Author: admin

Hello to all..

While this may be a bit off topic for some SKYWARN Spotters, Amateur Radio Operators and Red Cross volunteers, many of which are SKYWARN Spotters, will be involved in the Boston Marathon on Monday April 20th. To reach out to the highest level of Amateur Radio Operators involved in the event, this coordination message is being sent out to the SKYWARN email list. We appreciate everyone’s patience with this message. This is likely to be the only coordination message on the Marathon unless a significant change in the weather forecast occurs. See information below:

Eastern Massachusetts ARES will be in Stand-by Mode from Monday April 20th from 7 AM-7 PM for any significant issues outside of the Boston Marathon that may require Amateur Radio Emergency Communications support and for any unexpected issues on the Boston Marathon route. If this message is not updated during the day on Monday, the stand-by mode will expire at 7 PM once marathon activities are completed. With over 300 Amateur Radio Operators staffing the Boston Marathon route, the start line and the finish line, if an issue arises needing Amateur Radio support outside of the Marathon route or an unexpected issue arises in marathon operations, it is important that any ARES members not involved in the marathon can help with any response that is required. The Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net Control Center at the town of Bridgewater EOC will be active to backup any issues at marathon net control and monitor any events within the marathon and outside of the marathon. A second backup to marathon operations will be in Walpole as done in years past.

ARES Stand-By mode means ARES members should monitor the Eastern Massachusetts ARES web site for any updates and potential mobilization and have their go-kits ready in case a deployment is required. Do not self-deploy. Please wait feedback from appropriate ARES leadership before deployment and be ready in case deployment is required. In past years for the marathon, no deployment has been required but it is an honor to be prepared in case one is required and good practice for future operations where a stand-by mode becomes an actual deployment as was the case in the December 2008 ice storm.

The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) UCC (Unified Command Center) at the SEOC (State Emergency Operations Center) will be active for the Boston Marathon. Amateur Radio Operators will be at the SEOC to support backup operations while many agencies will be there performing primary operations for the marathon. A Press Release from MEMA can be seen at the following link:

http://ares.ema.arrl.org/old/local/News_Release_UCC_2009.doc

The weather outlook for the Boston Marathon is one that should be favorable for the runners but a bit cool for the volunteers participating in supporting the marathon. The Weather Forecast across the Boston Marathon is for mostly sunny conditions from morning into a portion of the afternoon followed by increasing cloudiness. There will be a 10-15 MPH breeze with gusts of 20-25 MPH along the route. At this time, rain is expected to hold off until Monday Night with most of the rainfall expected to occur late Monday Night into Tuesday Morning. Temperatures will range from the upper 40s to around 50 degrees. This means that conditions for the runners should be reasonable with an ‘average’ amount of ambulance requests along the route versus some prior years where warmer weather conditions resulted in some of the highest amounts of ambulance requests since Amateur Radio Operators have handled the event.

For Amateur Radio, Red Cross and all other volunteers along the route, it is recommended that you dress in layers for this event so that you can put on or take off clothes as needed for comfort. Be sure to drink liquids and eat properly during the event and that you are self-sufficient so that you can be of a full help to the function and not distract everyone from the main purpose of supporting the runners by having a health issue on your end that can be avoided. Rain is expected to hold off until Monday Evening but it may be wise to bring ‘light’ rain gear in case the rain moves in sooner than expected. It is likely that as the sun is dimmed by increasing clouds conditions may feel cooler than when the day starts and conditions are sunny.

Barring a significant change in the weather forecast, this will be the only coordination message on the Boston Marathon. We appreciate everyone’s support in this event and hope those that volunteer enjoy themselves and feel the self-satisifcation of supporting this historic event and those that are monitoring the Marathon or events outside of the Marathon realize that the monitoring is an important function as well and is a testament to being able to scale other incidents beyond the marathon if required. Thanks to all for their support!

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

For continued growth in an organization, changes are needed to create depth and further growth and to establish leadership succession and support for existing leadership when unavailable. Several individuals within the Eastern Massachusetts ARES program have provided robust support of the program and have been doing work above and beyond their responsibility. In addition, other individuals within the program are doing an excellent job within their role and we recognize their contributions within the Eastern Massachusetts ARES program and the fact that they will continue in their roles working together with others within the Eastern Massachusetts ARES program that will have an increased role within the program. We also realize that none of this would be possible without the ARES members, Assistant Emergency Coordinators, Emergency Coordinators and Assistant District Emergency Coordinators who work hard to support the program. To support the organization going forward, the following organizational changes will be made effective immediately.

 

Carl Aveni-N1FY will be moved into the role of Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator. Through his working relationship with the Bridgewater EMA Director, Herb Lemon-KC1ZW, Eastern Massachusetts ARES has had full access to the town of Bridgewater EOC to be utilized as a net control center for drills, ARES/storm activations, and other events such as the Democratic National Convention in 2004 and the Operation Atlas Drill in 2005. Carl has been working on projects involving area hospitals and has also been a tremendous supporter of operations at the National Weather Service in Taunton and has been a main alternate contact for NWS Taunton operations. He has also built a solid South Shore ARES program with the assistance of several ARES Emergency Coordinators and assistants. Carl has recently retired after over 30 years with the Brockton VA Hospital and has devoted much of his spare time to projects within Eastern Massachusetts ARES as well as the Eastern Massachusetts section staff. We are very appreciative to Carl for accepting this new role.

 

Jim Palmer-KB1KQW will also be moved into the role of Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator. Jim Palmer is a younger Amateur who has done a superb job in his role assisting Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF with North Shore ARES and assisting the NWS Taunton and Gray Maine SKYWARN programs. In addition, Jim served as the ARESMAT Coordinator for the Gardner ARESMAT during the major ice storm of December 11^th-12^th 2008 and supported operations from the Massachusetts State EOC during the recovery phase of the ice storm. Jim brings youth and enthusiasm to the program and has assisted me in many ways and both the ARES and SKYWARN programs would not be where they are without his assistance not only to Eric-KA1NCF but to myself as well and we are glad that Jim has accepted this position.

 

Eric Horwitz-KA1NCF will continue in his role as North Shore ARES District Emergency Coordinator (DEC). As many folks across the section and in particular the North Shore are aware, Eric and Jim have had a very good working relationship over the years. This organizational move reflects the strength of this working relationship in that Eric was willing to have Jim accept this role when I asked and Jim will act much in the way some managers do in professional circles where he will continue to work under Eric on North Shore ARES matters but assist the section when the SEC is unavailable and at my direction when needed and Eric will support Jim in that capacity when needed. This is no way a bad reflection on Eric and his leadership but an understanding of what Eric has to balance from a personal/family/career versus volunteer work perspective. In addition, this is much in the way Mike Neilsen and I have operated with Mike as Section Manager and myself as SEC. Many times Mike has acted in a capacity where I was in the lead and the opposite has been true in other matters. The plan is for a similar relationship to exist with Jim in his Assistant SEC role and Eric continuing in his North Shore ARES DEC role and I am thankful to both of them for their support and allowing this arrangement to take place as it is very much needed to grow the organization and to allow us to sustain the momentum of our program.

 

Phil McNamara-N1XTB has accepted the role of South Shore ARES DEC covering much of Southeast Massachusetts. Phil has been working very hard with Carl to build the South Shore ARES program and to also be a liaison to the various military branches of the Military Affiliated Radio System (MARS). Phil has also been the key provider and technologist of our Eastern Massachusetts ARES database that was used significantly during the Ice Storm ARESMAT and to track the growth and sustainability of our program and the resources that Eastern Massachusetts ARES has as a section and we are working to expand this to be a complete EMCOMM database that involves all interested parties and programs. Phil has also been working with several towns and groups in Southeast Massachusetts including Plymouth, Duxbury, Carver and Middleboro to establish Amateur Radio support in these areas. Clearly, Phil has stepped up to perform a role that is more like an ARES DEC versus his current EC role and Phil has graciously accepted to step up and perform this duty for our section.

 

Frank O’Laughlin-WQ1O is continuing in his role as Cape Cod and Islands ARES District Emergency Coordinator and remains a critical part of our organization. Frank has seen a significant expansion to his program with several Amateur Radio classes done resulting in many new Amateurs on Cape Cod and right after those Amateur Radio classes have taken place, Frank has led Amateur Radio EMCOMM classes for those new Amateurs. Frank recently conducted a Cape Cod ARES cold weather drill in January and continues the weekly Cape Cod ARES Net on the 146.955 MHz Barnstable Repeater. Frank O’Laughlin and Dan Howard-K1DYO also assisted the Massachusetts State EOC operations in the recovery phase of the December Ice Storm. We will continue to work closely with Frank in his role in the Eastern Massachusetts ARES program.

 

Steve Telsey-N1BDA is continuing in his role as Middlesex County ARES District Emergency Coordinator. Steve also continues his role as managing the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net that meets on the first Monday of each month (except for first Monday of the month holidays). Steve has assisted with activities for the Northern Middlesex County ARES group and has supported getting CERT members their Amateur Radio license across areas bordering the metro Boston area. Steve also supported Massachusetts State EOC operations during the recovery phase of the December Ice Storm as well.

 

Steve Schwarm-W3EVE is continuing in his role as Field Operations DEC and assisting with Norfolk County as required. Steve has also supported operations during the recovery phase of the December Ice Storm and also supported Hurricane Matt drill operations from NWS Taunton in August of 2008. Steve is still a resource that is available to support Eastern Massachusetts ARES as required.

 

Blake Haskell-K1BTH is continuing in his role as Metro Boston ARES DEC. Blake, who has recovered from some illnesses, continues to work with various agencies in the Boston area including Boston Emergency Management and the Strategic National Stockpile as well as a few hospitals in the Metro Boston area. Blake will be continuing to grow these relationships and will work to add more depth to the Metro Boston ARES organization now that he has recovered from his illnesses.

 

Mark Duff-KB1EKN is continuing in his role as Public Safety Liaison DEC. Mark has been assisting the Eastern Massachusetts ARES staff in this advisory role to give us a perspective on the public safety side of what is happening and how it could affect the Amateur Radio community given his role as Fire Chief of the town of Hingham. He also advises the staff of organizational changes on the public safety side and any impact on the Amateur Radio community and advises if any cities or towns are interested in support from the Amateur Radio community so we can involve appropriate folks from both RACES and ARES to support those areas.

 

We have a number of ARES Emergency Coordinators and Assistant District Emergency Coordinators who will continue in their roles as well. We would not be successful without these individuals and we appreciate all of their efforts as well. If additional individuals would like to step up in these roles, please contact the ARES DEC, our new Assistant Section Emergency Coordinators or myself for assistance. We also have a few folks that we’ve identified for some of these roles that we will be working with over the next few weeks.

 

We also have over 400 ARES members across our section. Without all of you, none of the leadership organizational changes that we have made would matter, as it’s all of you that help us be successful and make a difference. We appreciate all of your support of Eastern Massachusetts ARES and the NWS Taunton SKYWARN program and look forward to continue to work with you and support all of you in making Eastern Massachusetts ARES the best it can be.

 

Finally, I would like to encourage new folks that are interested in Eastern Massachusetts ARES to please fill out the ARES Registration Form off of our Eastern Massachusetts ARES web site and contact your local EC, DEC, ASEC or SEC with questions or assistance on the program. For existing ARES members that are in the database, I encourage you to login and make sure your contact information is updated and that you create a training record to track your training and list any equipment resources you have available. A link to both the Eastern Massachusetts ARES web site and the Eastern Massachusetts ARES registration form and database are listed below:

 

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Registration Form and Database: https://secure.ema.arrl.org/ares/ARES_about

 

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Web Site:

http://ares.ema.arrl.org/

 

Thanks to all of you for your support of Eastern Massachusetts ARES. We hope these organizational changes will recruit more Amateurs to get involved with ARES and SKYWARN and provide the leadership growth, succession and depth required to continue to the strengthen the program.

 

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

 

 

Hello to all….

First of all, I would like to mention that our Eastern Massachusetts ARES Stand-by for the Ice Storm and subsequent winter storms has now ended. While the storm currently in progress, may cause strong winds and wind damage across portions of the Southeast part of the Eastern Massachusetts section, it is not expected to cause issues significant enough to require ARES support except to support SKYWARN reporting per the SKYWARN reporting criteria.

I would like to take a moment to wish everyone in RACES, ARES, SKYWARN, MARS and in EMCOMM in general a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holiday season. We had another year of successes in public service thanks to all of your efforts and I look forward to working with many of you again in 2009.

We completed several EMCOMM Workshops over the area including an Advanced Workshop in April in Walpole, Massachusetts, a basic workshop in Concord, Massachusetts and another basic workshop in Peabody, Massachusetts. The workshops were very successful and have continued to promote an interest in EMCOMM across the region. The Cape Cod ARES group has conducted a workshop over a course of weeknights for several weeks for CERT Teams that have recently gotten their Ham Radio licenses.

We had a very successful hurricane exercise in early August where we had voice command and tactical nets on HF, Echolink/IRLP and 2 Meter/440 voice with traffic flow between the nets bolted together using Winlink. It went extremely well and a complete report was sent to ARRL Headquarters and various state emergency management teams. It will be posted on the web by the start of the new year.

Many in ARES, RACES and MARS supported SKYWARN in an unusually active year that featured the most active summer severe weather season in years. The Ice Storm also resulted in a significant level of support for SKYWARN and for local, regional and state Emergency Management. An Amateur Radio Emergency Services Mutual Aid Team (ARESMAT) was deployed for the first time since the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks and was the largest ARESMAT deployment since those terrorist attacks.

Thanks to all of you for your support and cooperation over the course of 2008 and I look forward to working with you in 2009. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all!!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton Massachusetts