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