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Subj: ARES E-Letter February 19, 2014
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From: CX2SA@CX2SA.SAL.URY.SA
To : ARES@WW
The ARES E-Letter February 19, 2014
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
In This Issue:
Upcoming Hurricane Conferences
Reports: California Club Supports Statewide Emergency Medical Exercise
Letters: FEMA Adds Disaster Reporter Feature to App
Webinars Designed to Prime Public Preparedness Officials for Amateur Radio
Test
Florida Panhandle County ARES Activates for Winter Storm
Letters: Cherokee County (Georgia) Gets New Call Sign for Auxiliary
Communications
Letters: Coordinating Winlink Tactical Call Signs for ARES Use
Letters: New Mesh Software Available
Opinion: Training Requirements Turn Away ARES Candidates
K1CE For a Final
The ARRL Centennial is a good time to reflect on the past to help us prepare
for the future. In looking at seminal events in the history of ARRL, and
especially ARES, one that is seared into the minds of us all is Hurricane
Katrina, which occurred in late August, 2005. Here are a few excerpts from
the ARES E-Letter for September 2005 as a remembrance. They seem to resonate
with significance even today, almost ten years later.
"Numerous reports are coming in on the devastation and relief response,
including ARES, manifested by Hurricane Katrina. This special release
addresses initial ARES responses and planning. Everyone has seen the media
reports and the public notices of various governmental agencies and
Non-Governmental Organizations, so they will not be reiterated here. The
purpose of this edition is to share early reports and stories of what our
fellow ARES members are doing in the field in response to one of the worst
natural disasters to beset the United States. These efforts are only
preliminary, and in no way represent the total ARES effort, which will
evolve over the hard hours, days and weeks to come." - September 2, 2005
"I know many people would like to move now. Please don't. I know many of you
want to enter the fray, come to the coast and get involved. Please, not yet.
Transportation and logistics, including volunteer groups coming in, must be
done in an orderly manner or we may only add to the chaos and confusion." --
ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, September 2, 2005
"We are all concerned about the people in the path of Katrina's destruction.
Many of us have friends or family in the area, others have friends and
co-workers with friends or family in the area. At this time information into
and out of the affected areas is sporadic. Our fellow hams are overloaded
with requests for food, water and rescue. They cannot handle health and
welfare traffic at this time. Here's how you can help now. Keep frequencies
with any kind of relief traffic clear -- that means listen only, don't be a
policeman. Have patience. If you want to go to the area to assist with
communications or other activities, contact the Red Cross or other relief
agencies. They have required training courses before you can be deployed, so
do not be surprised if you are told "no." Donate money. Coordinate your
travel offer for ARES mutual assistance with your SEC. Do not attempt to
travel to the area on your own." - Sherri Brower, W4STB, Southern Florida
Section Manager, September 2, 2005
"National Public Radio (NPR) featured a brief interview with a Louisiana
state senator yesterday, who made the observation that their biggest problem
is communication among the various responding agencies. That comment
[confirmed what we as radio amateurs all know]: interoperability among
agencies has been a long time, deeply entrenched problem, and is fostered in
part by poor coordination and planning, or to put it less politely, "turf
protection." It's a manifestation of human nature and organizational
behavior, I suppose. So, here we have a new event that presents another
perfect opportunity for service by ARES: fill the interoperability gap. That
opportunity will manifest itself in countless places, with countless
agencies in the days and weeks to come, as the Gulf coast slowly recovers.
When the time comes for post-recovery evaluations, ARES may find itself
written into more inter-agency communication plans, with more government and
agency support. At least that's what we should work for, when we get to that
point down the long, hard road to come." -- K1CE, September 5, 2005
"Final Note to Deployers: Caution should be the keynote of those ARES
members getting ready to deploy to the affected areas. Make no mistake about
it: you are going into harm's way. There will be the usual gross
hazards--the weakened buildings and trees, the water, and debris. And there
will be unseen hazards from the microbial world. Before departure, see your
local clinic for vaccinations that will likely include tetanus, Hepatitis A
and Hepatitis B, among others. Be sure that you are prepared physically to
endure a harsh environment, without the usual creature comforts, including a
bathroom. Also be prepared for the mental hazards: you will see things that
will be psychologically disturbing. You will endure fatigue that you have
never felt before. It is a fatigue that you will feel to the core of your
being. But, know one more thing: We on the periphery will be with you in
spirit, and will be in front of our radios to support your efforts by
relaying your messages and offering words of encouragement. We are proud
that you are one of us." -- K1CE
Upcoming Hurricane Conferences
------------------------------
National Hurricane Conference: April 14-17, Orlando, Florida
This year, the National Hurricane Conference will be held in Orlando,
Florida, at the Orlando Hilton hotel, April 14-17. The primary goal of the
National Hurricane Conference is to improve hurricane preparedness,
response, recovery and mitigation in order to save lives and property in the
United States and the tropical islands of the Caribbean and Pacific. In
addition, the conference serves as a national forum for federal, state and
local officials to exchange ideas and recommend new policies to improve
Emergency Management. For past conferences, there has been a robust Amateur
Radio and ARES presence in the form of packed workshops and discussion
forums. Planning for this year's conference is underway now. Plan now to
attend! Register here.
Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference
The 28th Annual Governor's Hurricane Conference will be held May 11 - 16,
2014 at the Rosen Centre Hotel and Orange County Convention Center in
Orlando, Florida. This conference also features an impressive presence of
Amateur Radio and ARES. More information can be found here. As plans for
Amateur Radio-related workshops and forums evolve, they will be reported
here in the ARES E-Letter.
Reports: California Club Supports Statewide Emergency Medical Exercise
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bishop Amateur Radio Club (BARC) participation in the recent California
statewide emergency medical exercise was featured in a media report here:
http://mammothtimes.com/content/times-trouble-hamsters-rescue
A total communications breakdown was simulated (phone, cellular, Internet,
VHF and UHF repeaters). BARC members set up HF stations with NVIS antennas
at the three hospitals in Inyo and Mono Counties, and established solid
communications among the three hospitals and the Inland Counties Emergency
Medical Agency (ICEMA) in San Bernardino, California. ICEMA has an HF
Station with a 40-meter beam antenna at Patton State Hospital in San
Bernardino. -- Paul Dostie, KK6BAF
Letters: FEMA Adds Disaster Reporter Feature to App
---------------------------------------------------
FEMA has added a feature to their disaster app whereby citizens can send
photos of disaster scenes to FEMA from their smartphone. After a quick
vetting, the photo is geo-referenced (added as a GIS layer) to an
interactive map for emergency managers. Here is the link to the story:
http://howtomobile.apps.gov/2014/01/16/fema-app-adds-disaster-reporter-feature/
-- Robert Bauer, KC4HM, Louisville, Kentucky [Bauer is a retired city of
Louisville police officer and trained severe storm spotter for the NWS
Office in Louisville - ed.]
Webinars Designed to Prime Public Preparedness Officials for Amateur Radio
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test
----
The National Association for County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) is
offering a series of webinars designed to teach public preparedness
officials about Amateur Radio and help them to get licensed. Testing will be
administered April 3 at the 2014 Preparedness Summit, which takes place
April 1-4 in Atlanta.
The webinars are free, and registration is required. NACCHO will offer an
in-person review session at the Summit the night before the examination. The
webinars will be recorded and made available on the NACCHO website. The
webinars will be offered on Wednesdays, February 5 and 19, and March 5, 4-5
PM Eastern Time. There is more information on the Preparedness Summit
website.-- Thanks to Dan Romanchik, KB6NU, and NACCHO
Florida Panhandle County ARES Activates for Winter Storm
--------------------------------------------------------
On Monday, January 27, 2014 at 1700, Escambia County (Florida) Emergency
Management activated their EOC for a winter storm. The EOC was at Level I
(full activation). ARES was also activated at that time. After a National
Weather Service conference call that evening, the decision was made to go to
Level II (limited activation). ARES remained activated pursuant to Emergency
Management's request. At 1930, Emergency Management suspended operations for
the night because of changes in the weather forecast and ARES was secured.
The EOC was reactivated at 0700 the next morning at Level II. The ARES room
was staffed at 0630 and ARES was reactivated. Emergency operations finally
ended on Thursday, January 30, with ARES operations terminated as well.
During the course of the week, rain on Tuesday turned to freezing rain,
sleet, and snow by Tuesday night, causing icy conditions on roads and
bridges. All of the Interstates highways, most of the bridges, and many
roads in the Pensacola area were closed due to hazardous icing conditions.
Conditions finally started to improve by Wednesday afternoon, and there were
major improvements in road conditions by Thursday morning. The interstates
reopened around 1600 on Thursday afternoon.
Escambia County ARES was active for 61 hours during this event, with 46
Amateur Radio operators serving. Nine ARES members staffed the ARES room at
the EOC at various times. 23 ARES members checked in during the weekly
Escambia County Emergency Net on VHF on Monday night. 21 additional radio
operators including 5 ARES members, checked in during the event via radio or
on WebEOC.
Two shelters (one winter weather shelter, and one train derailment shelter)
were opened. An EMS need request was handled via Amateur Radio, and reports
on weather and road conditions were sent in by operators in the affected area.
Amateurs also assisted drivers (including truckers) with road and bridge
condition reports and directions on both a 2 meter amateur repeater and on
CB radio.
ARES operators diligently submitted a total of eight ARES situation reports
(SITREPs) and ARES leadership responded with updates back to the
rank-and-file operators.
Assets employed included HF voice via the Northern Florida ARES net and
Northern Florida Phone Net, and a tactical net on the county 146.76 MHz
repeater. Digital modes were also employed, including APRS, which was used
to track at least one ARES member on the map as they traveled to and from
the EOC. Radio e-mail using HF frequencies via Winlink was tested, and
D-STAR was also tested on the D-RATS platform in digital chat mode to the
state EOC in Tallahassee. Operators connected to and monitored the Northern
Florida Ratflector.
CB Radio was also used to give directions and reports to the truckers
navigating from the interstate (I-10) to US 90, which was open. It was the
first use of the CB radio at the EOC for emergency operations since it was
installed after Hurricane Ivan.
Observations and Recommendations
The meals provided at the EOC were simple and very good. There were no major
problems with WebEOC - a popular EOC suite of programs and management tool
-- during this operation. All operations were effected well. An Escambia
County and Pensacola area street map book would have been useful when
providing directions to travelers and truckers; the ARES operators on duty
in the ARES room were relying on their memory. The Florida map in the ARES
room was used to help. A/V equipment and computers/printers need to be
tested more regularly for troubleshooting prior to actual incidents. Also,
since there is no window into the EOC from the ARES room to monitor what was
going on, there was a loss of situational awareness with the TV receiver in
the ARES room not working properly.
ARES operators need to practice putting items from their activity log into
WebEOC. Other entities seemed to be able to keep their activity logs on
WebEOC more up to date. - ARRL Northern Florida Section News
Letters: Cherokee County (Georgia) Gets New Call Sign for Auxiliary
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Communications
--------------
The FCC has approved a new call sign for Cherokee County (Georgia) Auxiliary
Communications, WX4AUX. This is not a new group nor does it replace ARES,
RACES or MARS. This simply allows a means to be identified under the
Incident Command System (ICS) to include ARES, RACES, and MARS with a common
name. View WX4AUX and pics at: http://www.qrz.com/db/WX4AUX
A new Auxiliary Communications Field Operations Guide (AUXFOG) can be of use
across the US for ARES, RACES, MARS, etc. and has been recently released by
DHS/OEC. You can download a copy from:
http://www.publicsafetytools.info/auxfog/start_auxfog_info.php -- Jim
Millsap, WB4NWS, DEC, Metro Atlanta District ARES, wb4nws@comcast.net
Letters: Coordinating Winlink Tactical Call Signs for ARES Use
--------------------------------------------------------------
Ages ago (in the late 1980s, or perhaps a bit earlier), a FEMA official met
with a statewide group of ARES/RACES leaders in Salem, Oregon. The official
stressed that HF, VHF, and Packet comprised "a 3-legged stool" for emergency
communications support. I voiced the observation that packet becomes less
effective outside of a local area unless one first knows how to address a
message to a remote digital station, including those with which they may
have never before communicated. My suggestion to him was for FEMA to
coordinate with the FCC to permit uniform static tactical packet addresses
throughout the country for amateur digital communications associated with
EOCs. The example format I mentioned was that of the National Crime
Information Center (NCIC) ORI (Originating Agency Identifier) used in law
enforcement, which follows a standard naming convention.
Fast forward to January 2014 when I set out to fulfill a request by the
Disaster Relief Team at the Cascades Region of the Red Cross for a list of
Winlink e-mail addresses that would be active in EOCs throughout Washington
State during an emergency/disaster. As the responses from the leaders in the
counties began to trickle in, it quickly became obvious that we as ARES may
be under-prepared for providing backup digital communications for our served
agencies. A few counties reported no digital capability in their county EOC;
some plan to rely on whoever is dispatched to the EOC or shows up with the
right gear; some have Winlink e-mail addresses associated with their EOC,
but bounced when I sent a continuity test message; and only a few counties
use static tactical Winlink e-mail addresses at critical communications
locations (ie, county/city/tribal EOC, law enforcement, fire station, health
department, and public works facilities).
The concept of tactical Winlink e-mail addresses is introduced here on the
Winlink website. These are free-form addresses up to 12 characters in length
(before the @ sign). During an emergency/disaster event, how does an EOC or
agency in your neighboring county know/remember if you are using
eoc-5@winlink.org or eoc-17@winlink.org for your tactical callsign? Could
the EOC in Volusia County, Florida, send a Winlink message to Wahkiakum
County, Washington, without knowing the call sign of the operator on duty at
the EOC in Cathlamet? Yes, that outside EOC/agency could contact you on a
voice band and ask, but what if a critical band is out and this extra step
drastically delays a critical message between served agencies?
Now, let's merge that old idea of coordinating uniform static packet
addresses with the Winlink capability of establishing tactical e-mail
addresses. For example, we could define an eight-position tactical e-mail
address (to differentiate it from the nine-position ORI). The first two
positions could be the state abbreviation; the next three positions could be
the unique code for the county (ANSI standard INCITS 31:2009) or an acronym
for a state agency; the final three positions might be some sort of served
agency identifier within the county.
Therefore, the question I put forth to the ARES E-Letter readership is, "Do
we want to initiate a coordinated effort to create a systematic method for
self-assigning uniform tactical Winlink e-mail addresses for the agencies we
serve in emergencies/disasters?" It might be prudent to form a small ad hoc
advisory group to define the addressing scheme with the goal of recommending
it for all to use across North America. -- Steve Aberle, WA7PTM, ARRL
Official Emergency Station (OES), ARRL Western Washington Section
Letters: New Mesh Software Available
------------------------------------
The leaders at Broadband-Hamnet (formerly known as HSMM-MESH) have
officially released a version of their MESH software for some of the
Ubiquiti products. See
http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/documentation/186-ubnt-fw-release-101
Unlike the Linksys WRT54G series of indoor, table top routers/radios, the
Ubiquiti devices are designed for outdoor use. In addition, at least two
Broadband Hamnet capable Ubiquiti devices, the NanoStation Loco M2 (NSL-M2)
and the NanoStation M2 (NS-M2), incorporate a router radio and an antenna in
one unit. The main difference between the NanoStation Loco M2 and the
NanoStation M2 is the strength of their built in antennas. The Loco M2
provides 8 db gain while the M2 offers an increase to 11 db gain.
If I were to update my old Volusia Mesh presentation (as discussed in the
January issue of this newsletter), I'd replace the WRT54G routers with the
Ubiquiti M2. You can buy the M2 new from Amazon.com for $88.99, just about
the price of an old WRT54G, an antenna, and a waterproof box. -- Mark
Friedlander, KV4I, Assistant EC, Volusia County, Florida ARES
Opinion: Training Requirements Turn Away ARES Candidates
--------------------------------------------------------
In response to your recent QST Public Service column subject on Oregon's
emergency management's call for more hams, I'd like to offer the following
perspective. I have been a ham since the late 70s and continuously in ARES
until this year. I lost my ARES membership because I failed to take all of
the on-line FEMA tests/certs. My ARES experience has ranged from a
communicator (and certified climber) with the Mountain Rescue Association in
California to helping during Hurricane Andrew and as Red Cross Disaster
Chairman for the State of Oregon. I have been an AEC and a DEC and
participated in scores of exercises and events over the past 30 years.
In the late 70s when I joined ARES, all one had to do was show an interest
in public service, list mobile gear, take instructions from an EC or AEC and
be ready to roll. We never had a shortage of operators in ARES. Currently in
my small town there are several highly qualified amateurs who are not
interested in meeting the qualifications now required by the county ARES. It
is not the fault of the county's ARES leaders. In the name of
"professionalism," the larger ARES community, emergency managers and FEMA
has talked us into such a strong belief that we can do a better job if we
memorize all the ins and outs of the Incident Command System and protocols
and procedures of those we serve that this knowledge has become mandatory.
This knowledge may be helpful and "nice to know" and good topics for
overviews in meetings, but is it so essential that it needs to become
mandatory for every foot soldier before he can even be an ARES member?
As I see it the mandatory knowledge consists of how to set up nets, knowing
the useful repeaters and their tones, knowing where simplex can be used,
knowing where relays are necessary, having good equipment and -- after some
training help if necessary -- demonstrating you can use it in an emergency.
But because of the training and certification requirements now imposed, we
may be losing candidates for the ARES program who feel like I do. Now is the
time to make it possible for every interested ham to join ARES by limiting
requirements to the least possible hassle. -- William N. Miller, KJ7GQ,
Sisters, Oregon
K1CE For a Final
----------------
I receive many letters like KJ7GQ's above. Here in Volusia county, Florida,
many ARES members were lost when certification requirements and especially
an intrusive background check were imposed a few years ago. The actions left
the program here without enough operators to fully staff the many shelters
in the large county. Reportedly, some of the requirements have been dropped
and a few ARES members are stepping back into the program, but some damage
control was clearly indicated.
The challenge to ARES leaders, emergency managers and Red Cross officials is
to properly balance the legitimate needs of these entities with the fact
that we are volunteers with jobs, families and other activities that
naturally limit the amount of time and resources we have to devote to ARES
training, drills and actual incidents.
The rule of reason must apply. On the one hand, over the course of time
since 9/11 and the Hurricane Katrina mega-disaster, the US has ramped up its
domestic emergency and disaster services for more effective and efficient
response. The Incident Command System was developed as a nationwide template
for all emergency response agencies to be able to work together from the
same page with interoperability and a recognized, universal management
model. We, as ARES members, need to understand how the ICS works, otherwise
we will be left outside, looking in. It is not unreasonable for served
agencies to expect us to be conversant in this model. Similarly, it is not
unreasonable for Red Cross, for example, to be confident that we are
conversant with their protocols and procedures, and for it - and the public
- to be aware of who is working in public shelters via a background check.
On the other hand, training/certification/background checks must be
reasonable and not so onerous that we end up losing members who throw their
hands up and throw in the towel. That is the trick! - K1CE
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