Monthly Section News Summaries
Monthly Summary for September 2009
The air has gotten colder and the trees are changing color. It's a beautiful
time of year, but it's time to think about getting ready for winter and the
kinds of communications emergencies that we may need to cover. I asked our
Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC), Jon Morris, KAØJGG, to write something
for this status report. Jon chose to write the first in a series of
discussions on improving emergency communications. I will be asking each of
the Assistant Section Managers to provide a paragraph or two for future
issues.
Before I insert Jon's comments, let me comment on a very thoughtful note I
received from Ken Lemke, ACØDQ. Ken is an Assistant Emergency Coordinator for
Sarpy County. Ken raised concerns about relying on D-Star for a statewide
network. He raised several issues that need to be addressed. But the
particular thing I want to mention is that Ken apologized for taking a
critical view. I won't accept the apology. Rather, I thank Ken for taking the
time to make his views known. The system we are putting together needs to be
accepted to be effective. Our plan does have potential flaws, and we will
need to deal with them, overcome them, or find a better solution. Jon and I
will talk about the system, provide more information on the motivation and
concept, and address issues such as those raised by Ken in a future report.
If you have ideas, concerns, new concepts, please let us know!
Jon, Nebraska SEC, has taken "emergency plans" as one of his priorities. Here
is installment one. It is intended for Emergency Coordinators, Assistant
Emergency Coordinators, and for every ham who is in ARES or RACES. We each
need to aware of these plans and how effective and correct they are. Do you
know where your Emergency Plans is?
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An emergency communications plan is designed to provide a means to set a chain
of events in motion. Experience tells us that every plan is only as strong as
the weakest link in that chain. Is that weak link in your communications
plan? We will be looking at how to identify weak points and test those plans
in the next few months. Here are some common problems:
*Failure to adequately test the plan. A functional exercise is a fully
simulated interactive exercise that evaluates the capability of an
organization to respond to a simulated event. This type of exercise strives
for realism, short of actual deployment of equipment and personnel (FEMA
IS-139, Exercise Design). Functional Exercises focus on policies, procedures,
roles and responsibilities. This is part of the exercise design process. The
functional exercise occurs after table top exercise and before a full scale
field exercise.
*Failure to communicate. How is your organization alerted to an emergency?
Landline? Cellular Phone? Pager? Email or instant message? Whatever the means
used, will it be available under all emergency situations? In most cases even
if the chosen means survives, how effective it will but under the stress of
heavy communications overload common in most emergency situations.
*No means to communicate. What if no commercial communications infrastructure
is available? Does your plan provide for a net activation for the limited
purpose of passing information from the group’s leadership to its members
under catastrophic conditions? Are there people who are designated to go to
preplanned positions where they can contact a competent authority? They can
relay requests or tasking from that authority to the group leadership for
task assignments.
Next time we will talk about how to fix some of these issues. Critically look
at your local plan and start checking for some of these problems. To assist
you in looking at exercise design concepts, check out this free FEMA course.
There are many more independent study courses that at this site, if you want
recommendations from list on what may apply to your situation, please feel
free to contact me. http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS/is139lst.asp
Jon Morris, KAØJGG, jclarkmorris@gmail.com
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Until next month, 73,
Art Zygielbaum, KØAIZ, ARRL Nebraska Section Manager
Section Traffic Manager and Section Emergency Coordinator
Net Reports – September 2009
Nebraska 40 Meter Net
Sessions 25, QNI 147, QTC 1
Reported by KWØR
Nebraska Cornhusker Net
Sessions 29, QNI 401, QTC 7
Reported by KØCWW
Nebraska CW Traffic Net
Sessions 21, QNI 121, QTC 4
Reported by WAØASM
Nebraska Morning Phone Net
Sessions 30, QNI 1622, QTC 21
Reported by KAØDOC
Nebraska Storm Net
Sessions 30, QNI 1392, QTC 15
Reported by WYØF
West Nebraska Net
Sessions 26, QNI 1294, QTC 55
Reported by KØRRL
Dodge County ARES
Sessions 5, QNI 35, QTC 1
Reported by KCØKKE
Douglas County ARES
Sessions 4, QNI 153, QTC 0
Reported by W9HZC
Mid Nebraska ARES 2-Meter Net
Sessions 12, QNI 133, QTC 1
Reported by KCØMWM
NPPARC
Sessions 4, QNI 31, QTC 0
Reported by WØDED
Platte Valley 2-Meter Net
Sessions 4, QN 54, QTC 1
Traffic Totals: K0PTK: September 120
Public Service Honor Roll
KAØDBK 117 points
KBØYTM 24 points
Page last modified: 11:56 PM, 17 Nov 2009 ET
Page author: k0aiz@arrl.org
Copyright © 2009, American Radio Relay League, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
