[MDC-EC] Status Update

[Dan Blasberg]

Steve,

I have the following AEC positions in Prince George's County:

AEC Operations - Responsible for all operating activities (weekly  
nets, training nets, actual callout)

AEC Logistics - Responsible for all equipment and supplies.

AEC Admin/Membership - Membership updates (attendance in meetings,  
nets, training, etc), maintains participation lists and membership and  
training records.

AEC Hospital Coalition program - Responsible for coordinating  
communications program in support of six medical facilities, one  
Kaiser facility, two fixed county health department facilities and  
three health department POD sites.  All of the the above facilities  
are outfitted with permanent equipment and antennas.

AEC Public Information (PIO) - Responsible for putting out information  
in regards to ARES

AEC CERT Program - Liason to the county CERT program, to include  
coordinating CERT amateur communications for CERT activities as well  
as combining CERT and ARES cross training.

I currently have a "frequency coordinator" that reports to the AEC  
Operations, who's responsibility is to verify the operational coverage  
of repeaters for use in the county, as well as simplex frequencies.

I had a Net Coordinator, but he has since resigned do to too many  
irons in the fire.

As for the SET in October, PG county will be hosting a Federal shelter  
drill in October (time unknown), that we plan to use as our SET.   
Since it will be in/around Laurel, I am anticipating having to request  
mutual aid from surrounding counties.  As soon as I have an idea of  
the date, I will let you and the ECs around me know.

Dan Blasberg
KA8YPY
PG County ARES EC
PG County RCAES RO

On Jul 20, 2008, at 9:11 PM, n3sb at qis.net wrote:

> July SEC Letter
>
> Hi Folks;
>
> I thought I'd take a few minutes and provide an update on the status  
> of ARES
> here in the Maryland-DC Section.
>
> All the section EC's are now subscribed to the MDC-EC Email  
> reflector. That
> means that we now have a simple and efficient method for  
> communicating with
> each other. Please feel free to use the reflector for exchanging  
> ideas, and to
> ask for help. That's what the reflector has been established for.  
> Also, Jim
> WI3N has access to various resources such as ARRL member mailing  
> lists, that
> you can use as a tool to recruit new ARES members. Jim will be  
> providing more
> details about that soon. Also don't forget to invite your AEC's to  
> join as
> well.
>
> One of the things that I've been busy working on is a new Section  
> ARES Plan.
> Right now it's in outline form, so there's a fair amount more work  
> to be done
> before it's ready. What the plan does have, however, is a lot of  
> detail about
> roles and responsibilities, for everyone in the organization. I hope  
> this
> detail will give people an idea of what's expected from them, and  
> what they can
> expect others in the organization to do. And that will hopefully  
> make everyone's
> life easier and less stressful.
>
> One thing that became obvious very quickly is that EC's are  
> responsible for a
> great deal in the ARES Organization. In fact an EC is likely to  
> either get
> burned out very quickly, or just not be all that effective in their  
> position,
> without the help of several AEC's to take some of the workload. So  
> I'd like to
> start a discussion on this reflector to hear how many AEC's each EC  
> has, and
> how EC's are involving their AEC's in the process.
>
> Another project that has just gotten started is the development of a  
> High-Speed
> Digital Backbone to cover the MDC Section. The purpose of this  
> backbone would
> be to pass digital data (packet, email, digital voice, and pictures,  
> for
> example) through the section. The network would have several points  
> where it
> connects to the internet, so that if local internet connectivity is  
> lost in one
> county, it could still be obtained by sending traffic into an  
> adjacent county.
> Since most of our customers would be happy to have email  
> communications
> connectivity within the section, the backbone could provide that  
> capability
> even if the rest of the internet is not functional or bogged down  
> with traffic.
> It would also be possible to conduct echolink-like voice  
> communications without
> being dependent on commercial systems.
>
> Right now we're trying to establish the basic requirements. For  
> example, I'd
> like to have a data rate of at least 56K. Faster data rates are  
> possible, but
> they come at a price - reduced range and higher equipment costs.  
> There is also
> the option of using 802.11 Wi-Fi hardware, but that approach also  
> has certain
> problems that would have to be worked out. So, a trade study will  
> have to be
> performed to fully explore all the options. After that, a committee  
> will be
> formed to work out the implementation details of the backbone. Anyone
> interested in participating in any of these activities should please  
> let me
> know.
>
> The Simulated Emergency Test is coming up in October. This year we  
> need to focus
> on communications with adjacent counties. Also, we need to go beyond  
> sending NTS
> Traffic by voice or CW. You will be asked to send more detailed  
> information such
> as lists of names, maps, and pictures, into adjacent counties. So  
> start thinking
> about how you would accomplish these goals. October is not all that  
> far away.
>
> Please don't forget to send me your monthly reports by the second of  
> each month.
> One thing we do with that data is determine how many ARES members we  
> have in the
> section. Right now, since less than half the EC's sent in a report  
> last month,
> we have no idea how big the ARES organization is!
>
> 73; Steve, N3SB
> SEC-MDC
>
>
>
>
>
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