[Wma-ares] Fwd: AREDN

[Chuck Chandler]

One possible solution is to assign one volunteer with a 50-watt VHF radio
and mobile antenna to sit atop a hill with a pad of paper and a pen.  They
can give surprising coverage.

For example, one mobile station atop the Hoosac Range in Florida (at the
Elk Statue, perhaps) could easily contact a station atop Poet's Seat in
Greenfield.  They could easily reach a mobile station atop Mount Tom.

Mount Wachusett or even the Princeton repeater would be in reach from
several of these.  Shelters could pass their messages to the relay
stations, who could pass it to the final destination.

While our Scenario takes several repeaters "off the table" a few do have
backup power.  In addition, there is no severe weather component so access
to good locations is not an issue.

The above is the "lowest-tech" but "simplest to implement" solution.
Other, solutions could provide greater speed and/or accuracy at a cost of
greater complexity.

Again, the choice of HOW you deliver the message is up to you.  The above
is simply one workable option.

73 de Chuck, WS1L
Amateur Radio Emergency Service ®
Section Emergency Coordinator
Western Massachusetts
chandlerusm at gmail.com


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: camyers <camyers at protonmail.com>
Date: Sun, Aug 17, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Subject: AREDN
To: Mike Scantlen <michael.scantlen at gmail.com>
Cc: Chuck Chandler <chandlerusm at gmail.com>, Gary Roy <groy773 at gmail.com>


Mike,

I read your message encouraging AREDN as a possible mode to use in the
planned SET drill to take place on Oct. 4. I looked you up on QRZ and saw
you live in Agawam, the very town of concern to me.  In the 19 years I have
been licensed, I have been involved in ARES, but only deployed for actual
emergency communication three times, after an ice storm in 2008, and after
a severe snow storm in 2012. From 2012 until 2021 I was the emergency
management director for the town of Shelburne. In that capacity I attended
many planning meetings and drills organized by the Franklin Regional
Counsel of Governments (FRCOG), Western Mass Homeland Security agency,
CERT, and MRC. Early in the game I read about WINLINK, learned how to use
it, and practiced using it for several years until I got frustrated by how
difficult it can be to make a solid contact with a WINLINK server. I then
heard about the Narrow Band Emergency Message System (NBEMS) and made it a
point to participate in nets originating in New Hampshire, New York State,
and Pennsylvania. Between WINLINK and NBEMS, I find it much more satisfying
to join weekly nets where I can test how much power it takes for me to make
contact, and how well I can hear other stations. This is a feature that, so
far as I know, was only in the last few years made available by weekly
WINLINK tests, which are not nets, but at least help test your capability.

When AREDN was announced by the league as the newest idea in emergency
communications, I read some of the literature, saw pictures of the
expensive equipment used in urban areas, and decided it would not be useful
in rural western Mass. I have seen you post several messages on the topic,
the most recent one suggesting its
use during the SET.  No ARES members in Franklin County, and probably few
here in Hampshire County, where I now live, can  afford the expense implied
by those pictures.  Yet the SET drill raises an old question, which still
bothers me: how do you pass urgent traffic to the Region 3 MEMA office in
Agawam?  I know there used to be good amateur radios in the radio room
there. I and Charlie Dunlap, K1II, spent some effort about ten years ago to
have that equipment put back to use, and for a few years Frank Morrisino
was allowed to go there to practice using that equipment.

When the covid pandemic struck, I received a report that the Region 3 staff
of MEMA decided to disassemble the radio equipment in order to use the room
for storage, and that the equipment is still not useable. If this is true,
how do we in the northern end of the valley send urgent messages when
telephone and internet service is not available? In real life, this problem
actually occurred during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.  Does the AREDN
system do anything to help solve this problem without requiring a big
investment of time and money?  If so, I would be interested in learning
more.  If not, I might have to send you messages to carry by hand over to
the MEMA office as the only way to make contact.

Chris Myers,
413-582-6829  (preferred)
(cell) 413-548-4183
Northampton, MA 01060
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