[MDC-EC] September 2009 FSD-96 Maryland-DC ARES Section Report

[Steve Beckman]

Monthly Section Emergency Coordinator Report to ARRL Headquarters
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ARRL 
Section:   Maryland-DC             Month:  September               Year: 2009
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AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE


Total number of ARES members: 663
Change since last month: 6

Number of DECs/ECs reporting this month: 7
Number of ARES nets active: 24
Number with NTS liaison: 8

Calls of DECs/ECs reporting: KB3ENU, K3UEZ, N3SEO, AJ3X, WB0EGR, N3QHC, and 
N3SB.

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 20
Person hours: 202

Number of public service events this month: 5
Person hours: 174

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

Total number of ARES operations this month: 25
Total Person hours: 376

Comments:

Maryland-DC Section: September was a busy month for ARES, due to 
preparations for the SET on October 3. We conducted several HF 
Communications tests to check out regional propagation characteristics on 
75m, 60m, and 40m. These tests are part of the process of establishing an 
Atlantic Division HF Regional Net frequency. Both 75m and 60m worked well, 
but 40m tended to be either too long or too noisy depending on the time of 
day. We used EchoLink to coordinate these tests, which proved to be a good 
way to handle coordination efforts like this. Thanks go to John WB3GXW for 
letting us use his WASH_DC EchoLink server for this as well as the SET.

In September draft copies of the ICS-205 Maryland-DC ARES Frequency list 
and the ICS-205T Maryland-DC Contact List were also sent out to all the 
ECs. These lists are part of our efforts to use NIMS Compliant forms; the 
lists also improve ARES interoperability between counties, and greatly 
improve our ability to move ARES members between counties if the need arises.

In September we also established regional VHF net frequencies to permit 
Tactical, Traffic, and Resource communications between counties, and made 
plans to test these nets as part of the SET in October. A follow-up action 
is to establish net liaisons between these regional nets, MEPN, and the 
Atlantic Division HF Net.

There will be a repeat of the Webinar "Doing a NIMS Compliant Exercise" on 
Friday October 30, at 9:00 PM. Here's a description of this Webinar from 
the Atlantic Division website: "This will explain how to do a NIMS 
Compliant Exercise. This discussion on the Homeland Security Exercise 
Evaluation Program (HSEEP) to include how to develop a HSEEP & NIMS 
compliant exercise. Will include different types of exercises, how to 
establish good objectives, and other components of exercise design."

"Our instructor. Nick Meacher, holds a degree in Emergency Management, is a 
FEMA certified Master Exercise Practitioner (MEP) and a HSEEP and NIMS 
Instructor. He has designed, conducted and evaluated numerous exercises 
including tabletops, drills and full scale exercises. He has over 25 years 
experience as a responder, both in law enforcement and as a paramedic. He 
is a member of the National Capital Region Incident Management Team."

You can sign up for this Webinar by visiting http://www.atldiv.org/training.htm

Volunteers Needed: The following positions and projects are in need of 
enthusiastic volunteers: Emergency Coordinators for Baltimore City, 
Caroline County, Charles County, Dorchester County, Queen Anne's County, 
Somerset County, Talbot County, Washington County, and Worchester County. 
I'm looking for someone to take the lead in evaluating new Digital 
Communications Modes, to explore, test, and recommend Sound Card based 
Digital Communications Modes for the Maryland-DC Section. I'm also looking 
for someone to head a project to establish a high-speed digital 
communications backbone in the MDC Section, and then extend it into 
adjacent Sections. If you're interested in any of these positions, please 
let me know.

Kent County: Comments: KARS had a drill on Tuesday, September 15th to check 
equipment operation at Red Cross Shelters, Public Works, Health Dept., 
Hospital and EOC. Had 10 ARES operators helping with test. Everything went 
well. September 25th and 26th held Tech class at Heron Point, had 6 
students. Testing will be on October 3rd.

Allegany County: Comments: Five operators of Allegany ARES participated 
with Garrett ARES in a joint support exercise for Savage Man Marathon. We 
were also requested to provide emergency communications support for the 
Ragnar Relay event in an area of Allegany County where commercial 
communications barely exist. Nine operators participated. The lead operator 
for Allegany ARES in these events was PIO/AEC Jim Robison KB3JRW.

Baltimore County: BaCo ACS participated in two exercises in September. The 
first was a WebEOC practice exercise held in the County EOC. The purpose of 
the exercise was to review changes to WebEOC and familiarize all ECO reps 
with the county's emergency management policies and procedures. The second 
exercise was focused on opening a pet-friendly public shelter at Eastern 
Technical High School, 1100 Mace Ave., 21221. BaCo Auxiliary Communications 
Service deployed two teams to support the exercise. The first team manned 
positions at the EOC. The second team deployed to support shelter 
operations and communications using one of our three go kits with portable 
radio equipment.

BaCo ACS web site went live on September 20, 2009. The site's URL is 
http://bacoacs.info.

Due to availability of equipment D-Star repeater testing will be delayed 
until November. The coordinated frequencies are as follows:
- 2M: 145.140 (-)
- 70CM: 442.1125 (+)
- 23CM: 1282.7000 (-)
- 23CM Data: 1248.3000

The last Sunday of the month net will begin on 145.330 (-). Following 
announcements and training the net will switch to a D-Star simplex net 
using the assigned input of the repeater 145.140.

BaCo ACS is continuing to test and rollout MT63 and Tone63. We will begin 
testing of WINLINK during the first quarter of 2010.

Harford County: Harford County Auxiliary Communications Service (HCACS) 
participated in a Commodities Point of Distribution (CPOD) Exercise on 
September 15, 2009, that was sponsored by the Harford County Division of 
Emergency Operations.  HCACS provided auxiliary communications from the 
CPOD location to the EOC for the county staffers that were being trained in 
how to operate the CPOD.  Several tactical messages were handled for the 
staffers at the CPOD.

On September 15, 2009, the D-STAR 440 MHz and 1200 MHz repeaters were 
brought online.  Testing is currently being performed on both 
systems.  Unfortunately only one of the repeaters can be on the air at any 
given time.  The temporary callsign for the HCACS D-STAR repeater system is 
WA3SFJ.  The frequencies are 447.9875 MHz with a -5.00 MHz offset, and 
1282.300 MHz with a -12.0 MHz offset.  As soon as a coordinated frequency 
pair for two meters is obtained, then the D-STAR 144 MHz repeater will go 
online.

The D-STAR repeater system was purchased by the Harford County Division of 
Emergency Operations with grant monies from the US Department of Homeland 
Securities for use by the radio amateur community in and around Harford 
County for the benefit of the community during times of normal 
communication systems disruptions.

If anyone has questions regarding the programming protocol for the HCACS 
D-STAR repeater system, please contact WB0EGR at wb0egr at mdraces.org.

Calvert County: Calvert County ARES members worked a booth at the County 
Fair for CERTS and ARES.

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)