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Subj: The ARES E-Letter Sep 26, 2007
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The ARES E-Letter
September 26, 2007
=================
Rick Palm, K1CE, Editor
<http://www.qrz.com/database?callsign=K1CE>,
===================================
ARES reports, other related contributions, editorial questions or
comments: <k1ce@arrl.net>;;;
===================================
+ The View from Flagler County
This issue is late, owing to my travels in South America. There seems
to be more HF beams per capita in Ecuador than anywhere else!
Hope you have had a chance to read the article, "A Tour of a Modern
EOC," in October QST: It features the new Flagler County EOC, which
figures prominently in many of this newsletter's reports from here.
The "It Seems To Us . . ." editorial on Interoperability and the
recent GAREC-07 is a must-read as well.
____________________
IN THIS ISSUE:
+ The View from Flagler County
+ ARES Blotter
+ IARU Region 2 Meeting Adopts EmComm Working Group Recommendations
+ GAREC-07 is History and a Success
+ LETTERS: ARES QSO Party
+ LETTERS: Human Relations
+ LETTERS: On Message Forms
+ SOFTWARE: WXSpots 1.0
+ NEW PRODUCTS: Quick Boom to Mast Connection Plate
+ K1CE For a Final
____________________
+ ARES Blotter
Northwest Ohio, August 24 -- Heavy rains resulted in near record
flood levels. ARES District 1 was especially hard-hit in the Hancock
and Seneca County areas, and a command post at the Seneca County EOC
was activated. ARES supported numerous agencies, including the
Hancock County Emergency Management Agency, area fire departments,
American Red Cross, the Sheriff and health district departments. Two
shelters were set up, with the largest taking around 250 displaced
persons. - from ARRL Letter reports by Karl Erbland, K8ARL, DEC
District 1, Ohio; Bob Copas, K8OIL, Hancock County Liaison/Net
Control Operator; Bill Davis, N8PTJ, Hancock County EC
Mid-Michigan, August 24 - Two tornados damaged towns, and Genesee
County ARES and SKYWARN were activated. Randy Bond, N8VDS, spotted
the funnel heading for Fenton and reported it to the NWS. About half
of the Fenton Community Center's roof was blown off, and debris from
the building blew across the road to Fenton United Methodist Church.
Genesee County 911 called out the fire departments and activated
their Fire Coordination Plan. ARES spotters provided communications
via the SKYWARN net and the Fire Coordination net.
As more reports of damage came in, the Fenton City and Township Fire
Department became overloaded; their communications tower was
crippled. Genesee County EC Greg Ybarra, N8HXQ, coordinated the
response during this incident and put out a call for help to District
3 EC Greg Allinger, WA8OGJ, who contacted other ARES units in the
state, and Amateur Radio operators from nine Michigan counties
responded to the Fenton area to help.
Hurricane Humberto, September 13 - The Category 1 hurricane came
ashore in Texas, and continued eastward toward Louisiana and
Mississippi, where flood warnings were in effect. ARES groups were
activated. According to Brazoria County (Texas) EC Terry Bowersmith,
W5SRG, the county ARES activated a complex Net at 6 PM Wednesday,
involving repeaters in Freeport and Alvin.
Louisiana SEC Gary Stratton, K5GLS, said Alan Levine, WA5LQZ, DEC for
Southwest Louisiana, reported minimal flood damage in his area, and
little wind damage. Orange County (Texas) EC Rocky Wilson, N5MTX,
reported his county had a massive power outage; all schools were
closed, as were most retail stores and businesses.
Grundy County, Illinois, August 24 -- Grundy County ARES leadership
was called into the county EOC at 8:00 AM on August 24 for possible
activation for flooding emergencies. At 11:00 AM a call for operators
went out in the event that shelters would be opened. Fifteen people
checked into the repeater. At 2:00 PM a shelter was opened at
Shabbona School directly across from the EOC. Two operators passed
traffic. This shelter was designated a special needs shelter for
residents of a nursing home with 125 patients under the direction of
Morris Hospital. Medical personnel were also brought in.
At 3:00 PM a Red Cross shelter was set up at the Morris High School
for residents of flooded areas. Two operators were dispatched to
assist the Red Cross. Thirty-seven residents were temporarily housed
at this shelter.
Eighteen messages were passed between the EOC and the two shelters,
comprised mostly of requests for cots and transportation. By 5:30 pm
the County had its communications vehicle set up at the special needs
shelter and ARES was released. -- Robert Cockream, AB9EE, EC Grundy
County, DEC NE Illinois
Mayes County, Oklahoma, September 8 -- Zone 5 ARES took the
opportunity presented by the Oklahoma DAM JAM bicycle ride to execute
a Mutual Aid Exercise in Mayes County, Oklahoma. Despite severe
thunderstorms and flash flooding, the exercise came off well and
attracted ARES volunteers from around the state.
Two of those volunteers, Myrna Cobb, KE5IAD, the Zone 3 Emergency
Coordinator, and Victor Stillman, KE5LQU, were driving back to their
homes in the Oklahoma City area from the ARES exercise that had just
completed. Myrna is with the Grady County Sheriff's department and
Victor is a volunteer fire fighter and EMT-B with the Oak Cliff Fire
Department. They had just made contact with friends on the K5EOK EARS
repeater in Edmond, when a car about 150 yards ahead hydroplaned, and
skidded into an 18-wheeler causing both vehicles to wreck.
Contacting Frankie Tassone, KE5KQL, on the repeater, they gave him
the details of the incident and the location and had him contact the
Oklahoma Highway Patrol. Using ham radio to have KE5KQL make the call
to the OHP allowed Victor and Myrna to respond immediately when they
pulled up on the scene. Victor supplied first aid to the victims
while Myrna directed traffic to keep the scene clear for the more
than 20 minutes it took the nearest group of first responders to
arrive. -- Brian Gnad, KB5TSI, Oklahoma DEC for Creek, Rogers and
Tulsa Counties
+ IARU Region 2 Meeting Adopts EmComm Working Group Recommendations
The 16th IARU Region 2 General Assembly met in Brazil in
mid-September. Actions taken included the establishment of a Region 2
Relief Fund to assist Region 2 Member-Societies whose club stations
and buildings, including antenna systems, are damaged by natural
disaster. A new MF-HF Band Plan was adopted to embrace emergency
networks, among other things. The new band plan can be found at:
<http://www.iaru-regionii.org/>
Several recommendations from the Region 2 Working Group on Emergency
Communications were adopted. These include establishing an Emergency
Communications Committee that will be responsible to the Executive
Committee for carrying out planning, training and the maintenance of
equipment and personnel inventories for emergency assistance
deployment.
+ GAREC-07 is History and a Success
[Editor's note: The 2007 Global Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications Conference (GAREC) held in August in Huntsville,
Alabama, was a patent success, and was covered extensively in the
ARRL Letter and October QST, including the lead editorial
"Interoperability." I'm not going to rehash those reports here, but
the following are the salient points, and links to GAREC-07
presentations.]
GAREC-07 conferees recommended:
1) The introduction of the call sign suffix " /D " for use by
stations of the Amateur Radio Service handling traffic related to
emergency and disaster situations, and its publication and promotion
by the IARU and its Member Societies and by all specialized emergency
communications groups;
2) The extension of the "EmCom Party on-the-Air" emergency
communication exercises already introduced in IARU Region 1 to
Regions 2 and 3; and
3) That studies be initiated by the IARU in cooperation with its
Member Societies and with specialized emergency communication groups,
on the development and possible introduction of standard codes for
use in international emergency communications and on the need for the
development of a list of standard resource types.
The conferees also supported "the decision of the IARU Administrative
Council to collect information from all Member Societies about the
status of implementation and application of the revisions to Article
25 of the ITU Radio Regulations resulting from WRC-03. The part of
Article 25 concerning Emergency Communications says, "Amateur
stations may be used for transmitting international communications on
behalf of third parties only in case of emergencies or disaster
relief. An administration may determine the applicability of this
provision to amateur stations under its jurisdiction" (RR 25.3), and
"Administrations are encouraged to take the necessary steps to allow
amateur stations to prepare for and meet communication needs in
support of disaster relief" (RR 25.9A).
GAREC appealed to all IARU Member Societies, as well as specialized
emergency communications groups, encouraging the accession to and
ratification of the Tampere Convention on the Provision of
Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Response
Operations
<http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/emergencytelecoms/doc/tampere/S-CONF-ICET-2001
-PDF-M07.pdf> by their respective national authorities. The US has
not yet ratified this document, but word was received during GAREC
that Ireland announced their accession to Tampere. There are
currently 37 countries that have adopted Tampere.
The group also appealed to the IARU to further encourage the
development and the application of new modes and technologies in
emergency communications, and training aids, including the completion
of the IARU handbook on emergency communications initiated by the
GAREC conferences in 2005 and 2006, as well as the development of a
hand-out to inform the public, in particular during major conferences
such as the forthcoming WRC-07, as already decided by the IARU
Administrative Council in 2005.
Conferees also wanted all organizers of contests to include in their
respective rules an instruction to the effect that frequencies in the
immediate vicinity of the Center of Activity frequencies as proposed
by GAREC-05 and subsequently adopted by the competent conferences of
IARU Regions 1, 2 and 3 should not be used for contest contacts;
these frequencies are 14.300, 18.160 and 21.360 MHz.
Links to GAREC-07 Presentations: Most of the presentations made at
GAREC-07 are now available on the Web at
<http://gaiss.tssg.org/GAREC07/index.html>. A link to this site has
also been put on the main GAREC-07 site at
<http://www.arrl-al.org/GAREC07.htm> and will be added to the IARU
pages at <http://www.iaru.org/emergency/>, from where a link also
gives access to the presentations of GAREC-05 and -06. -- Hans
Zimmermann, F5VKP/HB9AQS, IARU International Coordinator for
Emergency Communications <hb9aqs@arrl.net>;,
<http://www.iaru.org/emergency>
+ LETTERS: ARES QSO Party
I like the idea of an ARES QSO Party: Contesting is good practice for
operating for long periods of time getting a simple message through
correctly in a high-noise, fast-paced environment. Contesters learn
more about the operation of radios and characteristics of propagation
on different bands at different times of the day. I agree with others
to limit the party to the use of simple antennas and 100 watts. Don't
have EmComm titles (EC, DEC, etc.) as multipliers. Operation should
be limited to emergency power sources only. -- Dave Edenfield, W8RIT
<w8rit@arrl.net>;
Any ARES QSO Party should make some unique contribution that is not
offered by the usual QSO parties. I suggest that a small committee
set the rules in advance, and choose four possible weekends. At the
first moment the contest could begin, committee members would
randomly choose (with dice, coin flips, or the like) which weekend
the party begins, and which 6-hour period of the weekend will be the
party period. The date and time of the party would not be
disseminated until the first moment of the contest period. Would that
be fair to hams who receive the simulated activation through a slow
means of communications? No, but what's fair about a disaster? --
Gerry Ashton, WY2Y
+ LETTERS: Human Relations
In re the August 15 issue response from Erik Weaver to David Rust's
July issue comment, it is one example of why Amateur Radio is
struggling to obtain qualified operators for EmComm. It doesn't help
to attack other hams. Instead, we need leadership and
professionalism. Rust had strong words about the ARES program in his
area. He wanted to see value, that local hams were taking care of
problems and being involved in their communities while using local
repeater resources. I think Weaver missed an opportunity to be
positive and to invite those who care about their communities to join
him. Next, to then help educate others about how served agencies can
work effectively with Amateur Radio organizations. Lastly, to share
his hard-earned knowledge of how to "get it right" with other ARES
programs in his area. -- Andrew J. Buskey, N3GVL
What about self-activation? I did this during the WTC disaster. In
the event as discussed, perhaps the people on duty at that time in
the Office of Emergency Management had no idea of the ARES/RACES
resource. Who was in charge of the shelters? Red Cross? Was there an
MOU with them to supply communicators at each shelter? If not, then
your local ARES group needs to work on that level and not wait for
the OEM to request help. Requests can come from many levels. Red
Cross and Salvation Army are but two examples. Public and agency
education is of utmost importance.-- Bob Hejl, W2IK
+ LETTERS: On Message Forms
The issue of using the ARRL radiogram and/or the ICS-213 General
Message form for EMCOM is alive and well in western Colorado. In CO
ARES District 25 we train to use both forms. There are a lot of
unanswered questions regarding the exact procedures for transmitting
the ICS-213 and converting it to/from the radiogram format. In MARS
there is a specific procedure for re-filing a MARSGRAM to/from an
ARRL radiogram. I would like the ARRL to develop and promulgate a
similar procedure for dealing with the ICS-213 General Message form.
I think that this procedure should come from the top downward.
Sections or districts can develop their own procedures. However,
those would not be uniform across sections, regions, etc. Here is an
opportunity for the ARRL to provide leadership where it is truly
needed. -- Steve Schroder, KI0KY, Colorado ARES District 25 EC
+ SOFTWARE: WXSpots 1.0
WXSpots 1.0 seems to be gaining in popularity fast, with more than
850 beta testers and several SKYWARN groups. As a leadership issue,
I'd like to see the League officially adopt this software as a
reporting tool, and enter it into their MOU with the National Weather
Service. Tools such as these can help fill in gaps where repeater
coverage makes it difficult to report storm activity directly to net
controls. It also can expand the use of cellular phones and broadband
networks to expand our coverage.
Many amateurs might scoff at using anything other than radios to send
SKYWARN reports. I think that attitude reflects poor thinking. Our
value to the NWS is that we are trained storm spotters and effective
communicators. Getting the message through to the served agency in a
timely manner is the mission. What tool we use to accomplish that
isn't important.
The software is free, appears to be well written and reliable. It may
even be possible to write "bridge" programs that will allow this
information to be repeated over amateur digital networks, such as
D-Star. But we need to agree on a standard so that the NWS and
SKYWARN groups can move quickly to implement this new tool. For more
information and a link to download the software, please visit
<http://www.wxspots.com/>. -- Thanks, as always, to Les Rayburn, N1LF,
of High Noon Film, 100 Centerview Drive Suite 111, Birmingham, AL
35216
+ NEW PRODUCTS: Quick Boom to Mast Connection Plate
See <http://www.ironworksdesign.net/> site or
<http://www.connectquick.net/> for a antenna connector that may be
highly useful to ARES operators. The designer has been experimenting
with anodizing colors to differentiate the different disaster
players. FEMA will be reviewing it for possible addition to their "go
kits" as well as Red Cross. Each entity may have their own color (red
for Red Cross), so that they can deploy many different antennas at
EOCs, Communication Vans and other assets and be able to retrieve
their own after the event. In the works is a surface plate addition
to the system that will make it easy to mount onto a flat surface
like the side of a communication trailer. -- Paul J McMahon, K1PJM,
802-989-3290, <paul@ironworksdesign.net>;
+ K1CE For a Final
The ARRL is publishing a new edition of the venerable ARRL Operating
Manual, which will feature a revamped chapter on Emergency
Communications. Check it out!
See you next month! - 73, Rick K1CE
======================================================================
The ARES E-LETTER is published on the third Wednesday of each month by
the American Radio Relay League--The National Association For Amateur
Radio--225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111; tel 860-594-0200; fax
860-594-0259; www.arrl.org. Joel Harrison, W5ZN, President.
The ARES E-LETTER is an e-mail digest of news and information of
interest to active members of the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Service
(ARES).
Material from The ARES E-LETTER may be republished or reproduced in
whole or in part in any form without additional permission. Credit must
be given to The ARES E-LETTER and The American Radio Relay League.
Editorial questions or comments: Rick Palm, K1CE, k1ce@arrl.net
Delivery problems (ARRL direct delivery only!): ares-el-dlvy@arrl.org
To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your address for e-mail delivery:
ARRL members first must register on the Members Only Web Site,
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ARES E-Letter by going to the Member Data Page at:
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Note that you must be logged in to the site to access this page. Scroll
down to the section "Which of the following would you like to receive
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(monthly public service and emergency communications news)" and you're
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Past issues of The ARES E-Letter are available at
http://www.arrl.org/ares-el/. Issues are posted to this page after
publication.
======================================================================
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