members will all be issues we must address.

K4SET and many others are hard at work with new developments with
WINLINK 2000 (to include APRSLink). Getting more of the network in place
and education in the proper use of the medium will also be important.


EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS MONTH

February is now EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS MONTH in Kentucky.  I ask that
we all remember that we have numerous fault zones and seismic risks all
through this portion of the US.  Any one of which could unleash
destruction that would top the Hurricane Katrina devastation literally
in our own back yard! 
Are we and our families ready for this??? Do we have our own house in
order with plans and preparedness kits to care for ourselves and remain
on the air in any disaster? I also remind you that there will be a large
scale Central US Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC) exercise coming up in
2007.  I am sure we will se more details on this in the coming months.


SEVERE STORMS PREPAREDNESS MONTH

March will be SEVERE STORMS PREPAREDNESS MONTH again this year. I
encourage those available to participate in the state-wide storm drill
with NWS and KyEM. I do not have a confirmed date as yet, but past
experience tells me March 7 is a fair bet!


NATIONAL INCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (NIMS)

NIMS is slated to go into FULL COMPLIANCE mode on October 1, 2006.  This
year even VOAD organizations to include ARES are supposed to include
NIMS into our plans and procedures as well as our training.  I again
suggest that everyone take the IS 700
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is700.asp if you have not as well as
the new ICS-100 http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is100.asp and ICS-200
http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is200.asp over the next 9 months
either online or in a classroom arrangement. IS 800, The National
Response Plan http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is800.asp is another
course many of you took last year.  Those who have not, I recommend it. 

While your organization locally may or may not be looking for OHS
dollars or using any equipment from local EMA's bought with OHS dollars,
it again makes you look and PERFORM better if you are on the same
playing field as the other responders. Someone asks me, "WHY?" You have
only to look at the screwed up responses of 2005 (duplication of
efforts, lack of efforts, dropped balls, failure to communicate etc.) to
see how these training courses COULD HELP if you will let them! It is
obvious to me that the majority of the key players in last year's events
never took any of this training before their events occurred.


KEN TRAINING

For the past eight years the previous SEC (N4CQR) and then myself since
April of 1999 have tried to bring forth regular and fresh training for
the KEN and KyARES organization. We have done this to promote a better
understanding of the ARES program, other agencies we interface with and
the elements of preparedness and response. We did this by informally
spoon feeding in small portions and using simple terms. While KEN
Training was originally weekly and then in 2004, went monthly, it is
becoming increasingly harder to find something fresh and different for a
regular segment.  

With January of 2006, KEN Training will cease on a regular basis as far
as new material goes.  As someone submits new articles or I can develop
new material, it will be presented for everyone's benefit and in times
when we have nothing new, we will review previous material that is
archived on the KyHam web site's Resource Library of Archived Training
http://kyham.net/emcomm/training.html . More than seventy articles
reside there. Many of these articles can be broken up into two, three or
more shorter segments for weekly VHF and UHF local training nets.
Again, as we do develop new material, it will be made available to all. 

The free Ky Condensed Emergency Communications Training Course
http://www.kyham.net/emcomm/training/kytest.html will also need to be
reviewed and any changes to make it more NIMS compliant will be added. 


NEW BLOOD AND "GERITOL"

The opportunities and the simple need of amateur radio being used in
emergencies today is MORE LIKELY than ever! As more and more communities
spend their homeland security dollars to buy the latest whiz-bang
technology to be "interoperable" many are unwittingly making themselves
less so! The complex nature of these "turn-key solutions" 2 way vendors
are promoting in their efforts to claim those dollars also makes them
more likely to fail at the time of greatest need! Little as they might
want it known, AMATEUR RADIO WORKS WHEN NOTHING ELSE WILL!!! Trained and
prepared amateurs can bridge the gaps and be interoperable when
everything else goes dark. To meet the challenges our communities face
against the odds and the elements, we must push ever harder to recruit
new public service interest among new amateurs as well as to retain and
sustain the interest of our long time members.

Many years ago there was a bottled product that was supposed to make the
older segments of our population feel younger by building up the iron in
their blood, it was called "Geritol".  I have not seen this product for
many years on shelves, but we need to each find a new type of "Geritol"
to re-vitalize our long time public service minded hams. While our "old
dogs" may have to learn some new tricks, their years of experience and
often technical expertise is much needed in the world today. This area
of development is  one which needs to be addressed urgently. I fear many
of our long time supporters may decide to call it quits when faced with
having to take training from EMI or look toward some form of
certification which is still unknown to us. There has to be a way to
minimize the loss of valuable, experienced op's.

As our amateurs age, the need for new blood is also apparent.
Cultivating and recruiting new hams to the public service interest of
amateur radio should be an on-going concern. Make public service
interesting! Show them what we have done and how they can play a part if
they are willing to learn the things that they were not told in their
license exam study. 

How to do this?  If you do not have a local training net, it might be a
good idea to start one and begin with the basics such as "The History of
ARES and NTS" http://kyham.net/docs/train/history.pdf and then move
through the basics of net operations, traffic handling and family
preparedness and then into the more specific and specialized articles.
Put newcomers into your plans for public service events and exercises.
Let them know that good feeling that comes with a job well done and the
knowledge that they helped to make a difference. The ARES program and
amateur radio itself will only survive if we continue to educate or
"Elmer" our newer amateurs in the history and the how and why of public
service.  


SURVIVAL OF THE HOBBY

ARES, RACES and MARS efforts will continue to be the key to maintaining
our bands and our hobby in the future as more and more companies with
big buck to spend hunger for more frequency spectrum. While there is
nothing wrong with chatting and DX'ing, I doubt that the FCC or Congress
will continue to resist the huge revenues that COULD BE REALIZED through
the sale of our frequencies without the continued public service angle
and resulting OST BENEFIT of keeping us on the air! When we stop being a
valued public service and start focusing only on just having "fun",
amateur radio may soon cease to exist. Despite claims of some, it is not
that far a cry from having commercial interests take over any or all of
our bandwidth at a billion dollars a Megahertz or more. IF WE ARE TO
SURVIVE, WE MUST SERVE AND FILL A NEED.

As always, your input and support is important to the KyARES program and
the Amateur Radio hobby as a whole.

73, 
Ron Dodson, KA4MAP
SEC Ky