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A FEMA Multi-Regional Communications Exercise was conducted on July 9 with ARES and other entities involved.
Unlike most exercises, this test did not allow for planning ahead of time.
Rather, the exercise provided a realistic timeframe for a sudden earthquake event.
In addition to SHARES Winlink, which provided agency-to-agency communications, Winlink over amateur radio showed that situational awareness “ground truths” can be readily obtained within an approximate 1,000-mile radius of the earthquake epicenter in Tennessee.
Such information is critical to those who must prioritize response and recovery resources.
Radio amateurs filled out Winlink-provided Field Situational Awareness Report forms from the Winlink Express Template library, and sent them via telnet or radio.
This was a multi-Regional FEMA Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG) driven exercise, which covered many communications systems including the Winlink Hybrid Radio Email Network System for both CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) SHARES (Shared Resources HF Radio Program) and amateur radio. In this exercise, the assignment was to provide a situational awareness report based on the information contained in the scenario, which depended on location.
In addition to the Winlink portion of this exercise other systems were tested:
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The FEMA National Radio System (FNARS), a nationwide HF radio network used by the agency for backup communications during emergencies.
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Starlink, MSAT, G2 SatComm, Iridium SatPhone (involved states).
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Linking of statewide P-25 public safety trunking systems between involved states.
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The National Warning System (NAWAS), an automated telephone system used to convey warnings for federal, state and local governments, for military and civilian population.
September is National Preparedness Month. This is a nationwide effort to encourage everyone to take steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, workplaces, schools and communities. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security works with a wide variety of organizations to highlight the importance of emergency preparedness and to promote individual involvement through events and activities across the nation. This year's ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (and all preparations for it) is a demonstration of amateur radio's readiness. More information on National Preparedness Month.
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Amateur Radio Volunteers Serving During Texas Floods |
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ARES operators were embedded with local served agencies in the areas of central Texas affected by devastating floods.
The needs and assignments have been changing, but ARES volunteers were stepping up to the dynamic needs of their communities.
“This is a very fluid situation.
It changes by the hour,” said ARRL South Texas Section District 7 Emergency Coordinator Terry Jones, K5LGV.
The operators were activated on Friday, July 4. Radio amateurs provided communications capabilities to agencies whose primary systems were damaged in the flooding event or where they suffer poor connectivity due to the terrain.
ARES members helped the American Red Cross with setup of a reunification shelter in response to the floods.
Ten hams were assigned to search-and-rescue teams.
Dozens of health and welfare messages were passed by ham radio operators who provided a critical link when phone lines were overwhelmed.
“A lot of this is tied to circuit overload preventing folks from making direct contact with family members in the area,” said Kevin McCoy, KF5FUZ. During the floods and subsequent search and recovery missions, ARES members have been deployed to serve many different counties, including hard-hit Kerr and Kendall Counties.
Mutual aid has been offered between several surrounding ARRL Sections.
—ARRL News Desk
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ARRL Simulated Emergency Test on the Horizon: Start Planning Now |
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ARRL’s Simulated Emergency Test (SET) is October 4-5, 2025. This nationwide exercise is the chance to test your personal emergency operating skills and the readiness of your communications equipment and accessories in a simulated emergency-like deployment. ARRL Field Organization leaders at the Section and local levels, and many other volunteers who are active in public service and emergency communications, are developing emergency-like scenarios in consultation with a variety of agencies and organizations for whom radio amateurs are known to provide service during emergencies.
ARES, National Traffic System (NTS), Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES), SKYWARN, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN), other allied groups, and public-service oriented radio amateurs are among those who are eligible to participate in the exercise and to practice emergency operation plans, nets and procedures.
For this year’s test, there will be bonus points for cooperation with Army MARS stations and sharing information between MARS and amateur radio stations.
Establishing Relationships
The ARRL has longstanding formal relationships with several national entities including the American Red Cross, the National Weather Service, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Salvation Army (among several others). Read more information on these agencies. Let this year’s ARRL Simulated Emergency Test be a chance to reach out to these partners to establish or review plans and develop working relationships.
Appoint a Safety Officer as Part of ARES Team
One of the often over looked aspects of ARES groups and responses is safety. See the ARRL Safety Officer Checklist
[PDF]. But running a checklist alone is inadequate.
Having been involved with safety professionally in the United States Air Force and in the offshore oil industry, I have experienced what good safety discipline can accomplish and the results when it fails.
Safety comes ahead of points.
Watching for and mitigating hazards must occur for the entire event—setup, operating, teardown.
Why do so few pictures show personal protective equipment (PPE) in use? Where are the hard hats, gloves, fire extinguishers, and safety officer with his or her checklist?
The typical rationalization is “all that is a waste of time,” “it’s quicker to ignore what might happen,” and “nothing happened last year.” I always return to the 4 Ps of safety: people, places, personal protective equipment (PPE), and personal accountability.
What do they mean?
Safety is everyone’s responsibility, regardless of our roles.
Everyone needs a safety briefing, in general, and for specific tasks, such as raising a tower.
One person ignoring their responsibility can lead to an accident--sometimes, a tragic accident.
Even at home, our stations can contain hazards, and most of us are unfamiliar with added ones in the field.
It’s everyone’s responsibility to identify and mitigate—if not eliminate—hazards. Warning tape and signs help make places safer.
Use them!
PPE—insist upon hard hats where anything (tools, parts, towers, and masts) could fall. Even when on the ground, there are tripping hazards.
I once stopped a tower operation when, after being warned, another ham showed up in the drop zone without a hard hat! Except when operating rotating equipment, gloves are essential in preventing injuries.
Let everyone know that they should bring their PPE (or club-provided PPE) if they do more than simply operate a radio—no exceptions!
Personal accountability is simple but often overlooked.
Everyone involved in using hazardous materials or tools must know and follow the safety rules.
Do not allow anyone to take part in a task until they are briefed and know how the entire task is to occur.
Stop the task if someone is inattentive.
It takes less than a second for a hazard to become a mistake that causes an accident.
I lost a high school classmate on the nuclear submarine that sank—the Thresher. The Navy completely redid its nuclear safety program.
It was used as an example after the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which led to my final career, focused on safety compliance.
As our local sports car racing club’s motto states: “Be Safe and Have Fun.” Let that be your theme for every ARRL SET and Field Day.
—Adapted from an article by ARRL New Mexico Section Manager Bill Mader, K8TE
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Radio Volunteers in Oregon, Washington, and California Support Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team |
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Incident Day 0 of the fourth annual “Whale Run” full-scale exercise, involving general aviation aircraft supported by amateur radio communications, began like this: “On the morning of June 6th, 2025, at 5:30 AM, a Category 1 typhoon made landfall along the Oregon coast, with devastating hurricane-force winds, storm surge, and torrential rainfall.
The typhoon moves from west to east at a speed of 10 mph. Just hours later at 7:43 AM, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Oregon along the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
The rupture extended from Cape Mendocino in Northern California to Nootka Island in British Columbia, Canada, causing severe ground shaking for nearly five minutes.”
The Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team
(ODART) was activated, and the first flights off the ground on Incident Day 1 (Saturday, June 7th) were nine aircraft performing aerial “windshield surveys” of simulated damage along predefined transportation routes.
Next up were three cargo flights from Aurora State Airport (Oregon) to Bellingham International Airport (Washington) carrying a total of 925 pounds of medical supplies.
This was part of a mutual aid request between the states, and the takeoffs and landings of these aircraft were tracked at both ends by amateur radio via Winlink.
Eight calendar days elapsed between Incident Day 0 and Incident Day 2 (Saturday, June 14th), giving time for outside agencies to spin up a simulated response. During this period, amateur radio volunteers were asked to respond to various airports. The Oregon Department of Aviation requested submission of forms for preapproval of exemptions from Temporary Flight Restrictions. ODART provided a VIP overflight to a County Commissioner
and picked up MREs from the Oregon Department of Human Services.
Oregon Emergency Management requested an aviation liaison in its state EOC, and the ODHS Office of Resilience and Emergency Management requested overflights of 18 resilience hubs in the state.
In addition, two out-of-state mutual aid requests were received to support tribal nations, one from CalDART
to send relief supplies to the Blue Lake Rancheria, and one from EVAC Northwest
to send relief supplies and a sUAS (drone) photographic team to the Cowlitz Indian Tribe.
In all, six tribal nations participated in this exercise.
On Incident Day 2, amateur radio operators staffed 12 airports and three water landing zones (lakes) in Oregon, one airport in Washington, and one airport in California to receive general aviation aircraft loaded with relief supplies (250 pounds of medical supplies, 5,110 pounds of food, and a container of medical equipment sent to the coast by the Oregon Health Authority). The hams used Winlink to exchange activation and demobilization messages, weather reports, aircraft takeoff and landing reports, and safety reports.
ODART again deployed an Airborne Communications Platform during Whale Run 2025. The aeronautical mobile operated on both VHF and UHF and tested voice communications with the ground-based radio stations.
The high noise level in the cockpit experienced in 2024 was overcome this year making this component of the exercise a great success.
As can occur in any exercise, some locations experienced communications difficulties.
These become lessons learned for the participants, and this is, of course, the whole reason we practice.
--Steve Aberle, WA7PTM, Assistant Director, ARRL Northwestern Division
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ODART pilot Mike Berck, W7MPB, offloads food cargo at the Southwest Oregon Regional Airport to members of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua & Siuslaw Indians. Note the VHF/UHF antenna temporarily mounted above the windshield. [Photo courtesy Armando Martinez II, KJ7NUZ] | | | |
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Amateur Radio Operators in Puerto Rico in the Caribe Wave 2025 Tsunami Exercise |
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March 20, 2025-- The event was an annual tsunami exercise, designed to validate and advance tsunami preparedness efforts in the Caribbean and adjacent regions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) International Tsunami Information Center (CTIC) served as exercise coordinators.
In Puerto Rico, the exercise was coordinated by the Puerto Rico Seismic Network
(PRSN) in conjunction with NOAA and the Puerto Rico Emergency Management Bureau (PREMB). Prior to the event, a meeting was held between PRSN representatives, ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator Emmanuel Cruz, NP4D, and regional emergency coordinators to delineate a plan to disseminate all messages directly by PRSN personnel to the local amateur radio packet BBS assets and then retransmit them via voice on all radio services including GMRS, FRS, MURS, CB, and amateur radio.
The scenario chosen for Caribe Wave 2025 was a tsunami generated by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake with the epicenter approximately 168 miles off the coast of Portugal, with the expected tsunami wave arriving 8 hours later. The exercise started at 11 AM EST with an alert on radio and TV stations made by the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Some cellphone companies also sent the tsunami alert, and all systems stated very clearly that it was a test.
As the PRSN began to receive the tsunami alert bulletins, sent through the KP4NTS and KP4DOG packet nodes, the information was sent to different coordinated amateur radio frequencies for emergency events on VHF, 40 meters and 5403.5 MHz island-wide. ARRL Puerto Rico Section Manager Carmen Greene, KP4QVQ, was stationed at the Zone 5 PREMB office in Mayagúez to follow how the bulletins were sent through various amateur radio outlets.
The exercise for the amateur radio portion concluded at 1 PM.
Siren systems were also tested, evacuation drills were practiced in coastal cities, and some amateur radio groups formed special nets to gather information on how they received the advisory alert. More information on the Caribe Wave exercises.
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K1CE For a Final: Field Day and Winlink Exercise |
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I had limited time to devote to Field Day this year, but managed 30 Qs on 40-meter CW Saturday afternoon.
Conditions on the band (daytime) seemed subpar, which struck me as incongruous given the current peak of the sunspot cycle—I didn’t check but would guess a solar flare took down a level of propagation.
But most importantly, I had fun while dusting off my CW skills!
I also participated in the July 9 Winlink exercise: the scenario was an earthquake with its epicenter in Memphis, Tennessee.
I filled out the Field Situational Awareness Report form on Winlink Express and sent it via telnet (the Internet), per the protocol of using telnet as a priority if the Internet is still up, thus saving HF bandwidth for stations closer to the epicenter that had lost their Internet connection.
The Regional Emergency Communications Coordinator, Response Division, FEMA Region 4, conducted this test.
It is good to brush up on your Winlink skills regularly, so that when a communications emergency occurs, you can send email when no regular Internet connection is available.
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Buy 90 Years of ARES stickers!
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The Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment with their local ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster strikes.
Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in ARES.
Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES.
Please inquire at the local level for specific information.
Because ARES is an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible for membership.
The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership.
How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill out the
ARES Registration form
and submit it to your local Emergency Coordinator.
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ARES® is a program of
ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®. No other organization works harder than ARRL to promote and protect amateur radio! ARRL members enjoy many benefits and services including digital magazines, e-newsletters, online learning
(learn.arrl.org), and technical support.
Membership also supports programs for radio clubs, on-air contests, Logbook of The World®, ARRL Field Day, and the all-volunteer ARRL Field Organization.
Join ARRL or renew today!
www.arrl.org/join
The ARES Letter is free of charge to ARRL members.
Subscribe:
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The ARES Letter is published on the third Wednesday of each month. ARRL members may subscribe at no cost or unsubscribe by editing their Member Data Page at
www.arrl.org/opt-in-out.
Copyright © 2025 American Radio Relay League, Incorporated. Use and distribution of this publication, or any portion thereof, is permitted for non-commercial or educational purposes, with attribution. All other purposes require written permission.
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