Hello to all….
The following is detailed information on the Boston Logan Airport Drill serving as the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Simulated Emergency Test or SET.
Date and Timeframe of Exercise
Saturday October 27th, 2007
Start Time 10 AM
End Time: 12:30 PM
Duration: 2.5 Hours
-Please allow time for setup/take down of any equipment during this exercise.
Purpose
Eastern Massachusetts ARES will participate in the Boston Logan Airport Drill which will serve as the Simulated Emergency Test or SET for 2007. The primary support agency for this SET will be the American Red Cross. The Red Cross will be providing Mass Care operations on site at Logan Airport and will be activating 4 of its 5 field offices starting at 1030 AM and ending around Noon time. Those field offices include Cambridge, Waltham, Peabody, and Brockton and a communications test will be done between all of the field offices utilizing 47.42 MHz, 2 Meter and 440 Simplex along with local area repeaters. Eastern Massachusetts ARES has been requested to supply 1-2 Amateurs per field office except for the Peabody office where 2-3 Amateurs have been requested. Please do NOT self-deploy. If you’re interested in the deployment please contact your ARES EC or DEC for your area.
Concept of Operations
The concept of operations for this exercise will be to have Amateurs start on HF and their local SKYWARN and RACES repeater. From there, we will shift to simplex operations and then shift to the MMRA Repeater Network to round out the exercise. For the call-up via HF and on their local SKYWARN or RACES frequency, we will be looking to gather information on if this was an actual incident, what you’re availability would be to support the operation and in what capacity (i.e.: deployment to the airport, deployment to a Red Cross field office, net control, home station support etc.). No deployments other than the Red Cross field office deployments mentioned in the purpose section will be done but gathering the info on who is available for deployment will simulate real action. For the call-up on Simplex, we will gather any deployment information not already received by stations and also request signal reports on the Red Cross field offices for use by the Red Cross to determine if communications can be sustained over simplex either directly or through the use of relays.
Below is a rough schedule of repeaters and simplex frequencies to be tested:
1000-1030 AM: HF 3943 KHz and local area repeaters.
1030-1100 AM: 147.420 Simplex
1100-1130 AM: 446.000 Simplex
1130-Noon: MMRA Repeater Network
Notes:
*–The 145.23-Boston Repeater, 3943 KHz HF and the New England Reflector network (EchoLink Conference Node: 9123 *NEW-ENG*/ IRLP 9123) will be monitored during this entire timeframe as control points for folks who cannot reach simplex or the repeater networks. This is particularly important for Amateurs in the Boston area who may only have HT’s or EchoLink capability due to antenna limitations/restrictions. The town of Bridgewater EOC will serve as the net control center and control point for these operations.
*–ARES DEC’s and EC’s will utilize their local SKYWARN and/or RACES repeaters as control points for those that cannot make contact via simplex. Check with your local DEC or EC for this information.
*–The Eastern Massachusetts ARES SEC will be located at the net control center at the town of Bridgewater EOC.
*–For the call-ups on Simplex, the Net Control Center at the Bridgewater EOC will act as the first center for call-up and the Red Cross in Cambridge will act as the second call-up. For the 1030 AM timeframe, the call-up will start with the town of Bridgewater EOC calling for general stations and then calling for the Red Cross field offices. This is because the Red Cross field offices will first test their capability on 47.42 MHz first starting at 1030 AM and then move to 147.42 Simplex when their 47.42 MHz test is completed. For the 11 AM Simplex test on 440 MHz, the Red Cross field offices will be called first to see if they can all be heard and can communicate with one another.
-The primary HF Net frequency for this exercise will be 3943 KHz with 7245 KHz serving as backup.
-We ask all participating stations to try all 5 frequencies even if they feel they cannot reach a specific repeater or don’t have reasonable simplex coverage. It will be a good way to determine the range of your station and holes in coverage when using this specific set of repeaters or Simplex. Use HF, VoIP and Digital modes as control points.
If you are participating and cannot or do not feel you can hit any of the slated repeaters, simplex or control points on HF, VoIP or digital modes, please contact your local ARES EC/DEC or SEC so we can assist you in some way to participate in this exercise.
The following are links to information on the Packet/Winlink system in the region that have frequency and usage information for those that would like to send message traffic during the exercise:
Winlink Information: http://ares.ema.arrl.org/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=3119&page_id=92
Packet Information:
http://www.powersrvcs.org/EMaPacket/PAKETMAP.HTM
There are additional local frequencies that maybe utilized in this drill at your local town/city level or at a regional level as another means to follow where the net goes for stations who may not hit the selected repeaters. Please contact your ARES DEC or EC for further information on additional frequencies that maybe utilized in your specific area during the drill.
This document could be updated again on Thursday October 25th, 2007 or Friday October 26th, 2007 after a conference call with the Red Cross if any changes are needed.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section 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://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://www.wx1box.org
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