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CX2SA > ARES 21.12.22 12:20l 487 Lines 26267 Bytes #999 (0) @ ARRL
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Subj: The ARES E-Letter - 12/2022
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The ARES E-Letter
=================
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE December 21, 2022
- 2022 SKYWARN Recognition Day in the History Books
- Backup Communications Planning for Alachua County (Gainesville), Florida
- Noble Skywave - The Value of HF
- California County Radio Communication Volunteer (RCV) Project
- ARRL ARES Section News
- K1CE For a Final: Reflection
- ARES© Resources
- ARRL Resources
ARES© Briefs, Links
Orlando HamCation© has announced, in cooperation with the Florida Division
of Emergency Management, that the DHS Auxiliary Communications (AUXCOMM)
Training Course will be conducted February 6-8, 2023 in Orlando, Florida.
Click the link for information.
The Pennsylvania Auxiliary Communications Service (ACS) has a new
Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA) ACS Coordinator -- Victor
Yartz, KC3MQI. Travis Best, W3TMB, continues to serve as Commonwealth ACS
Officer, a volunteer position. The PEMA Auxiliary Communications Service is
a volunteer-based emergency communications reserve program that has both
operational and educational components. ACS offers ongoing and technically
diverse training to its members. It serves as a redundant communications
resource, ready to enhance or assume emergency communications duties for
governmental agencies (county, regional, state, and federal) during times of
actual or potential disaster, or when normal communications are either
unavailable or are unable to adequately transfer traffic as needed. -- Blair
ARES Alert!, Blair County, Pennsylvania
Following a successful full-scale exercise in June 2022, which was developed
using a Cascadia Subduction Zone full-length "megathrust" rupture scenario
(described in the August 2022 ARES Letter), the National Tribal Emergency
Management Council has begun planning for the next exercise in this biennial
series. Named "Thunderbird and Whale 2024" (TW24) in recognition of the
ages-old oral tribal histories where Thunderbird represents the earthquake
and Whale represents the tsunami, this full-scale exercise will again rely
heavily on amateur radio communications.
The ESF #2 component of the TW24 exercise is quite important due to the fact
that many of the tribal nations are in more remote areas where
communications will be sparse. Several drills are planned for 2023 to give
ham radio volunteers who may be supporting tribes for the first time a
chance to practice. -- Steve Aberle, WA7PTM, Assistant Director - Tribal
Liaison, ARRL Northwestern Division
2022 SKYWARN Recognition Day in the History Books
-------------------------------------------------
Saturday, December 3, 2022 was SKYWARN© Recognition Day (SRD), an event that
recognizes SKYWARN volunteers for their contribution to public safety. SRD
was observed by several National Weather Service (NWS) locations across the
United States. Amateur radio volunteers set up temporary operations from
forecasting offices and made contacts with other stations to demonstrate
their readiness to operate in emergency conditions and to act as observers
for the NWS. As of the last count, there were more than 4,700 SKYWARN
spotters taking part in SRD.
Near Los Angeles, California, at the NWS office located in Oxnard,
volunteers set up six stations on different frequencies and operated through
the day under simulated emergency conditions. Several members of the general
public visited the NWS office during the exercise.
ARRL Headquarters, participating as WX1AW, was activated by ARRL Emergency
Management Assistant Ken Bailey, K1FUG. WX1AW was active on 40 - 10 meters
using SSB and FT8, and monitored local VHF and UHF repeaters.
Radio amateurs participating as SKYWARN volunteers assist the NWS with
real-time observations of adverse weather conditions that pose an imminent
threat to life and property. Those alerts may include tornadoes,
waterspouts, damaging hail, blizzard conditions, sleet, strong winds, heavy
rainfalls and flooding, dust storms, damage assessment, and other
significant anomalies. NWS personnel can use information from ham radio
operators to issue alerts or assess threat levels to areas that may be
affected by abnormal conditions.
The 2022 NWS Spotter of the Year Award was given to Bryan Loper, WX5CSS, of
Atlanta, Texas. The award noted that Loper is very active with the amateur
radio network and weather community within the Ark-La-Tex region, and is
always reliable in providing weather reports. Loper is also an ARRL member.
- The ARRL Letter; thanks to Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR, Public Information
Coordinator, ARRL Santa Barbara Section, for contributing to this story.
Backup Communications Planning for Alachua County (Gainesville), Florida
------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Gordon Gibby, KX4Z
Our local ham radio volunteers normally provide fairly simple volunteer
service to our county during hurricanes, mainly in the form of staffing
shelters. However, in this day and age, we're very aware that many
additional dangers lurk (recent examples include both attempted and
successful attacks on grid power systems in two states). As citizens, we
bear some of the responsibility for having plans for backup communications
in case something damages critical communications.
Until recently, Alachua County ARES© did not appear to have any written
volunteer communication plan. One was attempted in 2017, but didn't reach
consensus of agreement. The ARRL ARES(R) Plan 2.1 makes hearty
recommendation for having some type(s) of local communications plan(s)
suitable for the potential threats.
In the intervening years, our volunteer group has grown in its training,
assets, and capabilities, and has become even more closely allied with the
local Emergency Management group, as they also have grown and developed. In
2021, our EOC mentor asked us to come up with written plans for growing our
response to the major perceived communications threats. The result was an
Integrated Preparedness Plan. We had never before performed that level of
assessment of communications risks and our group's response strengths and
weaknesses.
Although our capabilities (so far) have never been desperately needed, we've
tried to exercise them repeatedly through simulation exercises, and at every
storm event. We learned a lot about how to allow our tiny backup radio room
at the EOC function smoothly in a broad-based volunteer communications
effort. As a result, we proposed, discussed, improved, amended, and reached
unanimous consensus such that now we have a written Plan for our volunteer
communications, for the "usual" issues, as well as extensible to ones that
are more threatening. The recent intentional power systems destruction in
North Carolina and attempts in the Pacific Northwest draw attention to how
easily multiple systems (such as water, sewer, traffic lights,
communications, temperature control, security alarms, etc.) can be brought
down.
Notification
Notifcation of volunteers is a key part of our planning because potential
situations include the loss of normal internet/telephone service. We don't
have any sort of huge independent "radio beeper" system that can reach out
with "push" notifications to volunteers independent of telephone/internet.
We depend on our members sensing "something is odd" and then (a) checking a
well-known VHF repeater for human response with instructions, or (b)
connecting to one or more of our local fixed radio assets, which can
automatically (without human continued effort) display a "sign-on message"
(Winlink RMS) or "status" or "info" scripts (JS8 relay cache). The VHF
repeater requires human staffing to communicate; the radio assets can be
programmed and will then automatically present information to searching
volunteers. Much more detailed written information can be provided via
WINLINK radio email (accessible via distant, still-functioning RMS's or via
"local user" functions on local RMS assets).
The above plans are worst-case solutions. For slow-onset incidents with
normal internet/telephone still working, notification is much easier, with
email, county Everbridge automated phone notification, and/or a groups.io
web page can all reach out with terse or detailed information as indicated.
(We just use what our county has; we aren't promoting them commercially.)
Security/Confidentality
Some of our information/notifications require more confidentiality and
therefore we have a breakdown of which groups receive what information based
on need-to-know. For example, our emergency manager's tentative shelter
openings cannot be made available on a public-facing asset prior to actual
opening (such as a repeater that can be monitored by news media or anyone in
the public). Similarly we don't want a publicly available list of which
volunteers' homes might be unoccupied because of emergency deployment
assignment! Recent Hurricanes Ian and Nicole were our first instance of
using these principles to use tiered information distribution and were
viewed very positively.
Our Communications Plan provides guidance for which information should be
sent to which vetted groups, to protect the security of our volunteers and
protect civil authorities' privileged planning.
Communication Highways
Although the EOC is a hub of information gathering and dissemination, we
plan to have local tactical net control handled elsewhere to limit work load
on EOC volunteers. Similarly, experience showed our EOC volunteers can't
really serve regional net control functions, despite our desire to be
helpful. And we can't tie down the small EOC volunteer crew to continuously
monitor multiple radio frequencies, which will only be needed in critical
situations. Instead, we have our EOC volunteers maintain capability to reach
out to, but only monitor certain specific systems such as the SLERS
(Statewide Law Enforcement System), and the local tactical net. Humans just
can't monitor multiple busy systems simultaneously. That allows them to
respond quickly to calls for immediate response over systems that remain
"radio quiet" most of the time.
Information Capture
One of our volunteers is familiar (because of federal disaster-response
employment) with the expression "Feed The Beast" -- the need to assimilate
and provide information to decision-makers from the periphery. To receive
detailed inbound logistical data, a continuous radio data-based receptacle
at the EOC has proved to be an excellent solution that doesn't tie down a
volunteer.
This can be a peer-to-peer or server-type WINLINK repository (or similar,
such as YAPP) that any shelter or deployed volunteer can asynchronously send
detailed information at any time.
Modulation/Protocol: At present we have the option of multiple different
modulations, including AX.25-Packet or VARA-FM, and our ICS-205 will serve
to notify volunteers which is available in a given operational period.
Tactical net requests can also accommodate special needs.
Simultaneous Radios Usage
To our chagrin, we discovered that co-located VHF/UHF antennas on our tower
mean using two or more radios simultaneously is a prescription for failure!
We want our tactical voice comms and asynchronous data comms both
simultaneously functional. One solution might have been separation by bands,
but unfortunately we didn't set up radio network assets that way. So we came
up with an alternative solution involving high-Q mechanical filter duplexor
"cans" to separate our voice comms (usually transmitting on 146.220MHz) from
our data comms (144.990/145.010/.030/.070 MHz). Testing has recently shown
that a single notch can inline with each radio provides 10-20dB notching of
the unwanted transmissions, and gives us significant immunity. (Manual
tuning may optimize for a specific need.) This was a direct outgrowth of an
after-action report/improvement plan document.
Value of Written Documents
Our county officials are extraordinarily interested in getting documentation
of our volunteer efforts, for each and every operational period of a
declared emergency. (To the extent that our deployed volunteers aren't
approved to demobilize until the paperwork is done!) This represents
significant income to the county from Federal coffers. We're told that our
volunteer hours are highly valued, and that the match required for federal
dollars can be as little as 12.5%, meaning our in-kind contributions can be
multiplied eightfold if properly documented. This isn't so hard when cell
phone cameras can still send in photos of signed ICS-214's, but how to do it
when cell comms are down? Some investigation has come up with a solution of
digitized signatures that appears to be very workable and completely
acceptable -- even in a radio-dependent comms environment. We will be
rolling this out starting in December and growing in the coming year, thanks
to some of our recent high-speed data systems deployment.
Emergency Notifications
Our efforts are driven directly by local authority notifications and
directives. How would this even happen in the event of sudden and complete
loss of normal public switched network systems, potentially even with loss
of normal modern repeaters? Our newly developed comms plan has a specific
solution for direct notification from our Emergency Management group, using
EMP-hardened radio systems. We test that pre-set system frequently.
Summary
Our volunteer efforts are highly appreciated by our local authorities and
ever more-tightly integrated into their response. We have finally managed to
get a written set of plans into play that better guide our volunteers and
can be further improved with more experience.
Noble Skywave - The Value of HF
-------------------------------
Since 2013, the Canadian Communications and Electronics Branch has brought
hundreds of teams from dozens of nations together to test, strengthen
expertise, and compete in a friendly atmosphere to what is now known as the
most prestigious military led HF competition in the world: Noble Skywave.
Noble Skywave acquired its "letters of nobility" through highly skilled and
proud participating teams, which are either HAM/Canadian Forces Affiliated
Radio System/US Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) or Military Radio
Operators around the globe. As the Leading Nation for this event, the
Canadian Armed Forces are committed to provide the best possible training
experience to all participants and looks forward to crowning the best HF
Radio Operators in the world.
A few years ago, Joint Force Headquarters-National Capital Region and the
U.S. Army Military District of Washington (JFHQ-NCR/MDW) deployed their
mobile command post on Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C., to compete
in the 7th annual Noble Skywave. The exercise challenged competitors with
voice and data contacts between domestic and international teams via HF
skywave propagation.
The JFHQ-NCR/MDW team consisted of three telecommunications specialists from
the Communications-Electronics Directorate and two telecommunications
specialists from the 744th Communications Squadron from Joint Base Andrews.
The 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) also sent members from their
Communications-Electronics Directorate to observe and learn.
The exercise consisted of four events: Establishing the Net, Free Play, Team
Contact Challenge, and Back to the Future. During the competition portion,
voice and data contacts were logged with as many stations as possible, with
bonus points awarded during certain phases for the longest distance
contacts. Once both stations logged the contact, the results and high score
for the top twenty competitors were displayed in real time on the Noble
Skywave website.
"The capabilities of HF are so important and relevant because it delivers
global reach without the use of repeaters or satellites," said Michael
Koeniger, Jr., Telecommunications Specialist, JFHQ-NCR/MDW
Communications-Electronics Directorate. "If the satellites fall out of the
sky, cell towers go down, and the internet goes out, HF will still work.
These abilities provide our command with more flexibility during real-world
contingency events." The 2019 competition included 183 registered
competitors from Active-Duty, Reserve, National Guard, and Auxiliary Force
units, representing 13 countries.
"Exercise Noble Skywave is designed to improve participants' high frequency
radio communications abilities using the spirit of competition," said
Koeniger. "By competing, not only are we using our equipment in a real-world
scenario, but we are also instilling goodwill and confidence among friendly
military and auxiliary volunteer forces."
The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) mission provides contingency HF
communications to support the Department of Defense and the military.
Additionally, MARS also supports communication for combat commands by
providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, contingency
communications for Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA), and morale
and welfare communication in support of the DoD.
The 2022 competition brought together 429 military units from across 13
nations competing to determine who can most efficiently utilize
high-frequency radio technology. During the contest, teams set up a fully
functioning radio station and utilized their skills to connect with other
radio stations, some being thousands of miles away. "There is a set number
of stations playing in this contest, and our objective is to contact as many
of them as possible," said Airman 1st Class Matthew Recchia, 1st Combat
Communication Squadron cyber infrastructure technician. "Whoever contacts
the most stations, wins." - US Army Public Affairs Office, Thanks to Bart
Lee, K6VK
California County Radio Communication Volunteer (RCV) Project
-------------------------------------------------------------
The Marin County (California) Dept. of Public Works' Radio Communication
Volunteer (RCV) project is looking for experienced amateur radio operators
with an interest in public service and the time to support Community Based
Organizations (CBOs). Those CBOs provide needed services like food, shelter,
information and professional referrals to the most vulnerable Marin
residents. During the fires and public safety power shutoff (PSPS) event in
2019 thousands of residents and evacuees turned to Marin's CBOs for shelter,
food, medical assistance and financial advice. Unfortunately, without power
for communications devices, many CBOs could not function effectively. Nor
could the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) get accurate situational
awareness to help coordinate relief efforts. By working with our colleagues
in ACS-RACES, the VOAD and CBOs who need our help, amateur radio operators
can change that for the better.
Marin County Amateur Radio operators are collaborating with the Director of
the Marin Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (Marin VOAD) and Marin
County's ACS-RACES. The purpose is to provide backup communications between
key CBOs like SF-Marin Food Bank, Canal Alliance, and North Marin Community
Services, among others, and the EOC when all other means of communications
are unavailable. The Radio Communication Volunteer (RCV) program is
officially sponsored by Marin County Public Works Telecommunication Section.
RCV is parallel to ACS-RACES, but serves CBOs rather than public safety
agencies. We've completed 2-plus years of activities successfully and are
recognized by the Board of Supervisors as a standing volunteer program for
as long as needed. RCV volunteers are being enrolled as Disaster Service
Workers and must pass a background check. You can read a media report on the
program. Skip Fedanzo, KJ6ARL, is the RCV lead operator. Fedanzo said "Over
the past 2 and a half years, RCV's work with our local VOAD has developed
into 20 licensed operators supporting the seven largest community based
organizations (CBOs). We're structured similarly to RACES, but have
different types of clients to serve in case a disaster strikes. So far, RCV
has logged well over a dozen field exercises, including participation in two
UASI "Golden Eagle" exercises, and this year's "Great ShakeOut"
(earthquake-oriented) multiday exercise trainings. - County of Marin,
California
ARRL ARES Section News
----------------------
Connecticut
The BEARS of Manchester Amateur Radio Club in Manchester, Connecticut, spent
Thanksgiving Day providing amateur radio communications support for the 86th
Manchester Road Race.
The race, a 4.748-mile course that begins and ends on Main Street in
downtown Manchester, has been a Thanksgiving Day tradition since 1927. This
is the 30th consecutive year the BEARS of Manchester Amateur Radio Club has
provided communications support, with more than 10,000 runners participating
and over 30,000 spectators lining the course.
Radio operators began arriving at 6:00 AM on Thanksgiving morning.
Fifty-five operators staffed 39 positions around the course and were
stationed every quarter mile to provide safety communications and report the
lead male and female runners to the public address announcer.
Shadow operators helped 10 race officials stay in communications. Operators
also started and ran four clocks around the course to help pace runners, and
operated a station in the public safety EOC to relay safety-related
information to representatives of various agencies. Ham radio operators also
provided communication for a shuttle bus operation that brought runners and
spectators from a remote parking area to Main Street and then returned them
at the end of the race. Check-in and check-out were accomplished through a
net control station to maintain accountability.
Communication for the event was made on six repeater and simplex
frequencies, and three cross-band repeaters were used for signal quality to
avoid interference.The BEARS of Manchester Amateur Radio Club is an ARRL
Affiliated Club. -- ARRL News Desk; Thanks to Phil Crombie, Jr., K1XFC, Race
Communications Coordinator, for providing information for this story.
K1CE For a Final: Reflection
----------------------------
It's time to look back on an historic year of disaster response, other
public safety-related incident and event communications coverage by ARES and
indeed all emergency communications-oriented operators, and finally a major
leap in professional-grade training and planning by radio amateurs in
accordance with ever-evolving FEMA and DHS standards. The year kicked off
with the ARRL Emergency Communications Academy held in conjunction with the
ARRL National Convention at Orlando HamCation. The day-long workshop was
standing room only, and hugely successful thanks to an exemplary array of
expert panelists and hands-on demonstrations. Other increasingly
sophisticated exercises and training opportunities were covered in this
newsletter over the course of the year.
Happy holidays from all of us here at The ARES Letter! Special thanks go to
ARRL Director of Emergency Management (DEM) Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, for his
expert review of each issue prior to its release. DEM Johnston joined the
ARRL HQ staff in January.
____________________
ARES© Resources
---------------
ú Download the ARES Manual [PDF]
ú ARES Field Resources Manual [PDF]
ú ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book [Fillable PDF]
ú ARES Standardized Training Plan Task Book [Word]
ú ARES Plan
ú ARES Group Registration
ú Emergency Communications Training
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service© (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs
who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with
their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service
when disaster strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in
ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for
membership in ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully
in ARES. Please inquire at the local level for specific information. Because
ARES is an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible
for membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable,
but is not a requirement for membership.
How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill out the ARES Registration form and submit
it to your local Emergency Coordinator.
ARRL Resources
--------------
Join or Renew Today! Eligible US-based members can elect to receive QST or
On the Air magazine in print when they join ARRL or when they renew their
membership. All members can access digital editions of all four ARRL
magazines: QST, On the Air, QEX, and NCJ.
Subscribe to NCJ -- the National Contest Journal. Published bimonthly,
features articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA
Sprint and QSO parties.
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Free of charge to ARRL members: Subscribe to the ARES Letter (monthly public
service and emergency communications news), the ARRL Contest Update
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_________
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Copyright ¸ 2022 American Radio Relay League, Incorporated. Use and
distribution of this publication, or any portion thereof, is permitted for
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require written permission.
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* CX2SA 1978-2022 - Salto Uruguay *
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