ARES Letter for June 21, 2006
The ARES E-Letter June 21, 2006 ================= Rick Palm, K1CE, Editor <http://www.qrz.com/database?callsign=K1CE>, <http://www.iaru-r2emcor.net/> =================================== ARES reports, other related contributions, editorial questions or comments: <k1ce@arrl.net>;; =================================== + THE VIEW FROM FLAGLER COUNTY Looking out the back window as this is written, it's pounding rain and the trees are whipping from winds of the outer bands of Tropical Storm (and potential hurricane) Alberto. I've just answered an e-mail from our county ARES reflector about possible deployments. And I'm checked into the Northern Florida ARES Net on 3950 kHz, listening to the State EOC's John Fleming, WD4FFX, inform the net of storm preparations. Here we go: Another tropical weather season underway, and the hair starts to rise on the back of the neck. NOAA predicts an 80% chance of an above-normal 2006 north Atlantic hurricane/tropical storm season: 13 to 16 named storms, with eight to 10 becoming hurricanes, of which four to six could become 'major' hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher," says NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher. The first named storm of the 2006 season is this one, "Alberto." The name "Katrina" has been removed from the list of storm names. ========================================= IN THIS ISSUE: + MAY ARES REPORTS + RED CROSS DISASTER ASSESSMENT TRAINING IN MASSACHUSETTS + HOSPITAL DISASTER SUPPORT COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM SERVES, DRILLS + WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA QUARTERLY ARES EC MEETING HELD AT EOC + SECOND GLOBAL AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE SET + VIRGINA ARES GROUP'S "PROJECT WHERE?" + RESOURCE: COMMUNICATIONS ACADEMY SERVES NORTHWEST EMCOMMS + NEW ONLINE TRAINING COURSE ON RESOURCE MANAGEMENT + LETTERS: ON RED CROSS PAYING HAMS + LETTERS: TITLES CONTEST AFTERMATH + LETTERS: HTs, BUT NO HELMETS + LETTERS: RESOURCE TYPING + RESPONSE: ARECC COURSES + LETTERS: HAMS AS CONSULTANTS + K1CE FOR A FINAL =========================================== + MAY ARES REPORTS * Ridgecrest, California - A small city in the high desert, Ridgecrest endured a recent series of electrical failures, one of which lasted over eight hours. East Kern County ARES/RACES provided critically needed communications support when a major substation serving the valley went down. As soon as the event was officially declared a disaster, 34 responded and were quickly assigned to the EOC, the local hospital, and ambulance service, and other areas around the valley. ARES hams kept up an information network, especially appreciated by the Police Chief and the administrators of the hospital who were able to change plans as needed utilizing immediate and accurate information so vital during an emergency. Although the local police officers all had department issued cell phones, they quickly became useless as circuits became overloaded. EC/RO Jerry Brooks, KK6PA, commented that he "was pleased at how many hams responded and how well they synchronized with emergency services." -- Judith Rogow, N7TTH * Staten Island, New York - ARES participated May 21 in an American Red Cross drill dubbed "The Staten Island Storm Rehearsal," designed to prepare volunteers by providing a hands-on experience in emergency shelter operations. "ARES is relied upon by our clients, like the Red Cross, to be able to quickly, adequately and professionally set up and run a portable communications system to help those affected by a disaster," said ARRL New York City DEC Mike Lisenco, N2YBB. During the "blackout" scenario, ten ARES operators on battery power maintained communication with the Red Cross EOC in Manhattan. * New England -- ARES volunteers provided communications in a major flooding emergency. On May 18-19, the Massachusetts Bay Red Cross Chapter requested Amateur Radio communication support for damage assessment, and on May 20, the northeast Massachusetts Red Cross Chapter requested ARES support for vehicle-to-vehicle communication to help facilitate distribution of clean-up and care kits to coastal communities north of Boston. Severe weather occurred May 21. Eastern Massachusetts SEC Rob Macedo, KD1CY: "The incident happened so quickly, we self-activated our nets and fed reports of damaging winds and large hail via the spotter line and the Web." Waterspouts were reported off Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and a tornado was reported in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire. Four injuries were reported in the NWS Taunton warning area. * East Central Florida -- On May 9, four Seminole county ARES/RACES members went with fire personnel to Volusia county to support forest fire fighting at New Smyrna Beach. A Division of Forestry trailer was used and is equipped with a 100 foot crank-up tower, VHF repeater and 64 hand held radios. -- Dick Fess, K4FUY, EC Seminole county ARES/RACES + RED CROSS DISASTER ASSESSMENT TRAINING IN MASSACHUSETTS Red Cross' Central Massachusetts Chapter recently provided training in "Preliminary Disaster Assessment" to Worcester Emergency Communications Team (WECT) amateurs, managed by Mark Rubin, WB1ARZ. Hams were trained to assist the Red Cross in the earliest stages of disaster response, including how to recognize and report observations of the scope of a disaster and factors affecting disaster relief delivery. Examples of the observations requested include the geographic boundaries of the affected area, numbers of dwellings impacted, demographics of the populations affected, status of utilities and roads, and other factors affecting service delivery. By providing spot reports of these data to the Red Cross Chapter, the hams can play a role in expediting disaster relief. The training was presented by Monty Plough, KB1HXZ, and Tom Carrigan, NE1R, both of whom are active with Red Cross Disaster Services, and was well attended by hams from the Central Massachusetts area and Emergency Management officials. -- Tom Carrigan, NE1R + HOSPITAL DISASTER SUPPORT COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM SERVES, DRILLS Orange County, California - On May 10, eight HDCSC members worked at the St. Joseph Hospital in Orange to provide back up communication during major phone work. To have good communications with the hams inside the hospital and maintain communications with the base station, one member put his car on the roof of the parking structure, erected a "big stick" antenna, dropped coax over the side to the security office and hooked up to his radio. With phones going down throughout the work and at times all phones being down, the operators were kept busy. There were "stat pages" called down to the PBX and numerous contacts between ICU, ED and the lab and pharmacy. Before the night was over, HDSCS communicators also assisted in calling a "Code Blue" from the CCU and facilitating a report from a Children's Hospital unit to the OR when a sick baby needed emergency surgery. The next morning the operators were up participating in a twelve hospital earthquake drill. HDSCS simulated a "Core Team" response, which is an automatic response to check on hospitals and go to the county EOC. Some hospitals simulated evacuations of their command post locations necessitating, once again, the need for HDSCS operators' portability and flexibility. The drill lasted for three hours. Twenty-three HDSCS members participated in this daytime drill. More activity on the horizon: HDSCS will be operating Field Day at the Huntington Beach Hospital. -- April Moell, WA6OPS, EC, Hospital Disaster Support Communications System <emcom4hosp@aol.com>; and <www.hdscs.org> + WEST CENTRAL FLORIDA QUARTERLY ARES EC MEETING HELD AT EOC The ARRL West Central Florida Section Quarterly ARES Emergency Coordinators meeting was held June 10, at the Charlotte County EOC. ARES ECs, AECs, and OESs were encouraged to attend. The WCF Section leadership began a policy of holding rotating quarterly ARES EC meetings at the EOCs of the ten counties. This was done to promote interoperability among the ARES programs in the individual counties and to promote closer ties between these programs and their respective Emergency Management agencies. The Section is a leader in Florida in accomplishing having all counties achieve a combined ARES/RACES or ACS organization and in having interested emergency management directors attend the quarterly ARES EC meetings. Of the meetings held to date, four county emergency management directors have attended and expressed their support for using Amateur Radio as part of their county's ESF-2 backup/auxiliary communications plans. All counties in the ARRL West Central Florida Section are now staffed with a single ARES/RACES or ACS leader of a unified ARES/RACES or ACS organization that has a working relationship with their county's emergency management agency. --Gary Sessums, KC5QCN, EC/RO Hillsborough County ARES/RACES + SECOND GLOBAL AMATEUR RADIO EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE SET ARRL First Vice President Kay Craigie, N3KN, will represent the League at the second Global Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (GAREC) Conference. GAREC 2006 is taking place now, June 19-20, in Tampere, Finland, in parallel with the International Conference on Emergency Communications (ICEC 2006). "Many new experiences resulted from dramatic events over the past 12 months, new lessons have been learned, and new concepts have been developed," said IARU International Coordinator for Emergency Communications Hans Zimmermann, F5VKP/HB9AQS. Continuing the work begun during GAREC 2005, this year's conference will consider the latest developments in the application of Amateur Radio to emergency communication and cooperation with institutional partners in emergency response and disaster relief. It will also review progress made on concepts developed during last year's conference and formulate additional proposals. Zimmerman noted that the concurrent ICEC 2006 will review the application and implementation of the Tampere Convention on the Provision of Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations. "Holding the two events at the same time in the same location allows us to give high visibility to the important role of Amateur Radio in emergency communications," he said. [Readers can learn more about the Tampere Convention and Amateur Radio emergency communication capabilities in other Region 2 countries: <http://www.iaru-r2emcor.net/> -- ed.] + VIRGINA ARES GROUP'S "PROJECT WHERE?" Under the leadership of "cool EC" Alan Bosch, KO4ALA, the Arlington, Virginia ARES collected the latitude and longitude of local shelter locations during shelter communications checks. Coordinates were badly needed by hams responding to Hurricane Katrina. James Olson, W4JO, wrote: "Most useful equipment that I wish I had brought was a GPS receiver with detailed mapping display. With road signs missing, the GPS could find your way. This would also be especially helpful if the Red Cross were to give us the GPS coordinates of the shelters that we were heading out to serve." Bosch has now started "Project Where?" to collect the coordinates of other locations including hospitals, and nursing homes, and then exchanging this information with other local ARES groups. To get the coordinates for the local Red Cross chapter, school, shelter, Salvation Army unit, and others, search the name in the Geographical Names Information System (GNIS) database: <http://geonames.usgs.gov/>. To find the coordinates of the Red Cross chapter, for example, go to the geonames homepage, select "Domestic Names," then select "search GNIS" and enter "Red Cross" into the GNIS database as the "feature name." Next enter the name of the state and county. The database will return the appropriate coordinates along with the elevation of that feature and the name of the USGS 1:24,000 topographic map for that location. -- Jim Hastings, K9AUC <k9auc@arrl.net>; + RESOURCE: COMMUNICATIONS ACADEMY SERVES NORTHWEST EMCOMMS Communications Academy is a non-profit coalition of volunteer communications teams providing training to the Pacific Northwest. By providing a once-a-year large-scale venue for training, volunteer communicators learn emergency management, communications techniques and protocols, real-life emergency responses, and other related subjects. The Communications Academy is open to anyone with an interest in emergency communications, volunteer or professional. The presentations are designed to promote the development of knowledgeable, skilled emergency communicators who will support their local communities during a disaster or emergency response. Readers can get handouts and information at its Web site: <http://www.commacademy.org/2006/handouts.php> -- Communications Academy + NEW ONLINE TRAINING COURSE ON RESOURCE MANAGEMENT FEMA's NIMS Integration Center and Emergency Management Institute have made available new online, interactive Web-based training that will help incident managers establish NIMS-related systems that will help them get the resources they need to respond to an emergency or disaster. Resource management is an ongoing process that establishes systems to describe, inventory, request and track resources. The systems are used during deployment or recall of resources in connection with an incident. Resource management is a key component of the National Incident Management System (NIMS), which standardizes the procedures and functions involved in the resource management process. The course is called IS-703 NIMS Resource Management and demonstrates how resources, such as personnel, teams, facilities, equipment and supplies, are managed through advance planning, resource identification and ordering, categorizing resources, use of agreements, acquisition management, management information systems, and protocols for ordering, mobilizing and dispatching. To take the course on-line go to <http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is703.asp> + LETTERS: ON RED CROSS PAYING HAMS I first became interested in setting up a communications systems in Towns County, Georgia, in response to an ad run by the Red Cross, seeking ham operators to set up an emergency communications network. I was the only responder. As a result, thanks to much equipment donated by other hams and a lot of hard work put in by local hams, we now have three fixed stations with 2 meter capability, and soon two will also have HF capability. Some of these hams were already Red Cross members. The local Red Cross is doing great things to provide aid and comfort during fires, highway accidents, and other disasters, and on a very limited budget. So far, no ham (or Red Cross Volunteer) has complained about not being compensated for time and expenses. When you have a funds-strapped Red Cross that is as active as ours, and hams who are willing to give their time and donate equipment to the cause of public service, I think asking for monetary compensation is totally NOT in the radio amateur's code! -- Alton Higgins, W4VFZ, Towns County EC for Red Cross, RACES and ARES <manmtn@brmemc.net>;; + LETTERS: TITLES CONTEST AFTERMATH If it weren't for the people who listed their titles, classes, and certifications in the contest, I wouldn't have known what others were doing. They serve as fine examples of what others could do, too. -- Matt Cassarino, WV1K, Brewster, Massachusetts + LETTERS: HTs, BUT NO HELMETS Brevard County, Florida -- During a recent county disaster drill, responders were expected to arrive on the scene ready for deployment. Fire responders showed up in full fire gear, Police in full police gear, CERT members with appropriate gear including helmet, orange safety vest, long pants, shirt, heavy shoes, gloves, face mask, flashlight, as well as HT, and necessary tools. Our ARES members showed up only with their HT, with some in shorts, sandals, no head gear nor uniform/identification of any kind. ARES responders need to meet the same equipment standards as Fire, Police and CERT personnel. Had ARES members attending our mock drill arrived and reported for an actual event, they wouldn't have been deemed prepared and likely would be sent to NIMS-IC "camp" for training. ARES/ARRL needs to develop gear standards. ARES personnel need to arrive on the emergency site ready to be deployed. Prepared for deployment means ARES members having more than the clothing on their backs and an HT (with only one set of batteries) in their hand!-- Lyle Schultz, KI4MYT, <ki4myt@cfl.rr.com>; Titusville, Florida + LETTERS: RESOURCE TYPING As a coordinator of public service events and a RACES/ARES appointee, I assign amateurs to positions at these events. It became a frustrating task due to the lack of knowledge of the amateurs' complement of equipment and capabilities. Having been exposed to the ICS system and working with the local emergency management office I considered resource typing. Today I use the resource typing document in capturing capabilities of amateurs signing up for duty for public events as well as RACES/ARES activities. It is available for viewing at <http://home.comcast.net/~jrgalvin2/resourcetypeC.pdf>. It's easy to use. If you need five event shadow operators for example, then you ask for five Type S operators. It might be a good model for others. -- John Galvin, N5TIM <jrgalvin2@gmail.com>; + RESPONSE: ARECC COURSES The observations of the Crepeaus [May issue] in Katrina and Wilma are worthy of much consideration, as they are born out of direct experience in those disasters. With regard to their opinion that the ARRL ARECC courses should be required, the courses should first be updated to be NIMS compliant. Part of this effort includes making message forms and standards using plain language, replacing the codes and jargon. All the ARRL courses should be updated before we consider mandating them for ARES membership. If they are going to be required, they should also be online as are the required FEMA courses, and cost the same as the FEMA courses in that format. Of course, if one wishes to buy the services of the current Web site ARRL utilizes in order to take the course and be mentored, they should expect to pay for it. Similarly, if they wish to purchase a hard copy of the course materials from ARRL, they should expect to pay for it, since it costs to print. But having a PDF file of the course materials and questions, such as FEMA does, available free on-line is a low cost, low maintenance proposition. Taking the test, once materials are learned from the downloaded PDFs, from an appropriate VE at the current cost would then be a low-cost alternative to make it easier for hams to complete any ARECC course. -- Bill Farnham, KI4FZT, EC Roane County, Tennessee + LETTERS: HAMS AS CONSULTANTS When it comes to placing amateur equipment in EOCs, I have had to become a "consultant" to architecture firms as well as electricians, cable pullers and others that don't know what our gear looks like, what it needs, or how much space it takes up. This, of course, is a good thing because it means that we are being taken seriously enough that we merit space in places that are, in many cases, already so pressed for space that the Chief Executive is sitting on the lap of some other functionary (metaphorically speaking, of course) but it also means that we have to be able to provide this information. I am setting up a "workspace" and taking pictures of it so that I have something to show the contractors when they ask "what do you need?" I already had a worksheet with pieces and prices that I can e-mail and this is the next logical step. I am curious if anyone else is in this "business" yet? I am also curious if we can get the drawings from the manufacturers or vendors. -- David A. Lane, KG4GIY, EC/RO Prince William County, Virgina <http://www.qsl.net/pwcares/> + LETTERS: WRITE PROPERLY We have all seen e-mails to media, business and government officials, in which words are spelled incorrectly, there is a lack of subject-verb agreement, lack of apostrophes to indicate possession, improper capitalization, improper punctuation, not dividing into paragraphs, etc. I know this may sound like "word smithing," but come on ladies and gentlemen. This is ninth grade English. Every e-mail program I know of has a spell-checker. Another alternative is to type the message in a word-processing program, and use the grammar and spell checker there to correct the e-mail. And there are always dictionaries. When we write like a third-grader, we will be perceived as a third-grader and our ideas received on that level. So, think of writing a personal letter or e-mail to your boss or someone you want to impress. Take some time to write properly. And when you are invited to that next meeting, as a result of well written correspondence, dress appropriately. -- Jimmy Bishop, W4CYF + K1CE FOR A FINAL As it turned out, Tropical Storm Alberto spun out of strength and departed the scene rather more quietly than expected. That is good. It did cause Florida ARES leaders to look even harder at preparedness, and we now have a meeting scheduled for next week in Tallahassee at the State EOC. I'll tell you about it in the next issue. In response to last month's "Final," a number of readers pointed out the detractions of satellites as platforms for Amateur Radio emcomms. Their points are certainly valid, but I still feel that a good long range goal would be a satellite, or at least a satellite channel, available to amateurs for use in meeting incident needs as another arrow in our quiver of capabilities. Like the stock market, it's good to diversify. See you next month if the ARES E-Letter Corporate Office Suite Complex on its main campus here in Flagler county is still standing. - Rick, K1CE
