Month: October 2017

Emergency Communications

Amateur Radio – MARS interoperability exercise (November 4-6)

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Elements of the US Department of Defense (DOD) will conduct a “communications interoperability” training exercise November 4-6, once again simulating a “very bad day” scenario. Amateur Radio and MARS organizations will take part.

“This exercise will begin with a national massive coronal mass ejection event which will impact the national power grid as well as all forms of traditional communication, including landline telephone, cellphone, satellite, and Internet connectivity,” Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, explained in an announcement.

During the exercise, a designated DOD Headquarters entity will request county-by-county status reports for the 3,143 US counties and county equivalents, to gain situational awareness and to determine the extent of impact of the scenario. Army and Air Force MARS organizations will work in conjunction with the Amateur Radio community, primarily on the 60-meter interoperability channels as well as on HF NVIS frequencies and local VHF and UHF, non-Internet linked Amateur Radio repeaters.

Again, this year, a military station on the east coast and the Fort Huachuca, Arizona, HF station will conduct a high-power broadcast on 60-meter channel 1 (5330.5 kHz) on Saturday from 0300 to 0315 UTC. New this year will be an informational broadcast on Sunday, on 13,483.5 kHz USB from 1600 to 1615 UTC. Amateur Radio operators should monitor these broadcasts for more information about the exercise and how they can participate in this communications exercise, English said.

“We want to continue building on the outstanding cooperative working relationship with the ARRL and the Amateur Radio community,” English said. “We want to expand the use of the 60-meter interop channels between the military and amateur community for emergency communications, and we hope the Amateur Radio community will give us some good feedback on the use of both the 5-MHz interop and the new 13-MHz broadcast channels as a means of information dissemination during a very bad day scenario. (Thanks Tom, N1CPE)

All

Southern New England Weather Conference, Nov. 4, 2017

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Rob Macedo, KD1CY writes:

The Southern New England Weather Conference will take place Saturday November 4th, 2017. The conference will be held at the Meditech Facility in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Some of the topics that will be covered in 2017 include:

-TV Meteorologist Panel Discussion
-Tribute to Dick Albert
-Ready for Hurricane Rhody?
-Two Unusual Tornadoes: Concord, MA (2016) & Conway, MA (2017)

The agenda for the Southern New England Weather Conference can be seen via the following link: http://www.sneweatherconf.org/2017Agenda.pdf

Registration Fees:

Student/Teacher/Military/Blue Hill Observatory Member Registration: $99
Regular Registration: $109

To register go to the main Southern New England Weather Conference link at http://www.sneweatherconf.org/ and click the “Click here to register for conference” link.

We hope to see many of you at the 2017 Southern New England Weather Conference!

Emergency Communications

October 7th,2017 Eastern MA Hospital Net

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Good Evening,

Net Control for the October 7th,2017 Eastern MA Hospital Net will be W1SSH The South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club. The net will commence at the usual time of 10:AM using the following repeaters in the order listed. 

1.Plymouth 146.685 tone 82.5

2 Boston 145.230 tone encode 88.5 tone decode 100.0

3.Sharon 146.865 tone 103.5

 

Simplex 147.42

 

The Net will than return to the Plymouth Repeater for final comments and Net closing.

NET Protocol: Please wait for Net Control to ask for Check-ins. When asked to check in please use the standard net check in procedure which is:   Here is.., un-key, wait 3 seconds to check for doubling, then give your or your facilities call sign, your first name, and your facility’s name.

We extend an invitation to the EOC of any city or town that is served by one of the participating hospitals to join the Net. We also extend an invitation to any RACES or ARES member to check in during the NET.

Any hospital wishing to join the net that needs assistance with equipment or personnel should contact us at ssharc@gmail.com. We can assist you with getting your location on the air.

We are always looking for groups or organizations to try their hand at Net Control duties. If you are interested please let us know. Our goal is to rotate Net Control practice and the experience among as many groups as possible.

We thank the repeater trustees for their generosity in allowing us to conduct the monthly nets and the use of their systems in an actual event. The following list of repeaters are available for our use. Only a few systems are used each month with the selection of those used made by Net Control for that month.  More systems are being added to the list on a regular basis.

REMINDER: The BARC Repeater is now using split tone. Boston 145.230 tone encode 88.5 tone decode 100.0


Attleboro 147.195 tone 127.3 (Sturdy Memorial Hospital)
Belmont 145.430 tone 146.2

Boston 145.230 tone encode 88.5 tone decode 100.0

Bridgewater 147.180 tone 67.0
Danvers 145.47 tone 136.5
Dartmouth 147.000 tone 67.0  
Fairhaven 145.490 tone 67.0    
Fall River 146.805. tone 67.0
Falmouth 147.375 tone 110.9  

Mansfield EMA  446.925 tone 100.0

Mansfield 147.015 tone 67.0

Marshfield 145.390 tone 67.0      
Norwood 147.210 tone 100.00
Plymouth 146.685 tone 82.5
Salem 146.88 tone 118.8        
Sharon 146.865 tone 103.5    
Weymouth 147.345 tone 110.9 (South Shore Hospital)

W. Bridgewater 146.775 dcs 244 
Wrentham 147.09 tone 146.2

We look forward to hearing you all on the Net.

Respectfully,

John O’Neill
K1JRO

— 

South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club – W1SSH
c/o Volunteer Services
Public Service

Baystate Marathon Amateur Assistance Requested, Oct. 22, 2017

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The Lowell CERT Communications Team has been asked to support once again the Baystate Marathon and Half Marathon. This year the event is on Sunday, October 22nd. Our operational time period is from approximately 0700 until event completion (estimated 1400). Our assistance has been requested by Lowell Office of Emergency Management and Lowell Fire Department. The communications team will be employing Amateur Radio to provide this communications asset. Amateur Radio will be used for 2 functions:

* Medical operations: the purpose of this net is to provide a communications link for medical requests/status to the incident command post.
* Accountability net: the purpose of this net is to coordinate with a race public information booth the status of runners who are unable to complete the race for any issue to any one is seeking this information.

Race info may be found at http://baystatemarathon.com

Please contact  Terry-KA8SCP ka8scp@wb1gof.org if you are able to assist or would like more information.

Please share this request with your local clubs. This is a pretty laid back event and suitable for first time public event participation.

Terry-KA8SCP

Terry M. Stader – KA8SCP
MEMA Region 1 RACES/Communications Officer
PART of Westford-WB1GOF, Senior Club Advisor
NESMC EMA Director