[MDC-EC] 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:   June           Year: 2011
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AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY SERVICE
Total number of ARES members: 636
Change since last month: -20

Number of DECs/ECs reporting this month: 7
Number of ARES nets active: 25
Number with NTS liaison: 8

Calls of DECs/ECs reporting: N3SEO, KB3LJB, K3UEZ, WB3KAS, KB3FMJ, WR3F, 
and N3SB.

Number of drills, tests and training sessions this month: 23
Person hours: 1400

Number of public service events this month: 1
Person hours: 36

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

Total number of ARES operations this month: 24
Total Person hours: 1436

Comments:

Anne Arundel County: Participating in the Shelter Exercise were: KA2JAI, 
K3TED, N3WOF, N3HKJ, & N3SEO supported a full scale shelter exercise at 
Arundel High School. There were 100 + players and 162 shelterees.

Cecil County: After a two-year hiatus, we have again been asked to provide 
communications support for the Diamond In The Rough Triathlon being held in 
Perryville, MD. This event takes place on Saturday, July 9 and we are 
actively seeking volunteers to help monitor the bicycle course. Also, again 
this year, we have been asked to provide communications support at the 
North East Maryland Triathlon being held in North East, Maryland on August 
14. We are also looking for volunteers to help support monitoring the 
bicycle courses at this event. This is a wonderful way to learn/practice 
your EMCOMM skills during an actual event that simulates communication 
requirements during an actual emergency. If you can help at either, or 
both, please contact me via e-mail (kb3ljb at arrl.net).  The Chesapeake Bay 
Radio Association (CBRA) ARES volunteers set up and operated their 
equipment for Field Day 2011 at the WA3SFJ Repeater Site. The tower there 
made an excellent hanger for antennas. We operated voice, CW, and BPSK-31 
on as many bands as we could hear signals. We used George's (KB3LJB) 
generator to provide the power. Visitors and operators included KE4RDK, 
KB3TOX, N3DNX, K3CIM, N3YJ, N3VTI, KB3VKY, W3RWE, WB3DQE, KB3TYZ, K3TKE, 
KB3DCZ, KB3JME, WA3IGC, KD3SE, W3YR, AND KB3LJB. On Sunday morning we were 
paid a visit by Mark Demski, KB3OFP, representative from MEMA. The Cecil 
County ARES group holds a weekly net every Sunday evening at 2000 local on 
the WA3SFJ repeaters (146.850- PL 107.2, 449.825- PL 167.9, and 53.830- PL 
94.8). Primary will be the 2-meter repeater. All within earshot of the 
repeaters are invited to join in regardless of ARES membership. Following 
the net we have a Swap Shop "net" where hams are invited to list their 
ham-radio-related items for sale or trade.

Prince Georges County: Held four regularly scheduled training VHF nets on 
146.61MHz on Tuesdays at 1930L. One Hospital HF net on 3.8205MHz on June 
22.  KA3AHI HF NCS. On Jun 18, KB3IIE, along with KB3PEX supported a Search 
and Rescue drill at University Park. On June 20 we held our monthly meeting 
in preparations for the ARRL Annual Field Day. 2011 ARES Field Day site was 
held at the American Legion Youth Camp in Cheltenham, MD.  We ran 4A with a 
40m wire beam bringing in the points, a 6-band serial dipole, a 10-15-20m 
parallel dipole and a 6m-2m-70cm on a rotator up 20 feet.  Great food and 
fellowship and of course great wx with low humidity.  We had 27 Amateur 
Radio operators sign the guest book; ten were visitors.  Forty-three 
visitors total.  The County Sheriff, Melvin High and the Deputy Chief 
Administrative Officer for Public Safety, representing the County 
Executive, found time in their busy schedule to stop by and learn of PRGE 
ARES operations.

Garrett County: Comments: The GCARES group Field Day exercise was held at 
the Garrett County 4H Center. Visiting the site was Erica Mowbray, Western 
regional administrator for the Maryland Emergency Management Agency. Other 
noted visitors also included Jim Cross, ARRL Maryland-DC sectional manager 
and Al Brown assistant sectional manager. The Garrett County ARES (GCARES) 
monthly meeting location is held at the Garrett County Southern Rescue 
Squad located on route 135 east of Oakland Maryland. The next meeting will 
be Monday July 11th at 7:00 PM. The GCARES net is held weekly on Sunday 
evenings at 8:00 PM on the 146.805, dup PL 123 and is linked to the WAN and 
Target Link Repeater Systems. All traffic is FM voice.

Howard County: A conservative guess at the number of participants in the 
combined HOWA ARES/CARA/PVRC Field Day operation is 60, not including 
VIPS/other visitors.  The exercise operated as a 25A setup and totaled 
12,158 QSOs.

Carroll County: New repeater systems have just been installed to replace 
the 2m and 440 repeaters in Carroll. These two systems and the existing 6m 
repeater are now controlled by a single repeater controller that makes 
cross-linking of the systems easy. The new duplexer on the 2m repeater has 
completely eliminated the desense problem we'd been fighting with for 
years, so better performance on 2m is expected.

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)