Emergency Communications

Emergency communications and the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES®)

Emergency Communications / NTS / Operating

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net – Monday October 5th, 2020 – 830 PM EDT

- by kd1cy - Leave a Comment

Hello to all…

The October Eastern Massachusetts ARES section net will be Monday October 5th, 2020 at 830 PM on the MMRA Repeater system.

For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1:

http://www.mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_index_by_linkstate.html

We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net. For tonight’s ARES Net, the focus will be on participation in a MARS exercise taking place through October 24th, the Eastern Mass ARES SET for Saturday 11/14/20 timed with a national Red Cross exercise, the New England ARES Academy scheduled throughout the month of October and the release of the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Plan as of last week.

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
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Emergency Communications / Operating

Eastern MA Hospital Net Cancelled for October 3, 2020

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

John O’Neill, K1JRO, writes on the Eastern MA Hospital Net mailing list:

Due to technical difficulties, I was unable to send out a notice for the October EMHN with enough advance notice to everyone involved. 

Therefore, we will not be holding a Net this month.  I hope to have our email issues resolved soon.

Regards,

John O’
K1JRO

South Shore Health Amateur Radio Group
55 Fogg Rd. Mail-Stop 42
South Weymouth, MA 02190

Emergency Communications / Licensing Education & Training

HamXposition / New England ARES Academy Schedule

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment
(Updated October 1, 2020)

 

The first-ever New England Division ARES Academy, originally scheduled for the Division Convention in November, will instead be held over a period of several weeks in October via Zoom. There are five Basic Track classes for those just getting started, and more advanced classes and workshops for those who already have the basics. One-hour classes will be held on weeknights from 7:30 to 8:30, and two-hour workshop sessions will be held Saturday mornings from 9:00 to 11:00.

A big benefit of the on-line schedule is the opportunity to take every single class and workshop instead of having to pick and choose. Weeknight class participants will be able to ask questions and interact with the instructor via chat. The two-hour Saturday workshops are designed to be even more interactive. Academy Instructors are all recognized experts in their subject area.

The NE-ARES Academy is an outgrowth of the successful NH-ARES Academy program that ran at the NH State Fire Academy for eight years. The program’s goal is to offer both basic and advanced skills training based in ARRL ARES training standards.

We plan to continue this program at the Convention once the pandemic is over, in hopes that building a standardized base of training across New England will enhance our ability to provide better local emergency communications, and an effective ARESMAT (ARES Mutual Assistance Team) response across the region, and beyond.

NE ARES Academy Schedule(All classes will be conducted online using Zoom) 

Academy coordinator Dave Colter, WA1ZCN, was the original editor and principal author of ARRL’s Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Course series in the early 2000s, and creator of the original NH-ARES Academy. He is currently ASEC-Training for NH-ARES.

 

Emergency Communications

Northern Florida ARES Requests Clear Frequencies for HF Nets

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

QST de W1AW 
ARRL Bulletin 23  ARLB023
From ARRL Headquarters 
Newington CT  September 16, 2020
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB023
ARLB023 Northern Florida ARES Requests Clear Frequencies for HF Nets

Northern Florida Section Emergency Coordinator Karl Martin, K4HBN, is requesting that stations not directly involved in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) response to Hurricane Sally please avoid 3.950 MHz (primary) and 7.242 MHz (backup).

ARES has activated in four Northern Florida counties. Shelters are open, and power and telecommunications outages are widespread, Martin reports.

NNNN
/EX

Emergency Communications

5-MHz Interoperability Channels Designated for Wildfires and Hurricane Sally Response

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

From ARRL Web:

09/15/2020 – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has announced that two 60-meter channels have been made available, as necessary, for interoperability between US Government stations and US amateur radio stations involved in emergency communications related to the wildland firefighting response in California, Oregon, and Washington, and to Hurricane Sally. These interoperability channels will remain active until the need for these channels no longer exists:

  • Channel 1 — primary voice traffic 5332 kHz channel center, 5330.5 kHz USB voice
  • Channel 2 — digital traffic 5348 kHz channel center, 5346.5 kHz USB with 1.5-kHz offset to center of digital waveform.

Frequencies may be modified or added to by FEMA Region 10 for their area or operations due to existing 5-MHz/60-meter interoperability plans for their region.

Amateur radio is secondary on the 5-MHz band and should yield to operational traffic related to wildland firefighting and hurricane response. Although the intended use for these channels is interoperability between federal government stations and licensed US amateur radio stations, federal government stations are primary users and amateurs are secondary users.

The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) is following FEMA’s lead on the interoperability channel designations for the wildfire and hurricane response. Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, says he has alerted all MARS members of the FEMA channel designations and MARS members are prepared to support response efforts as needed.   

Emergency Communications / NTS / Operating / Public Service

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net – Monday 9/14/2020 at 830 PM EDT

- by kd1cy - Leave a Comment

Hello to all…

The September Eastern Massachusetts ARES section net will be Monday September 14th, 2020 at 830 PM on the MMRA Repeater system.

For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1:

http://www.mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_index_by_linkstate.html

We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net. For tonight’s ARES Net, the focus will be on several announcements on upcoming events and documentation forthcoming along with the posting of exercise reports via email and the Eastern Mass ARRL/ARES section web site which were delayed due to numerous ARES-SKYWARN activations during August. We will also give a brief COVID-19 update.

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
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Emergency Communications

“Communication is Key as MARS Auxiliarists Refine Skills”

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photo of participant in recent MARS nationwide exerciseFrom army.mil:

“…The MARS Auxiliarists were tasked with collecting three different kinds of reports,” said English. “They collected county status reports from across the U.S. by interfacing with the amateur radio community; airport weather reports, called METARS, from select airports across CONUS and finally road closure reports.  In total, MARS Ops collected 1,400 city and county status reports; 424 METARSs [Meteorological Terminal Air Reports]; and 190 road closure reports.” [Full story]

Emergency Communications / Technical

WK4 – Winlink Radio Soundcard Interface Workshop, August 13, 2020

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

Please plan to attend the Thursday, August  13 ARES Zoom session. 

9:00 PM AST / 9:00 PM EDT / 8:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM MDT / 6:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM AKDT / 3:00 PM HST

Topic: WK4 – Winlink Radio Soundcard Interface 
Speaker:  Kevin Custer W3KKC

Thursday’s meeting will be OPEN for all to attend. Please feel free to invite others. Please note that we have a Zoom participate limitation of 500.  Let us know if you can’t get in so that we can send you the video link. 

  • This meeting will be recorded. By participating you consent to being recorded. 
  • Please change your display name to Your FirstName, CallSign and Location, e.g. Dan K7REX Idaho
  • Please stay muted until ready to speak. Your space bar works like a PTT for unmuting
  • To be fair to everyone, there will be a three minute limit for each person during Q & A
  • You may ask questions in chat; please stay on topic while using chat.  

[For Zoom conference details, email Tom Walsh, K1TW at k1tw@arrl.org or Phil Temples, K9HI, at k9hi@arrl.org.]

Emergency Communications / Organization

ARRL Hires Paul Z. Gilbert, KE5ZW, as Director of Emergency Management

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

ARRL logoFrom ARRL web:

As another step in ARRL’s increased focus on strengthening its emergency communications capabilities and long-standing working relationships with federal and state agencies and private emergency response organizations, ARRL has hired Paul Z. Gilbert, KE5ZW, of Cedar Park, Texas, as its first Director of Emergency Management.

Gilbert brings more than 30 years of experience in public service in both his professional and amateur radio endeavors. Beginning with his appointment as Emergency Coordinator in 1987, he has held multiple positions in the ARRL Field Organization. Currently in his second term as South Texas Section Manager, he has also served for more than a decade as the West Gulf Division’s Assistant Director for Public Service, acting as liaison between Division leadership and local, state, and federal emergency management organizations.

Professionally, Gilbert most recently was Radio Officer, HQ Staff, for the Texas State Guard, where for the past 6 years he has been responsible for planning and implementation of the organization’s communications capabilities. Previously he was a Public Safety Radio Coordinator for a Texas agency, charged with overseeing that organization’s large-scale disaster communications response and identifying and eliminating in-state interoperability issues.

Gilbert, who has an Amateur Extra-class license, is a member of Army MARS, and holds numerous DHS certifications, including COML, COMT, COMT Instructor, and AUXCOM Communicator. He is a member of the FEMA Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG), a graduate of the FEMA Emergency Management Institute’s Exercise Design Course, and was a founding member of the Texas Division of Emergency Management Communications Coordination Group.

In his new role, Gilbert will manage a team responsible for supporting ARRL Emergency Communications (EmComm) programs and services, including the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) and National Traffic System (NTS), as well as lead the continued modernization of those programs in consonance with the future emergency communications needs of the public and ARRL’s key partners.

Emergency Communications

Annual Cape Cod ARES Summer Communications Exercise: “Operation Windbreaker,” August 8, 2020

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O, writes on Facebook:

Cape and Islands conducted its annual summer field communications exercise on Saturday, August 8, 2020. Exercise #68 “Operation Windbreaker” had three primary field sites, several individual field ops and several home stations. The main sites were: outside the Sandwich Human Services Building, outside of Falmouth Hospital, and in Eastham near Larry, K1LRJ, home area.

VHF signals were excellent. The HF voice operation went quite well with our Cape/Islands stations as well as the off-Cape stations that hosted a 75-meter net over 75 miles away in another part of MA. Digital modes on HF had mixed results due to some glitches, but a couple of stations did well.

In Sandwich we had a crew of five including a couple of our new folks, Jermy, KC1NGL, from Sandwich Fire; Dennis, N1RDN, from Sandwich CERT; and Jason, KC1MLQ, from Yarmouth. Our 440 MHz simplex backchannel (was diplexed off our main dual band antenna to two radios) with the Falmouth field site worked even better than expected.

My thanks to all of our people who participated and special thanks to those off Cape stations that conducted the net, as well as stations that contacted us from various locations.

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117009304_10217477029492756_8553587761451727816_o
117303436_10217477029732762_3469080335312324875_o
117036418_10217477028252725_7430027067090998070_o
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117402536_10217477026092671_5698352785610624015_o

[Show slideshow]
Emergency Communications / Public Service

Eastern MA Hospital Net, August 1, 2020

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

John O’Neill, K1JRO, writes:

We would like to thank the group at Mansfield EMA for once again stepping up and offering to be Net Control for the Eastern MA Hospital Net. The August 1, 2020 Eastern MA Hospital Net will from the Mansfield EMA and the Net Control Operator will be Bob, WB1GON.

The Net will commence as usual at 10 AM.

He will use the following repeaters in the order listed, followed by a simplex test on 147.420, and then return to the Mansfield repeater for net closing:

Mansfield         147.015 / tone 67
Bridgewater     147.180 / tone 67
Attleboro          147.195 / tone 127.3

Regards, 

John O’ – K1JRO 

Emergency Communications / NTS / Operating / Public Service

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net – Monday July 6th 2020 at 830 PM EDT

- by kd1cy - Leave a Comment

Hello to all…

The July Eastern Massachusetts ARES section net will be Monday July 6th, 2020 at 830 PM on the MMRA Repeater system.

For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1:

http://www.mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_index_by_linkstate.html

We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net. For tonight’s ARES Net, we will do a brief review of severe weather events that have affected the section particularly in the last week and provide a brief COVID-19-Update as we continue to monitor this health emergency from a communications needs perspective and what you can do as ARES volunteers or general Amateur Radio Operators during this health emergency to prepare for any communications issues during this time. A link to a document that we had created for ARES awareness in April 2020 is available at the following link:

https://ema.arrl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Eastern-Massachusetts-ARES-COVID-19-Update.pdf

A reminder that a report on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES exercise will be available by Monday July 13th 2020 and will be posted via email and on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Web Site at https://ema.arrl.org/ares. 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
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Emergency Communications

MARS Announces HF Skills Exercise, July 20-24, 2020

- by k9hi - 1 Comment
From ARRL Web:

Members of the Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) will conduct an HF skills exercise July 20 – 24 to hone their operating skills and messaging-handling capabilities.

MARS members will be reaching out to the amateur radio community via the 60-meters Channel 1 Net (5330.5 kHz dial) twice a day, the SATERN HF net (14.265 MHz), and by contacting various stations via HFLink throughout the exercise. MARS members will be requesting assistance with collecting county status information as well as airport weather information, called METARs. MARS members will also be passing ICS 213 messages to numerous Department of Defense (DoD), federal, and amateur radio addressees.

This exercise will be announced via WWV at 00:10 and via WWVH at 00:50 starting on or about July 13. WWV and WWVH listeners will be asked to take an online listener survey. This HF radio training event will not impact regular communications. — Thanks to Paul English, Chief, Army MARS 

Emergency Communications / Operating / Public Service

July Eastern MA Hospital Net Cancelled Due to Independence Day Holiday

- by kd1cy - Leave a Comment

John O’Neill-K1JRO writes:

Good Evening Everyone,

My apologies for the very late note.

Where the first Saturday of July is holiday, we will not have a Net this month. We will have a Net in August. A notice will be sent out about the August Net well in advance.

I hope everyone has a safe and fun 4th.

Regards,

John O’ – K1JRO

South Shore Health Amateur Radio Group – W1SSH
55 Fogg Road, Box 42
South Weymouth, MA 02190

Emergency Communications / Field Day

Severe Weather & Amateur Radio Field Day Weekend Coordination Message #5

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment
SKYWARN logoThe following is the fifth and final message in a series of messages on Amateur Radio Field Day Weekend and providing information on the weather during this period. This is a tradition spanning over 17 years for Amateur Radio Operators involved with Field Day and the NWS Boston/Norton SKYWARN Program.
 
After the Saturday afternoon and early evening beneficial rain of around 0.10″-0.90″ around the area with lesser amounts in parts of Northeast Massachusetts, Sunday will feature a warm and humid day with the potential for isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms across the region. The most likely timeframe is from 3-9 PM but some activity could start as early as 12-1 PM Sunday. [Full story]
Emergency Communications / Field Day

Severe Weather & Amateur Radio Field Day Weekend Coordination Message #4

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment
SKYWARN logoThe following is the fourth in a series of messages on Amateur Radio Field Day Weekend and providing information on the weather during this period. This is a tradition spanning over 17 years for Amateur Radio Operators involved with Field Day and the NWS Boston/Norton SKYWARN Program.
 
After the afternoon and early evening beneficial rain of around 0.10″-0.90″ around the area with lesser amounts in parts of Northeast Massachusetts, clearing will occur and result in a hazy, warm, humid day on Sunday with the risk of isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms for Sunday Afternoon and Evening. The most likely timeframe is from 3-9 PM but some activity could start as early as 12-1 PM Sunday.
 

The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has placed much of New England in a marginal risk for severe weather for Sunday afternoon and evening. Strong to damaging winds, hail, and torrential rainfall leading to urban and poor drainage flooding are the main threats. Model trends indicate a greater potential for severe weather on Sunday than today with strong instability, forcing from a cold front and marginally sufficient wind fields. [Full story]

Emergency Communications / Field Day

Severe Weather & Amateur Radio Field Day Weekend Coordination Message #3

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment
SKYWARN logoThe following is the third in a series of messages on Amateur Radio Field Day Weekend and providing information on the weather during this period. This is a tradition spanning over 17 years for Amateur Radio Operators involved with Field Day and the NWS Boston/Norton SKYWARN Program.
 
2020 Field Day weekend will mostly be dry but has potential shower and thunderstorm risks in isolated to scattered locations each day including the threat for isolated to scattered strong to severe thunderstorms and becoming hot and humid Saturday and Sunday.
 
The Storm Prediction Center (SPC) has continued much of Southern New England in a Marginal Risk for Severe Weather. The Slight risk area has been shifted southwest of the NWS Norton coverage area. Doppler Radar at 1115 AM shows an area of rain and possible embedded thunderstorms that poses little severe risk. It will then become warmer and more humid late Saturday Afternoon and evening. Clearing behind this area of rain will determine the risk for any severe weather Saturday. If clearing and heating can develop and the warm front pass far enough north, there would be the potential for strong to severe thunderstorms with strong to damaging winds, hail and torrential rainfall leading to urban and poor drainage flooding as the main threats but a secondary threat for an isolated tornado as well. That said, the risk for today seems a bit lower than yesterday based on model trends and the timing of the current area of rain but still be monitored. [Full story]
Emergency Communications

National Zoom Meeting: Winlink Express for EmComm, June 25, 2020

- by k9hi - Leave a Comment

Please join the Thursday, June 25, 2020 ARES ZOOM meeting at 0100Z – Zoom info shown below. 

9:00 PM AST / 9:00 PM EDT / 8:00 PM CT / 7:00 PM MDT / 6:00 PM PDT / 5:00 PM AKDT / 3:00 PM HST

Topic: Winlink Express for EmComm, from the Winlink Development Team

Speaker:  Phil Sherrod, W4PHS

Phil is a career software developer, a member of the Winlink Development Team and BOD member of ARSFI.

His work on the Winlink team involves developing and supporting the Winlink Express client program, and the programs used by RMS (Trimode, RMS Relay, RMS Packet).  Phil is the designer of the Winlink Hybrid Network System.

This Zoom meeting is intended for ARRL section emergency coordinators, section managers, district directors, vice directors, and others involved with disaster communications. 

June 26, 2020 UPDATE:

 

Click on the following link to view Thursday June 25  Zoom meeting.  https://vimeo.com/432903722

Click on the below link if you choose to download this video instead.  

https://vimeo.com/user107547861/download/432903722/91e0b9d70b

Click on the below link to download Thursday’s Winlink presentation by Phil Sherrod, W4PHS

 

Please note:  This Zoom session on Winlink exceeded our Zoom 500 participant limitation quickly, leaving many without access.  Please forward this email to make sure everyone that wants to view it, gets a copy. 

Emergency Communications / NTS / Operating / Public Service

June Eastern Massachusetts Hospital Net Canceled

- by kd1cy - Leave a Comment

John O’Neill – K1JRO writes:

Good Evening Everyone,

My apologies for the late notice. I was hoping that one of the members from the SSHARG would be able to take the net this month. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Therefore, the June 6 EMHN is cancelled.

I believe that with the next phased re-opening on June 8th, Massachusetts health care facilities will be asking their locked-out volunteers to return. Once this happens, we can all get back into our shacks. If all goes well, SSHARG will be able to include Winlink and DMR testing in the monthly net soon.

73’s Stay Safe,
John O’Neill – K1JRO

South Shore Health Amateur Radio Group – W1SSH
55 Fogg Road, Box 42
South Weymouth, MA 02190

Emergency Communications / NTS / Operating / Public Service

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net – Monday 6/1/2020 at 830 PM EDT

- by kd1cy - Leave a Comment

Hello to all…

The June Eastern Massachusetts ARES section net will be Monday June 1st, 2020 at 830 PM on the MMRA Repeater system.

For frequencies that will be linked into the ARES Net on the MMRA Network, please see the following link from the MMRA web site detailing the repeaters that will be linked in through Hub 1:

http://www.mmra.org/repeaters/repeater_index_by_linkstate.html

We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net. For tonight’s ARES Net, we will discuss the start of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season and provide a brief COVID-19-Update as we continue to monitor this health emergency from a communications needs perspective and what you can do as ARES volunteers or general Amateur Radio Operators during this health emergency to prepare for any communications issues during this time. A link to a document that we had created for ARES awareness in April 2020 is available at the following link:

https://ema.arrl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Eastern-Massachusetts-ARES-COVID-19-Update.pdf

We will also review the recent training and exercise activities during the month of May. Reports on those events will be posted via email and on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Web Site at https://ema.arrl.org/ares. 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
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