Author: admin

Hello all stations:
I want to take this opportunity to update you on our efforts to realign the RACES program, and to thank you for yet another year of outstanding support to the Amateur Radio (AR) Emergency Communications (EMCOMM) effort.

As KD1CY pointed out in his message to SKYWARN, it has been an extraordinary year weather-wise, testing our systems and personal resolve. I want to take this moment to additionally thank those in ARES and RACES who contributed so much in relaying storm related damage, and bore a hand to help those agencies which provided recovery assistance.

Rapidly changing communication systems and critical budgetary changes within our state are causing important changes to be undertaken within the state and local EMCOMM organizations. Suffice to say, these clients don’t seem to need the assistance of past days but their needs today have not diminished, only changed. &n! bsp;We are working to meet that challenge. So far, we have been holding productive meetings with them to ascertain their real needs, and I’m pleased to report that good progress is being made. In the meantime, your needs and concerns are being represented by the leaders of ARES, RACES, and SKYWARN.

An effort to include more stakeholders in this effort which includes certain AR leaders of the ARC, among others, is being undertaken through the auspices of the Amateur Radio Working Group. I hope to report about these efforts in a meeting with all of you that is very similar to the old MRAS meeting, and field your questions sometime as early as February. In the meantime, please endeavor to support our efforts and training as before.
I look forward to our year working together in 2012.

NEW: Follow me on Twitter at WC1MA!

Please accept my wishes for a joyous holiday season and a happy and prosperous new year.

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558
****************! **************************************************

Hello to all..

On behalf of the Eastern Massachusetts ARES staff, we’d like to take a moment to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holiday season! We have appreciated the support of all Amateurs who assisted in the mobilization for Irene in late August and those who stood-by to support Western Massachusetts ARES recovery efforts from the June 1st, 2011 tornado outbreak that affected Western and Central Massachusetts. We also thank all Amateur Operators whether they are in ARES or not who supported all the Public Service Events throughout the year including major events such as the Boston Marathon and the Walk for Hunger just to name a few events. We also thank all the RACES Radio Operators and Officers for their support of their local city and town emergency management as well as state emergency management. For those Amateur Operators that support SKYWARN whether they are in ARES or not, a separate holiday message has been posted via the following link:

http://www.wx1box.org/node/1701

As we move into 2012, we will be looking at doing Emergency Communications Workshops and we will have a presence at the Boxboro New England Division Amateur Radio Convention as we’ve done in past years. We will also be continuing to support hospitals and Non-Governmental Organizations such as the Red Cross and Salvation Army building upon the work done in 2011. We also encourage those involved in emergency communications or those that have an interest in weather to become SKYWARN trained to support the National Weather Service for those interested.

Again, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all! We look forward to working with everyone during 2012 and thanks for your continued support of ARES!

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

The following is from Acting Massachusetts State RACES Radio officer, Mike Neilsen-W1MPN:

Hello all Stations:

I want to take this opportunity to thank you all again for the great support you provided your towns/cities/state government and volunteer organizations during the October storm as part of the RACES/ARES/SKYWARN/MARS teams.

In its aftermath, many of you understandably turned your attention to the impact and damage from the storm on your own and neighbor’s homes.  Consequently, we had to shelve our ACS, ARWG, and MRAS meetings temporarily.  We are now in process of rescheduling these meetings in December and January as best we can considering the holidays.  We have scheduled a leadership meeting for further exploring the ACS path for AR EMCOMM work on December 17th.  The ARWG will pick up its role to best leverage the new environment for hams.  We then want to expand the discussions to the MRAS group in January.  Additionally, a select group of the leadership will be available to speak to EMCOMM centric clubs who are interested in contributing to these discussions.

Many of you know that I place a very high value on readiness.  Our focus on system preparedness, particularly in the simplex mode has borne significant fruit for us.  Some stations are setting up relays to enable communication between those repeater dependent stations.  I applaud these efforts.  In coming months we will also focus on exercising our emergency power and antenna systems, in an effort to hone those skills.  I am also pleased to say that our nets are simultaneously getting more accustomed to passing routine and logistic traffic on resource and administrative nets.  Remember there are also several traffic passing nets meeting regularly such as the “heavy hitters”, just to name one where you can practice these skills.  When did you work with VHF/UHF SSB and HF NVIS last?

Some of you have expressed interest and/or concern that tactical traffic skills may languish.  In the late spring or early summer we will have an operational exercise for passing voice and digital traffic.  One of my long term readiness goals is the greater use of digital modes.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a wonderful thanksgiving celebration.  Please travel safely as well.

I desire the widest dissemination of this message.

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558
******************************************************************

Please see the following as received by MEMA Public Information Officer Peter Judge:

On Wednesday, November 16th, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the state of New Hampshire, in conjunction with Seabrook Nuclear Power Station, will conduct an audible demonstration of all 121 of the Public Alert and Notification System (PANS) sirens that are located within Seabrook Station’s 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ).  There are 27 sirens located in Massachusetts, within the communities of Amesbury, Merrimac, Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury and West Newbury, with 94 in New Hampshire.

This demonstration is a public information endeavor designed to increase public awareness of what the sirens sound like and what to do if they are ever sounded due to a declared emergency. The siren demonstration will begin at 12:30pm, lasting from 3-5 minutes, and will be ending at approximately 12:35pm.  No public action will be necessary.

While the PANS sirens can be used to notify the public of any kind of emergency (i.e. weather, homeland security event, etc.), the purpose of this November 16th demonstration is to provide the public within the 23 Seabrook Station EPZ communities an opportunity to again hear the siren tone that would be utilized by Massachusetts and New Hampshire to alert the public of an emergency at Seabrook Station. 

The demonstration is intended to complement information published annually in the Emergency Public Information Calendars for Neighbors of Seabrook Station in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  The annual emergency public information calendars advise the public that if they hear the PAN siren tone, for three to five minutes, tune to the Emergency Alert System (EAS) radio station for their state (93.7 FM, 92.5 FM, 1030 AM, 98.5 FM and 1450 AM in MA; 97.5 FM in NH) for specific information and directions.  The demonstration is intended to reinforce that message.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) is the state agency responsible for coordinating federal, state, local, voluntary and private resources during emergencies and disasters in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  MEMA provides leadership to: develop plans for effective response to all hazards, disasters or threats; train emergency personnel to protect the public; provide information to the citizenry; and assist individuals, families, businesses and communities to mitigate against, prepare for, and respond to and recover from emergencies, both natural and man made. For additional information about MEMA and Preparedness, go to www.mass.gov/mema. Follow MEMA updates on Facebook and Twitter.

The following is from Jeff Lehmann-N1ZZN:

Hello to all..

As part of our nation’s ongoing efforts to strengthen our resilience against all hazards, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in close coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), will conduct the first ever nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System on Wednesday, November 9, at 2:00 p.m. EST. The test will occur simultaneously across the United States and the U.S. territories and will last approximately 30 seconds, after which regular programming will resume. The test will appear on all broadcast radio and television stations, cable television systems, satellite radio and television systems, and wireline video service systems. The test will not involve landline or mobile phones or other infrastructure such as power grids.

Further details on what will occur during this test is listed below in a press release by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA):

FEMA EAS Test Press Release:
http://www.fema.gov/eastest/

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

Hello all Stations:

We now expect the mobilizations for the storm to begin around 1800 today.

RACES will participate in a phased assist mode starting with helping to ensure that the mountain of storm and damage data gets to higher authorities in your local jurisdictions and then to the regional and state MEMA levels.  I desire that you assist in the efforts already requested in EMA and WMA SEC’s storm response guidance promulgated earlier in separate messages.  I have designated SKYWARN Taunton NWS as having tactical command of this phase.  Berkshire should feed reports to NWS Albany as well.

I will promulgate a detailed Operations Plan sometime this afternoon after consulting further with NWS and the SEOC.

I also need two experienced volunteers to assist with relay operations at the SEOC in Framingham.  Please reply to this email for coordination.

Please direct all questions to your RRO and/or ARES SEC/DC.

Please remember that your and your family’s safety is always paramount in any RACES/ARES response action!

I can be reached all day at (below AC) 562.5662

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR EVERYTHING YOU WILL BE DOING.

I request the widest possible dissemination of this message.

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558
******************************************************************

For the second year, amateur radio has been asked to help with race communications throughout the course of the Bay State Marathon. This years course is a little longer and we would like additional communications resources to cover the entire race, so we are looking for a few more hams than in the past.

http://www.baystatemarathon.com/coursemaps.html

I know it is a “long” weekend which includes NEAR-FEST, but if you find that you don’t want to be dodging rain drops in Deerfield but enjoy the warm sunny skies of Lowell along the river, consider joining us.

It is an early morning event (7 AM) and you should be able to be home in time to watch fute-ball in the afternoon! Patriots game is at 4:15.

Please contact Alan-W1AHM or Terry-KA8SCP if you have questions or are available to assist.

Hello to all..

My apologies to all for a late update here. There have been a lot of developments in the past few weeks and it seemed it would be best to hold off on providing an update until a number of the items here were sorted out.

Approximately 3 weeks after Hurricane Irene, there was the Southeast Massachusetts Emergency Managers Directors Association Meeting (SEMEMDA) meeting. After the meeting, a discussion on RACES ensued including the operational changes of the region 1 and 2 offices not being opened during Hurricane Irene. The official reason given by Region Two Manager, James Mannion, was that there was not enough staffing on the MEMA side to staff the Region 1 and 2 facilities. The closure of the region offices, as mentioned previously, affected not only Amateur Radio but local public safety and others that would normally route requests to the regional offices. The timing of this situation 4 weeks after an Amateur Radio Statewide Hurricane Drill was obviously not optimal for this change during an actual hurricane but again necessitated on their staffing and again Amateur Radio was not signaled out on the impact here and many other agencies were impacted.

Following Hurricane Irene was the cancellation of the September RACES Nets. At the SEMEMDA meeting, less of an explanation could be offered for the last minute cancellation, but later on, it was determined that MEMA was reviewing the program including changes to the RACES Nets resulting in the cancellation. The cancellation was very late and going forward such a situation will be avoided. The October RACES Nets will occur but with some changes as requested by the agency and that will be conducted and brought down to RACES folks through their region RACES Radio Officers. These changes will actually benefit and provide more training and more usefulness to the nets. As always, with changes can come some issues implementing the changes. As the changes are rolled out we remind folks as we state in our Emergency Communications Workshops the motto from the 9/11 ARES/Amateur Radio deployments wish is ‘blessed our the flexible for they will not get bent out of shape’.

By now, many of you may have heard that an Acting Massachusetts State RACES Radio Officer has been chosen and that is former Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator and ARRL Section Manager, Mike Neilsen-W1MPN. I can not think of a better person to be in this role at this critical time. Mike has many years of experience in ARES, Amateur Radio and served in RACES supporting Massachusetts State EOC operations working with Tom Kinahan-N1CPE as Massachusetts State RACES Radio Officer. Mike will help out significantly in implementing changes that MEMA is looking for in terms of the support Amateur Radio can provide and the right way that Amateur Radio can provide support for their changing needs. His announcement is provided in its entirety at the end of this update. It is noted that Mike is taking this on as an interim/acting position and that one of his priorities will be a search for a permanent candidate while implementing the most important initial changes on Amateur Radio support for MEMA.

From an ARES perspective, we will continue to support RACES/MEMA as a client agency. A greater role for our services in terms of training and preparation is likely to occur as we move forward. Other changes in operations for MEMA/RACES may occur as reviewed under Mike Neilsen-W1MPN’s leadership.

While the recent events understandably unsettled people on Amateur Radio’s role in MEMA and disasters, it is our belief that the long-term impact could be a strong positive as we work with MEMA to make the changes that they feel will make Amateur Radio crticial in their disaster operations while maintaining the main roles that Amateur Radio can fulfill. Further updates will be posted as required. Below is Mike’s announcement as posted to the MRAS-General email list:

Hello all RACES, ARES, and SKYWARN stations:

Recently, Tom Kinahan resigned his post as our State RACES Communications Officer after serving in that post since the mid-90’s.  Many of you have joined me in thanking him for his long service and wishing him the best in his future endeavors.

While we search for an exceptionally qualified candidate for permanent appointment, MEMA has asked me to assume the role of State RACES Communications Officer on a temporary basis.  I accepted the offer with that proviso.  I look forward to speaking with each of you, but in view of the pressing circumstances I would be very appreciative if you would contact your regional RACES Officer with your questions and comments.  They will relay to me as needed.

Please continue to function as you have in your local and state government RACES appointments, including the monthly radio drills.  There will, however, be some changes that will be implemented immediately in the monthly drill procedure, so please watch for a message on the 10/3 drill to be released shortly.  These developments for the RACES program do not immediately affect any ARES programs, but you are encouraged to contact your ARES leadership with any questions you may have.

In the meantime, we also have some pressing challenges that need to be addressed in the coming months.  I desire to receive as much input as possible for that process, starting with input from the recognized ham leadership, and then later providing a forum for general input such as our MRAS group, and other interested parties.

To that end, I will convene the Amateur Radio Working Group (ARWG) approved earlier this year by the State Interoperability Executive Committee to review grant proposals for Amateur Radio.  Unfortunately those funds have been frozen, but the ARWG can be used for the purpose of guiding the future of amateur radio emergency communications.  I will send invitations to those stakeholders shortly for a meeting in October and before the next MRAS meeting.

I look forward to working with you.

de W1MPN

Regards and 73,

Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN
State RACES Officer (Acting)
Chairperson, Amateur Radio Working Group
Member of the MA State Interoperability Executive Committee (SIEC), and Policies and Programs subcommittee
Office Answering Service/FAX 978.389.0558
******************************************************************

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

Hello to all..

Over the last few weeks starting with Hurricane Irene, there appears to have been some operational changes in what the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, MEMA, has typically done during incidents requiring emergency management response and other situations. During Hurricane Irene, it was determined by MEMA that they would only activate their State Emergency Operations Center in Framingham, Massachusetts and the Region 3 office in Agawam, Massachusetts both from a MEMA operational standpoint and the RACES component of MEMA operations. The Region 1 and Region 2 offices were not activated. This was not only from an Amateur Radio perspective but from an operational MEMA perspective as well.

On Thursday of last week (9/8/11), N1CPE-Tom Kinahan, Massachusetts State RACES Radio Officer tendered his resignation of his position to MEMA Framingham HQ. Tom intends to stay active in Ham Radio and emergency communications as his prior role was very important to him for a very long time to support MEMA and RACES but felt it was time to move in a different direction. Tom has done a tremendous job as Massachusetts State RACES Radio Officer and we look forward to working with Tom in a different capacity within emergency communications.

On Monday Evening (9/12/11), the statewide RACES Nets were cancelled at approximately 630 PM. There was no real reason given other than the nets would be cancelled for this month and would reconvene in October.

As Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator, after cancelleation of the RACES Net, contact was made with KA8SCP-Terry Stader, MEMA Region 1 RACES Communications Officer and N1YLQ-Mike Leger, MEMA Region 2 RACES Radio Officer and offered ARES full support to them in whatever they required. They were receptive to our support and we will work closely with them during this time of uncertainty in MEMA/RACES operations. We offer the same support to all local cities and town RACES/EMA/EOC programs if they request it.

From an Eastern Massachusetts ARES point of view, our support of MEMA and RACES both at the local and regional/state level has been one where they have requested our assistance and we have provided it based on their needs and this just like many other agencies we deal with today. MEMA and RACES at the local and/regional state level are one of a number of clients that we provide support for when requested. Other agencies include:

-National Weather Service Taunton Massachusetts (SKYWARN)
-American Red Cross (As seen in Hurricane Irene)
-Salvation Army
-FEMA Region 1 Federal Response Center (As seen in Hurricane Irene)
-Numerous hospitals (South Shore Hospital, South Coast Hospital chain, Sturdy Memorial Hospital, Gloucester Hospital, Bayside Hospital, Cape Cod Hospital, Nantucket Hospital, Beverly Hospital, among others)

From a MEMA and RACES point of view, it appears the agency is going through some administrative and organizational review at this time. This could be driven by any number of factors including the economic concerns, budget cuts and other things that we may not necessarily see from outside of the agency. While it is easy to presume the worst and assume that MEMA no longer needs RACES or Amateur Radio, that is only one of several potential outcomes here. In addition, even if that outcome occurs, we have multiple agencies that we are supporting as highlighted above and local EOCs will need to be interoperable with the above agencies. Amateur Radio can support these needs to provide situational awareness and disaster intelligence information and to be there when all else fails which has been our 2 most critical missions for many years now. There is also the possibility that MEMA is just looking for a change in how Amateur Radio interfaces with their agency and they need time to sort out those changes.

What we ask from all of you at this time is your patience and support. The leaders within RACES and ARES will work to find out the operational changes at MEMA when they are ready to discuss it and what impacts that they will have on Amateur Radio operations with their agency going forward. It is noted that local EMA Directors and other Public Safety officials are also noting these different operational changes and have similar concerns as we do. It is not just RACES and Amateur Radio being impacted by these operational changes. We (meaning the ARES/RACES leadership) will keep folks informed as we learn of new information and give guidance prior to the October Statewide RACES Nets and the monthly Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net that immediately follows the RACES Nets.

For now, we ask Amateurs involved in ARES/RACES/SKYWARN/MARS and any other form of EMCOMM to continue to do what they’ve always done. As I’ve told several new recruits for ARES in the past few weeks, the following items are very helpful in getting more involved with emergency communications:

-Any Public Service Events (even though these events are not typically ARES events) that you may participate in. Quite often, our ARES/RACES/SKYWARN/MARS folks are those that help in Public service.
-Participation in the monthly ARES Nets (essentially checking in when possible on the ARES Nets monthly)
-Participation in the monthly RACES Nets for RACES personnel
-Answering calls for availability for potential ops when we place ARES on stand-by for ARES people.
-Participation in EMCOMM workshops when we offer them (typically a couple times per year and scattered about the section).
-Participation in SKYWARN Training when offered.
-Participation in online FEMA ICS classes and other FEMA online training class offerings.
-Participation in SKYWARN Nets when active for your local area.
-Updating your training record in the ARES Database for ARES members in the section

We appreciate everyone’s support during Hurricane Irene and in the routine nets, drills and public service events. I would like to note that the ARRL has requested a write-up on Hurricane Irene for the ARES E-Letter to be posted next week and its great to be considered for the next ARES E-Letter to help promote the great work that was done during Hurricane Irene to the national Amateur Radio community. Thanks to all for their efforts and we look forward to your continued support!

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