Hello to all….
Many ARES/RACES/SKYWARN/MARS and EMCOMM Amateurs are aware that traditionally in the Fall of each year, the ARRL sponsors a Simulated Emergency Test on the first weekend in October with the Simulated Emergency Test taking place in many sections in New England between early October through mid-November of each year. In August 2008, we conducted the Hurricane Matt Massachusetts Statewide Hurricane Exercise which went quite well. After coordination with ARRL Manager of Preparedness and Response, Dennis Dura-K2DCD, he has agreed to allow that drill to count for our Simulated Emergency Test for 2008 understanding the extremely high level of SKYWARN Activations that have occurred in the region and the large overlap in Amateurs that support both SKYWARN and ARES along with the fact that an exericse was completed roughly 2 months prior to the traditional SET timeframe. We appreciate Dennis allowing us to make this count as our SET for the Eastern and Western Massachusetts sections.
Local ARES groups within the Eastern Massachusetts section that plan or intend to plan and execute a more localized exercise scenario are encouraged to do so. Please send any information on any localized exercises to me so it can be made known on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES web site as well as the various email lists for EMCOMM in the section. Also, we encourage Hams within our section to participate in neighboring section Simulated Emergency Tests where possible.
At a recent meeting with the Southeast Massachusetts Emergency Management Directors Association that I attended and presented, they are quite interested in a possible exercise which would potentially involve hospitals that are interested in Amateur Radio Emergency Communications. With the acceptance of the August 2008 exercise as the SET for Eastern Massachusetts, this should allow time to investigate this further and plan for a potential exercise in the February to March 2009 timeframe. In addition, it will allow for proper reporting of the August 2008 Hurricane exercise as the extremely high number of SKYWARN Activations, some of which prompting localized ARES activations or stand-by activations, has prevented the reporting from taking place sooner. It will also allow for other administrative and planning work to be completed.
We thank everyone for their support of Eastern Massachusetts ARES, the August 2008 Hurricane Matt exericse, and the tremendous support given with the extremely high number of SKYWARN Activations in the May through October 2008 timeframe. Thanks again for your continued support of Eastern Massachusetts ARES!
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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