ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
The ARES E-Letter
Published by the American Radio Relay League
********************************************
April 20, 2011
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE
In This Issue:
IN THIS ISSUE
- ARES® Briefs
- ARES® Digest
- EmCommWest 2011 Next Month in Reno
- Sure-Fire Ways to Kill Your ARES® Program
- Setting Up a Twitter Alert System
- Letters
- New to ARES®?
- The 2011 National Hurricane Conference
- K1CE For a Final
==> ARES® BRIEFS
By Friday, March 25, Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) HQ stations had
completed disaster relief communications on the 7 MHz band for the
catastrophic northeastern Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 11. The
JARL thanked radio amateurs for their cooperation in keeping 7.030 MHz
clear for the relief communications effort. [March 28, 2011, statement,
JARL]. A report can be found here
.
Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Enhancement Bills
Of the two versions of the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications
Enhancement Act of 2011, H.R. 81 and S. 191, the latter is expected to
move through the Senate before H.R. 81 is taken up by the House. Quiet
efforts are underway to smooth the path of the legislation through the
committees of jurisdiction. [ARRL Executive Committee, March 19, 2011].
Current information on both measures, and on HR 607 - The Broadband for
First Responders Act of 2011, which poses a threat to our 70-cm band,
can be found here . [Editor's
note: Although I have not used it extensively at this point, I have
found GovTrack.us to be an easy-to-use site
for tracking congressional bills, events, individual members of
Congress, and so forth. Although not vetted by myself nor ARRL, readers
might want to try it, too, and please let me know of your experience.]
The ARES® E-Letter audio version is now available on iTunes: Click here
.
Here is a very well done film on
the issue of Interoperability, which should be required viewing for
ARES® members who want to gain a greater understanding of the issues
facing both our own service, and our served agencies. -- Les Rayburn,
N1LF, Alabaster, Alabama
ARRL Partners Roundup
April 18, 2011 -- Red Cross Responds After Tornadoes, Wildfires Leave
Devastation Across The South
April 18, 2011 - Salvation Army: Response Efforts to Deadly Tornadoes,
Wildfires Across Southern US
==> ARES® DIGEST
Wicked Tornadoes Rip Up the South; SKYWARN, ARES Respond
Devastating tornadoes swept through the southern portion of the country
over the course of the last few days, and after-action reports so far
are sketchy, but your editor reached a few key ARES® officials for some
early indications of responses. ARES® and SKYWARN were activated in
Atoka, Oklahoma and other areas of the state, especially the northeast
and southeast, for the tornado emergencies, according to Oklahoma SEC
Mark Conklin, N7XYO. Oklahoma ARRL Public Information Coordinator Lloyd
Colston, KC5FM, reported that last Friday was a very busy day for the
state, as it faced wildfire emergencies in the west and the tornadoes
in the southeast. Both SKYWARN and ARES® were involved, said Colston:
"These two groups of volunteers are married together for these types of
situations. They work extremely well."
Alabama SM David Drummond, W4MD, said that many areas in western
Alabama were activated, particularly in Sumter, Tuscaloosa and Greene
counties, where tornadoes were on the ground. Numerous ARES® nets
across the state were convened in support of these areas. SKYWARN
spotters reported ground truths back to the National Weather Service
offices in Birmingham via multiple modes, including D-STAR. Damage
assessments were also provided to the Red Cross at Tuscaloosa, and the
State EMA at Clanton. SEC Greg Gross, K4GR, called the Alabama ARES
State Net on 3965 kHz, which was in session for more than six hours.
Activity reports are still coming into the Section Manager and a more
comprehensive report is pending.
In North Carolina, SM Bill Morine, N2COP, said "storms resulted in the
most lives lost in the state due to a natural disaster since 1984 with
23 confirmed dead. Because devastation was highly localized due to the
narrow swath of many of the tornadoes, there were few communications
outages. Nevertheless, SKYWARN was active, and ARES® operators were on
standby for much of the weekend."
From Tom Brown, N4TAB, North Carolina SEC: "Triad SKYWARN
(Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point) activated under the Raleigh
NWS, reporting events as the storm line developed, intensified and
moved east. As it cleared their jurisdiction, ARES® Triad operators
provided reports into Central Carolina SKYWARN about conditions on the
back side of the storm line. John Hamilton, NC4JH, is the Triad SKYWARN
EC.
"Central Carolina SKYWARN also activated under Raleigh NWS. It was very
busy for many hours with rotating staff of at least two full-time
operators on the air taking reports for the NWS and picking up the nets
as reports were passed to the NWS. When the NWS office was evacuated to
safe quarters, the SKYWARN operators moved with the NWS staff and
continued their activities without interruption. That was an absolutely
exemplary example of "how to do it right." Virginia Enzor, NC4VA, is
the Central Carolina SKYWARN EC.
"Wilson County ARES® activated under Wilson County EM for about five
hours, handling damage reports. George Diering, W3GJD, is the Wilson
County EC.
"SEC Tom Brown, N4TAB, logged into and monitored the State Emergency
Management WebEOC system for 20+ hours, maintaining situational
awareness (SA). Most state ARES jurisdictions also maintained SA for
the duration of the events. We had offers of boots-on-the-ground
support from across the state and from surrounding states, from both
ARES® and MARS."
The Newport, North Carolina, NWS SKYWARN operators in the northeastern
part of the state, headed by SKYWARN EC John Hopkins, KJ4EJH, had two
busy net controls, Pat Gorman, KE4WZY, and Tom Young, KF4VOL. Bertie
County, a rural county, was hard hit but served well by the Newport NWS
group.
In Virgina, Section Manager Carl Clements, W4CAC, reported that SKYWARN
nets were activated throughout the state, sending reports to NWS
offices, including the Wakefield NWS facility.
----
See also the above stories on Red Cross and Salvation Army involvement.
They are both ARRL partners pursuant to formal and longstanding
memorandums of understanding (MOU).
Western PA Tornado Response
March 30, 2011 -- Western Pennsylvania hams responded to a tornado
emergency. At approximately 4:30 on the afternoon of Wednesday, March
23, severe thunderstorms started to roll into Westmoreland County,
Pennsylvania, producing golf ball-sized hail and heavy winds. Members
of the Westmoreland County Public Service/ARES® group were involved.
Learn More
.
-- ARRL Letter
Southern Cal Hospital Support Hams Fill In Communications Gap
March 25, 2011 - Hospital Disaster Support Communications System (HDSCS
) amateurs provided backup communications when
phones failed at a southern California hospital. When nurses and other
caregivers picked up their phones at Children's Hospital of Orange
County (CHOC ) in California in the early morning
on March 21, there was no dial tone. A power surge caused the central
processor in the hospital's phone switch to fail. Following established
procedures, the Lead Operator at the CHOC switchboard immediately used
an off-switch tie-line to reach April Moell, WA6OPS, head of this ARES®
group that specializes in helping hospitals when their communications
fail. More here
.
Just 15 days later, HDSCS was activated again to another Orange County
hospital. A group pager alert at 10:28 AM on April 5 brought hams to
Saddleback Hospital in Laguna Hills after a digital equipment failure
caused the inbound and outbound trunk lines to become inoperative.
Again, the phone number of April Moell, WA6OPS was given to Orange
County Communications agency so that ambulance companies and other
hospitals could contact Saddleback Hospital via HDSCS. The outage
lasted until 6 PM that day.
Of the 115 times that HDSCS has been activated for communications
problems in Orange County hospitals, this was the 85th time that it was
due to switchgear or cable failure. According to WA6OPS, who is an ARES
DEC, "Many hams around the state and the country ask me why Orange
County has so many phone system failures in hospitals. They seem to
think that this doesn't happen in their own areas, but they're
mistaken. We know from our own experience that phone equipment isn't
100% reliable. I know from talking to lots of hospital disaster
planners around the country that they have plenty of failures, too. But
far too often, hams think that Amateur Radio can only help in 'all else
fails' disasters such as hurricanes, tornados and floods. Most ham
emergency groups don't prepare and plan to help in these
single-hospital incidents. They don't set up 24-hour alerting plans for
the hospitals to use to contact them quickly when phones go down, so
they never get the call."
Moell continues, "When a nurse on a hospital unit has an urgent need to
contact a patient's physician at his office or home but the phones are
down because switchgear has failed, that's just as severe an emergency
as it would be in a widespread natural disaster. Orange County
hospitals know and appreciate us because we come when they call and we
connect their staff members to the outside, no matter the cause of the
communications outage. We urge other ARES groups around the country to
adopt our hospital support model, which includes robust alerting plans
for each hospital, regular meetings with the hospital disaster
planners, and ready-to-respond members who are trained in the special
terminology and communications needs of medical facilities." More
information about HDSCS and its successful
model for hospital communications support is at the group's Web site.
-- Joe Moell, K0OV, Fullerton, California
Bergen, New Jersey Members Active in Flooding Emergency
Hams from the Bergen Amateur Radio Association (BARA) provided
communications for the Red Cross of Northern New Jersey. The five day
response was in support of relief efforts in the wake of severe
flooding that occurred in the area in early March. BARA hams leading
the effort were Tony Izzo, K2AMI; Phil Barber, WA2LXE; and Bob Javits,
WB2AIU.
Operating from a permanent station installed by BARA at Red Cross
Disaster Relief headquarters in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the hams
maintained contact with the Disaster Assessment Teams covering the
flooded areas and relayed their reports to various departments as
needed. Communications operations involved the use of the repeater of
the 10-70 Repeater Association as it provided excellent coverage of the
flood area. According to Rob Pavlick, Response Manager for the Red
Cross, "The continuing support from BARA for our efforts here in
Northern New Jersey has resulted in a more timely flow of information,
and data collection." Red Cross Disaster Assessment volunteers who are
also hams provided the input from the field.
West Texas Wildfires Response
On April 9 at 4:15 PM, ARRL West Texas District 5 EC Bob Ward, WA5ROE,
received a call from Jeff Davis County (Texas) Fire Marshal Stewart
Billingsley, N5HXZ. Billingsley informed Ward that a fire had begun in
the West Texas town of Marfa and was rapidly approaching Fort Davis, 22
miles to the northeast.
"Stewart asked me to call the National Weather Service to get it on the
alert system, as well as the AM and FM radio stations in Alpine," Ward
told the ARRL. "He wanted it broadcast over the radio stations that he
needed the Mano Prieto and Fort Davis Estates sub-divisions evacuated.
People in the area know that when an emergency happens, they need to
tune into these stations for the latest information. This was the Rock
House Fire. At the same time, another fire, the Roper Fire, had started
on the eastern edge of Alpine." More here
.
- ARRL Letter
==> EMCOMMWEST 2011 NEXT MONTH IN RENO
The ARRL Specialty Event convention EmCommWest is coming to Reno,
Nevada on May 6, 7, and 8, 2011. This is a premier event that
specifically focuses on Emergency Radio. This year's keynote ARRL
speaker will be Mike Corey, W5MPC, Emergency Response and Planning
Manager from ARRL HQ. Corey will share the latest in the world of
emergency communications and what we can look forward to having just
passed the 75th Anniversary of ARES®. The Saturday night banquet
speaker will be honored, special guest former ARRL President Jim
Haynie, W5JBP, who served three terms as League president, and made
major contributions to Amateur Radio, including "The Big Project" to
attract young people into the hobby. His key support for emergency
communications is well-known. More event info here
. -- ARRL Sacramento Valley Section News,
March 2011
==> SURE-FIRE WAYS TO KILL YOUR ARES® PROGRAM
Last month, I offered what I believe are ten ways to grow an ARES® or
EMCOMM program. This month, I'll offer a list of ways to do just the
opposite. Most are related to leadership.
Politics - If you've been around a while, you've experienced the evil
of Amateur Radio politics, often made worse because we're a passionate
bunch and nobody really has an important (job, money, family) stake in
the debate. ARES® is different. We have a public safety mission and
people count on us. We do not have time for politics.
A commitment to community service and mission can fill the vacuum
politics would otherwise be drawn into. Before you "start something" or
play someone else's games, ask yourself, "Is this really worth it?"
Sometimes you'll say "yes," but "no" is often a wiser, long-term
decision. The best way to avoid politics is honesty and obvious
goodwill.
Failure to communicate and delegate - This is absolutely key. One of
the best ways to keep volunteers - arguably the only way - is to give
the ones who want something to do a task they can do and want to do.
You need to match the task to the volunteer and be careful to match the
task and deadline to the volunteer's reliability. Getting others
involved is the key to your group's success. Train these people to
become your leaders.
Obviously, you need people to know what your plans are, what you need,
and what progress is being made. A weekly e-mail is a good way to
accomplish this. Monthly is probably too infrequent. If you can't fill
at least a short weekly newsletter, you probably are not doing enough
to be an active group.
Not loving your volunteers - Hot news: As a leader, you can't
accomplish very much working alone. Your job is creating excellent
volunteer experiences and keeping your volunteers involved, fulfilled,
and happy. If you don't really love your volunteers, not merely respect
or like them, but love them, you will fail. Think of your volunteers as
an extended family and get them to think of each other the same way. Be
the example.
Forgetting to say "Thanks!" - A wise manager once told me that there is
really only one thing you can tell a volunteer - "Thanks" - because you
can't force them to do anything. Remind your people constantly that
their effort are (1) important, (2) make a difference and (3) are
appreciated. You need to concentrate on all three.
Failure to apologize - As a leader, you're going to make mistakes.
Decisions you make are sometimes going to make people unhappy. You must
always weigh the gains made by doing something against the people it
will upset and that potential loss. I generally find myself "doing
something" while remaining sensitive to the people those actions might
upset.
If you follow the adage, "it's easier to apologize than to get
permission" then apologies really, really matter. And, you must be
successful in the task for this strategy to work. Yet you still risk
making permanent enemies.
In general: Apologize - sincerely - early, often, and sometimes even
when you might not be wrong. But you must be sincere or this will
totally backfire.
Misunderstanding served agencies - This is a topic for an ARRL
Handbook-sized essay, but if you don't understand what your agencies
need and want, how they function, and what they value, you will not
have a good relationship with them. That could be your undoing. Work
with multiple agencies to reduce the potential downside.
Not investing in growth - This is absolutely key. I don't care how you
do it, but you need to constantly work to sign up and train new
members. I am a big fan of ARES® groups and Community Emergency
Response Teams (CERT) working
together. See my article in May, 2011 QST for more on that. Do what
works in your area, but you may be better off creating new hams than
re-recruiting the burnout cases.
Last month, I recommended one-day HamCram licensing events as a growth
tool. Not everyone agreed, so here is my
response to a HamCram critic. How to do a HamCram? Click here
.
Not investing in relationships - The primary job of ARES® leaders isn't
radio, it's relationships -- with volunteers, agencies, one another,
allied groups, etc. If you put your time and effort into building
relationships among people, your communications capabilities will
improve by multiples.
Personal burnout - Leaders need to look after one another as well as
themselves. If you need help, support, or cheering up, ask for it,
especially from the leaders you have created. You can always drop me a
note, too.
I'd like to tell you I am an expert at all these things, but it would
be a lie. Still, these are what I try to focus on: Excellent volunteer
and program management. Members make the ARES® world go 'round. - David
Coursey, N5FDL, Contributing Editor (visit his blog
)
==> SETTING UP A TWITTER ALERT SYSTEM
One tool that might be useful for some groups is Twitter
for rapidly sending out club, group or ARES®
alerts or announcements. Anyone who has a cell phone that can send and
receive text messages can easily enable these alerts to show up on
their phones; no smart phone or complicated setup required!
Setting up a new Twitter account takes just a few minutes, and for your
members to sign up to receive updates is even faster. To set up a new
account visit http://www.twitter.com and look
for the "Sign Up" button on the right side. For the name, put the name
of your ARES® group or club. For the username, think carefully about
this one as it will be in your URL address, and you won't want to
change it later. For the Santa Cruz, California ARES® group I chose a
naming scheme of "ares_xcz" with the plan that if multiple ARES® groups
were listed they would be shown together alphabetically. Then I used a
three letter county abbreviation. I created the main account,
for official ARES® activations and
alerts.
Next, choose a password. I would create a strong password that you
might share with just a few people in your group so they could post the
alert if you were unavailable. Board members or the club president
would be some examples of who you might grant posting access to.
Next, put in an e-mail address (your own, or a club email address) that
gets monitored regularly. Answer the other simple questions asked and
click the "Create my account" button. You can then customize your page
if you choose, add your organization logo, and write a description of
the group with a link to your website for more information.
To post a "Tweet" or an alert to your group, simply type the text in
the "What's happening?" box at the top and hit the "Tweet" button.
Remember, Tweets are limited to 140 characters so they are easy to read
on cellular phones via SMS, so keep it short. Your tweet is available
to anyone who looks at your Twitter account or uses the search feature.
A common method is to post the short alert message with a link to
additional information. For our group I also created a second Twitter
account for more general news and non-priority information like meeting
reminders and announcements:
Signing Up To Receive Twitter Alerts
For your group members to sign up to receive alerts is easy. From their
mobile phone they would simply create a new text message. In the "To"
field of the message is where you typically put the cellular phone
number of who you want to send the message to, but in this case,
Twitter's number is 40404, so place that in the "To" field of the
message.
In the message portion, simply write the word "follow" and the name of
the Twitter account for your organization. As an example, to follow all
alerts for the Santa Cruz California ARES® group, the message would be
"follow ares_xcz".
Send that message and Twitter will reply with a few very basic
instructions. The next time the organization posts a tweet, your phone
will receive a text message within seconds. If you ever want to turn
off these updates, simply send a text message of "leave ares_xcz" to
40404 and it will turn the notifications off.
There are a lot of other features of Twitter, and through the Web site
you can read the tweets online, search past tweets, locate additional
people, ham radio operators or organizations to follow, and more. If
you want to get started to see how some Amateur Radio operators are
using Twitter, check out http://hamtwits.com . -
Dan Dawson, KI6ESH [Dawson operates primarily on VHF/UHF voice around
Santa Cruz, California and also occasionally operates APRS while mobile
or flying private aircraft. He can be reached with questions or
corrections to this article on Twitter @KI6ESH or via http://ki6esh.com
.
[editor's note: ARRL HQ is also on Twitter! We have a Twitter page set
up for EmComm related posts. You can find us at
www.twitter.com/arrl_emcomm - Mike, W5MPC]
==> LETTERS
In re several points made by correspondents in the last issue, on the
subject of batteries for HTs, the number one thing we're told is to get
an AA battery case since AA batteries are available anywhere. You're
more likely to find AA batteries than a charger outlet for your NiMH
battery pack in an emergency, power-out situation. But the truth is:
There are times when you can get AA batteries but no charger outlet,
times when you can get a recharge but not AA batteries, times when you
can get either, and times when you can get neither.
Meanwhile, if AAA batteries are going to be in less demand in this
scenario, then an adapter to make AAAs fit your AA battery case would
be a good idea. There are some commercially available adapters, but an
inexpensive approach that you could even do in the field is available
here
.
On the subject of commodity communication infrastructure, you can't
count on being able to place a cell phone call in an emergency
situation. SMS can still work, though. It's hardly the most efficient
medium for emergency communication, but I can understand why it still
works: SMS uses what was initially unused bits in the handshake
protocol between cell phones and the network, so even if the network is
flooded to capacity with voice and data traffic, as long as the phones
can tell the network that they exist, they can send a text message.
This suggests that SMS may not be an altogether bad way to make initial
contact with your ARES® team.
On transportation, dogma seems to limit it to the emcomm truck, van or
trailer. Bicycles don't seem to be part of our plans, though, not even
for getting to fixed locations. I've gone bicycle mobile for parades,
and I've also seen bicycle mobile use in marathon event communications
systems. Just a thought. - Chris Bohn, N0RZT/4, Navarre, Florida
[editor's note: Here in Florida, we see many public safety officials
riding dirt bikeswith knobby tires, with hand-held radios on their
belts. Bicycle use could be good for ARES® operators, too - plus, it's
good exercise! - K1CE]
Easy-To-Use HTs
We need a national dialogue on what constitutes an easily usable
hand-held radio that can be handed to anyone in an emergency and
operated on the spot. All of the HTs that I own require that the
operator have the manual close by in order to be able to program them.
They are all different.
In a major disaster event, granted, many hams who have hand-helds know
how to use them and will be instantly successful in communicating. But
if you think about asking many other hams to get out in the field and
help, they may not know how to program their units, or borrowed units,
beyond the basics.
The KISS principle dictates that a simple hand-held for quick-study and
emergency use be marketed. The simplest HT I can remember using was the
Kenwood TH-22 radio with thumbwheel switches on the top (hard to knock
off frequency) and dip switches on the front to choose the PL tone.
Simple switches on the back selected offset and power levels. If an
operator was handed one, he/she would quickly be able to get it into
operation on frequency almost immediately.
I think you should start a dialogue in your newsletter about what we
need, and what models are already available that are simple to use. -
Bob Skaggs, KB5RX , Santa Fe, New Mexico
[editor's note: I reviewed the ICOM IC-V80 in the Product Review column
in March 2011 QST - it seemed to fill the bill as prescribed by Skaggs.
- K1CE]
==> NEW TO ARES®?
Here are some basic sources of good ARES® information:
The ARRL Public Service Communications Manual
(PSCM) is
the bible for ARES and NTS operators.
For field operators, check out the ARES Field Resources Manual
. It is a
quick trainer and field resource guide for the emergency communicator.
Find local ARES activity and organizations in your area here
.
==> THE 2011 NATIONAL HURRICANE CONFERENCE
As this E-Letter is getting ready to head out the virtual door Amateur
Radio is being well represented at the 2011 National Hurricane
Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
The ARRL is being represented by Southeast Division Director Greg
Sarratt, W4OZK, and ARRL HQ is being represented by Emergency
Preparedness Assistant Ken Bailey, K1FUG. There are presentations
planned on a variety of topics of interest to Amateur Radio.
Stay tuned for a full report in next month's ARES E-Letter.
==> K1CE FOR A FINAL
I dusted off an older editorial I wrote for QST a number of years ago,
and thought I would replay it now as it is still relevant, perhaps even
more so today. It also appears in the ARRL's Public Service
Communications Manual:
Meeting the communications needs of served agencies is a challenging,
and often daunting proposition in today's complex post-9/11
disaster/emergency relief arena. With the proliferation of emergency
relief organizations, increasingly sophisticated needs, all competing
for that scarce resource -- the volunteer -- coupled with the emergence
of other non-ARES® amateur providers, it's enough to make an operator's
head spin. As more of the population moves to disaster-prone areas, and
less government funding is available, more pressure is consequently
placed on agencies to appropriately use the volunteer sector for
support of their missions in disaster mitigation.
The League's formal relationships with served agencies are vitally
important and valuable to radio amateurs. They provide us with the
opportunity to contribute meaningfully to the relief of suffering among
our fellow human beings. Another substantial benefit not to be
overlooked is that the relationships lend legitimacy and credibility
for Amateur Radio's public service capability, and that is important
when it comes time to defend our frequencies and privileges before the
FCC and Congress. So, ARRL's relationships with the emergency/disaster
relief world need to be nurtured.
What to do? First, it is imperative that a detailed local operational
plan be developed with agency managers in the jurisdiction that set
forth precisely what each organization's expectations are during a
disaster operation. ARES® and agency officials must work jointly to
establish protocols for mutual trust and respect. Make sure they know
who the principle ARES® official is in the jurisdiction. All matters
involving recruitment and utilization of ARES® volunteers are directed
by him/her, in response to the needs assessed by the agency involved.
Make sure ARES® counterparts in these agencies are aware of ARES®
policies, capabilities and perhaps most importantly, resource
limitations. Let them know that ARES® may have other obligations to
fulfill with other agencies, too. Technical issues involving message
format, security of message transmission, disaster welfare inquiry
policies and others should be reviewed and expounded upon in the
detailed local operations plans.
Another challenge ARES® faces is the number of agencies that demand
communications support during a disaster. A local ARES® unit only has
so much to go around, and it can't possibly meet every
<<< concluded in next message >>>
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* Origin: The home of the Emergcom echo (1:116/901)
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