[MDC-ARES] Maryland-DC Section FSD-96 SEC Report

[Steve Beckman]

Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report to ARRL Headquarters
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ARRL Section: 
Maryland-DC               Month:   October                Year: 2010
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AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE


Total number of ARES members: 665
Change since last month: 0

Number of DECs/ECs reporting this month: 8
Number of ARES nets active: 25
Number with NTS liaison: 6

Calls of DECs/ECs reporting: WB3KAS, WR3F, KB3ENU, N3SEO, K3UEZ, KB3FMJ, 
N3QHC, and N3SB.

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 19
Person hours: 271

Number of public service events this month: 5
Person hours: 98

Number of emergency operations this month: 0
Person hours: 0

Total number of ARES operations this month: 24
Total Person hours: 369

Comments:

Prince Georges County: Here’s the Executive Summary from the Operation 
Capital Shield Report, written by Wanda Montgomery KA3AHI, who is an AEC 
for PG County: "Participation in Operation Capital Shield met with 
excellent results for our Amateur Radio Operators and our served Agencies. 
The exercise was held October 13, 2010 from 0700-1430. The drill was 
sponsored by the Office of Emergency Management, Prince Georges‘s County 
Office of Homeland Security. Amateur Radio Net Control Operations were 
incorporated into the National Incident Management System. Five Prince 
George’s County hospitals, the County Health Department and the County 
Emergency Operating Center were staffed with eleven volunteer radio 
operators. Amateur Radio Operators provided emergency backup 
communications, including repeater usage, email over radio frequencies and 
Auto Patch to provide a landline during “Comms Down.” Five RMS Packet nodes 
were used in support of email communications via Winlink Airmail. Cost 
avoidance to federal, state and local government by providing backup 
emergency communications via the Amateur Radio volunteer community versus 
the commercial sector is on the order of $107,400. The equipment used, 
operator hours spent and travel to and from the facilities is provided 
gratis to the county Hospitals and government entities by the Prince 
George’s County Amateur Radio Emergency Service®."

Additional activities from Prince Georges County: Held four regularly 
scheduled training VHF nets on all Tuesdays. On October 5, held our fourth 
quarter and final for the year, Health Care Coalition Drill. Comprised of 
six hospitals, the county EOC and county health department. On October 16 
we supported two events: In the morning, the Prince George’s County State’s 
Attorney’s Office Crime Victims Fund 5K Run/1 Mile Walk at the county’s 
Sport and Learning Complex. In the afternoon, we supported the Edmonston, 
MD National Night Out. (They wanted to avoid the intense heat this year!)

Howard County: The county activated the RACES net for a drill on October 
20th utilizing operators from HOWA ARES.  The ARES operators provided 
communications between all eleven of the county fire stations and the 
mobile EOC, simulating dispatch operations after failure of the 800 MHz 
system.  More than 25 messages were passed.  Participating ARES members 
included RO W8AJR, ARO’s N3YQ, KF3O, WR3F, and RACES operators W0NQW, 
N3LDC, KC3EV, AB3HC, WA3URO, W3GJN, K3UOD, KB3RRJ, AA3S, W5IDA, W1TRT, 
N3RER, W8LYJ, N0GEH, W8RSP, and KB3RSK.

Kent County: Kent Count held its monthly Tuesday night drill on October 
19th. All went well, with
12 KARS members participating.

Anne Arundel County: Supporting the SET were: AB4DQ, N3HKJ, KB3VAQ, KB3UDJ, 
N3WOF, KB3DCA, KA2JAI, K3TED, K3YLW, KB3KWT, N3SEO. Supporting the Trick N 
Trot were: N3WOF, N3SEO, W3IKE, K8JW, K3RSJ.

Garrett County: A video presentation on Amateur Radio use in emergency 
operations and two videos on DX expeditions were shown at the monthly 
meeting. The hardware problems with the 146.805 repeater have been repaired 
we have resumed the weekly nets. The Garrett County ARES net is held weekly 
on Sunday evenings at 8:00 PM on the Target Repeater System (primary local 
repeater 146.805 dup PL 123) all traffic is FM voice. Our monthly meetings 
are held on the 2nd Monday of the month at 7:00 PM at the Oakland Municipal 
Building located on 3rd street across from the Pizza Hut.

Carroll County: The Carroll Hospital Center radio room has been set up and 
checked out. We are performing a monthly test of the CHC station during the 
monthly RACES drills, which is helping to generate more interest in EMCOMM 
here in Carroll. It’s also a convenient night for most members since they 
already have the second Tuesday of each month already marked on their 
calendars. Our first test went very well, but we’ve quickly determined that 
a digital link needs to be established to pass message traffic more 
efficiently.

Signature: Steve Beckman
Call sign: N3SB
Email - n3sb at qis.net

Please send to ARRL HQ, 225 Main St., Newington, CT 06111 by 10th of the month
FSD-96 (1-04)