ARRL ARES News

[george mann]

The ARES E-Letter
November 29, 2007
================= 

Rick Palm, K1CE, Editor

<http://www.qrz.com/database?callsign=K1CE>,

===================================
ARES reports, other related contributions, editorial questions or
comments: <k1ce at arrl.net>;; 
===================================
In This Issue:

+ October 18 Tornado Responses
+ Winnebago County, Illinois ARES Supports 2007 Head of the Rock
Regatta
+ Ham Radio Operators Gear Up for Special Olympics Dress Rehearsal
+ Gwinnett County (GA) SET Supports Homeland Security
+ LETTERS: SETS of UFOs
+ LETTERS: SATERN's National Director Offers Background
+ LETTERS: Add Other Red Cross Training
+ LETTERS: Dura is Dead On!
+ LETTERS: AHA Leader in CPR/AEC/First Aid
+ LETTERS: SET on Weekdays Versus Weekends
+ WXSpots Fills the Gaps in Alabama Weather Event
+ LETTERS: REACT, Just REACT
+ LETTERS: CEM's Should Be Exempt from ARES Requirements
+ LETTERS: NIMS Five Year Plan Means ARES Needs ICS/NIMS
Certifications
+ National Fire Academy On-Line Training Available
+ K1CE For a Final

---------
+ October 18 Tornado Responses

On October 18, a strong low pressure system centered over Minnesota
touched off major thunderstorms throughout Michigan, Indiana,
Wisconsin, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and to the panhandle of
Florida. These storms produced about 35 tornados. In Wisconsin, SEC
and State RACES Officer William M. Niemuth, KB9ENO, reported "We
activated SKYWARN, but the one tornado to touch down was small and
short-lived." 

In Michigan, Ingham was the hardest hit, with ARES activating. Lapeer
ARES was also activated. Caro had a particularly interesting night:
ARES ops ran their SKYWARN net until after midnight, then shut down
and went to bed. A few minutes later a tornado touched down with the
damage being very localized. The ARES ops did not realize they had
been hit until morning. Tornado response information can be found on
the Michigan ARPSC Web site <http://arpsc.mi-nts.org>. -- John J.
McDonough, WB8RCR, SEC/State Radio Officer, Michigan

In Kentucky, SKYWARN was activated for the largest October tornado
outbreak ever seen in the region. Eight tornadoes spun across the
area. The strongest was an EF3 that destroyed homes in southeastern
Clark County, Indiana. Fortunately no lives were lost. Tornado
warnings were issued throughout the state, and SKYWARN activated a
net at the Louisville NWS using the call sign WX4NWS. Ten counties in
Kentucky were affected, with 50 ops activating. The KY4KY net handled
50 messages for the Louisville National Weather Service. - EC Stu
Kratz, WX4ME, <wx4me at msn.com>  

In Kentucky's District 3, four separate tornado tracks flew through
Daviess County. SKYWARN was activated there, with 18 participants.
The Henderson County ARES responded with communications support and
damage assessment after the EF3 tornado went through downtown
Owensboro. ARES provided communication between the Red Cross shelter
and the Red Cross headquarters in the days following the event. All
of the counties in the district communicated during the event via the
District's 145.330 MHz repeater in Owensboro to relay information to
each other as the storms passed through. -- Kevin Simmons, KI4JXN,
<simmonskm at owensboro.org>

In Mississippi, tornadoes touched down on the Mississippi State
Campus at Starkville. DEC Jason D Scallions, KD5FUO in Columbus,
Mississippi, reported ARES was activated. <kd5fuo at arrl.net>

In Pensacola, Florida, "several buildings were damaged, and power
failures were reported, but apparently there were no injuries,"
reported Northern Florida SM Rudy Hubbard, WA4PUP. "It was a matter
of minutes and the thing was over." ARES ops were standing by and
waiting for a call from the EOC. 

+ Winnebago County, Illinois ARES Supports 2007 Head of the Rock
Regatta

Rockford, Illinois - On Sunday, October 7, more than 1,700 rowers
from throughout the US gathered in Rockford, Illinois for the 22nd
annual Baird Head of the Rock Regatta sponsored by the YMCA of the
Rock River Valley's Rowing Club. Participants hailed from 60 rowing
clubs and universities, and they rowed 550 boats in 45 events. 

Sixteen ARES operators provided communication services for eight
hours for a total of 112 man-hours donated. Two repeaters were
employed: the 147.255 MHz N9MCS machine, and the 444.725 MHz WX9MCS
machine. 

The ARES ops handled over 200 messages for the YMCA of Rock River
Valley Rowing Club, US Rowing Association, Rockford Fire Department,
and the Winnebago County Sheriff's Dept. -- Thanks, John Cotner,
KC9IED, EC, Winnebago County, Illinois

+ Ham Radio Operators Gear Up for Special Olympics Dress Rehearsal

Boise, Idaho, November 9 -- Amateur Radio operators are gearing up to
provide support to the 2008 Special Olympics Invitational Games in
the Boise region, according to Brian Adams, W7CVS, Ada County EC, and
Chuck Robertson, KX7ID, Southwest Idaho DEC. The Invitational Games
are seen as the practice run for the full 2009 Special Olympics World
Winter Games in Boise. 

Michele Walker, event Senior Director of Communications, wrote, "The
diversity of the delegations participating in the (Invitational)
Games will allow the Games Organizing Committee to test operational
plans for the 2009 Games in such functional areas as competition
aspects and results distribution, language services, food and
beverage services, transportation, press operations and many more
critical functions that will be vital to the success of the 2009
Games." 

See also <http://www.2009worldgames.org> and
<http://www.idahoares.org>

+ Gwinnett County (Georgia) SET Supports Homeland Security

Gwinnett County (Georgia) ARES supported the county's Homeland
Security and Emergency Management agencies with backup communications
as part of their ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET) in October.
 
Two months earlier, Gwinnett ARES was placed on alert as one of the
county's trunked communication sites experienced an equipment
failure, impairing communications in an area of the county.
Afterwards, county Homeland Security and Emergency Management agency
officials asked ARES to use its SET exercise to simulate an outage of
the county's communications system and the use of ARES to provide
critical communications traffic to Fire and Police services.

The SET exercise began at 6 AM on October 6 with a call to activate.
Assignments to three critical locations with fixed stations at the
911 Center, Westside Police Precinct and Fire Station 11 followed.
The ARES Mobile Communications Trailer (MCT) was deployed and
activated at a staging area just outside the exercise area for
staging of personnel to move into positions during the exercise.  The
MCT also functioned as a cross-net communication point for the three
nets in service. Mobile communications was established in various
Police and Fire vehicles to provide service with the 911 Center and
the hub locations of the two emergency services.

Parallel traffic was sent from the 911 Center over normal county
communication systems and also given to ARES personnel operating in
the center for dispatch to evaluate accuracy and timing of
communications. Packet communications was successfully used as the
primary method of dispatching calls to the Fire and Police hub sites
to minimize voice traffic congestion on nets. During the exercise,
new ARES members who had not participated in an SET were paired with
experienced operators, where possible, to gain valuable experience
for future exercises.  The exercise concluded with a lunch debriefing
session for the valuable identification of exercise successes and
areas needed for improvement.
  
According to Greg Swanson, Gwinnett County Emergency Management
Coordinator, the exercise successfully demonstrated the ability of
Gwinnett ARES to provide critical backup communications in the event
of a failure or impairment of the county's primary radio
communications system. More info on the SET and Gwinnett ARES is
available at <http://www.gwinnettares.org>. -- John Davis, WB4QDX,
Emergency Coordinator, Gwinnett ARES, Georgia <wb4qdx at arrl.net>

+ LETTERS: SETS of UFOs

I did enjoy the comments [in the October issue] about the Simulated
Emergency Test (SET) that involved a UFO landing in Florida. Sandoval
County, New Mexico, ARES had the very same exercise on July 7 - 9 of
this year in remote northern Lincoln County, New Mexico, near the
original "Roswell" or "Corona Crash site." Several ARES/RACES members
were involved in the exercise, dubbed "N5C," which was also a special
event station. They recreated the "recovery of a spacecraft of
unknown origin from a remote location in northern Lincoln County
sixty years ago." Voice and digital (Winlink) modes were used for
communications. More information about this exercise is located at
the following: <http://w5bi.no-ip.org/> and <http://www.w9wsw.com/>
"Remember, this was only an exercise." -- Jay Miller, WA5WHN
<wa5whn at arrl.net> 

+ LETTERS: SATERN's National Director Offers Background

In re David Rust's letter in the last issue, the writer perhaps
doesn't know that ARES personnel, and particularly Rick Palm, K1CE,
have been strong supporters of the Salvation Army Team Emergency
Radio Network (SATERN) program. Rick has consistently highlighted the
work of SATERN over the years and is a friend of The Salvation Army.
He was the ARRL representative to NVOAD for many years and worked
closely with us.
 
One of the primary motives for starting SATERN was to engage ARRL and
ARES support for The Salvation Army. Over and over ARES has come to
the rescue of Salvation Army disaster response. When you see the
video, "Amateur Radio Today," you see ARES personnel on the field
helping Salvation Army canteens respond to Colorado wildfires. They
came to our rescue when we had no opportunity other than amateur
radio communications to determine the changing locations of our
canteens. The SA disaster director asked for help and ARRL
Headquarters helped secure their personnel in Colorado to help us.
 
In 1990 in Plainfield, Illinois, to name another tragedy in which
ARES personnel were involved, a horrific tornado caused 29 deaths and
200 million dollars worth of damage. The Salvation Army had 35
vehicles, four primary areas of operation and the support of 100
Salvation Army officers. ARES, working with SATERN, helped provide 64
amateur operators per day and specifically because of that, we had
communications with every mobile feeding vehicle, every Salvation
Army tactical leader and every principal SA operation during the 11
day feeding operation in that response. For nine days the
communication system ran 24 hours straight. We could not have done it
without the support of ARES. That operation helped explode the SATERN
operation in the Chicago area and we ended up with 211 SATERN members
after that, many of whom were ARES personnel.
 
SATERN depends on the ARRL, ARES and a number of other communication
entities in amateur radio to get the job done. I am proud to be an
ARES member and supporter of ARRL. 
 
We have thousands of SATERN people now in many places, a large
portion of them are ARES. Dave, I appreciate your early on zeal for
the SATERN program. You have done a great job starting up the
Missouri network for us. Please remember in the communication world
that we are all friends and depend on each other. When disaster hits,
we especially need all resources and all organizations to win the
day.
 
We highly regard ARES and ARRL, the role they play in the amateur
community, and the dynamic help they have been to The Salvation Army.
God bless you this day. -- Patrick E. McPherson, WW9E, Major,
National Director, SATERN <http://www.satern.org/>

+ LETTERS: Add Other Red Cross Training

In re the last issue's report on current ARES-recommended training,
along with "Introduction" (now called "Fulfilling Our Mission:
Translating Your Compassion Into Community Action") I would add the
following Red Cross classes: "Damage Assessment," "Shelter
Operations," "Mass Care Overview" and "Logistics."  Since most of the
traffic that we handle for Red Cross is for these functions, it would
be good for ARES operators to take these courses for better
understanding. 

Specifically, in our Chapter, the Capital Area in Tallahassee,
Florida, we send hams out with the Damage Assessment Teams so that
the info can be transmitted back to the Chapter via voice,
WinLink2000 or D-Star quickly so that we can develop our response
plan quicker. -- David Perryman, KG4YZI,
<http://www.hsmv.state.fl.us/data/othercomp.html>,
<Perryman.David at hsmv.state.fl.us>

+ LETTERS: Dura is Dead On!

I was thrilled to see K2DCD's comments in the last E-Letter. [Dennis
Dura, K2DCD, is ARRL HQ's national Emergency Response Planner.] 
 
It is good to see ARRL HQ express a vision that enables ham radio to
be used to its full potential. We are working closely with our county
emergency planners and served agencies, and have even had ham classes
for the last year that have brought in 120 professional emergency
service officials. I am excited to hear Dura's ideas, and am
gratified that they are so closely aligned with the work we have been
doing! Great news! -- Brian Short, KC0BS, JOCO ARES EC, Kansas

+ LETTERS: AHA Leader in CPR/AEC/First Aid

In the list of recommended classes in the last E-Letter, you fail to
note that other organizations offer CPR/AED/First Aid training that
is at least as good as what the American Red Cross offers. The
American Heart Association (AHA) is the real leader in CPR/AED. First
Aid is more of an ARC specialty.
 
Personally, I am an AHA and National Safety Council CPR/AED/First Aid
instructor, as well as an NREMT-B. I have also helped teach ARC
classes. Any of these can provide the amateur with the background
s/he needs to play his/her important role in the "Chain of Survival"
when someone suffers sudden illness or injury. None is really better
than the other -- though I strongly recommend buying the class
text/CD and using it as a personal refresher to keep your skills
sharp. -- David Coursey, N5FDL, NREMT-B EC, San Joaquin County ARES,
California, ARECC I/II/III [editor's note: As an RN, I re-certify in
Basic Life Support (BLS) and Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS)
every two years. These two courses are conducted by the American
Heart Association and they are excellent. - K1CE]

+ LETTERS: SET on Weekdays Versus Weekends

We had a very successful Simulated Emergency Test (SET) in Towns
County, Georgia, with all of the local emergency agencies (Sheriff,
EMS, 911, Fire, Haz-Mat Team) participating. However, our local
hospital (which did give us permission to erect a 2 meter antenna on
the roof with a feed line into a waiting room where our operators
established a portable transceiver) is a privately owned corporation,
and did not want to spend extra money to call in staff on a weekend
for a drill. We were only permitted to simulate a nurse meeting an
ambulance carrying two injured "terrorists" in the parking lot and
declaring them DOA, terminating our drill. 
 
The bottom line is that on weekends, even the emergency services
(Sheriff, EMS, etc.) have to call in personnel in order to
participate. Perhaps we could pick BOTH a weekday and a weekend to
maximize participation by the operators and the served agencies. --
Alton Higgins, W4VFZ, EC Towns County, Georgia <manmtn at brmemc.net>

+ WXSpots Fills the Gaps in Alabama Weather Event

In the last ARES E-Letter, I reported a new program called "WXSPOTS,"
which operates in a similar fashion to the DX Spotting software that
many hams use daily. This software allows amateur radio storm
spotters, SKYWARN groups, and others to post information about severe
weather and share it in a real time environment. It is a free
program, and has a user base of over 5,000 and is growing rapidly. 
 
On October 17, we received a callout from our served agency, the
National Weather Service office in Calera, Alabama, near Birmingham.
Along with other hams, my wife and I responded and reported for duty
at the amateur station there around 8 PM. We are both members of the
Alabama Emergency Response Team (ALERT), which mans the amateur
station at the NWS office, and coordinates reports received from
various local SKYWARN groups. 
 
Around 11 PM, one of the meteorologists on duty asked if we could
obtain information about a storm that had just passed through
Meridian, Mississippi and was currently approaching the Alabama
border. This area of the state is often a problem area for obtaining
"ground truth" reports from. Repeaters are not linked in this area,
and there are only a few amateurs there. I explained that this was
outside of our normal range, but did attempt to raise someone in West
Alabama using the statewide ARES HF net on 75 meters. 
 
After meeting with no success, I had an idea. I quickly downloaded
and ran the WXSPOTS software on a computer used at the NWS office for
our activities. I checked to see how many observers were on-line. I
spotted Steven Earnest, WV5D, who is the EC for Clarke County,
Mississippi, using the software at that late hour. 
 
Using the "chat" feature of the software, I sent a quick private
message to Steven asking for reports about the storm. While he was
almost 60 miles from the storm, he was able to relay reports from a
nearby repeater. He let us know about tree damage in nearby Moselle,
and the temporary closure of I-59 due to the fallen trees. We quickly
relayed that information to the staff at NWS, who were quite
impressed with our ability to deliver the information that they
needed. In the end, the event turned out to produce only rain in
Central Alabama, but using the software, we were able to demonstrate
amateur radio's capabilities to our served agency and meet their
needs. 
 
Even at that late hour, there were over 70 users logged into the WX
spotting software, including many in the Southeast. Using radios
alone, we simply would not have been able to provide the requested
information, but the combination of software, Internet access, and
local SKYWARN reports on a repeater in Mississippi provided a
valuable "piece of the puzzle" for our local meteorologists. 
 
I strongly encourage all hams interested in EMCOMM and SKYWARN to
download a copy of WXSpots and consider its use for their needs as
well. It can be obtained at: <http://www.wxspots.com> My sincere
thanks to Glen Davis, N3FJP for developing the software and offering
it freely to other amateurs. -- Les Rayburn, N1LF, Shelby County,
Alabama EC 

+ LETTERS: REACT, Just REACT

I noted in the last issue that you referred to "Radio Emergency
Associated Communications Teams."  When I was president of REACT
International, Inc., I did my best to stomp out that nomenclature,
but alas, I wasn't successful.
 
Our name is "REACT." Somewhere along the way, someone fitted the
"Radio Emergency Associated Communications Teams" to it, but "REACT"
isn't an acronym. Our name on our corporate charter is "REACT
International, Inc." -- no periods, no acronym. The REACT in all caps
is a trademark, by the way. -- Charles A (Chuck) Thompson, DCR 44,
KAD4253, N5IAG, Secretary/Treasurer, Dallas County (Texas) REACT,
Inc; General Counsel (and Past President), REACT International, Inc.

+ LETTERS: CEM's Should Be Exempt from ARES Requirements

Some hams are professionals in the field of Emergency
Management/Business Continuity. Of those, many hold the Certified
Emergency Manager (CEM) designation. I have just returned from the
2007 annual meeting of the International Association of Emergency
Managers (IAEM) where nearly 2,000 attended. <http://www.iaem.com>.
15 nations were represented. About 90 new CEMs were inducted.  About
half of those in attendance, including me, are active in the private
sector.
 
When it comes to qualifying ARES members in FEMA type training, I
believe ARRL will face resistance from professionals who have
attained the professional designation of Certified Emergency Manager
(CEM). I personally have no need to replicate FEMA courses, having
attended over 50 such courses. I am a certificated instructor for the
Standardized Emergency Management System (SEMS), a California
incident command system for over 10 years before it led FEMA into
adopting the comparable Incident Command System (ICS) and the
National Incident Management System (NIMS). As part of legislative
law in California, SEMS has been recognized by FEMA.
 
My suggestion is that you promulgate ARES rules and regulations in a
way that relieves individuals holding a CEM designation from having
to enroll in FEMA training or comparable ARRL training. In other
words, a CEM should be automatically pre-qualified for ARES with
respect to such training. -- Tom May, W6YXX, CEM, Independent
Consultant, Managing Partner, Disaster Prep Group
Auditors/Planners/Consultants Emergency Management/Business
Continuity
 
+ LETTERS: NIMS Five Year Plan Means ARES Needs ICS/NIMS
Certifications

For those amateurs who are still on the fence about the importance of
advanced training and ICS/NIMS requirements, the draft release of the
Five Year NIMS Training Plan makes for interesting reading. One point
that is made very clearly is that "access to future national
incidents will be restricted to those who have met the mandatory
requirements." Within the next few years, you simply won't be able to
obtain credentials for access without proof of completion of required
instruction. 
 
Also, having volunteers who have not completed ICS/NIMS training may
already be adversely affecting your served agencies ability to obtain
grant money. And, as one of my instructors pointed out to us, "The
Incident Command System wasn't developed by a bunch of egg-heads in
Washington. It was developed on the ground by wilderness firefighters
in California. It actually works!" 
 
ARES leadership also needs to get comfortable with resource typing,
and to start integrating that into their databases. We need to be
prepared to help our served agencies easily fit amateur radio into
their planning and funding requests, and the easiest way to do that
is to resource type our operators and equipment. The draft report is
at: <http://www.fema.gov/library/viewRecord.do?id=2962> -- Les
Rayburn, N1LF, Shelby County, Alabama EC 

+ National Fire Academy On-Line Training Available

Of interest to hams seeking to complete their ICS/NIMS requirements:
Emmitsburg, Maryland - The U.S. Fire Administration's National Fire
Academy announced the launch of a new web-based online training
system NFAOnline. NFAOnline provides an easy one-stop Web site where
fire and emergency services personnel, first responders, emergency
management personnel, and the general public will find free training
and education programs that they can complete at their own pace. 

"Now is the time for us to embrace the future and improve our
education through distance learning," said NFA Superintendent, Dr.
Denis Onieal. "NFAOnline provides another option to help further the
professionalism of the nation's fire and emergency services and
strengthen their ability to combat all hazard emergencies." 

NFAOnline provides a user-friendly, state-of-the art training system
with technical support and the ability for the student to immediately
print a certificate and transcript. The primary effort of NFAOnline
is to make available training and materials for the fire service,
particularly those unable to attend resident courses in Emmitsburg,
Maryland. 

There are currently several courses available in the new NFAOnline.
Additional courses are in development and will be added as they
become available. Course subjects include Community Safety Educators,
Fire Service Supervision, ICS 100 and ICS 200, Emergency Response to
Terrorism, and Emergency Medical Services. 

To enroll in NFAOnline, visit <http://www.nfaonline.dhs.gov/> and
browse the course catalog through the 'New Students' option. 
 
+ K1CE For A Final

The 9th annual SKYWARN Recognition Day special event will take place
Saturday, December 1. It is co-sponsored by the NWS and ARRL. During
this 24-hour event, amateurs visit their local NWS office and work as
a team to contact other hams around the world. See December QST's
Public Service column for more info.

Happy Holidays from the entire editorial/production staff here on the
ARES E-Letter corporate campus in sunny Flagler county, Florida,
where hurricane season officially draws to a close in just a week --
YES!

======================================================================
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; <http://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). 

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must be given to The ARES E-Letter and The American Radio Relay
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Editorial questions or comments: Rick Palm, K1CE, k1ce at arrl.net
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