[TCARC-NTX] ARES E-Letter

[David Johnson KB5YLG]

=================					     
The ARES E-Letter
November 16, 2005
=================					   

Rick Palm, K1CE, Editor

===================================
ARES reports, other related contributions, editorial
questions or
comments: <k1ce at arrl.net>
===================================

+ The View from Flagler County

We dodged a bullet from Hurricane Wilma here on the
central east
coast of the Florida peninsula, but unfortunately our
colleagues in
south Florida were not so lucky. Southern Florida SEC
Jeff Beals,
WA4AW, filed a report that is included in this issue.
As this is
written, there is more tropical weather disturbance in
the Caribbean,
with possible ramifications for us and others here in
the southeast. 

We've had an ARES shake-up here in the county and
district. Long time
East Central DEC Dave Flagg, N4BGH, has retired, as
has the county's
EC Art Cooper, AG4QQ, opening slots that have been
filled by two ARES
veterans who happen to be father and son: new DEC Jay
Musikar, AF2C,
and Merrill Musikar, KG4IDD, new county EC. The
district and county
host separate weekly nets on regional repeaters. I've
accepted an AEC
position for training, which I'm looking forward to
performing. My
first training tip will be on "Break Tags," featured
in this issue.
Our monthly ARES meeting is being held tonight, at the
fire station
in Flagler Beach. 


+ Katrina, Rita, and Wilma Photos Needed for Coffee
Table ARES Book

The ARRL may commission a coffee-table book of color
photographs of
radio amateurs performing communication duty during
this year's wild
hurricane season. 

*You or your group could be featured in this book!*

We are looking for good quality photos of amateurs in
action against
these storms. In terms of resolution, we need at least
300 DPI when
the picture is sized at about 5 X 7 inches. As a rule
of thumb, a
file for a photo at this resolution is about 300
kbytes or larger. 

Note: Please avoid sending the usual "grip and grin"
photos of the
subject holding a hand-held up in the air and grinning
from ear to
ear. We're seeking photos of amateurs working their
radios in the
harsh conditions of these storms and their aftermath.
Photos showing
the emotional and physical strain of the rugged radio
amateurs are
best; they tell the story. You get the idea.

Send your good quality photos of ARES action during
Hurricanes
Katrina, Rita, and Wilma to the editor, either by
e-mail
<k1ce at arrl.net> or to: 

ARES Coffee Table Book
Rick Palm, K1CE, Editor
31 Burning Ember Lane
Palm Coast, FL 32137


==============================
In This Issue:

+ The View from Flagler County
+ Katrina, Rita, and Wilma Photos Needed for Coffee
Table ARES Book
+ Hurricane Wilma
+ VoIP Hurricane Net Activates for Hurricane Wilma
+ Cuba: A Message from Professor Coro
+ "Tracker System" Employed in Florida This Season
+ Hurricane Volunteers to be Honored in QST
+ Evansville (Indiana) Tornado Response
+ October Rains on the Northeast; Amateur Radio Shines
+ When Telephones Fail
+ When Hospital Communications Fail
+ ARES in South Dakota? Yes!
+ Break Tags
+ ARES on the ARRL Web Site
+ K1CE for a Final


===================================

+ Hurricane Wilma

Eleven out of the fourteen southern Florida counties
activated for
Hurricane Wilma. Collier, Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm
Beach counties
sustained amateur operations for up to a week after
landfall,
supporting communications to shelters, staging areas,
feeding
stations, EOCs and the Red Cross. In the initial days
after Wilma,
the Amateur Radio link between the staging area at the
Palm Beach
County Fairgrounds and the Broward EOC was invaluable,
as it was the
only reliable communications available. The AB2M Wilma
database
provided volunteers to support amateur operations in
Broward and Palm
Beach counties. Sixteen out-of-area volunteers were
deployed, some
for up to one week. These deployments were coordinated
with the
assistance of the Northern Florida and the West
Central Florida SECs.
We held conference calls along with the State
Government Liaison
Theodore Zateslo, W1XO, the three state SMs and ARRL
staff at HQ. A
tree crushed my pick up truck bed.  -- Jeff Beals,
WA4AW, Southern
Florida SEC


+ VoIP Hurricane Net Activates for Hurricane Wilma

The VoIP Hurricane Net activated Sunday night, October
23, as
Hurricane Wilma threatened the Florida peninsula,
coinciding with
WX4NHC (National Hurricane Center station) activation.
The net was
active while Wilma remained a threat to Florida. The
purpose of the
net is to link SKYWARN coordinators and their programs
at the local
level, EOCs and other served agencies with WX4NHC,
local National
Weather Service offices and other EOCs that may be on
the system.

Over the course of the night, several reports were
received including
from John Van Pelt, K4JVP, and Danny Musten, KD4RAA,
of sustained
winds of 70 MPH with gusts of 96 MPH measured in
Naples. (Van Pelt
runs a program called "StormStudy" where he teaches
storm safety and
assists with research for significant weather events
such as
hurricanes. His web site can be seen at
<http://www.stormstudy.com>).

Reports of storm surge flooding, power outages and
tree damage were
received from Key West, Boynton Beach and Deerfield
Beach, Florida as
reported by Lu Vencl, KA4EPS, in Deerfield Beach, and
Ronald Keister,
KG4DWP, who was located at the Boynton Beach EOC. 

The VoIP Hurricane Net asks stations in the affected
area to connect
to the system and report damage and weather
information to the net to
fulfill WX4NHC's mission of gathering surface reports
and damage
information for Hurricane Center forecasters. - Rob
Macedo, KD1CY,
Net Manager for VoIP Hurricane Net Activations


+ Cuba:  A Message from Professor Coro

Long time friend and IARU Emergency Coordination
Advisory Group
member Arnie Coro, CO2KK, reported from Havana that
Cuba's emergency
nets worked very well during the Hurricane Wilma
emergency. "We are
using 7 MHz during the daytime and shift to 3.75 MHz
at night," Coro
said. The two-meter band, repeaters and simplex modes,
were also
employed.

Coro noted that the new Cuban third class (no code)
license has
brought in many new radio amateurs, "and they are
doing great,
already providing valuable emergency communications."
Cuba runs a
40-hour training program to prepare candidates for the
exam, and to
teach the importance of emergency communication
ability. 

Coro was also monitoring the Mexican 7060 kHz net that
"tells me that
the destruction in Cancun, Cozumel and areas nearby is
really huge." 


+ "Tracker System" Employed in Florida This Season

Seventy-five radio amateurs met at the Florida state
EOC in
Tallahassee on June 18, just prior to the start of
this year's
hurricane season, to review the Northern Florida
Emergency
Communications Plan update. Attendees included Section
Managers from
the West Central Section, and Northern Florida
Section, as well as
SECs, DECs, ECs and several Assistant Emergency
Coordinators. 

A review of 2004 hurricane activity and the state's
operating
procedures led to several enhancements for this
season. One was the
institution of the "Tracker System" for managing
resources, including
the deployment of amateur operators.  The 67 counties
were required
to place their needs in the tracker system for
resource management. 

According to Rudy Hubbard, WA4PUP, Northern Florida's
veteran Section
Manager, the tracker system was also used to assign
Florida operators
to the Mississippi state EOC, at its request, after
Katrina. The
volunteers were listed in a database maintained by
Northern Florida
SEC Joe Bushel, W2DWR. The Mississippi operation
called for 24/7 duty
for several weeks. Hubbard added "the three SMs and
SECs of Alabama,
Mississippi and Northern Florida worked very well
together" under
this system, as did the three Florida SMs and SECs.
Cooperation and
collegiality were hallmarks of Amateur Radio responses
this season.

The tracker system was also used for the Florida
portion of the
Hurricane Wilma emergency. County managers, and the
three SECs of the
state coordinated requirements and resources under the
system. The
state EOC monitored the tracker system and it appears
that all
requests for resources were handled expeditiously. 

Hubbard concluded: "I highly recommend the tracker
system as it
provides the instrument for managing our resources." 
[From various
reports. For more information on the tracker system,
contact Rudy
Hubbard, WA4PUP <wa4pup at arrl.org>]


+ Hurricane Volunteers to be Honored in QST

Amateurs who participated in communications support
during recovery
efforts for hurricanes Wilma, Rita and Katrina will be
honored with a
special listing, including names and call signs, in
the February
issue of QST magazine. To be eligible for the list,
you must complete
the ARRL Hurricane Relief Volunteer Service Report on
the Web at
<www.arrl.org/FandES/field/agencies/vol-report.html>.
The deadline
for the QST list is December 9. You do not have to be
an ARRL or ARES
member to be included in the list.


+ Evansville (Indiana) Tornado Response

[As reported in the ARRL Letter, Amateur Radio
volunteers assisted in
relief and recovery efforts after the November 6
tornado that left 22
people dead and hundreds injured. Here are operational
aspects from
Bob Pointer, N9XAW. -ed.]

A station was set up at the Evansville Salvation Army
office by the
request of well-known SATERN manager Major Pat
McPherson, WW9E, and a
net control took names and call signs of volunteers.
Assignments were
made, and operators placed at priority locations in
the affected
area. The local repeater would not provide enough
coverage, so a
portable repeater was set up in Chandler, Indiana, a
more central
location for most areas. Two simplex repeaters were
also added. 
 
Radio amateurs provided logistical communication
support to the
Salvation Army's Mobile Canteens. These canteens
served hungry
working crews in the disaster areas. Calls for extra
food and
supplies were handled as well as messages to and from
Salvation Army
volunteers in the field. (Cell phone service was
unreliable). 

Local amateur volunteers contributed more than 500
person-hours. Some
amateurs who could not work donated their radios,
antennas and power
supplies to the effort. Others used their personal
pickup trucks with
two-meter radios as delivery vans.  They burned a lot
of their own
gasoline, and put in long hours.

Coincidentally, an emergency communication class had
been held just
before the tornado disaster struck; many lessons
discussed in this
class were employed in the actual response.  

The Evansville SATERN was shut down on Sunday,
November 13, after
eight days in operation. For photos and more coverage,
see:
<http://www.w9og.net/> -- Bob Pointer, N9XAW 


+ October Rains on the Northeast; Amateur Radio Shines

SKYWARN networks in Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Connecticut and New
Hampshire were active Friday, October 14, and
Saturday, October 15,
as heavy rainfall led to flooding across much of the
New England
states. This same area was hit by heavy rainfall on
the previous
weekend, and rain continued intermittently throughout
a nine-day
period that began on October 7 and ended October 15. 

Operations started at the National Weather Service
Forecast Office in
Taunton, Massachusetts under call sign, WX1BOX, Friday
evening. First
reports of flooding came from southwest New Hampshire.
As the night
wore on, the heaviest rainfall and flooding would push
into southeast
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and
Connecticut. Homes,
apartments, and businesses were evacuated for
floodwaters in this
region as numerous small rivers, streams and brooks
flowed out of
their banks causing various road washouts, closures
and flooded homes
and basements. 

NWS Taunton SKYWARN operators stayed up through the
night to provide
critical reports to the weather service, which were
relayed to state
and local emergency management officials. VHF and UHF
repeaters
including six meter machines were employed, as was an
EchoLink/IRLP
VoIP cross-link system known as the New England
Network. 

With daylight, the severity of the flooding became
clearer and rain
continued to fall. Rivers flooded more homes and
businesses,
resulting in rescues by boat. Amateur Radio was the
vehicle for
intercommunication and operability among public safety
agencies and
the National Weather Service. Through Saturday,
reports of road
closures, rivers and streams flooding roads, homes and
businesses in
flood-prone areas across much of Massachusetts,
Connecticut and Rhode
Island were reported by Amateur Radio SKYWARN
spotters. 

The SKYWARN activation spanned more than twenty hours
and four states
with more than one hundred flooding and rain gauge
reports handled.
"This exemplifies Amateur Radio's importance to
operations for the
NWS Forecast Office in Taunton, Massachusetts, and is
the biggest
reason why I obtained my Amateur Radio license five
years ago," said
Glenn Field, KB1GHX, Warning Coordination
Meteorologist of the NWS
office. "We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the entire
amateur
community in the Connecticut, Western Massachusetts,
Eastern
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire ARRL
sections for their
timely severe weather reporting to NWS Taunton for the
protection of
life and property," Field said. 

[This report from Bruce Hayden, NI1X, Taunton RACES
Radio Officer and
ARES EC who also wrote a report on the Whittenton Pond
Dam threat
seen on CNN. Readers can view his report at the
following link:
<http://www.ema.arrl.org>].
 

+ When Telephones Fail

A telephone outage in southern California on October
11 left at least
150,000 customers without telephone and Internet
service for up to
twelve hours. Many cell phones were cut off from
service as well. The
outage also disabled 911 services in communities along
the coast and
through parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties. 

The Long Beach EOC, which serves both police and fire,
declared a
communication failure protocol, and local radio
amateurs stepped in
to provide emergency communication. Amateurs worked
alongside the
police chief and fire chief to support the departments
with auxiliary
communication. Radio amateurs were also stationed at
17 of the
largest nursing homes. The emergency net successfully
relayed traffic
through the EOC to the nursing homes, hospitals and
ambulances
services.  Radio amateurs provided communications when
all else
failed, and they ensured that patients had access to
911, medical and
ambulance services.

The City of Long Beach built a new EOC three years
ago. Casey Chel,
KD6DOV, Emergency Services Coordinator, who had the
foresight to
include a complete Amateur Radio room for the times
when all other
communications might fail, headed the project. That
foresight paid
off on October 11. -- Carina Lister, KF6ZYY [Lister is
president of
the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach. The
official station of
the ARALB is W6RO on the Queen Mary, where she is an
operator in the
Wireless Room on the fourth Thursday of each month, 5
PM - 9 PM
Pacific Time. You can learn more about the ARALB and
W6RO on the
Queen Mary by visiting <http://www.aralb.org>].


+ When Hospital Communications Fail

[The famous Orange County (California) Hospital
Disaster Support
Communications System (HDSCS) was nominated for the
ARRL
International Humanitarian Award in 2001 and
subsequently won a
National Certificate of Merit from the ARRL Board of
Directors for
its work in providing back-up communications to a vast
number of
hospitals in the area. - ed.] 

HDSCS communicators were requested by St. Jude Medical
Center on the
night of July 27 for an "emergency standby" while
phone technicians
tried to troubleshoot problems with the new phone
system. The timing
was not good with many HDSCS communicators set to
participate early
the next morning in a terrorism drill in Anaheim. But
true to our
mission, we supported the request. 
 
The standby was set for 9 PM to midnight but as many
of these events
go, midnight came and went. Our coverage continued in
hospital key
areas and the shadowing of the administrative nurse. 

At 8:30AM and during the next five hours HDSCS
communicators were
activated to the participating hospitals, including
St. Jude, to
provide backup communications related to the scenario
of a sarin gas
terrorist attack at the Anaheim Convention Center. In
the
midafternoon, after all 21 communicators had secured
and were
recharging batteries, the disaster/safety coordinator
from St. Jude
once again contacted HDSCS to request standby
communications for that
night. The work was scheduled for 9 PM to midnight.  

Another three-hour event not only went past midnight,
but during the
phone work a major alarm failure occurred.  Not only
were phones down
but the hospital's various back-up systems failed
also. Good thing we
were there BEFORE ALL ELSE FAILED. Critical tactical
communications
were handled between the emergency department and
other units during
that time. By 6AM on Friday, July 29, HDSCS
communicators could
finally secure.  

I share this event to point out the value and
importance of the
following: being integrated into hospital disaster
plans, and having
activation plans so hospitals can contact Amateur
Radio teams
directly. Have portability and flexibility; we used no
installed
equipment. And have depth in your group: We were
stretched throughout
the event and we have a pretty big group from which we
can draw. --
April Moell, WA6OPS, Emergency Coordinator, Hospital
Disaster Support
Communications System, Orange County, California
<emcom4hosp at aol.com>
and <http://www.hdscs.org>


+ARES in South Dakota? Yes!

After the spate of hurricanes in the southeast, South
Dakota's
governor called for white papers from all state
agencies in regard to
their emergency communication capabilities. "Luckily,
we had people
in the right places, so one of the organizations asked
to submit a
paper was South Dakota ARES," reports SEC Jerry
Hawley, KG0GG. 

"We quickly appointed a special committee that
compiled information
on individual, club and ARES capabilities," Hawley
said. "Among items
gathered were a general statement of our abilities, a
callout roster
and a complete listing of all radio amateurs
interested in emergency
communication service, with their capabilities." There
will be an
ongoing effort to keep the information given to the
state Office of
Emergency Management up to date.

Another development is a draft Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU)
between the South Dakota Department of Public
Safety/Office of
Emergency Management (OEM) and South Dakota ARES.
Initial responses
from OEM are good. The MOU will lead to ARES' ability
to use state
towers and structures for amateur equipment, which
will be great
assets to Amateur Radio, OEM and the people of South
Dakota in the
event of a disaster.

South Dakota has a statewide linked repeater system.
"During our
recent Simulated Emergency Test we used the system to
pass traffic
for the governor and the OEM staff into the state
capitol of Pierre,"
Hawley said.  - From a report by Jerry Hawley, KG0GG,
South Dakota
ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
	
	
+ Break Tags

[Check this out, a great idea from Connecticut SEC Rod
Lane, N1FNE -
ed.]

Some of our DECs and other leadership are drilling
their crews on a
new method of getting attention on a net called 
"Break Tags."

When net communication gets heavy, someone may have a
quick solution
to a problem that is taking up too much valuable
airtime for
discussion, but can't break into the net to share it.
We came up with
"Break Tags" to deal with such a scenario. 

There are currently seven one-word Break Tags. They
are: "answer,"
"question," "info," "priority," "medical," "emergency"
and your call
sign. Most of these tags have been used with great
success in large
public/emergency services nets. Here is how they work:
Instead of
saying "break" between transmissions during a directed
net, the
operator uses the word specified as a Break Tag
without a call sign.
They are to be used only when the operator's traffic
will be
appreciated by net control and results in more
efficient
communication. They are to be used wisely, as net
control is directed
to stop and turn over the net to the breaker. The
message that
follows a break should be as short as possible.
Definitions and use:

"Answer": To be used when you have the definitive
answer to a
question currently being discussed on the air.

"Question": To be used when the answer of a question
can't wait; for
example, when the mayor is standing next to you and
requesting you to
get information using your radio.

"Info": To be used when information needs to be
transmitted rapidly
but is not related to what is being said on the air;
for example, if
an event that net control needs to know about is going
to happen in
the next few seconds or if waiting for the end of an
exchange will
negate the value of the information.

"Priority": To be used to report an important but
non-life
threatening situation such as a fender-bender that
just happened. 

"Medical": To be used to report a minor medical
incident that affects
the operator in some way; for example, having to leave
his/her post
for a few minutes to walk someone with a minor cut
over to a med
tent.

"Emergency": Only to be used to report an ongoing life
or property
threatening or damaging incident.

Your Call Sign: An indication that the operator has
traffic that can
wait and does not require the cessation of the ongoing
exchange. This
tag is an expectation to be put on hold and in queue
for
transmission.

"Break Tags" takes little training. Its use is
contagious and comes
very naturally. I hope that everyone adopts it. I
would like to hear
if other groups try it and how it works. It will be a
part of our
communications from here on in.-- Rod Lane, N1FNE,
Section Emergency
Coordinator, Connecticut Section <n1fne at arrl.net>


+ ARES on the ARRL Web Site

The ARRL staff is studying how they can better support
ARES via the
ARRL Web site. As ARES and emergency communication are
pillars of the
ARRL strategic vision, the ARRL needs to do a much
better job of
promoting and supporting these activities. Please send
in your ideas.

The ideas considered so far fall into two basic
categories:
information resources, and interactive applications.
Goals for
information resources: include more information on
digital ARES
networks such as WinLink; provide links to information
on FEMA
training; publish explanations of SKYWARN, NVOAD,
RACES and other
non-ARRL programs; archive the Web news stories about,
for example,
ARES, SATERN, SKYWARN, and other programs into one
area; and list
ARES pages set up by ARRL sections. 

Goals for Interactive Applications: enhance and
integrate Electronic
Public Service Activity Reports, such as the Volunteer
Reporting and
Public Service Stories databases that have recently
been added; and
include a database searchable by authorized users. The
ARRL could
host an ARES forum on-line community where ARES
participants could
share information. This may include forums restricted
to ARES
officials as well as ones open to all ARES members.

An ARES locator could be established as a place where
ARES and
government officials could find contact information
for local ARES
officers.

Whatever ideas are eventually implemented, ARES
information on the
Web site needs to be integrated into a cohesive,
high-profile whole
that can be easily found, accessed and promoted. 

Ideas? Send them to the editor for compilation,
publication and
forwarding to HQ staff for consideration. 


+ K1CE for a Final

Many readers wrote about the policies of the Civil Air
Patrol with
regard to the modification of Amateur Radio equipment
for CAP
frequency use. For information on CAP radio policies,
see
<http://level2.cap.gov/visitors/programs/operations/communications/ra
dios_radio_network.cfm>

See you next month, barring any disasters. -- K1CE

======================================================================
The ARES E-Letter is published on the third Wednesday
of each month
by the American Radio Relay League--The National
Association For
Amateur Radio--225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel
860-594-0200;
fax 860-594-0259; <http://www.arrl.org/>. Jim Haynie,
W5JBP,
President.

The ARES E-Letter is an e-mail digest of news and
information of
interest to active members of the ARRL Amateur Radio
Emergency
Service (ARES). 

Material from The ARES E-Letter may be republished or
reproduced in
whole or in part in any form without additional
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must be given to The ARES E-Letter and The American
Radio Relay
League.

Editorial questions or comments: Rick Palm, K1CE,
k1ce at arrl.net
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======================================================================

--- automatic signature follows...

David Johnson
MCP,MCSE,MCSD,MCDBA,CWS
david at justcalldavid.com
kb5ylg at yahoo.com

---

Emergency and public service communications,
a hobby of myriad facets, an enhancement to any
other hobby:  The Amateur Radio Service.

Find out more at http://www.arrl.org


	
		
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