Eastern Massachusetts ARES "Mini-Exercise" to Support Cape Cod Regional Sheltering Exercise

Hello to all..

The following is an announcement on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES ‘mini-exercise’ for Saturday November 14th, 2009 from 10 AM-1130 AM. See announcement below:

Date: 14 November 2009

Time: 1000-1130 EST

This basic/low level ‘mini-exercise’ is sponsored by Eastern Massachusetts ARES. The short notice of the exercise is part of the exercise design. It is being conducted to simulate a disaster situation on Cape Cod that will require relief operators from our adjoining districts and coincides with the Cape Cod Regional Sheltering Exercise. 

EC’s and RACES officers can also gather the information from their group and pass it along with a single checkin. For this exercise, look at your schedule for the next week and provide a date and shift(s) you could be available to deploy to Cape Cod. If you would be unavailable, that is fine too. Just check in or let your ARES EC/RACES officer know. Please plan a 12 hour window. Two hours to travel and brief, 8 hours on shift, and 2 hours to debrief and travel home. For the exercise we are assuming 0800-1600, 1600-2400, and 2400-0800 shifts. No deployments will actually occur.

A brief checkin with this information is all that is requested. The information can be relayed via the following means:

Bridgewater 147.18 repeater

Fairhaven 145.49 repeater

Echolink Conference *NEW-ENG* Node: 9123/IRLP 9123

MMRA Repeater System (Linked up for the exercise like it is linked up for the Monthly Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net)

HF 3943 KHz (may move up or down in frequency depending on HF usage due to other exercises/SETs going on in the area)

Winlink to N1XTB@winlink.org or kd1cy@winlink.org (Those that cannot participate between 10 AM-1130 AM Saturday 11/14 can send an email to either of these addresses anytime between the time of receipt of this announcement and 1130 AM Saturday. – Also, please put //WL2K in the subject of the message so Winlink spam filters do not block or delay the message.)

Local ARES/RACES/SKYWARN frequency as determined by your local ARES EC/DEC/RACES Radio Officer.

Liaison to the Cape Cod repeaters/simplex as well as winlink liaison will be performed by the regional and sub-regional ARES net control centers that are co-loated at the town of Bridgewater and Acushnet EOCs.

It is noted that portions of Southern New England will be impacted by the coastal storm that has impacted the Mid-Atlantic states for several days. The storm will bring heavy rain and strong winds to the region. The worst impacts will be felt over Cape Cod and the Islands. We have determined that we will proceed with the drill as planned and anyone with SKYWARN reportable criteria or a real emergency should preface their message with ‘This is NOT a drill’. Any drill traffic, tactical or formal should be addressed as ‘This is a drill’. We appreciate everyone’s attentiveness and ability to multitask the mini-exercise with the coastal storm.

Exercise objectives

-Validate contact information and communicate with Emcomm operators

-Exercise the leadership to assemble communication resource information

-Net Control/liason to communicate the relief information to the Cape Cod ARES DEC

-Information will be relayed via voice/Winlink email on available relief head count and shifts to the CC ARES DEC.

Thank you for your interest in public service.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator 
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://www.wx1box.org

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