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CX2SA > ARES 21.03.18 13:44l 347 Lines 18216 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: ARES E-Letter March 21, 2018
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To : ARES@WW
The ARES E-Letter March 21, 2018
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
In This Issue:
- Puerto Rico/Red Cross Mission "Force of Fifty" Member Named Hamvention©
2018 "Amateur of the Year"
- National Hurricane Conference Note: Amateur Radio Session is 10:30 AM
Next Tuesday
- ARRL Board of Directors' Actions, Reports on ARES Enhancement
- Florida County Honors its ARES Group
- Media Hits: Emergency Communications in Rural Maine
- 2018 National Preparedness Symposium Will Promote Whole Community
Preparedness Through Unity of Effort
- Letters: Clarification on NIMS, IS Course Changes Last Issue
- InfraGard: ARES Collaborates with FBI in Los Angeles
- 2017 ARES Annual Report
ARES Briefs, Links
------------------
Radio Amateurs Pitch In to Help as "Hat Trick" of Major Coastal Storms Hit
Northeast (3/20/18) -- Amateur Radio volunteers with WX1BOX at the National
Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts, and various ARES groups had their
hands full during March, as Mother Nature's hat trick of nor'easters brought
severe weather conditions and a lot of snow to the northeastern US. The
storms caused the Cape Cod ARES team to extend activations for SKYWARN,
WX1BOX, and regional shelter operations. "This has been a very active period
of significant severe weather for the region after a relatively quiet
stretch from late January through the end of February," observed Rob Macedo,
KD1CY, the Eastern Massachusetts Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for
SKYWARN. [Click on the link above to read the full report.]
Other News:
MARS Team Provides HF and Amateur Radio Communication Training on USNS Mercy
(3/02/18)
ARRL Seeks Emergency Communications Course EC-001 Mentors (3/15/18)
Puerto Rico/Red Cross Mission "Force of Fifty" Member Named Hamvention© 2018
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Amateur of the Year"
---------------------
The Dayton Hamvention© Awards Committee selected Valerie Hotzfeld, NV9L, of
Crescent City, Illinois, as the 2018 "Amateur of the Year." First licensed
in 2006, Hotzfeld has been active in ARES©. In 2017, she traveled to Texas
after Hurricane Harvey to help rescue small animals. Hotzfield was
subsequently deployed to Puerto Rico with the American Red Cross for 3 weeks
as part of a group of volunteer Amateur Radio operators, facilitating
critical communications after Hurricane Maria.
"Serving the Community" is Theme for Hamvention© 2018
The venerable Dayton Hamvention is May 18-20 this year, at the Greene County
Fairgrounds, Ohio. The theme is "Serving the Community," and numerous forums
related to public service will be scheduled. Many will be of special
interest to ARES members. The ARRL is offering a Public Service track of
programs on Friday and Saturday.
"Getting Started in Public Service Communications," an introduction to
public service communication training and emergency preparedness, will take
place on Friday at 9:15 AM, moderated by Ken Bailey, K1FUG, the ARRL
Emergency Preparedness Assistant and Continuing Education Program
Administrator.
"Building Partnerships," with ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike
Corey, KI1U, and FEMA Community Partners Specialist, External Affairs, Sarah
Byrne as co-presenters, will begin at 11:50 AM on Friday. Acknowledging that
collaborative and mutually beneficial partnerships are key to successful
disaster and emergency response, this session will explore how Amateur Radio
public service groups rely on such partnerships when serving their
communities. Corey and Byrne will address how to build and grow partnerships
of different levels of complexity across a wide range of interests and
organizations -- from Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs),
to other nonprofits and commercial entities.
For forum updates, check the Dayton Hamvention© website frequently. See you
in May at Dayton!
National Hurricane Conference Note: Amateur Radio Session is 10:30 AM Next
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday
-------
The National Hurricane Conference will be held next week at the Hilton
Orlando, Florida, 6001 Destination Parkway. A robust agenda of meetings and
seminars will be conducted, with the Amateur Radio Workshop on Tuesday,
March 27, at 10:30 AM, not 1:30 PM as reported in last month's issue. The
theme of the workshop is Tropical Systems and Disaster Communications.
There are numerous other sessions and programs of interest to radio amateurs
that will be held over the course of the week. For a daily meeting agenda,
and descriptions of seminars, click here.
The Amateur Radio Session presenters and attendees will discuss involvement
when tropical systems impact coastal areas of the Atlantic and cover the
historic Amateur Radio response to the impacts from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma
and Maria on the Caribbean Islands, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico
including the ARRL "Force of Fifty" mission. Representatives and
presentations are expected from the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC (the
National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio station), the Hurricane Watch Net,
the VoIP Hurricane Net, the Canadian Hurricane Centre, the Salvation Army
Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) and ARRL HQ. A moderated Q & A session
will be conducted also.
Amateur Radio presentations will be recorded and live streamed via Youtube.
Livestream links below:
http://www.nsradio.org/stream
http://www.voipwx.net/files/stream.htm
ARRL Board of Directors' Actions, Reports on ARES Enhancement
-------------------------------------------------------------
The policymakers of the ARRL met in January, passing a number of actions of
interest to ARES and other public service operators. The Board awarded the
ARRL International Humanitarian Award to 2017 hurricane operators, noting
the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season was one of the harshest in recent memory,
especially in the Caribbean islands including the ARRL Puerto Rico and U.S.
Virgin Islands Sections and that the local Amateur Radio licensees in the
area were pressed into immediate service before and during the devastating
storms. The Board recognized the efforts of the local Amateur communities
continue to support the relief and recovery efforts even now, with ARRL
leadership in each section continuing to perform extraordinary service. The
Board conferred the award jointly on the local Amateur Radio population of
Puerto Rico, served by ARRL Section Manager Oscar Resto, KP4RF; and the
local Amateur Radio population of the US Virgin Islands, served by ARRL
Section Manager Fred Kleber, K9VV.
The Board also noted that radio amateurs across Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin
Islands, the Caribbean islands, south Florida and Texas, performed
outstanding service during the hurricane season for their communities,
friends, and families with thousands of hours spent providing critical
support communications. The ARRL Board of Directors recognized their
outstanding work and service, commending them all.
Update on Public Service Enhancement Group Efforts to Enhance ARES Program
ARRL Great Lakes Division Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK, as chairman,
presented an update on the current work of the Programs and Services
Committee's Public Service Enhancement Working Group and entertained
discussion. The working group is currently developing a series of guidelines
that will become part of the ARES program. The ARES registration service for
groups across the country is up and running with over 400 groups registered
in the first few weeks since its activation. During its deliberations, the
working group solicited input from topic experts across the country as well
as several ARRL Section Managers. A peer review group of experts continues
to be involved in this project. Organizing a better system of communication
with the field organization will be an emphasis of the PSEWG moving forward.
-- ARRL
Florida County Honors its ARES Group
------------------------------------
Recently, the Osceola County, Florida, Board of County Commissioners
proclaimed February 12-18, 2018 as Osceola County Amateur Radio Emergency
Services Week. The county is in central Florida near the Orlando area, and
has some 270,000 residents. Osceola County ARES has been providing
communications assistance to the county since at least 1998 when the area
was hit by devastating tornadoes. Through this proclamation, the Board
expressed their appreciation for all the support and assistance ARES has
provided over the decades, in times of need. Readers can view the
presentation by the following link. It is toward the beginning of the
meeting, within the first few minutes. -- Joe Reilly, N4ZIQ, ARRL ARES
Osceola County Emergency Coordinator
Media Hits: Emergency Communications in Rural Maine
---------------------------------------------------
Two segments that were broadcast on WABI TV (Bangor, Maine) have been
receiving much interest in the largely rural state. The second segment
covers the Amateur Radio community's contribution to emergency management's
radio communications needs, and cites the efforts of Karl Richards, KB1YCF,
and Richard (Beau) Beausoleil, N1REX, in particular. Click on the following
links to view. -- Thanks, Steve Hansen, KB1TCE, ARRL Maine Section Emergency
Coordinator
Emergency Communications in Rural Maine -- Segment One
Emergency Communications in Rural Maine -- Segment Two
2018 National Preparedness Symposium Will Promote Whole Community
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Preparedness Through Unity of Effort
------------------------------------
FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) will host the 2018 National
Preparedness Symposium from May 21-24. The symposium provides federal,
state, tribal, territorial, and nongovernmental training and exercise
officials the opportunity to discuss current and future training and
exercise programs and to share case studies, lessons-learned, and smart
practices. The theme is "promoting whole community preparedness through
unity of effort," with a focus on promoting a culture of preparedness.
The goal of the symposium is to provide the tools, knowledge, and network to
improve training and exercise programs that build and sustain capabilities
for a more secure and resilient nation. Attendees will have the opportunity
to identify at least one element they would like to implement, modify, or
validate in their training and exercise program, and they will take away
workable improvements that can be used immediately and successfully. The
symposium also provides a platform to communicate changes to current
capabilities and introduce new FEMA policy.
The event will be held at the National Emergency Training Center,
Emmitsburg, Maryland. Applications for registration must be received by
April 9, 2018. To apply and for more information, visit
https://training.fema.gov/nationalpreparednesssymposium/ or contact the EMI
National Training Liaison Dan Lubman at daniel.lubman@fema.dhs.gov.
Letters: Clarification on NIMS, IS Course Changes Last Issue
------------------------------------------------------------
In your article in last month's issue, "Letters: NIMS Updated - IS Core
Courses to be Revised; AUXCOMM, COMT Courses", there is a discussion of the
US Department of Homeland Security-Office of Emergency Communication
(DHS-OEC) AuxComm course, Communications Unit training and the OEC-developed
COMT (Communications Technician) course. The article then offers "Some 2018
dates for COMT, COML courses." Your link takes the reader to the NWCG
(National Wildfire Coordinating Group) COMT classes, not the DHS-OEC
classes. The NWCG COMT is not the same as the DHS-OEC COMT, and is generally
not open to Amateur Radio operators off the street. (The NWCG COMT course
has some prerequisites and generally requires a nomination from a fire or
law enforcement agency.) --Thanks, Jim Rooney, N4JJR, District Emergency
Coordinator, ARES (Douglas and Elbert Counties, Colorado); Douglas County
Incident Management Team (NWCG INCM, COMT, COML-t, and All-Hazards COML-t);
Colorado Team 1 (COMT), Jefferson County All-Hazards Incident Management
Team; Rocky Mountain Type 2 Blue Team (COML-t)
DHS-OEC COMT Position and Course
The All-Hazards Communications Technician (COMT) Course introduces public
safety professionals and support staff to various communications concepts
and technologies. This includes interoperable communications solutions, Land
Mobile Radio (LMR) communications, satellite, telephone, computer and data
technologies used in incident response and planned events. Participants
receive core competencies required for performing the duties of the COMT in
an all-hazards incident. The course is instructor-led training that supports
learning through discussion, lecture, and active participation in multiple
exercises. The course provides a realistic, hands-on approach to mastering
the tasks and skills of a COMT. It is designed for local, regional, tribal
and state/territory emergency response professionals and support personnel
in all disciplines who have a technical communications background. The five
day (40 hour) workshop is taught by experienced instructors who have both
practitioner and Communications Unit experience. The course features
facilitated lectures, student exercises, and hands-on lab work to explain
processes used for successful establishment and operation of the technical
communications resources supporting an incident or planned event.
Prerequisites include a public safety background with experience in field
operations; basic public safety communications technology knowledge;
knowledge of local communications systems, frequencies, spectrum, plans, and
contacts; completion of FEMA Independent Study courses IS-100b, IS-200b,
IS-700a, and IS-800b; and a supervisor's recommendation. Workshops are
limited to 15 attendees.
Contact your local, county and state emergency management agencies,
especially their education and training departments, for possible COMT
course offerings in your area.
InfraGard: ARES Collaborates with FBI in Los Angeles
----------------------------------------------------
ARES members in the ARRL Los Angeles (California) Section are being invited
to join InfraGard, a public-private partnership managed by the FBI with the
purpose of sharing information concerning protection of our nation's
critical infrastructure. Communications is one of those critical elements,
and ARES is recognized as playing an important role.
Applicants for InfraGard membership will undergo an FBI background
investigation and, once cleared, will receive a membership document, regular
e-mailed security briefings, access to the secure InfraGard Internet site
and invitations to a variety of training sessions. (The passing of the
background check may incidentally prove useful in a variety of served-agency
engagements where absence of a background check might otherwise delay or
preclude ARES member involvement).
InfraGard membership is not mandatory, but ARES leadership encourages all
members to consider submitting applications.
Membership in InfraGard Los Angeles
The InfraGard vetted membership consists of thousands of subject matter
experts across 16 critical infrastructure sectors. Members are from
business, academia, government, law enforcement and the military, dedicated
to support the mission and protection of the nation's critical infrastructure.
Members gain an understanding of the threats posed by criminals and foreign
adversaries, and receive information and tools consistent with the most
current best practices. Applications are accepted online only. For more
information, click here. -- ARRL Los Angeles Section News
_______
ARES Annual/Monthly Reports can be found here, organized by date, with a
link to download a PDF of the full report.
Archives of the ARRL ARES E-Letter going back to the original issue
(September 2005) are available for download.
2017 ARES Annual Report
-----------------------
The 2017 ARES Annual Report is now available online. Last year showed a
continued trend in improved reporting with 87% of ARRL Sections submitting
at least one report during the calendar year. There were a few changes to
reporting last year. First, new forms were used. ARRL Field Service staff
standardized the current field organization forms to make back end
processing easier. Second, severe weather and SKYWARN activations were put
into their own category. And third, the value of a volunteer hour was
updated; the new value of a volunteer hour is $24.14.
______
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