***** Winter Exercise Scheduled for Saturday February, 8, 2003 *****
***** Announcing a Call for Players from the ARES community,
and from Clubs in the Section *****
***** Proposed Play for the Exercise *****
Happy New Year to all of you, and I hope that the year brings happiness and prosperity to you and your family.
The ARES leadership has scheduled a Winter Quarter exercise for Saturday February 8, 2003. The exercise will be an EOC to EOC emergency communications exercise using a similar approach as the November exercise, but implementing improvements suggested in critique sessions. We will also use a major winter storm scenario to add realism and purpose. Due to the time of the year, the field component prominent in the November SET will not be exercised. Additionally, the relatively quick follow on was in response to many of you who suggested doing a similar exercise as soon as possible.
ARES members, ARESMAT teams, Club Emergency response teams, town and city RACES officers, and individuals are invited to play in this exercise. Official RACES participation is not expected, but always welcome.
** Concept ** Teams and clubs are asked to set up a physical EOC and operators for the exercise. Ideally, several of these will be set up in each district. Due to the time of year, all exercise activities will be carried out in these locations. Obviously, EOC’s must be heated and lighted, and available for amateur use that day. Public Service Agencies are welcome to participate to any extent they wish. Please remember that most EMA personnel may not choose to participate because as it is a Saturday. They are, however, most welcome to participate if they so desire.
The exercise will consist of establishing contact with other EOC’s within and without your district, and then passing various traffic. Most traffic will be from simulated agency officials in each EOC, and some will consist of urgent traffic. We will “pick up” where we left off in November. Most importantly, we will strive to improve our ability to establish communications, set up effective net controls, and efficiently pass NTS traffic. We will implement many of the suggestions you forwarded such as revising the frequency plans with more local emphasis, setting up more planned activities during the day (i.e. “envelopes” or timed activities), and allowing use of some repeater assets. There was some discussion about adding more complexity and extending the exercise period, but no decision has been made as of yet.
** Schedule ** Please discuss participation with your clubs and interested individuals as soon as possible during the month. If you have any suggestions, please forward them as soon as you can. If you would like your DEC or me to answer questions at your meeting, please don’t hesitate to ask.
The DEC’s and I meet a week from Saturday on January 11 to finalize plans. An exercise plan will then be available about a week later. The district frequency plan will appear separately about a week before the exercise.
I will send an update shortly after the staff meeting on the 11th. Let’s work together toward a successful exercise!
s/Michael P. Neilsen
Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
Section Emergency Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts Section
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