[TCARC-NTX] ARES Letter

[David Johnson KB5YLG]

The ARES E-Letter
March 15, 2006
=================					   

Rick Palm, K1CE, Editor

<http://www.qrz.com/database?callsign=K1CE>,
<http://www.iaru-r2emcor.net>

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

+ The View from Flagler County

Fulfilling part of my promise in last month's issue, I
managed to
take and pass IS-100, FEMA's on-line course on the
Incident Command
System. A pleasant surprise was the handsome
certificate from FEMA
that arrived in the mail a few days later. The course,
while perhaps
a bit dry and bureaucratic, is exceptionally well
done, and would
serve as a good model for the League's EmComm courses
currently under
revision. The content of the IS-100 course is
essential for every
ARES member, as the ICS has become the standard grid
for disaster and
emergency response, and even for public event
management. I am going
to take the NIMS course next.

Look at FEMA Emergency Management Institute additional
offerings:
many other courses would make any ARES operator a
greater asset in
the next incident. See
<http://www.training.fema.gov/EMIweb/IS/crslist.asp>
______________

Here in the county, the last ARES meeting at the
firehouse featured
two Katrina deployees. AEC Jim Billings, KB8LXC, was
there and had
this to say:

"We all talk the talk of emergency communications and
many of us walk
the walk as well. We had a special presentation from
Ray Crepeau,
K1HG, and Daisy Crepeau, KT4KW, about their
experiences in
Mississippi during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
They brought
slides and a wealth of knowledge gained through first
hand
experience.  Their photos were not the typical ones
everyone saw on
the news; instead, they imaged the working conditions
faced by
emergency response personnel and volunteers on the
ground. Their
message was clear: We must train together as a team on
basic
emergency management procedures related to
communications. During the
Katrina response, those without training were
liabilities instead of
assets, often passing erroneous and inaccurate
messages.

"Another lesson I took away from their presentation is
that an
emergency communication environment has no place for
egos, so leave
them at home. Last but not least, if you are picked
for deployment,
you have no idea of what conditions you are going to
walk into, so be
ready for anything." 

Billings, by the way, is one of the great assets here
in Flagler
county, having served as President of the Flagler-Palm
Coast ARC, the
ARRL-affiliated general interest club, and now as an
officer of the
ARRL-affiliated Flagler Emergency Communications
Association (FECA),
which serves as a platform for our ARES program with
critical assets
such as repeaters and expertise. Thanks for your
service, Jim. - K1CE

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

+ The View from Flagler County
+ American Red Cross HQ Staff Meet With ARRL/ARES
Counterparts in
Newington
+ New Jersey and Connecticut Host Terrorist Scenario
Drill
+ ARRL "HAM AID" Kits Ready for Next Disaster
+ Federal Reports Laud Amateur Radio in Katrina
Response
+ National Emergency Response Panel Named, Work
Commences
+ Letters: Fleming's North Carolina Legacy
+ Letters: ARES Volunteers and NIMS Compliance
+ ARES Marketplace
+ Check Out IEEE Communications January Issue
+ Airline Concessions to Amateur Radio EmComms?
+ Opinion: Red Cross Should Pay Hams for Services
+ Opinion: End-Of-Transmission Tones Would Help In
Poor Conditions
+ Opinion: Stigma of "Amateur"
+ Op-Ed: Limit After-Action Debriefings to Players
Only
+ Letters: 800 MHz Trunked Systems Redux
+ Revised ITU Recommendation On Use Of Amateur Radio
In Disasters In
Effect
+ Tip: Use Newspaper Plastic Bag as HT Condom
+ Special Event: Celebrate 30th Anniversary of
NWS/ARES Relationship
+ Letters: Post Information on ARRL Section Web Sites
+ K1CE for a Final
=========================

+ American Red Cross HQ Staff Meet With ARRL/ARES
Counterparts in
Newington 

On March 8, a hurricane season review meeting with
American Red Cross
reps was held at ARRL headquarters in Newington,
Connecticut. In
attendance were American Red Cross personnel Gayle
Guildford, J.J.
Sheppard, David Craig and Mike Mitchell. ARRL COO
Harold Kramer,
WJ1B, Alabama Section Manager Greg Sarratt, W4OZK, and
Field and
Educational Services Manager Dave Patton, NN1N,
represented ARRL. 
Patton reported that the participants came away with
greater empathy
for each organization's work and struggles.  He added
that he was
very impressed with the amount of, and wide-range of,
preparation the
Red Cross has undertaken across the country to
increase readiness.

The conferees reviewed lessons learned during the
nation's largest
deployment of ARES in history.	Discussions of how the
American Red
Cross and ARRL conducted their activities and how to
strengthen the
partnership for the future dominated the meeting. The
day started
with a tour of each Headquarters department, meeting
personnel and
reviewing how the department assisted the field
operation during the
relief effort. 

The meeting was productive and many ideas were
generated of how we
can better work together in the future.  We learned
about each
organization's operations and practices. Three of the
American Red
Cross visitors are radio amateurs, which aided their
understanding of
the ARRL. We inspected the ARRL "go kits" and the new
D-STAR
equipment recently installed in W1AW. I was proud to
be a part of
this important meeting. -- Greg Sarratt, W4OZK,
Alabama Section
Manager

[Editor's note: Greg also participated in the FCC's
"Independent
Panel Reviewing the Impact of Hurricane Katrina on
Communications
Networks." He presented his testimony to a 25 member
panel, FCC
Chairman Kevin J. Martin, FCC Commissioner Deborah
Taylor Tate and
several other FCC members. The panel is made up of a
cross section of
communications industry and public service
professionals. The
presenters represented volunteers, public service,
health, medical,
broadcast and communications industry entities.

The panel and FCC have their work cut out for them. 
There were many
hours of testimony and the recurring themes during the
two-day
session were operability, interoperability,
credentialing and Amateur
Radio.	Our radio service received positive mentions
several times
during the presentations and discussions. The hearings
were audio,
video and type recorded and will be made available for
public record
on the FCC web site: <http://www.fcc.gov/eb/hkip/>]

+ New Jersey and Connecticut Host Terrorist Scenario
Drill

Simulating a terrorist attack, "TOPOFF 3" was the
largest disaster
drill ever to take place in the United States. TOPOFF
3 was held
simultaneously in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Connecticut ARES was
asked to provide communications support for the
American Red Cross,
and to provide backup communications to the
Connecticut Office of
Emergency Management (OEM). ARES was determined to
show the value of
Amateur Radio communications in a large-scale
disaster. Hank Wolcott,
KA1WTS, DEC for CT OEM Area 4 and Wayne Gronlund,
N1CLV, Assistant
DEC for CT OEM Area 4 South were pivotal to our
success in this
operation. The rest of the ARES and Section Leadership
teams played
important roles in many ways, as discussed in a
lengthy report.

A drill provides certain advantages over a real event,
but TOPOFF 3
also had some disadvantages. On the plus side was the
ability to
pre-schedule and pre-plan to some extent. On the
negative side the
drill was held on a weekday with some workers who
could not get time
off to participate. Others were required to take
vacation time to
participate.  The drill went 36 hours straight in the
beginning,
which also provided a number of challenges.  The after
action report
for TOPOFF 3 is now available on the CT ARES web page
at
<http://www.ctares.org>. We hope it will be helpful to
others who may
face a drill or actual mobilization of this nature in
the future. --
Chuck Rexroad, AB1CR, Connecticut ARES

+ ARRL "HAM AID" Kits Ready for Next Disaster

When another major incident occurs, the League will be
able to deploy
"ham gear ready to go," thanks to manufacturers'
donations of
equipment, ARRL members' generous monetary
contributions and a
federal grant. The ARRL Ham Aid-sponsored "Go Kits"
now being
assembled at Headquarters are the third leg of a
program that's
already reimbursed certain out-of-pocket expenses for
ham radio
hurricane zone volunteers and helped restore Amateur
Radio backbone
infrastructure along the US Gulf Coast.

The League will loan out needed equipment on a
moment's notice.
Emergency Communications Specialist Harry Abery,
AB1ER, has been
stowing various equipment complements in rugged,
waterproof Pelican
containers.

The "HF Kit" contains a 100-W HF transceiver, a
microphone and a
power supply. The "VHF/UHF Kit" includes a dualband
mobile
transceiver, power supply, headset, 10 handheld
transceivers and a
supply of alkaline batteries. In the "Handheld
Transceiver Kit" are
eight dualband handheld transceivers and antennas plus
a stock of
extra batteries. The "Support Kit" includes a length
of BuryFlex 213
coaxial cable, rope, 15-foot jumper cables with
battery clamps at one
end and an Anderson Powerpole on the other. 
 
+ Federal Reports Laud Amateur Radio in Katrina
Response

US Congressional reports complimented ARES in "A
Failure of
Initiative"--the final report of the Select Bipartisan
Committee to
investigate the preparation for and response to
Hurricane Katrina
(see
<http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2006/02/17/2/>).

>From the report: ". . . the National Communications
System (NCS)
coordinated the frequencies used by the nearly 1000
Amateur Radio
Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers across the nation
who served in
the Katrina stricken area providing communications for
government
agencies, the Red Cross and The Salvation Army."
"Emergency
communications were conducted not only by voice, but
also by
high-speed data transmissions using state-of-the art
digital
communications software known as Winlink." 

The report further noted, "In Mississippi, FEMA
dispatched Amateur
Radio operators to hospitals, evacuation centers, and
county EOCs to
send emergency messaging 24 hours per day. Cited were
comments by Bay
St Louis Mayor Eddie Favre that Amateur Radio
volunteers "were
especially helpful in maintaining situational
awareness and relaying
Red Cross messages to and from the Hancock County
EOC."

According to the report, radio amateurs at airports in
Texas and
Louisiana "tracked evacuees and notified families of
their
whereabouts," while the Red Cross "deployed Amateur
Radio volunteers
at its 250 shelters and feeding stations, principally
in Mississippi,
Alabama and Florida." 

["A Failure of Initiative" addressed failures of
governmental
response, which have been iterated enough, and I won't
re-hash them
here. The White House report, "The Federal Response to
Hurricane
Katrina: Lessons Learned"
<http://www.whitehouse.gov/reports/katrina-lessons-learned.pdf>
also
cited Amateur Radio as an example of "What Went
Right:" "Amateur
Radio operators from ARES monitored distress calls and
rerouted
emergency requests for assistance throughout the US
until messages
were received by emergency response personnel," the
report said.
-ed.]

+ National Emergency Response Panel Named, Work
Commences

One of the first actions of new ARRL President Joel
Harrison, W5ZN,
was to appoint 13 to serve on the ARRL National
Emergency Response
Planning Committee. The League's Board created the
committee in
January "to appropriately prepare for future
large-scale disasters."
The committee will develop a comprehensive
recommendation for ARRL
responses to regional, national and international
disasters.

ARRL First Vice President Kay Craigie, N3KN, will
chair the ad hoc
committee. Appointed to serve on the committee were:
Delta Division
Director Henry Leggette, WD4Q, (Programs and Services
Committee
liaison); Pacific Division Vice Director Andy Oppel,
N6AJO; Atlantic
Division Vice Director Tom Abernethy, W3TOM; Alabama
Section Manager
Greg Sarratt, W4OZK; Western Washington Section
Manager Ed Bruette,
N7NVP; South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator Jerry
Reimer, KK5CA;
Southern Florida Section Emergency Coordinator Jeff
Beals, WA4AW;
NYC-Long Island Section Emergency Coordinator Tom
Carrubba, KA2D;
Mississippi Section District Emergency Coordinator
Karl Bullock,
WA5TMC; Colorado Net Manager/State Government Liaison
Gene McGahey,
AL7GQ; IARU Region 2 Emergency Coordinator Rick Palm,
K1CE, (IARU
liaison) and ARRL Field and Educational Services
Manager Dave Patton,
NN1N (ARRL staff liaison).

ARES E-Letter readers will recognize several of the
names from the
Katrina response articles published in previous
issues. 

Mrs. Craigie said one of the committee's principal
tasks is to help
"ARES evolve to be able to respond effectively to
disasters that
overwhelm the resources of a single Section."
Currently, ARES is
structured along Section lines; there is no ARES
structure beyond the
Section level at this time.

[A note about ARRL HQ's response: Readers should not
get the idea
that Newington's Katrina response was somehow
inadequate. On the
contrary, it was the best response I've ever seen from
the staff.
They took a number of unprecedented steps that we,
back in the old
days of the Communications Department and Field
Services Department,
never took despite being involved in some major
scenarios such as
Hurricanes Hugo and Andrew. Can they do better? Can't
we all? And
they're working on it. - ed.]

+ Letters: Fleming's North Carolina Legacy

In re your comments about Florida's John Fleming,
WD4FFX, in the last
issue, he was instrumental in getting ham radio into
the Iredell
County (North Carolina) Emergency Communications
Center back in the
mid '70s. Fleming also got permission for the
Statesville 2 meter
repeater to get space in the courthouse and the
antenna hung on the
county tower there. Florida's gain sure was North
Carolina's loss. --
Lou Burgess, WB4WRR/EI2JE

+ Letters: ARES Volunteers and NIMS Compliance

Are volunteers required to be National Incident
Management System
(NIMS) compliant?  I decided to ask FEMA for
clarification. Their
answer: "Thank you for contacting the NIMS Integration
Center. The
short answer is: Yes. In a response scenario that
extends beyond
local government, there needs to be common terminology
and doctrine
that everyone can follow so that personnel and
resources are
feathered in a seamless manner. This is especially
true for radio
communications. Radio operators need to understand
what is being said
and asked of them during an incident so that they can
convey this
information effectively and efficiently. Please let me
know if I can
provide further assistance. Regards, Paul F. Ganem,
NIMS Integration
Center"

We need to push NIMS and ICS training as hard as we
can. If you know
of a forum where these issues are being discussed, I
would be very
interested in participating. -- Ron Breitwisch, KC0OX,
District
Emergency Coordinator, Iowa District 6 West, Emergency
Preparedness
Director, <http://ares.rf.org/linn/kc0ox.htm>
 
+ ARES Marketplace

ARES Commemorative Brass Belt Buckle with your call
letters cast--not
engraved--in solid brass. A great gift for yourself!
See
<http://www.ItsUrCall.com> (ARRL has a marketing
agreement with the
company).

+ Check Out IEEE Communications January Issue

The January 2006 issue of IEEE Communications
<http://www.comsoc.org>
is all about Public Safety Communications. High-level
stuff, but of
interest to the technical side of emcomm. -- Ward
Silver, N0AX

+ Airline Concessions to Amateur Radio EmComms?

Thinking forward to future needs for ARES mutual aid,
I'd like to
know whether ARRL has made any arrangements with the
major commercial
air carriers to waive the size and weight limits
and/or associated
fees for checked baggage for ARES members traveling to
assist in
emergencies or to participate in preparatory or
training exercises. 
Two key pieces of equipment come to mind: deep-cycle
batteries and
solar panels.
 
Gelled-electrolyte and absorbed-glass-mat sealed
lead-acid deep-cycle
batteries are safe cargo for air transport, but they
can easily
exceed the weight limits for checked baggage, which
now run from 50
to 70 pounds per piece.  Commercial-grade solar panels
are typically
around 4 feet long and 2 feet wide before protective
packing.  When
packed, they exceed the dimensional limits for
no-charge checked
pieces.  An ARES member traveling to a disaster or
preparatory or
training exercise with one or more solar panels and
batteries could
be faced with substantial overweight and oversize
charges.  Having an
official mechanism by which these fees could be waived
would help
reduce the financial burden on those already
volunteering their time
and resources for public benefit. -- Marty Woll, N6VI,
Los Angeles
ARES

+ Opinion: Red Cross Should Pay Hams for Services

As a former Red Crosser, I traveled on the company
dime, with the
American Red Cross providing both travel and
room-and-board expenses
on national jobs. All of their national responders are
compensated.
Some get a monetary stipend as well. If the ARC wants
ham radio
volunteers, why don't they pay for ham radio
volunteers? I think it's
because the League provides them for free, which means
hams pay their
own way while ARC volunteers don't have to. It seems
that if hams are
working for Red Cross, then the Red Cross should sign
them up and pay
their way, as they do their own communications
volunteers (who are
also hams). ARC might also underwrite some of the
League's cost of
providing these volunteers, as well as whatever
volunteer
reimbursement program we offer. I am not saying that
hams should
charge for our services, just that the Red Cross
should treat us just
as it does its own volunteers. 

There is no reason that hams cannot pay their own way
if they want
to, but that limits the response to those who can
afford to and
probably puts a financial hardship on some responders.

Put another way: If you want to make a donation to a
relief effort,
write a check. But, if you are working at the
disaster, you should be
treated like the other workers. Giving your time,
talent, and use of
your equipment should be enough. That's how they treat
their own
volunteers and that's how hams should be treated, too.
-- David
Coursey, N5FDL, EC, San Joaquin County

+ Opinion: End-Of-Transmission Tones Would Help In
Poor Conditions

Amateurs engaged in ARES/RACES voice communications on
HF should
consider adding end of transmission tones (EOT) to
their radios to
aid traffic flow in poor conditions. I realize that
within the
amateur community, EOTs have been associated with the
CB mentality.
But within the public safety community and most
military voice
communication circuits, EOTs are used routinely. 

During Katrina, I personally experienced numerous
situations where
two stations were attempting to pass traffic via voice
on HF under
weak signal conditions. Often one station would not
hear the "over"
phrase and would wait a long time before asking for a
repeat. Often
stations would transmit at the same time in this event
(double), and
chaos would rein. 

EOT sounders can be a real aid in weak signal
conditions. While I
would not support their use in daily communications, I
think that in
emergency conditions we should consider them as
another tool in our
inventory. I'm curious about what others whose primary
interest is
ARES/RACES think about this suggestion. -- Les
Rayburn, N1LF, ARES,
SHARES, SKYWARN, ARRL EmComm Level 3 Certified
Official Emergency
Station

+ Opinion: Stigma of "Amateur"

As EC of Leake County, Mississippi, I find my biggest
problem is
overcoming the stigma of our name: "amateur" is an
almost
insurmountable challenge. When I introduced myself to
our local
Emergency Response Coordinator his first response was
to tell me that
all of his people were professionals and that he had
no room in his
organization for amateurs. It seems that there is a
perception among
the "professionals" that because we are not paid and
are "amateurs,"
we are somehow less capable, less trained and less
reliable.

His next response was that he could not afford the
risk involved in
having "amateurs" involved in his operation because we
were not
covered under the State's insurance. He did not want
to be held
responsible if "one of your amateurs" gets himself
injured, or held
liable if "one of your amateurs screws something up
and hurts
someone." He further stated that he didn't want "a
bunch of yahoos
with walkie talkies" running around, getting in his
way. [Ouch, that
one really hurt-ed.]

I don't know the answer but I don't think I'm alone,
based on my
conversations with other ECs. It is my perception that
this is a
commonly held opinion among the "Professional Radio"
community. --
John Pinkard, KD5KXJ, EC, Leake County, Mississippi

+ Op-Ed: Limit After-Action Debriefings to Players
Only

[In a recent issue, we discussed after-action
debriefings and how to
maximize their utility. Here's an analogy to the
medical
profession-ed.]

I thought about all the CPCs (Clinical-Pathological
Conferences) I
attended in 35 years of medical practice, and how they
changed and
became less useful over time.

When I started in medical school a famous cardiologist
(and the
sharpest knife in the drawer) often ran the
conferences at our
medical school hospital.  At the end of the
interrogation of the
treating doctors, and discussion by the rest of the
staff, attendees
had to choose either: 1) Error in diagnosis, 2) Error
in treatment,
or 3) Error in technique. The point was that no matter
how hopeless
the case itself might have been, if the patient died,
there must have
been an error made.

If "we did everything right but the patient just died
because it was
his time" was an option, the temptation would have
been to choose
that option as often as possible, and our natural
disinclination to
be critical of our friends and colleagues would have
ruled our
judgments.  In that sense the valuable lessons to be
learned from the
death of each patient would have been lost; their
dying to that
extent, wasted.

Making the assumption that an error had occurred
assured that every
single little decision by the treatment team would be
scrutinized and
any small, even insignificant, mistakes illuminated
and brought to
the attention of doctors who might be facing similar
situations later
that very day or week. The process worked and people
were
scrupulously honest about their own mistakes. Only
other staff
physicians were present, and at the beginning of the
meeting the
moderator would scan the room and ask "visitors" to
leave.

In later years, "Political Correctness" called for
"Patient
Advocates," often former patients, to be included on
all hospital
committees. That ruined the candidness and
consequently the teaching
value of our meetings.

The point: The "unvarnished truth" should be told only
among
ourselves, and not in any forum to which potential
adversaries are
invited. In a mixed forum there needs to be a
moderator to insist
upon civility being maintained and mutual respect
accorded one to the
other. And there should be an agreement not to take
"ammunition" from
the room to be used in potential battle. No minutes
should be kept.
-- Denis (Doc) Franklin, W6EW

+ Letters: 800 MHz Trunked Systems Redux

Rick, greetings from just down the road.  Please don't
feel that you
have to apologize for or back down from your previous
comments
regarding Flagler County's new 800 MHz trunked radio
system. Your
comments about the unreliability of trunked radio
systems are
absolutely correct, even if based only upon the very
nature of these
(relatively speaking) more complex radio systems.

Ever since trunked radio systems have been peddled to
public safety
end-users, I have observed that those who continue to
perpetrate
untruths--including various half-truths--about the
alleged benefits
of such systems, always have either a political or
commercial axe to
grind. As an expert on this subject who is in a
position to be
unbiased--being retired from both government and from
that
industry--I can vouch for the accuracy of your
aforementioned
comments. So please continue to stand tall. -- Kind
regards, Alan
Dixon, N3HOE, Contributing Editor, Popular
Communications Magazine,
Melbourne, Brevard County, Florida <WPUC720 at juno.com>,
<http://www.qrz.com/database?callsign=N3HOE>

+ Revised ITU Recommendation On Use Of Amateur Radio
In Disasters In
Effect

A revised International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D)
Recommendation is now in
force to promote "effective utilization of the amateur
services in
disaster mitigation and relief operations." Initially
developed in
2001, the document, known as Recommendation ITU-D 13,
was brought up
to date last year through the efforts of an ITU-D
study group and
circulated to administrations around the globe for
adoption.

"This is an updated version of a Recommendation that
administrations
include the amateur services in their national
disaster plans, reduce
barriers to effective use of the amateur services for
disaster
communications, and develop memoranda of understanding
with amateur
and disaster relief organizations," explained ARRL CEO
David Sumner,
K1ZZ. ITU-D 13 further advises cooperation among all
parties in
making available model agreements and "best practices"
in disaster
telecommunications.

The revised Recommendation ITU-D 13 is expected to be
available
soon--in several languages and in MS-Word and PDF
formats--from the
ITU Web site <http://www.itu.int>.

+ Tip: Use Newspaper Plastic Bag as HT Protector

Save the plastic bags that the newspaper carrier
delivers your daily
newspapers in: They make perfect HT covers for bad
weather operating.
Slip it over the HT, tie a knot in the bottom and
voila, a water
resistant HT. The bags are thin and flexible so you
can operate the
controls and speak through the bag. Our ARES/RACES
group recently
worked a special event marathon in the pouring rain
for 6 hours and
the people that used the bags kept their equipment
dry. -- Ed
McGinley, W5ETM, Tarrant County, Texas, RACES/ARES
 
+ Special Event: Celebrate 30th Anniversary of
NWS/ARES Relationship

A special operating event will be held March 25 to
commemorate the
30th anniversary of the partnership between Amateur
Radio and the
National Weather Service for severe storm spotting.
Details: March
25, 1200Z-2400Z, Fort Worth, Texas. Tarrant County
RACES, N5W. 30th
Anniversary of NWS and Amateur Radio partnership.
14.265 MHz, and
7.240 MHz. QSL via Ed McGinley, W5ETM, Tarrant County
RACES/ARES, PO
Box 6251, Fort Worth, TX 76115 Please see
<http://www.tarrantraces.org/n5w.htm> 

+ Letters: Post Information on ARRL Section Web Sites

In your last newsletter, you had a submission
entitled:
"Collaboration, not Control: An 'Outsider's'
Perspective on Katrina
Operations." It got me thinking that it might be very
useful for each
ARRL section to post their basic ARES operating
information (leader
contact info, planned repeaters/frequencies) at some
Web site,
perhaps the ARRL Web site. In that way, outsiders
requested to go to
emergency areas could look up this info and know who
to look for and
where, when they arrived at the emergency site. This
might avoid
potential problems with outsiders fitting into the
plans of locals.
-- Ralph Milnes, KC2RLM, Chatham NJ ARES 

+ K1CE for a Final

Eagle-eye observers may notice the dearth of reports
of actual ARES
activations in this issue. That is because we at the
executive
editorial office suite on the top floor of the ARES
E-Letter campus
main building here in Flagler county have not received
any reports.

Please, send in your after-action reports. I, for one,
would like to
hear of some activations that don't involve the
"H-word" types of
disasters for a change. I suspect readers might agree.
Thanks!

See you next month! - 73, Rick, 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
permission. Credit
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
Delivery problems (ARRL direct delivery only!):
ares-el-dlvy at arrl.org

To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your address for
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ARRL members first must register on the Members Only
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ARES E-Letter,
W1AW bulletins, and other material. ARRL members may
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ARES E-Letter by going to the Member Data Page at:
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Note that you must be logged in to the site to access
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Scroll down to the section "Which of the following
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"ARES E-Letter (monthly public service and emergency
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news)" and you're all set. 

Past issues of The ARES E-Letter are available at
http://www.arrl.org/ares-el/. Issues are posted to
this page after
publication.
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