Hello to all….Volunteers Being Solicited for the Emergency Communications Exercise for Saturday February 8th from 10 AM-Noon…[0900-1200 for the Section, W1MPN]
We are looking for volunteers to join us for the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Emergency Communication Exercise which is on Saturday February 8th from 10 AM-Noon. For the Greater New Bedford area, we are working with the Red Cross in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The following site has details on the Emergency Communications Exercise that is slated for this Saturday:
http://ares.ema.arrl.org/
This site contains generic information on the exercise that will be done across the Eastern Massachusetts section. Across South Coastal Massachusetts, where we are just starting to make an attempt to rebuild ARES and to forge ahead with a relationship with the New Bedford Red Cross, we plan to make the drill more simplistic and use repeater operation for this drill. thers across the section will be using Simplex communications and other more elaborate forms of communication.
The exercise involved a Major Winter Storm that results in damage, power outages and shelter openings. Since the Fairhaven Repeater, 145.49, would typically be used for SKYWARN Operations, the 147.000 Dartmouth Repeater will be used for this exercise. The repeater will be put into its “Emergency mode” to allow for smoother operation just like it would be in a real event.
For the purpose of this exercise, we will follow a scenario where we would “pretend” to get people staged and mobilized to shelters across the New Bedford coverage area. No one will be asked to actually mobilize but we will pass tactical and formal messages indicating that we are working a mobilization. We do plan to have 2 operators at the American Red Cross in New Bedford. We are looking for 2 volunteers to man the SEMARA Club house for communications. It would be logical that the SEMARA Club house facility, in the event of a real disaster, would be a meeting place for Amateurs in the event of a mobilization. Between either the Red Cross station or the SEMARA station, the goal will be to liasion with the RACES Net in the local area on the 147.135 Taunton Repeater and to contact other Emergency Communication teams and EOC’s that neighbor the south coast of Massachusetts. We will also do mock liaison work with SKYWARN on the 145.49 Fairhaven Repeater just like we would in an actual weather related incident although for the purpose of this exercise, we will not formally have a SKYWARN Net up and running as this exercise will simulate the effects of the storm right after it has impacted the region and the storm has passed.
We are looking for as many people to participate in the exercise as possible. We’d like to see at least one person in every town from New Bedford to Wareham to participate and we encourage other Amateurs across the South Coast to participate in the exercise. During the exercise, we will be asking people to handle both tactical and formal written NTS traffic messages. Please do not be intimidated by the fact that we will use formal NTS traffic messages and no one has to have prior knowledge of handling these messages to participate. We encourage anyone to participate even those who are not familiar with NTS traffic messages. We are looking for people to participate and do the best they can so that those that may never have done NTS traffic messages before are the people we are actually looking for because it can help them practice and learn how to handle the traffic. Details on how to write and receive NTS traffic messages are at the
following link:
http://nts.ema.arrl.org/
Along the left hand side of the page there is a link to the NTS manual and message handling instructions and these links provide valuable information on how to format NTS traffic messages. Please contact myself or Tony Duarte, N1XRS, with any questions or to volunteer to participate in any form for this drill. My contact information is below and Tony’s email address is TDDuarte@attbi.com
Thanks to all and we hope for great participation in this exercise!!!
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
SEMCARES Emergency Coordinator
Pager #: (508) 354-3142
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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