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Subj: ARES E-Letter January 16, 2019
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From: CX2SA@CX2SA.SAL.URY.SOAM
To : ARES@WW
The ARES E-Letter January 16, 2019
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
- Mesh Goes to the Twin Cities Marathon
- Spotlight: The ARRL Ohio Section, Not Just Home to the Dayton Hamvention¶©
- 2019 Florida Ham Radio Emergency Communications Conference
- Street Sense for Emergency Communication
- Product Review: W6ON Radio Covers
- Section News
- K1CE For a Final: ARES Connect Works Well -- Use It!
FEMA COMMEX on 60-Meter Channels Today
FEMA Region 10 will conduct monthly communications exercises (COMMEX) on the
third Wednesday of each month, starting on January 16, 1730 - 1900 UTC.
(That's today!) Amateur Radio operators are invited to take part. The intent
of these exercises is to test and exercise interoperable communication
(federal/state/local/tribal/Amateur Radio) during a major disaster in which
the communication infrastructure is significantly damaged or destroyed.
FEMA Region 10 will use the call sign WGY910. Other stations associated with
agencies and organizations that provide response support in accordance with
the National Response Framework are encouraged to participate.
The COMMEX will use these "dial" or "window" frequencies on 60 meters --
including 5,330.5 kHz, 5,346.5 kHz, 5,357.0 kHz, 5,371.5 kHz, and 5,403.5
kHz -- as part of the exercise. The area of operation is the continental US.
Winter Field Day: Practice Emergency Communications in Winter
The Winter Field Day Association (WFDA) sponsors the 2019 running of Winter
Field Day, January 26 - 27. The ability to conduct emergency communication
in a winter environment is just as important as the preparation and practice
that take place each summer, but with some additional unique operational
concerns. The Maxim Memorial Station W1AW will be active. More information
here.
ARRL Board of Directors May Consider Draft ARES Strategic Plan at This
Week's Annual Meeting
Last July, at its second regular meeting of the year, the ARRL Board noted
that the Public Service Enhancement Working Group (PSEWG) has spent the last
two years defining, beta testing, and refining an ARES Strategic Plan. The
Board commended the PSEWG on its work, and established a three-month general
comment period for the draft Plan. A final plan based on the comments
received is designated for consideration for adoption by the full ARRL Board
of Directors at this week's Annual meeting. Watch for news of related Board
actions. Readers can review the original draft ARES Strategic Plan here, but
please note that it was drafted before the three-month comment period, so
the new draft to be presented to the Board may differ from the original.
__________
ARES Annual/Monthly Reports -- For November 2018, 41 of 71 ARRL Sections
reported their ARES members' volunteer work. Reporting is a critically
important responsibility of section ARES officials, and it is anticipated
that the new ARES Connect system will make reporting easier, more automated,
and consequently more efficient, resulting in a more comprehensive picture
of ARES activity across the country.
Archives of the ARRL ARES E-Letter back to the original issue (September
2005) are available for download.
ARRL ARES Emergency Coordinators may register their group here for a group ID.
Mesh Goes to the Twin Cities Marathon
-------------------------------------
At the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon (in the top ten events nationally in
size), Amateur Radio volunteers are embedded in the race organization. More
than 120 register with and serve alongside 200-plus licensed medical
volunteers. Three hams are voting members of the volunteer Race Association
and wear the "Race Official" jackets.
The Race Medical Command Center is part of the finish line medical tent
complex. It is staffed by hams who coordinate communications for
non-emergency and volunteer medical support services for the event. They are
supported by the Fire/EMS Incident Commander and Race Medical Director. The
amateurs use rented UHF trunked radios, five ham repeaters, mesh networking
and various other systems including D-STAR for this effort.
One of the hams' most interesting and valuable jobs is family reunification:
The main race takes about five hours to run and family members can start to
worry if a loved one does not finish the race on schedule. Hams deployed
every mile on the race course report in any runner seen to leave the event.
The amateurs also have started tracking inquiries made from family members
about a runner. They record the location of runners only, to prevent any
medical-specific information from being shared in violation of privacy law.
Hams also record and/or report any unusual conditions observed -- of keen
interest to the Race Operations Center where top race officials and public
safely agencies monitor the event. The protocol is to call "911" for any
serious health problems -- the "rolling emergency rooms" of the EMS system
are the fastest way to get care for a heart attack or runner collapse.
Volunteers including medics on bikes get to the scene rapidly to render
first aid.
Radio amateurs enter data at four net control stations a few miles
apart.They wrote an open source Linux database/web application server called
TrivnetDB, which supports tablets, phones, laptops and any type of
underlying network. It has a chat function, keeps a running tally of medical
tent beds in use, and has a status/query/report screen for emergency
operations centers. Families can go to the "Find Your
Runner" desk in the Family Medical Tent where hams will look up the runner
in their systems.
The race physicians use a mobile/cloud-based application called RaceSafe to
track medical care. Hams are allowed to use the system also, but are
uncomfortable having medical record access. Efforts are underway to
integrate the systems, allowing the doctors private/secure data spaces and
keeping the amateurs on the location and status only side.
Recent severe weather events suggest that a realistic disaster backup
communications system needs to leverage resilient RF sites and be Internet
free. Hams have used multiple Icom D-STAR DD nodes in the last few years and
have now built a mesh radio network covering parts of the twin cities.
Mesh Technology Introduced
Several years ago, Ubiquiti Networks 5 GHz network equipment was purchased.
In St Paul, one Bulletƒ?½ radio (Ch. 157) with a vertical antenna was
placed, overlooking the finish line at about 200 feet. [The radio is
self-contained, and weatherproof for point-to-point and point-to-multipoint
appications].The Ubiquiti radios run OpenWrt software and the Optimized Link
State Routing (OLSR) stack. (There had been poor results at crowded events
with consumer grade wireless access points and/or the congested 2.4 GHz
802.11 channels). A directional antenna at the finish line data trailer, and
a directional antenna at the St Paul City EMS Dispatch Center -- about a
mile apart -- were installed. These both point to the omni site, which
creates a mesh network, monitored by Peter Corbett, KD8GBL, using Nagios
software. Six megabits of reliable bandwidth is rendered.
A St Paul Fire station was added to the mesh. Dish and omni mesh antennas
were raised on 40 foot towers at the finish line to cover that service and
area.
Event officials requested live video from the start line (10 miles away) to
the finish line Race Operations Center. To meet the request, hams needed a
city to city link and are unsure if their mesh software would work due to
software timers on a ten mile dish to dish link.The idea would be to use
routers to organize the backbone. The long haul dish radios would run the
normal Ubiquiti software. Amateurs have approval to install this link
between one of our largest trauma centers and a key county facility.
The amateurs are educating served agencies about mesh technology and are
garnering considerable interest: The notion of scale-able disaster response
and support for "lights out" emergencies seems appealing to them. The hams
are asking for sites for mesh antennas and asking them to put mesh
capability in emergency operations centers and on their various mobile
command vehicles, the same way the hams did for D-STAR-DD. Mesh networking
meets the increasing data needs of our served agencies, particularly missing
persons tracking and family re-unification. -- Erik Westgard, NY9D, Medical
Communications Coordinator, Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon/Red White and
Boom Half Marathon
Spotlight: The ARRL Ohio Section, Not Just Home to the Dayton Hamvention¶©
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Ohio ARES program has more than 1,500 active members with over 780
members meeting the National Incident Management System (NIMS) requirements
by completing the required four basic Incident Command System courses (ICS
100, 200, 700 and 800). Members have a total of over 7,600 NIMS courses
logged as of the end of 2018.
Ohio ARES had employed advanced on-line EC/DEC monthly reporting along with
an on-line monthly report card for their ARES members to use, a system which
is currently being replaced with the new national ARES Connect system being
rolled out now. The Ohio Section was one of four Beta Test sites for the new
ARES Connect and was the first to actually start using the system this past
June. More than 720 volunteers are registered and logging their service
hours into the system. Projections for the 2018 end of year totals looked
strong: more than 6,000 events and well over 60,000 hours registered into
the ARES Connect/Ohio system.
Ohio ARES' Partnerships
Partnering with the Emergency Management Association of Ohio (EMAO) has been
beneficial to Ohio Section ARES by giving ARES officials direct contact with
all 88 EMA Directors in the state. This partnership has given ARES the
opportunity to speak and participate in Association meetings and
conferences, as well as play an active role in the organization. As an
active member, the Ohio Section Manager directly participates as a member of
the Education Committee.
The Ohio Section has also been an active partner in the Ohio
Public/Private/Partnership (OP3). OP3 is an effort to serve Ohioans before,
during and after a disaster. The Ohio Department of Public Safety created
OP3 to provide the opportunity for state and local government agencies,
businesses, associations, Ohio Colleges and Universities and non-profits to
engage in crisis disaster protection, planning, response and recovery
efforts, which will promote business continuity, speed recovery, improve the
quality of life and build a safer Ohio for all its citizens.
Being partnered with OP3 has also given ARES direct access to a statewide
credentialing system - the Emergency Partner Credentialing System (EPCS) --
that ARES used during the Republican National Convention in 2016. It has
also given ARES exposure to many government agencies and businesses that
normally may not have considered the Amateur Service as a resource.
OP3 has also given Emergency Coordinators, District Emergency Coordinators
and other leadership officials access to the Safer Ohio Awareness Report
(SOAR), a publication produced by the Ohio Department of Homeland Security
and the Ohio Department of Public Safety. Sent out twice a day, it gives
ARES leadership a heads-up on all related activities in the state, as well
as a summary of all activities around the country and world.
The Ohio Section is also partnered with the Ohio Responds Volunteer
Registry, the state's online system for managing public health and medical
disaster responder-volunteers. The system also supports a variety of
personnel who may be called-up during disasters, all-hazard response efforts
and public health activities. This partnership has given Ohio ARES access to
free liability insurance.
The Ohio Section is also a member of the Ohio Voluntary Organizations Active
in Disasters (VOAD). The Ohio VOAD is the state chapter of the National VOAD
of which the ARRL is a member-organization.
Ohio's SKYWARN program directly serves two National Weather Service Offices,
one in Cleveland and the other in Wilmington. Both offices have a full
complement of Amateur Radio equipment to receive the latest observations
from the trained amateurs/spotters in the field.
With SEC Stan Broadway, N8BHL, (a COML and DHS Auxiliary Communications
course certificate holder) at the helm, ARES is the most popular and active
section program: 96 ARES leaders serve as Assistant Section Emergency
Coordinators, District Emergency Coordinators, Assistant District Emergency
Coordinators and Emergency Coordinators.
The Annual Ohio ARES Conference was held on April 7, where ARRL Great Lakes
Division Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK, introduced participants to the new
ARES Connect system. (Williams also serves as chairman of the ARRL Public
Service Enhancement Working Group). There were 130 in attendance. Ohio
formally kicked off the ARES Connect system to all 88 counties in late June.
Hard work continues on getting ARES members registered on the new system to
realize its benefits.
The 3rd Annual Ohio ARES VHF Simplex Contest was held in January, which was
highly successful in promoting the ability of hams to communicate on VHF
simplex. [The 2019 Simplex Contest was held last Saturday, January 12, with
the purpose of testing and plotting coverage areas using simplex signals, so
that In the event of an "all is down" emergency, simplex capability can be
used to pass messages.]
Major 2018 Activations
February saw 17 Ohio counties flooded. There were also tornadoes, which kept
Ohio SKYWARN program members busy. ARES groups supported many county EOCs
and Red Cross shelters, police and fire stations.
Northeast Ohio ARES operators responded to an activation for damage
assessment and participated in two major exercises all on Wednesday, August
15. The Youngstown area was hit by weekend storms and ARES was notified that
the county needed help performing damage assessment for a large area. Over a
dozen ARES operators responded along with a contingent of CERT volunteers
from a neighboring county. The volunteers held a short briefing, then began
the long task of going door to door to inquire about damages. There were 416
homes evaluated for damage and 74 streets walked. Four homes were destroyed,
one had severe damage and the remaining 411 homes sustained minor damage.The
call came when other northeast Ohio counties were already involved in two
major exercises - one at the Cleveland Burke Lakefront Airport where six
ARES volunteers assumed the task of tracking patient transport in a
multi-casualty drill. The other involved nearby Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula
counties as the state conducted an exercise involving the Perry Nuclear
Power Plant. More than two dozen Amateurs were there, and five amateurs were
at the State of Ohio's EOC station, W8SGT, with the day long exercises. --
excerpted from the 2018 Ohio Yearbook, Scott Yonally, N8SY, Ohio Section
Manager
2019 Florida Ham Radio Emergency Communications Conference
----------------------------------------------------------
Building on a highly successful 2018 Conference, the coordinators of this
year's Florida Ham Radio Emergency Communications Conference (Santa Fe
College campus, Gainesville, February 2-3) will cover as many facets of
Amateur Service-organized emergency response as possible. This year will
feature a full scale field exercise where attendees will be grouped into two
teams, with a Support group that will include the Amateur Radio Incident
Commander and command staff. Participants can expect to have all skills and
gear challenged.
A vast array of workshops/presentations and mentored hands-on construction
projects where participants can build their go-boxes with equipment and
systems brought up to speed for an actual deployment. The conference will be
emphasizing NIMS/ICS organizational strengths.
Tentative fees are $5 (cash) at the door, which will cover costs to give
attendees two books: the "Blank Book," which includes all kinds of blank
forms needed on a deployment, and a text of all the talks given at the
Conference this year. Interested readers can get the texts of last year's
conference proceedings here.
Once registered on ARES Connect Northern Florida Conference Event, attendees
can select their preferences among the break-out tracks of presentations by
filling out the preference form.
Street Sense for Emergency Communication
----------------------------------------
Duane Mariotti, WB9RER, has spent 30 years as a biomedical engineer
supporting hospitals, has been involved in communications during numerous
disasters, and is currently the coordinator of the Kaiser Permanente Amateur
Radio Network (KPARN) in California. KPARN is an organization of Amateur
Radio operators who volunteer time and technical expertise to support the
emergency preparedness mission of Kaiser Permanente Health Systems through
redundant communication technologies.
He wrote the following disaster response tips, based on his extensive
experience.
1. We are not first responders. The disaster will last - drive safely to
your assigned location.
2. We need to "lean forward" at times -- lean forward to prepare to respond.
Listen on the designated response frequency. Have gas in your car, etc.
3. Safety is always priority number one - do it safely or do not do it.
Hazardous work situations involve setting up antennas, working around downed
wires, walking in water (holes, currents, etc.) and so on.
4. Dress appropriately - make a positive first impression versus an
impression.
5. Know your area's risks and their scope - The Midwest has tornadoes and
floods; California has earthquakes and wildfires; the Gulf States and
eastern seaboard have hurricanes and Nor'easters.
6. Fit training to your assignment: If you serve Red Cross shelters, know
their requirements in advance of need -- minimal training may be acceptable,
but you need to be sure. If you are supporting a hospital or an EOC,
different and possibly more demanding tool and skill sets may be required.
EOC and hospital staffs have people who work together routinely -- you are
the outsider who needs to integrate with them and know what they want.
7. You cannot just show up at the hospital and use your radio -- they have
special regulatory requirements for all staff and volunteers. You may need
to be pre-certified with orientation, HIPAA requirements and other subjects.
8. Remember, we are an invited participant to support responses and events;
managers can always not invite us.
9. Get the message across -- sometimes it is easier to hand the microphone
to the shadowed official and let them talk to the other end.
10. Since 9/11 there are entire college curricula to teach and train
students in emergency management. There are now many professional emergency
managers with Master's degrees managing incidents, not the old sheriff or
fire chief of a generation ago. Accordingly, new generation managers expect
more from their staffs and volunteers, including radio operators.
[We'll publish ten more WB9RER tips next month -- ed.].
Product Review: W6ON Radio Covers
---------------------------------
I had been dust-covering my station components with an old moving blanket
when I discovered W6ON's radio covers. My intention was to replace my
tattered dust blanket with one of Stan's famous and very well reviewed
covers for my Icom IC-7300. I purchased the Elite cover at about $70. As
Stan says on his website, "They are a two piece design. We start with a
heavy felt and then cover the felt with a waterproof, dust proof, yet
breathable, ballistics nylon outer shell. This yields a very thick and heavy
duty cover. Next we add a special logo/lettering combination that sets the
Elite covers apart from our standard covers and presents a very visually
appealing cover."
The cover has a flap on the back over the rear panel plugs and sockets so
that the cables can be left connected. I did, however, unplug my mic cord
from the front panel jack. I like the handsome sewn Icom and IC-7300
lettering and logo on the front of the cover.
When serving partner agencies in the field, the W6ON covers would certainly
lend a professional/commercial appearance to your deployed radios.
Appearances count. But, for me, for now, I enjoy having a top quality heavy
duty cover that lends an aesthetically pleasing look to my central piece of
station equipment, my IC-7300. -- K1CE
Section News
------------
ICS-300 and ICS-400 Classes to be Conducted in Florida
Volusia County (Northern Florida) Emergency Management will be holding
ICS-300 and ICS-400 courses in the next few months. SEC Karl Martin, KG4HBN,
highly recommends that ARES registrants take the courses. ICS-300
prerequisites are ICS-100/200/700/800 courses, and ICS-400 requires
ICS-100/200/700/800/300. ICS-300 is a three-day course, and ICS-400 is a
four-day course. Go to the Florida SERT Trac system to register for the
classes. The dates for the courses are as follows: ICS-300 -- February 19,
2019; and ICS-400, February 7, 2019 and May 20, 2019. Please let SEC Martin
know if you take either of these courses: kg4hbn@arrl.net
Course Descriptions:
ICS-300 Intermediate ICS for Expanding Incidents: ICS-300 provides
training and resources for personnel who require advanced knowledge and
application of the ICS. This course expands upon information covered in the
ICS-100 and ICS-200 courses.
ICS-400 Advanced ICS: This course provides training and resources for
personnel who require advanced application of ICS. This course expands upon
information covered in ICS-100 through ICS-300.
K1CE For a Final: ARES Connect Works Well -- Use It!
----------------------------------------------------
I know I have harped on this before, but it is worth repeating that it is
important for all ARES members to register on the new ARES Connect system. I
recently registered for the Northern Florida Section where I reside, but you
can register for more than one section. It is easy to do. I started by
filling out my profile: I put in my name, address including county (here in
Florida, ARES programs are based on counties), email address, and phone
numbers. In the next section, I answered the simple questions about my
operating experience, and capabilities: I've been a licensee for 42 years
with HF, net control, CW, Winlink, APRS, VHF/UHF Packet, D-STAR, DMR, and
traffic handling experience. Next, I ticked off the training courses I've
taken and passed: ARRL EC-001 Intro to Emergency Communications, DHS OEC
Auxiliary Communications Course, FEMA Independent Study courses ICS-100,
ICS-200, ICS-700, and ICS-800. I also checked that I hold CPR and AED
certifications. Next, I checked the boxes for the organizations and nets
with which I hold affiliations.
With my data uploaded to the system, I can now report and review my
volunteer ARES hours of service, and my total points earned. Points are
awarded for completion of various public service events listed in an
"Events" tab. I can register there for an event I want to participate in,
and then find it listed in "My Schedule." For example, I registered for the
upcoming 2019 Florida Ham Radio Emergency Conference. After attending and
participating, I will have earned 13 points. Top point-getters in the
section are listed.
Most importantly, the system will provide a more automated, efficient method
for ARES leaders (SECs, DECs, ECs and their assistant coordinators) to
easily capture the critically important hours and points data, and field
event and incident response information from their ARES members for their
jurisdictions, helping ARRL administrators and policymakers (and ultimately
interested end-parties such as government regulators and legislators) gain
an accurate picture of the total value of the Amateur Service to its
partner-served agencies and the nation at large. It will help all of us
justify our continued access to our slices of the radio frequency spectrum.
______________
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