Hello to all…..
***** Call for Volunteers Summary *****
(*Amateurs living outside of the EMa area, please see note below)
Requirements for the Democratic National Convention (DNC) continue to be developed by our clients. In particular, the American Red Cross has solidified their plans and what they are requesting from their volunteers. Amateur duties that the Red Cross is requesting include responding to the Red Cross chapters in Boston and Waltham during normal and potential incident operations.
Other duties expected from our cadre will range from maintaining net watches at home stations to passing status traffic messages directing mobilization. Teams supporting other served agencies such as the Salvation Army will be mobilized as required.
We are also looking for a large number of “stand-by” operators that will be ready to provide additional support if an incident occurs. As per our doctrine, Amateurs volunteering for this duty will always be asked to accept any further deployment, so please consider being part of our standby corps!
The Red Cross is requesting the following support during the week of the DNC to support their concept of “normal” operations:
[Please press “read more” button —>]-Two Amateur Radio Operators deploying to the Waltham Red Cross Chapter from 8 AM-4 PM Monday July 26th through Friday July 30th.-Two Amateur Radio Operators deploying to the altham Red Cross Chapter from 4 PM-1 AM Monday July 26th through Thursday July 29th.
-One Amateur Radio Operator deploying to the Boston Red Cross Chapter from 8 AM-4 PM Monday July 26th through Friday July 30th.
It is noted that the DNC is still roughly one month away and these requirements listed above could experience several minor adjustments as we approach the week of the DNC.
A Net Control Command Center will be setup to support this activity utilizing the town of Bridgewater Emergency Operations Center (EOC). We’d like to take this opportunity to thank Herb Lemon, KC1ZW, Bridgewater Emergency Management Director and Chairman of the Board of Selectman for his support in allowing us to utilize the EOC for the week of the DNC. Carl Aveni, N1FY, newly named ARES District Emergency Coordinator for Plymouth County, will be coordinating the net control activity at the Bridgewater EOC.
As stated in the previous call to action, the day shift will be most challenging to fill, as the DNC will be taking place during the workweek. The ARES staff cannot ask anyone to take time off from work, but if you can arrange to donate a vacation day or two to help, it would be greatly appreciated. Amateur Operators that have already contacted us in the first DNC Volunteer Call to Action announcement will be contacted again within the next 7-10 days to discuss where they will be best suited to serve in this operation.
In the previous call to action, we asked about what ARES members have received any form of ICS training. While we are still asking ARES members to respond to this question (it would be greatly appreciated since it is not in our questionnaires), you do not need to be ICS trained to assist us in DNC operations. Frankly, we are rather looking for “good old-fashioned” Amateur Radio knowledge, good operating skills and most importantly, a sincere desire to serve the agencies that are requesting support, and being flexible with the situation and conditions of the deployment.
With this entire infrastructure being setup to support the DNC, as was done by the Red Cross and Salvation Army for Boston First Night New Year’s celebrations, it is important to remember that the most likely outcome is that nothing of consequence will happen during the DNC. This was what we experienced during the limited ARES Activation on New Year’s Eve.
In that scenario, this will lead to quite a bit of time where we are monitoring the event with nothing happening, and we are just sitting watching and waiting. While it may not be exciting or glamorous, the agencies we are serving view this stand-by and limited deployment by us as providing them a huge advantage in case something does happen. Moreover, serving in this capacity at these agencies’ request give us tremendous credibility with their organizations and is greatly appreciated. We ask that those that deploy to the served agencies to bring a book, game, or something to entertain them during this potential for large periods of “down” time. The ARES staff, however, will be utilizing the DNC as a great training opportunity to practice an ARES-MAT, fine-tune net control skills as we will have regular call-ups of nets every few hours, pass routine NTS status traffic messages. We will continue to exercise our net call-ups and regular NTS traffic nets every evening, and practice home station usage and message handling. If, on the low probability that some type of incident occurs (and an incident could range from a wide variety of different things through man-made or natural causes), activity could rapidly ramp up and quickly transition routine nets to heavy use for important and vital emergency traffic.
More updates to this call to action will follow over the next few weeks. We ask that interested Amateurs please contact Mike Neilsen, W1MPN, and Robert Macedo, KD1CY during this timeframe if you live in the Eastern Massachusetts section via email. Their email addresses appear below:
W1MPN-Mike Neilsen: w1mpn@ema.arrl.org
KD1CY-Rob Macedo: rmacedo@rcn.com or kd1cy@comcast.net
*Amateur Radio Operators outside the Eastern Massachusetts section should first contact their ARES Section Emergency Coordinator. Their response to you will depend on how much support is received from inside the Eastern Massachusetts section, before we ask for support outside the section.
The ARES Staff would like to extend our sincere thanks in advance for your efforts!
Respectfully Submitted,
Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
Eastern Massachusetts
Section Emergency Coordinator
w1mpn@ema.arrl.org
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
978.562.5662 Office
978.389.0558 FAX
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
Deputy Section Emergency Coordinator
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Southeast Massachusetts ARES District Emergency Coordinator
SAMARA ARES 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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