[NevadaARES] October 2003 S. NV ARES DEC Report

[Glenn Hale]

October 2003 Southern NV DEC Report

This has been a busy month for nearly everyone in the
Southern NV District. The SET was well attended again
this year and the message handling was done very well.
As with any exercise we learned what areas we need to
improve on in our future SET exercises. This year we
successfully used digital communications (ie. HF
Packet and PSK31) to relay messages between north and
south Districts. I can't emphasize enough the
importance of using digital messaging, I encourage
every ARES member to put into service VHF packet
stations both fixed and mobile. Accuracy, timeliness,
and a digital record of all your transmissions are
just some of the advantages. We did incorporate NTS
traffic handling this year too. It did appear that
overall the use of HF communications statewide was
noticeably less than last year. I would like us to
consider more traffic messages between Elko and the
greater Reno, NV areas for next year's exercise. In
addition, I would like us to include more traffic
handling with our NTS liaison or OES stations next
year. Don KQ6FM, No. NV DEC and I will be working on
next year's SET.  I plan to incorporate more
guidelines into having all ARES groups relaying HF
traffic, and yes, digital modes as well. 

I also suggested to the Frontier Amateur Radio Society
(FARS) to consider looking into a full time digital
packet station. A club sponsored, full time HF/VHF
packet station, for example, would greatly benefit any
ARES program by providing a means to relay traffic
throughout the NV Section at a moments notice. 

I am still looking to find OES volunteers and I am
hopeful by next month's report that I'll have some
news. Matt N7TOD and I have been working on finding
auto forwarding packet routes between Las Vegas and
Reno. We are attempting to use the internet gateways
and nodes available to make this happen. 

Our So. Nye Co. ARES EC, Dick AC7EL was unavailable
this month to discuss their efforts with providing
communications for the annual Nye Co. Harvest
Festival. According to Dick, organizers were quite
pleased with the Nye Co. ARES team for their
assistance with the event, which included an early
morning parade. The effort coincided with the October
2003 SET, which prevented So. Nye Co. from
participating in the SET.  Since the Harvest Festival
will occur on an annual basis during the first weekend
in October, we'll need to consider participating in
the 2004 SET a week or so earlier. 

--------------------------

Clark County, NV ARES EC Report by Charlie AA5QJ

Simulated Emergency Test (SET) Oct 4, 2003
Our objectives for the SET this year were to operate
pre-positioned equipment at several locations,
encourage participation of members whether at home,
mobile or portable, test various alternate
communication methods and support the SET scenarios of
other counties. The local scenario involved an
earthquake near Maryland Parkway and Bonanza.

The Emergency Communication Center (ECC) at the Clark
County Government Center and the EOC's at Sunrise and
UMC Hospitals were activated and the equipment
operated at those locations. The EOC locations at
North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City were
simulated at the AEC's homes.  Two, (2) Red Cross
shelters were simulated from member's homes and
reports sent to the ECC by VHF packet. A directed
VHF/UHF net was activated with 43 check-ins. Several
participants generated simulated damage reports. The
ECC checked into the NV ARES net. Formal NTS message
traffic was sent by HF, VHF, HF packet, and PSK31,
including offers of assistance from Caliente and
Pioche NV and Painted Hills AZ. MARS members provided
additional HF message handling. An automated Radiogram
form (http://www.qsl.net/k1de/Radiogram.zip) was
tested at the ECC. Thank you to all for helping
achieve our goals.

Triennial Full-scale Aviation Disaster Exercise
October 22, 2003

Although we had attended a number of preparatory
meetings for this exercise, it wasn't until the last
week prior that we had a part to play, except with
Lake Mead Hospital who was planning a concurrent
exercise and had requested our participation. After a
flyer was created outlining ARES/RACES function and
capabilities, and provided to attendees at the last
planning meeting for the Aviation exercise, UMC and
Sunrise Hospitals, the Red Cross and the Airport
Exercise Coordinator asked us to participate as well.
Vern K0EGA and Art K7ZE manned the ECC at the Clark
County Government Center, Fred KB2CT the EOC at UMC,
Bob KD7UHG and Sandy KD7WYD at Sunrise and Howard K3HM
at Lake Mead Hospital. Members also supported the Red
Cross, who in conjunction with the Salvation Army
provided the meals, drinks and refreshments for the
exercise participants at McCarran Airport. The Red
Cross team led by Jack N8RRL included Carolyn K9XC,
Ken W7BES, George W6ABW, John KD7QYB, Gary KK7LV, Bill
AA7ZW and Dennis N7HRO. Charlie AA5QJ shadowed the
Incident Commander at the incident scene. Six other
members checked into the directed net called from the
ECC. Although message traffic was limited, messages
passed by Amateur Radio to the hospitals during the
exercise were more timely than the information sent by
'normal' means. Again, our thanks to the participants
for helping acquaint our community agencies about what
ARES/RACES can do.

ARES/RACES members participated in support of the MS
150 Bike Challenge from Las Vegas to Laughlin on Oct
18-19. The LVRAC Mobile Command Post housed the Net
Control Station for the 2-day event.

Upcoming events
ARES/RACES meeting and after-action critique on Sat
Nov 8th at 9:30 am at Clark County Government Center.
SKYWARN Recognition Day Sat Dec 6th
Las Vegas Marathon Sun Jan 25th.



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