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Subj: ARES E-Letter July 16, 2014
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The ARES E-Letter July 16, 2014
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
ARRL Centennial Convention Special Edition!
ARESLAX Northeast Reinvents Field Day for 2014
Field Day Over the Weekend; Real Thing on Monday
Orange County Hospital ARES Group's Field Day at Huntington Beach Hospital
Broadband-Hamnet Greatly Expands its Usefulness, Adds 5.8 GHz Support
Open Letter to the Winlink Team: Thanks from a Mariner
GAREC 2014 Next Month in Alabama: Make Plans Now to Attend!
Letters: More than One MARS Service
K1CE For a Final
ARRL Centennial Convention Special Edition!
-------------------------------------------
I hope to meet and greet many of you as readers (almost 40,000 subscribers
now!) of the ARES E-Letter on Saturday, July 19, on the convention floor of
the ARRL Centennial Convention in Hartford! I'll be there all day, starting
off at the President's Breakfast with ARRL President Kay Craigie, N3KN. I'll
have my Red Badge on - please stop me and say hello!
_________
ARESLAX Northeast Reinvents Field Day for 2014
----------------------------------------------
This year the Northeast District of ARESLAX (Los Angeles, California ARES),
in cooperation with the Los Angeles Emergency Communications Team,
reinvented Field Day. Instead of simply seeking to make contacts over the
24-hour operating period, the objective was to reach out and provide
educational opportunities to both the general public and served entities.
As usual, Field Day 2014 was conducted on the campus of a served hospital.
However, the specific location was moved from the roof of a parking
structure (great for making contacts, but not very accessible) to a
ground-level parking lot fronting a busy street. And instead of running as a
"contest," Field Day was focused on emergency preparedness and
communication. A number of hands-on activity stations, ranging from an
introduction to Amateur Radio to digital communications to backup power
sources, were located in the parking lot, along with HF, VHF/UHF and GOTA
operating stations. A local CERT team staffed a booth to educate the public
about emergency preparedness. Participants were engaged at all stations and
asked lots of questions.
An adjacent conference facility was the location for two separate tracks
comprising 13 hours of classroom education. One track was intended for
representatives of served hospitals, providing in-service training related
to critical backup communications during a disaster or other emergency. The
second track provided members of the general public with an introduction to
Amateur Radio, emergency communications and related topics. A number of
participants earned their first Amateur Radio license or upgraded at an exam
session.
More than 100 members of the public participated in the activities. Many of
these individuals were affiliated with local CERT teams or similar
organizations and had little previous exposure to Amateur Radio. ARESLAX
Northeast District members participating in the reinvented Field Day found
these activities much more rewarding than calling "CQ Field Day" for 24
hours and are looking forward to an even larger event next year.
Los Angeles Section of ARES
The Los Angeles Section of ARES (ARESLAX) encompasses all of Los Angeles
County. Covering more than 4000 square miles, and with almost 10 million
residents, ARESLAX is the largest ARES Section, and the only one comprised
of a single county. There are more than 22,000 Amateur Radio operators
licensed in Los Angeles County.
As its primary mission, ARESLAX provides backup and emergency communications
support to the Los Angeles County Medical Alert Center and almost 70
hospitals throughout the County, including virtually all "911 receiving"
hospitals (those with emergency room facilities). ARESLAX is recognized as a
formal component of the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Agency
Emergency Communication Plan.
Los Angeles Emergency Communications Team
The Los Angeles Emergency Communications Team (LAECT) is a group of
dedicated individuals committed to training and education in all aspects of
emergency preparedness, management and response, with an emphasis on
emergency communications. LAECT partners with cities, community groups and
other preparedness organizations to coordinate and provide practical
preparedness and communications training throughout Southern California.
Field Day Over the Weekend; Real Thing on Monday
------------------------------------------------
No sooner had Newton (Iowa) Amateur Radio Association (NARA) Emergency
Coordinator Chuck Wagoner, KWAG, stepped into the room housing the ham
radio equipment at the Jasper County Law Enforcement Center on Monday, June
23, the lights went out. "The emergency generator kicked in immediately and
the 9-1-1 center dispatchers didn't miss a beat during a windstorm," said
Wagoner.
Members of NARA had set up operations on Friday at their new station at the
EOC in the Armory Annex for Field Day. "We were set up to provide
communications separately from the 9-1-1 Center and test for communications
with the State EOC at Camp Dodge and with the National Weather Service in
Johnston," said John Nelson, KIO, NARA President. "During the Monday event,
we exchanged SITREPs with the weather people and trained storm spotters
provided the 9-1-1 dispatchers with water-over-the-road, flash flooding,
branches/trees down blocking roadways or damaging power lines information."
"If they needed the status of the condition of a certain area we would
deploy an operator to check it out."
The Monday windstorm lasted just a few hours and normal power was restored
quickly to the Law Enforcement Center. Wagoner secured the Jasper County
Emergency Net and the Newton hams were released. - Chuck Wagoner, K0WAG,
Newton Amateur Radio Association Emergency Coordinator
Orange County Hospital ARES Group's Field Day at Huntington Beach Hospital
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
The special ARES group the Hospital Disaster Support Communications Service
(HDSCS) enjoyed a successful Field Day weekend at host Huntington Beach
Hospital, reports EC and group leader April Moell, WA6OPS. She said that
Field Day is a scheduled event at the hospital, so set up and operation is
now like a well-oiled machine. "Hospital staff got exercised in deploying
surge capacity tents and generators for our use. Engineering staff assisted
and guided the HDSCS Field Day antenna team to locations on the roofs and
stairwells to create the emergency antennas. Then HDSCS communicators and
guests were on the air, Moell reported. 2014 is the first year all 50 states
were contacted. Several hospital staff visited to learn more about how HDSCS
assists in communications emergencies and the Orange County EMS Medical
Director, Dr. Sam Stratton, W5AGX, came in at midnight to operate the
radios. Check out the HDSCS website www.hdscs.org for pictures of the event.
More recently, HDSCS coordinators attended the monthly Orange County
hospitals' disaster planning committee meeting. The recent National Disaster
Medical System drill was reviewed: Hospitals had to go through the Amateur
Radio activation procedures that they would use for real, which was
important because it is different from what is done in a mass casualty
incident. Also reviewed were network procedures and construction of messages
that were sent to EMS, Camp Pendleton, and between hospitals. The hospitals'
stated objective of using Amateur Radio as an alternate communications
resource was met by those hospitals participating. -- April Moell, WA6OPS,
HDSCS
[Editor's note: In a few areas of the country, hospitals have used the
services of Amateur Radio operators at key communication points throughout
their campuses to provide critical back-up communications. The pioneer and
still leader of this function and groups is the Hospital Disaster Support
Communications System (HDSCS), a group of 80 Amateur Radio operators who
provide back-up internal and external communications for large (HDSCS
supports all sizes) medical facilities in Orange County, California whenever
normal communications are interrupted for any reason. In 2010, HDSCS
celebrated its 30th year of service. HDSCS is a specialized unit of ARES and
claims to be the first and largest ARES unit devoted solely to hospital
support.
Their service was initiated after a phone outage at a large hospital in
Fullerton in 1979 and the impressive response of Amateur Radio operators to
that emergency. Beginning with seven at inception, the list of
HDSCS-supported facilities has grown to include all of the acute care
receiving hospitals in the county, plus other critical medical facilities.
Internal communications are provided among hospital departments, but also
external communications with staff, suppliers and outside agencies (such as
blood banks, Red Cross and county Emergency Medical Services) are vital in a
disaster and are also provided by HDSCS. Most of the hospitals have
installed dedicated rooftop VHF/UHF antennas and a few have installed
Amateur Radio stations for HDSCS use. However, this equipment may not be
available or accessible in disaster situations. Therefore, each HDSCS member
is prepared to bring battery-operated personal equipment to provide both
internal and external communications.]
Broadband-Hamnet Greatly Expands its Usefulness, Adds 5.8 GHz Support
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Broadband-Hamnet is proud to announce a new firmware release, an update to
the original Linksys WRT54G/GL/GS gear, and for the Ubiquiti firmware
originally released for the 2.4GHz ham band this past February. With this
release, Broadband-Hamnet now supports the Ubiquiti M5-series hardware,
giving hams use of the 5.8 GHz band for mesh networking. Among the release's
many new features are the ability to easily connect collocated nodes into
clusters and to span the mesh across both ham bands. For more information
and to download the firmware, please visit http://www.broadband-hamnet.org.
-- Jim Kinter, K5KTF, Webmaster, Broadband-Hamnet
Open Letter to the Winlink Team: Thanks from a Mariner
------------------------------------------------------
I wanted to drop the Winlink managers and operators a sincere note of thanks
and gratitude for volunteering the use of your amateur radio equipment on
the Winlink system. I am on a 45-foot sailboat nearly 1,000 miles offshore
sailing in the Victoria-to-Maui race; one of 14 boats this year. It is our
seventh day at sea. I am also the communications vessel for the fleet. We,
and I'm sure a few other boats in our fleet with amateur operators have been
connecting to your stations to access race vessel position info and vital
wind and weather predictions. We have also had need to relay medical advice
related to an injury on another boat and assist with another boat that had a
catastrophic steering issue and is limping into San Francisco.
I cannot convey enough thanks for the comfort of hearing the Pactor modem
connect to each of you with a clear strong signal. We connect with and
reassure our relatives and friends ashore that we are safe and are enjoying
ourselves and I share a daily journal of our experiences with about 500
people. If you wish to follow our daily journal, send an email to Dan Pearce
at frigidkid@gmail.com. Again, many thanks from everyone aboard! -- Paul
Michael, KD7JST,
Navigator, s/v Family Affair
GAREC 2014 Next Month in Alabama: Make Plans Now to Attend!
-----------------------------------------------------------
The ARRL Alabama Section and the Huntsville Hamfest Association are proud to
announce that the 2014 Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (GAREC)
Conference will return to Huntsville, Alabama August 14-15, next month! The
conference will be held in connection with the 2014 ARRL Southeastern
Division Convention/Annual Huntsville Hamfest. The Huntsville Hamfest will
be held on Saturday, August 16 and Sunday, August 17, at the Von Braun
Convention Center in Huntsville.
The conference will focus on the application of advanced technologies in
emergency communications. All interested Amateur Radio operators and
professionals are invited to attend.
In 2005, the first Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (GAREC)
Conference was organized on the initiative of Seppo Sisatto, OH1VR in
Tampere, Finland. Following the success of this event and the increased
interest in international and regional cooperation on emergency
communications, GAREC conferences established themselves as annual events.
For each conference, an organizing committee works together with a local
host, and International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) representatives
participate in the event. In its 2009 meeting in Christchurch, New Zealand,
the IARU Administrative Council defined the relationship between GAREC and
IARU by adopting the following recommendations contained in the Statement of
the GAREC-2009 Conference: "GAREC 2009 recommends that GAREC conferences
should continue to be held in locations throughout the world to the extent
possible and should maintain the character of GAREC as an informal meeting
among representatives of IARU member societies and of Amateur Radio
emergency communications groups within or outside of the respective National
IARU Member Society, serving as a forum for the exchange of experience and
as an advisory body for the work on emergency communications of the IARU."
http://www.iaru.org/garec.html
Letters: More than One MARS Service
-----------------------------------
Great article last month on the TEMA exercise - thanks! Please note that all
three MARS branches participated equally in this exercise. Army MARS, Navy
MARS and Air Force MARS operators and managers all played a part in the
success of the exercise. Also, the Department of Homeland Security's Cyber
Security Administration, National Coordinating Center for Communications
Shared Resources site is: http://www.dhs.gov/shares-program-information
Again, thanks! -- Steve Waterman, K4CJX, Winlink Network Administrator,
Winlink Development Team; President, Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc.
(ARSFI)
[According to its website, the primary purpose of the Amateur Radio Safety
Foundation is to provide for the formation, training, maintenance, and
testing of volunteer licensed amateur radio emergency services and networks
using state of the art communications technology. These services and
networks to serve the general public by facilitating emergency, health, or
welfare communication in times of disaster or other communications
emergencies. - ed.]
K1CE For a Final
----------------
My personal history in ARES and emergency communications started with the
relief effort of the Great Northeast Blizzard of '78 (see August 1978 QST
for the reports). The storm occurred over February 5-7, 1978, and was
described in the media as "the week the state stood still" in Rhode Island,
and "awesome" after Massachusetts State Governor Michael S. Dukakis returned
from his helicopter survey. Only a few snowstorms over the past century
might compare to the February 1978 Great Northeast Blizzard.
I was home-bound like most citizens of eastern Massachusetts, but used my
Drake TR-33C to check into the ARES and NTS nets on the Waltham 146.04/64
MHz repeater, relaying traffic and condition reports in Lexington, my
hometown. I mostly listened to the activities that involved the
Massachusetts State Civil Defense. It was an eye-opener into Amateur Radio
as a public and emergency communications service, and was a catalyst for
seeking my first job after graduating from college - a staff position at the
ARRL Administrative Headquarters in Newington, Connecticut. A dream job for
every ham!
See you on the convention floor on Saturday of this week! - Rick, K1CE
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