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Subj: ARES E-Letter December 21, 2011
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From: CX2SA@CX2SA.SAL.URY.SA
To : ARES@WW
The ARES E-Letter December 21, 2011
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
In This Issue:
Army MARS Phasing Out WINLINK
Add Television To Your ARES Tool Kit
Western Pennsylvania ARES: NBEMS for Data Communications
Letters: A Tornado, and Lessons Learned
Letters: Collections of SET Scenarios Needed
R. Kent TeVault Scholarship for Emergency Communications
ARRL Orange Section Hams Recognized
Letters: Western Washington Section Writes Interoperability Plan
Hams Help Save the Life of Fellow Ham
K1CE For a Final
Army MARS Phasing Out WINLINK
-----------------------------
The Department of the Army has announced that it has begun to take steps to
phase out the use of the WINLINK System. The military chain of command that
governs Army MARS feels that the Internet portion of WL2K leaves the system
significantly open to possible intrusion. To deal with this it plans to
replace WINLINK with a newer military e-mail system that has extensive
protection against any form of intrusion.
To replace the WL2K system, Army MARS will be expanding on the concept of a
national network that is voice, RTTY, MIL-STD 110A and PACTOR capable. The
focus of digital communication will be MIL-STD 188-110A, wide shift RTTY,
and PACTOR III. PACTOR will become even more important as the new areas of
focus will be "Peer to Peer" and "Keyboard to Keyboard" PACTOR
communications. Amateur modes such as MT-63, OLIVIA, and WINMOR, which
cannot be used by the military will be eventually phased out as well.
A large contingent of skilled volunteer MARS operators will be required to
make this system work effectively and this is where current and prospective
Army MARS members will be needed. The goal will be to help Army MARS return
to what it is really supposed to be: A radio-only system to relay long haul
traffic across the CONUS and OCONUS.
While these changes will affect Army MARS nationally, they are not
abandoning state and local agencies. They are just moving away from giving
them a winlink.org e-mail address. As they move forward, Army MARS will be
able to offer these agencies the ability to relay traffic across the MARS
radio-only network to anywhere across the country including such places as
the Pentagon, National Guard Bureau, and the U.S. Army for requesting
military support in a disaster. - Thanks, Mike Corey, KI1U, ARRL Emergency
Preparedness Manager
Add Television To Your ARES Tool Kit
------------------------------------
This is a TV success story for a local ARES group. The Boulder County,
Colorado, ARES group (District 11), BCARES, has experienced much success
working with our county's emergency services organizations; in particular,
fire and law enforcement. BCARES's tool kit includes all of the usual ham
services, including HF/VHF/UHF voice communications, repeaters and various
digital modes on HF plus packet on VHF/UHF with back-bone linked
digipeaters. But, what Boulder County Public Safety lacked most was the
specialty mode that we had to offer: television. Amateur Television (ATV) is
the one BCARES capability that really excites our served agencies.
We started offering TV services 20 years ago at the encouragement of Captain
Bill McCaa, K0RZ, of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. McCaa was in
charge of all of the Sheriff's communications and computer operations and
the county regional 911 center. Over the past few years BCARES has received
many more requests for assistance using TV than for all other communication
modes.
TV offers the agency information in ways never imagined by us or them. It
provides them with situational awareness, a buzzword for what is happening
on the ground. It helps remove the need for many voice communication
exchanges for information that is already contained in the video imagery.
Television allows the Incident Commander at the Incident Command Post (ICP)
to actually see what is happening at the scene(s) of the incident, be it a
fire, flood, hazmat issue, riot, or SWAT operation. With this information,
the Incident Commander is better able to make appropriate command decisions.
Via our 2 meter, TV net controller, the Incident Commander is able to
request BCARES cameras provide him with specific images and information. We
are able to routinely provide television and other communication services in
a completely infrastructure free manner.
Many times every year, BCARES is asked by our local law enforcement and fire
departments to provide TV coverage of both real emergencies and also
multi-agency training exercises. These have included large, forest fires,
flash floods, hazardous materials incidents, civil disturbances, large
political demonstrations and protests, Halloween on the Pearl St. Mall,
University of Colorado football games and SWAT operations. Boulder County
ranks as the leading flash flood threat zone in the state of Colorado and
BCARES is specifically written into County emergency planning.
BCARES' shining moment occured in September, 2010 when the worst forest fire
in Colorado history broke out in Boulder County. The Four Mile Canyon fire
burned over 6,400 acres of forest and destroyed 166 homes. BCARES assisted
firefighters by providing live TV coverage from mountain tops back to the
911 center for a week. At the end, BCARES was credited with saving several
homes. See the related article in May, 2011 QST.
When most hams think of ATV, they immediately assume its SSTV. This is not
what BCARES does. Our TV is commercial grade, analog NTSC, real-time, live
video with full color and sound transmissions. On the 70 cm band, we run
full 6 MHz bandwidth, vestigial upper sideband (VUSB) TV transmissions. We
use the same frequencies as used by cable TV. This allows our TV signals to
be received directly on unmodified, cable-ready, TV receivers. For example,
cable channel 57 equals 421.25 MHz, and channel 58 equals 427.25 MHz, et
cetera. We also use the amateur 23 cm and 13 cm bands, for FM-TV.
A few Boulder County hams have their own home ham TV stations. With the
exception of a Monday night TV net, there is little routine ham TV activity
in the county. However, when we have a BCARES operation going, there may be
as many as four or five TV channels lighting up and becoming active
simultaneously on the 70 cm and 23 cm bands. Out of the 80+ BCARES members,
about one half are TV trained and capable of operating our TV equipment.
When using TV for ARES operations, the same FCC rules and guidelines apply
as for voice and data transmissions. We use common sense and decency along
with the FCC rules to determine what are appropriate pictures to transmit.
BCARES has turned down some requests for TV, typically for foot and bicycle
races, when we determined they were for commercial, rather than bonafide
public safety purposes.
BCARES uses commercial, off the shelf, consumer grade, Sony video
camcorders. Our latest cameras are high-definition, but we only transmit
conventional composite, NTSC, standard definition pictures. Using 1080i,
high-definition cameras still results in much better quality images, even
when transmitted in analog 480i, standard definition. The Sony camcorders
include an infra-red, night vision mode capability, which has been found to
be extremely useful for low light operations. For example, images we
provided to the Fire Chief of a 2002 forest fire on the outskirts of Boulder
offered extremely revealing, night time hot smoke clouds that were not at
all obvious to the naked human eye. Through a long telephoto lens, the chief
was able to follow the progress of his fire crews advancing up the
mountainside towards the fire line.
In our 911 center equipment cache, we have several complete, portable TV
transmitters packaged in backpacks. They are complete ready to go kits with
Sony HD-TV camera, tripod, transmitter, antenna and battery. A Diamond
SRH-999, flexible, 70 cm antenna is mounted high on the camera tripod, with
a coax feed from the transmitter in the backpack. We use a 12 V, 7 amp-hour
battery, which is sufficient to allow continuous, key-down, TV transmission
for more than three hours.
Television has proved to be very useful to the Boulder County public safety
agencies and as a result has gotten a lot more hams active in public
service. There is nothing worse than having a group of dedicated ARES
volunteers that never get called upon to serve. After awhile they lose
interest. Then, when they are really needed, they are not there or maybe
worse, they are untrained. With TV, that has happened far less to BCARES. We
get called upon a lot. We recommend that other ARES groups consider adding
TV to their ARES tool kits. -- Jim Andrews, KH6HTV, Boulder, Colorado ARES;
TV Repeater Trustee W0BCR
Western Pennsylvania ARES: NBEMS for Data Communications
--------------------------------------------------------
Narrow Band Emergency Messaging Software (NBEMS) is an open source software
suite that allows Amateur Radio operators to reliably send and receive data
using nearly any computer (Windows, Mac, and Linux) and any analog radio
without requiring a dedicated digital infrastructure or specialized modem
hardware. NBEMS works on both VHF/UHF FM and on HF. In an on-line
presentation, readers can learn the basics of sending and receiving data
using Fldigi, and how to verify file transfers with Flwrap. They will see
how to easily send and receive verified text messages using Flmsg. NBEMS is
the standard digital emcomm package for Western Pennsylvania ARES.
Advanced NBEMS
In a follow-up presentation, operators can also learn how to send and
receive ICS-205, ICS-206, ICS-213, ICS-214, and ICS-216 forms in addition to
ARRL Radiograms with Flmsg; and about new high speed modes in NBEMS. They
can also see how to deal with large data files using Flwrap data compression
and Flarq. Readers can also see real world through-put benchmarks and
receive recommendations for how best to send data, and how to make a
monitoring station automatically handle changes in NBEMS modes.
Click here for these on-line video presentations. - ARRL Web site
Letters: A Tornado, and Lessons Learned
---------------------------------------
While I was unharmed and under no serious threat, I decided that having a
tornado hit my street was the perfect time to test some of what I practiced
with ham radio and emcomm. Several things went wrong, mostly due to my lack
of preparedness. Trees were down, and so was power, cable TV, and the
Internet.
I have an iPhone, and I thought I could find a hot spot. No luck: "Data
services not available." The voice telephone of the iPhone worked, but only
at times. Lesson: Cell phones are not reliable, even "smart" phones.
I had received an inquiry about conditions on my street and wanted to reply
via e-mail. I decided I could use WL2K and WINMOR via my HF radio as my
antennas were intact. I loaded RMS Express and composed my health and
welfare response. I decided that I would not only send the e-mail to the
friend that inquired, I would also copy it to my ARES DEC, ARRL SM, MARS
commander, and other officials. But their e-mail addresses are not in my RMS
Express address book, and I could not get into my e-mail account on-line to
get their addresses. Another lesson learned: Have a hard copy list of
important e-mail addresses.
I shrugged this problem off, and o receive a message informing me
that it failed to initialize. Despite several attempts, I was never able to
initiate a connection. Since the Internet was down, I could not simply
telnet via Winlink. There is also no 2-meter nor UHF packet node within
simplex distance for WL2K via packet. So, I gave up on WL2K.
I should point out that the failure was not due to WL2K; it was my failure.
In two years of regular WL2K use via WINMOR, I had never made a connection
with my Internet down. The problem was due to a port conflict, possibly in
my router or PC firewall. The problem disappeared as soon as the Internet
came back. Lesson learned: Test your WL2K capability without the Internet.
At this stage of my tornado evening, I am still a total communication
failure. I considered alternatives: It was Monday night at 8:45, and I
remembered that I am NCS for the 9:00 ARES/RACES net on my local wide-area
UHF repeater system. What more could you need for getting a message out? The
W2SB repeater was working well and my leaning antenna was still indicating
an S9 signal back from the machine. I called up the net and asked for
check-ins: Not a single station checked in. Despite a good active ARES group
for drills, we often have difficulty getting more than 2-3 members to check
in to the nets. This night of a tornado emergency, no one checked in.
I next considered PSKmail. I moved to the 30-meter frequency where PSKmail
servers are known to exist. I executed a "ping" via THOR 22 mode. Lo and
behold, two servers responded. I connected right away to the strongest one
and executed the "send e-mail" command. The e-mail began to transfer but an
old unsent e-mail in my outbox was sent first. I then spent the next 20
minutes in ARQ ping-pong and my health-and-welfare e-mail failed to
transfer. I tried the other server and got a good connection immediately.
Another twenty minutes of ARQ ping-pong and I gave up, with the message
failing to transfer. A few weeks earlier, I had discovered some issues with
PSKmail and the authors had published fixes via an updated release of the
software. I failed to install them when they were released, thinking I would
do it "when I get time." Too late, I had no Internet to download it. Lesson
learned: First, I failed to check the outbox and remove unimportant e-mail.
In a real emergency, where power sources are scarce, wasting time and power
due to an old unsent e-mail is not good. Second, I failed to update a
software release that eliminated known communication problems. I did not get
that e-mail out from my emcomm station, and I am the ARES EC! My friend
eventually got a text message to me and I squeak out a reply via cell phone.
Later than night I switched to 3583 kHz and 7036 kHz where several stations
were clearly audible and enjoying rag chews in digital modes. I was able to
copy their QSOs and hat would be
encountered without the Internet. I failed to program my emergency
communications e-mail software with important e-mail addresses. I failed to
have a hard copy of my important e-mail addresses. I failed to realize that
important information within a Gmail account (and other Web-based services)
is not available if the Internet is down. I failed to perform critical
emcomm software updates in a timely manner. I failed to write out my
personal communications plan. (I had written the county ARES plan, but not
my own!). Such a plan would not have caused me to forget two emcomm methods
I could have easily used (NBEMS and plain old NTS). I hope your readers can
learn from my mistakes. -- Andy O'Brien, K3UK, Emergency Coordinator,
Chautauqua County, New York
Letters: Collections of SET Scenarios Needed
--------------------------------------------
This may have been brought up in the past, but I was wondering if your
readers knew of any collections of practice scenarios that could be perused
by those wishing to provide an SET that is both pertinent and interesting,
if not unique. It seems that it is often difficult to make up a decent
incident; a pool would share good ideas, as well as spur some new ones. I
would appreciate any information your readers may have. -- Jan Woldseth,
KB6FMZ, DEC4, Sacramento Valley, California ARES
Training: COML -- TYPE III Communications Unit Leader
During all-hazards emergency response operations, communications among
multiple jurisdictions and disciplines--including emergency medical, fire,
and law enforcement services--is essential. Unfortunately, the absence of
on-scene communications coordination has often compromised critical
operations. To close this capability gap, the Department of Homeland
Security's (DHS) Office of Emergency Communications (OEC) in partnership
with the Office for Interoperability and Compatibility (OIC), the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Integration Center (NIC), and
practitioners from across the country developed performance and training
standards for the All Hazards Type III Communications Unit Leader (COML) as
well as formulated a curriculum and comprehensive All-Hazards Type III COML
Course.
The Type III COML course trains emergency responders to be communications
unit leaders during all-hazards emergency operations, significantly
improving communications across the multiple disciplines and jurisdictions
responding to an incident. This COML training will qualify emergency
responders to lead ICS communications units if they possess the necessary
prerequisites, including knowledge of the following: local communications;
communications systems; and regional, State, and local communications plans.
COML responsibilities include developing plans for the effective use of
incident communications equipment and facilities, maThe R. Kent TeVault Scholarship in Emergency Communications has been
designed to offer a scholarship to encourage emcomm training in general, and
for the benefit of the DuPage County ARES team specifically. This
scholarship will reimburse selected Amateur Radio operators who take and
successfully pass the ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communications Course
(EC-001). A complete description of the program and an application can be
found on the team's web site at www.dupageares.org on the "Emcomm
Scholarship" page. -- Michael J. Schulz, W9MJS, EC, DuPage County Amateur
Radio Emergency Service (ARES), Illinois
ARRL Orange Section Hams Recognized
-----------------------------------
On October 28, 2011, California's 62nd District Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina
Carter recognized local hams at the "Third Annual Public Safety Awards"
volunteer recognition ceremony at The Inland Regional Conference Center in
San Bernardino, California. Representatives from Congressman Baca's office,
city, county and state government offices (San Bernardino County Fire,
Fontana Police Department, Rialto Fire Department) were in attendance. Each
fire and police department honored their respective nominees with
certificates of recognition.
The following were awarded for their communications expertise and
volunteerism within their respective public safety agency:
ƒ?½ Jim Eason, AD6IJ, volunteer work with San Bernardino County Fire
Department, club affiliation is with the Citrus Belt ARC as president.
ƒ?½ Jon Montgomery, K6FZZ, volunteer work with San Bernardino County Fire
Department, club affiliation is with the Citrus Belt ARC as treasurer.
ƒ?½ Louis Johnson, K6UMX, volunteer with the Fontana PD, club affiliation
Fontana ARC, ARRL VE, and Elmer.
ƒ?½ Joe Martinez, NJ6OE, volunteer with the Rialto Fire Department, club
affiliation President, Rialto ARC, Webmaster for K6RIA.net, and ARRL VE.
Congratulations to all four, and thank you for your services to each of your
communities. -- Carl Gardenias, WU6D, ARRL Orange Section Manager
Letters: Western Washington Section Writes Interoperability Plan
You published my request for "sharing of District-level and Section-level
written plans that outline mutual aid agreements" in the June E-Letter.
Unfortunately, I did not receive any responses from other areas of the
country. As a result, District 4 in the Western Washington Section wrote an
interoperability plan from scratch which has now been signed off by the
Emergency Managers and Amateur Radio emcomm leaders in the four counties.
This document is available here for those who would like to see what we came
up with. Much more work on the appendices needs to be done, but at least we
now have a guiding document that we can build upon. -- Steve Aberle, WA7PTM,
ARRL Official Emergency Station (OES), Western Washington Section
Hams Help Save the Life of Fellow Ham
-------------------------------------
It was 10:00 PM as I reached for the power button of my ham radio and call
it a night. Just before my finger touched the switch I heard a faint call --
someone was lost and needed help. Naturally, I would stick around to hear
more. After all, this is one of those rare moments many hams live for.
Ron, KB6UF was not only lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains but also stuck.
While driving alone from Louisiana to California to visit his grandkids for
the Thanksgiving holiday the 68 year old missed the exit where he was
scheduled to stay at a hotel. So he turned to his GPS. It instructed Ron to
turn here and go there. The road turned into a gravel road and Ron knew
something was wrong. "I felt like I was going in circles," he later said. He
was 8 miles from the main road.
Pitched black and no street lights for miles, Ron hit a ditch. The front
wheels of his small truck were in the air and it was clear he was going
nowhere fast. He checked his cell phone. No cells. He has a 2 meter radio in
his truck. No answers on any local repeaters. He turned to 40 meters,
remembering there are usually a bunch of hams on 7.195 MHz.
Within minutes, multiple hams were offering advice; use the low gear, fill
in the hole with brush and sand, rock the truck back and forth. Somebody
asked if Ron's GPS was working. It was. Ron gave out his coordinates over
the air. Nowu alone? How much fuel do you have? Do you have
food or water? Is there somebody we can call for you? Ron gave Dave an 800
number to the Sheriff's office. Dave tried the 800 number but it was a
non-functioning number.
I thought about that non-working 800 number for a second. Maybe the
Sheriff's office discontinued the 800 service due to budget cuts, so I
Googled the 800 number and found the local dispatch number to Mono Lake
Sheriff's office in California. I called it. I had to explain I'm a ham
radio operator in Chicago and I'm monitoring a man stranded and lost in
hills near Mono Lake. The dispatcher said she would bring this info to her
sergeant. Ten minutes later the sergeant returned my call. I quickly
explained what had been happening over the past 90 minutes. "Does he need a
tow or is this a search and rescue?," asked the sheriff. I relayed the
question to Dave who then asked Ron. Ron said he was requesting an officer.
As soon as the sheriff heard "requesting an officer" he said someone will be
there in 30 minutes.
When Ron announced on the radio he could see the lights of the sheriff's car
approaching, many hams monitoring the frequency cheered on air. Working
together Ron doubled the nylon rope the sheriff had in an attempt to pull
Ron's small truck out of the ditch. The rope snapped. Luckily, there was a
piece long enough to triple fold the line and that proved strong enough to
pull Ron's vehicle free. Again, hams cheered on the air as Ron was following
the Sheriff back to town.
The sheriff said, "It's a good thing you had that radio otherwise we would
have found you in the Spring. Nobody comes up here this time of year."
HF was the only way Ron was able to get help. Thank goodness he had a good
HF mobile or he might have been out there for days (or longer). Several
comments were heard stating "that does it, I was thinking about putting an
HF rig in the mobile but now I'm convinced and going to do it" after
listening in that night.
Thanks to all the hams that helped a fellow ham in need, especially Dave
N5SDO in New Mexico, Nick W9ZXT in Illinois, Jerry N0VXE in Colorado, Dan
KD0LYK in Kansas and Dave W7DBS in Nevada and of course the Mono Lake
Sheriff's Office. -- Henry Schleichkorn, K9KDE, Chicago, Illinois
henry@k9kde.com
K1CE For a Final
----------------
These are the last words I'll be writing in 2011, and I wanted to close the
year out by thanking Mike Corey, KI1U, ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager,
for all of his efforts in editing this newsletter, and for his dedication
and enthusiasm, expertise and experience, in managing the ARRL Headquarters'
emergency response and field support functions. He does a superb job for all
of us.
_______
You can now read my deathless prose in the Public Service column in QST each
month. In the January issue, I wrote about the intangibles that make or
break an EC, and how to pick a good one in the first place. Check it out!
And happy holidays from all of the ARES E-Letter editorial/production staff
here in the executive suites tower on the ARES E-Letter corporate campus in
Flagler County, Florida! 73's to all, and to all, a good night. -Rick Palm,
K1CE
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