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 Previous: The Amateur Radio Crossword Puzzler |  Next: My Rover Station |
 Connecticut SEC Chuck Rexroad, AB1CR. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Apr 4, 2005--There's been an explosion in New London! The drill is on! The drill is on! Those words via a VHF tactical net shortly before 1:30 PM local time April 4 alerted Connecticut Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers that TOPOFF 3 was under way there. Connecticut ARRL Section officials and ARES members have been preparing for the congressionally mandated exercise for about a year. The TOPOFF 3 scenario depicts a complex terrorist campaign that began earlier in the day in New Jersey--the other state serving at a TOPOFF3 site--with an apparent biological attack and eventually expands to an international scale. Some 150 ARES members from Connecticut and other states in the Northeast are on hand to support the American Red Cross, which has the main responsibility for mass care under the National Disaster Plan. ARRL Connecticut Section Emergency Coordinator Chuck Rexroad, AB1CR, says part of the drill is to expect the unexpected.
"Anything can happen," said Rexroad, who--along with ARRL Connecticut Section Manager Betsey Doane, K1EIC--was among those staffing an ARES marshaling or staging area at the Chesterfield Fire Station, not far from New London. "They have what they call 'red cards' that can inject something unexpected into the drill," Rexroad continued. "They could tell us this building just went away that we're sitting in, and all the equipment is gone. We'd have to go somewhere else and start over."
Doane explained that such surprises may involve personnel as well. "Somebody might come up to one of us and say, 'You just broke your leg,' and we have to react to that."
 This is a drill! Connecticut SM Betsey Doane, K1EIC, handles traffic from the ARES tactical net. |
Something unanticipated really did happen as activity was ramping up. With the Connecticut phase of the drill set to start in about an hour, a crucial VHF repeater went down. A backup soon was on its way to the site. Rexroad says a lot of redundancy was built in during the planning stages.
"Every piece of equipment has at least one backup, and most of them have two, because a lot of the equipment here is somewhat optional," Rexroad explained. The volunteers at the staging area had set up equipment for HF through UHF and included provisions for packet and APRS. Volunteers provided their own mobile transceivers and antennas for deployment to provide communication for Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs).
In addition to outfitting Red Cross ERVs with communications gear, volunteers are staffing fixed or temporary sites or shadowing Red Cross officials. ARES also will be ready to provide back-up communication support the Connecticut Office of Emergency Management, he said.
Rexroad says extensive training--including the ARRL Amateur Radio Emergency Communications courses--in the months and weeks leading up to TOPOFF3 has already paid off. "The Level 1 training is especially helpful, because it gives everyone a common base to work from," he said.
 Chris Poss, KB1FUO, explains the APRS setup to Emil Soderberg, KB1KMW, a staging area volunteer. |
Doane agreed. "I have seen people take the Level 1 course who were very experienced in communications National Traffic System (NTS), and they still learned something," she said. "Everyone is going to use their skills. I don't often go out on an ARES event--I've been an NTS operator for years--and this has been a wonderful opportunity to apply what I learned." The Connecticut Section also conducted its own extensive training for TOPOFF3, in part so volunteers would be familiar with the national incident management system and incident command system the drill and many served agencies now employ. Several ARRL Headquarters staffers are among the ARES volunteers taking part in TOPOFF3 support for the Red Cross.
Sponsored by the US Department of Homeland Security and intended as a realistic test of the nation's homeland security system, TOPOFF3's goal is to push the system of first responders beyond their limits. Doane pointed out that participants don't have all the details. "It's like an emergency, but it's unlike an emergency," she said, "because we have to plan, because we're being evaluated on this drill."
 Connecticut ARES Area 5 District Emergency Coordinator Dave Hyatt, K1DAV, has fresh information for volunteers Roddy McComber, KA1BSS (left), and Lee Schuett, KB1ETR. |
Rexroad says ARES doesn't know who the evaluators are. "They could be sitting out there with scanners right now," he said. "We don't know for sure."
He and Doane note that one of the conclusions from TOPOFF2--the last major exercise of this type--was that Amateur Radio should have been utilized after communications circuits had became saturated. "So this time, the Department of Homeland Security is looking at Amateur Radio and how we operate and how effective we are."
 Click here to see a video clip of Connecticut SEC Chuck Rexroad, AB1CR, at the start of the TOPOFF 3 exercise." |
A participant in the post-September 11, 2001, response at the Pentagon, Rexroad said cellular telephones and other conventional communication systems broke down there for about one week, and Amateur Radio proved to be the sole means to support The Salvation Army's on-site communications.
Rexroad and his crew at the staging site installed an HF dipole, and ARES plans to employ NTS HF circuits to send traffic to national Red Cross officials as well as to other ARRL Field Organization Personnel.
By late Monday, several hours into the drill, Rexroad reported that some 45 ARES volunteers had been deployed to the field to support the Red Cross. "We are their only communications," he noted.
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