[MRIC] DHMH City Rediness Initiative

[BrettHam at aol.com]

All Maryland RACES Officers:

Terry Sapp is the State CRI  Coordinator, Office of Preparedness & Response, 
Maryland Department of  Health & Mental Hygiene (State DHMH). CRI stands for 
City Readiness  Initiative, which is preparing cities for incidence like 
pandemics and  biological terrorism. Some of you may have met him at the meeting 
last fall in  Harford County, and I think he might have been at the Directors 
meeting in  Annapolis in December.
 
Last year, Terry received funds for, and purchased amateur radio equipment  
to be used by Baltimore and Washington metropolitan area Local Heath Department 
 Command Centers (typically their local DHMH offices), to communicate to 
Points  of Dispensing (PODs) that would be set up to distribute medicines from the 
 national strategic stockpile to area residents, and to the state DHMH 
Operations  Center.
 
The equipment is for the area RACES jurisdictions to operate, and if  
understaffed could request additional RACES operators via MEMA, as they would  
request any other resource during an emergency. Terry asked us to provide  him with 
a list of frequencies that we would like programmed into the radios. In  order 
to meet Terry's request, each jurisdiction should provide a list of  
frequencies to be used by them for this purpose in their jurisdiction.  Additionally, 
we need an alphabetic mnemonic to be used for programming a name  of each 
channel.
 
Last month during our MRIC meeting we compiled, and approved, a list of  
frequencies used by RACES in each jurisdiction. If you want all your frequencies  
programmed, just let me know you want them all, and I will copy them from  the 
list approved last month, to a new list of frequencies for Terry. I will  
distribute this list for review and we can approve it at our next MRIC meeting  
in April. For Talbot, I would want them all programmed so my operators could  
switch to any frequency we use locally, based on our needs at the time  (e.g. 
repeaters may fail, etc.). Unfortunately, Talbot is not part of  Balt/Wash 
area, so we are not included in the program. If all the radios are  programmed 
identically, resources can be reassigned dynamically during an  emergency without 
having to reprogram them. It also makes programming simpler  because you only 
need one programming file for all radios. According to my HRO  catalog, the 
FT-8900 (10M, 6M, 2M, 70cm) can hold over 800 memory channels, so  we could 
program every channel for every jurisdiction in MD if we want to.
 
If I remember correctly from memory, I believe the following jurisdictions  
are included in the program: Baltimore City, Baltimore Co., Anne Arundel, Queen 
 Annes, Carrol, Harford, Howard, PG and Montgomery. Terry, please correct me 
if I  said anything that was not accurate.
 
Eventually, Terry would like to be able to operate a digital mode, but is  
willing to wait to implement that until we have discussed a state-wide digital  
network that we currently have scheduled for our fall MRIC meeting.
 
Before settling on a list of frequencies, we need to discuss some  
operational aspects. For example, what nets do the operators check into. It is  not 
practical for an operator to check into two different nets at the same time  
during an emergency, because they will not be able to respond to one while  working 
the other. Not responding on a net is not a good thing during an  emergency. 
If my operators do not respond, I send someone to their location to  find out 
why.
 
Most Local EOCs, have at least 2 operators and radios. One on the MEMA net  
(CRN/ESN/WRN) and the other on the local jurisdiction's RACES net. The  Local 
DHMH and PODs could check into the local RACES net and just be referred to  
another repeater by local RACES net control, when state  DHMH indicates via the 
MEMA net they have a message to send. That way,  the state DHMH could send 
messages directly to/from the local DHMH and  PODs. If a repeater system such as 
the 145.330 repeater is used, as it was used  during the last pandemic drill in 
August, most of the local DHMH and PODs could  receive a broadcast from state 
DHMH at one time (note this frequency is  currently listed for use by ALLE, 
BACO and HARCO). When they are done  receiving/sending the message, the local 
DHMH and PODs could return to the local  net, and state DHMH return to the MEMA 
net. The reason we need to discuss  operations, is so that we make sure we 
have a repeater/repeaters programmed that  we might want to use for a state DHMH 
broadcast (i.e. multi-jurisdictional  message).
 
 
Here are the details Terry provided to me regarding his program:
 
Cities Readiness Initiative (CRI)
 
The Cities Readiness Initiative is a federally funded grant program by the  
Centers for Disease Control (CDC) intended to increase and enhance the 
readiness  of selected cities to receive and distribute assets from the Strategic 
National  Stockpile in the event of a public health emergency or act of terrorism. 
  The goal of CRI is to provide oral prophylaxis to their entire populations  
within 48 hours of event recognition.
 
Communications
 
Improving and enhancing the communication abilities of the jurisdictions  and 
as a region is one target capability.  To provide a backup means of  
communication, CRI funds from 2005-06 were designated to purchase communication  
equipment, including satellite phones, laptops and amateur radio go-kits, for  the 
health departments in the region.  The go-kits were intended for  placement in 
the local Health Departments’ Command Centers, as well as in the  Medication 
Distribution Centers, also called Points of Dispensing or PODs.   In addition 
to the ham kits, every command center will have a satellite phone to  include 
a data kit (software and cable) for data as well as voice  communications.  
One solar-charger is being provided to each department  receiving a phone.
 
Amateur Radio Go-Kits
 
After the next round of purchases in the 2006-07 funding year, every go-kit  
will be equipped with a laptop and the ability to send data/text as well as  
voice.  The current contents:      
Yaesu FT8900 quad-band base station
Astron SS25 Portable Switching Power  supply
West Mountain PG40S Power Gate battery/charger
NCG 12V 2AH Belt  pack battery/charger
MFG 2M Pocket J-pole 
Antenna adaptor: Male BNC to  Female SO329
West Mountain 40 Amp Rig Runner
MFJ Headphones
ARRL pocket  directory
100 ft. Poly rope (for J-pole)
Heavy Duty 8-outlet Surge  Protector
Navigator & Yaesu Cable
Windows Platform Laptop
Buddipole  Deluxe Antenna System


This is why I added Terry to the MRIC email reflector: so he could  
participate in this discussion. Since Warren referred Terry to MRIC, I am  copying him 
on this email so he is aware we are discussing Terry's  request.
 
Sincerely,
 
Brett Hammond
Chairman, MRIC
 



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