Emergency Communications

Eastern MA ARES has been placed on stand-by for all areas in the section, effective 0600 ET Tuesday, March 14, 2017 until canceled, due to potential impacts from the forecasted storm/blizzard.

Good afternoon Everyone,

I would like to thank those who participated in last Saturdays Eastern MA Hospital Net. We had 17 participants covering the area from the Elliot Hospital in New Hampshire all the way down to Dukes County Emergency Management on Martha’s Vineyard. I think this was our largest Net turnout and the largest geographic area covered to date. Our group and the repeaters available for our use continues to grow. 

Good Afternoon Everyone, 

Net Control for the February 4, 2017 Eastern MA Hospital Net will be W1SSH The South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club

The February Net will include the newest addition to the repeaters available for our use, the Boston Amateur Radio Club’s W1BOS repeater located in Boston. Hopefully everyone that didn’t already have it programmed into their radios will have an opportunity to program it in or bring it up in VFO mode for the February Net. It will be exciting to see how many participants are able to use this repeater. 

The net will commence at the usual time of 10:AM using the following repeaters in the order listed.

K1JRO

Ray Cord, K2TGX writes on the SMH ARC list:

If you know of anyone looking to get their Technician Ham License. Gary KB1KA will be starting a class on Wednesday Jan 11th at 7:00PM – 9:30PM in Conference Room A,B,C at the Hospital. It will run for 9 weeks and will end with a test session. There is no cost for the class but the student must buy the class text /workbook for $30.00

Interested people may email Gary directly at kb1ka@cox.net.

You and your teams are invited to participate in the NH ARES SET – 5 Nov from 0800-1300.

Two-layered SET

Goals:

1) Test message handling skills
2) Exercise new ARESMAT procedures,
3) Move messages “out of the area.”
4) Stand up and operate two HF nets at the same time.

Exercise Plan:

1) Systems to be utilized and tested: HF Section nets, local VHF nets, NTS, Winlink
2) Repeaters will be operational until 10:30 am, and then all will fail, forcing all operations to go simplex. Repeaters should actually be shut down where possible, and ops will move to repeater output frequency, or to a simplex frequency as listed in Attachment A if a shutdown is not feasible.
3) All stations will be encouraged to operate on battery or generator power from 10:30am until exercise termination.
4) Two HF nets – Section Net to handle traffic, Resource Net to handle ARESMAT coordination – Liaison stations required for each net.
5) Give groups an opportunity to set up field HF stations to simulate ARESMAT volunteer reception centers
6) Precipitating disaster: Large category 5 hurricane that zeroes in on Hampton Beach before veering northward and ripping up the center of the state. No counties are spared, stretching all our resources very thin.

Layer 1 – External communications with ARC National HQ, FEMA, NWS via usual net structure

Specific assigned stations will simulate National Red Cross, FEMA and NWS to receive and originate messages on the Section Net. Local stations can simulate shelters or agency sites. Messages should include:

a) SITREPS
b) Support requests and replies

Layer 2 – ARESMAT manpower and resource requests via Section HF Resource Net

Messages requesting additional ARES operators and resources, messages between ARESMAT volunteer reception centers and Section Resource Net stations regarding:

a) In-Section support requests to SEC
b) NE Division requests
c) ARRL national requests
d) Communications between simulated ARESMAT volunteer reception centers and members of HF Resource Net.

1) Each group will have one member of its leadership team on the HF Resource Net

2) ARESMAT volunteer reception centers will be simulated at Salem I-93 rest area, Lebanon I-89 rest area, Seabrook I-95 State Liquor Store, Keene State Liquor Store,  Pheasant Lane Mall southern overflow parking (actually in MA) (Do not actually set up at any of these locations without permission  – find a suitable similar field location to set up in). HF operation will be required.

3) Messages coordinating our groups’ needs with simulated incoming volunteers from outside the state

Remember that ARESMAT messages are internal – we would be generating these ourselves during an actual disaster.

When playing a role, think about it as though it were real and act accordingly. Don’t forget to begin and end each message and tactical exchange with “This is a drill.”

2016 SET – Key Players

Section Level
HF Traffic & Coordination Net NCS (?)
HF Resource Net NCS (?)
Red Cross – Washington DC HQ simulator (K1PJS)
NWS-Gray simulator (?)
NTS Liaison (?)

Local Level
Section T&C Net Liaison
Section Resource Net Liaison
Agency sites (actual or simulated)
Reception Center Operator on Section Resource Net (if one is in your area)

—————-

2 years ago SECs in NE met in Worcester to discuss common challenges and coordinating response.  One outcome was a draft plan for ARESMAT.  We have incorporated that draft plan into our comm plan and will be testing it this SET.

Some details on the ARESMAT concept:

Layer 1

In past SETs, we’ve focused heavily on in-state agency message traffic. This is because, based on nationwide experience, 99% of the agency message traffic will be in-state. However, that 1% of traffic to distant agency offices and facilities (Red Cross and FEMA) can be pretty important stuff. Most of these messages will be sent during the very earliest hours after the storm has moved on, before national agency communication resources have been moved in and set up, typically within 72 hours.

Our Section Emergency Communications plan establishes two primary paths out to these agencies – Winlink 2000 radio email, and ARRL’s National Traffic System (NTS). In past years we haven’t exercised these resources to their fullest – this SET changes that. Even though a typical disaster won’t generate a large volume of external agency traffic, this exercise is designed to put stress on those systems and give everyone some practice in utilizing them.

Of course, we won’t be sending traffic to real agency sites – we’ll set up some simulated stations to handle that function.

Layer 2

During a major disaster such as the hurricane we’re using for this SET, many of the resources we assume will be there – us – won’t be. Family needs come first, and sometimes our jobs will require our presence immediately post-disaster. Instead of 250 NH-ARES members available, we might have fewer than 100 state-wide. Perhaps many fewer. Our repeaters will be down, personal equipment damaged or lost, and basic supplies like batteries in short supply.

That’s why we have ARESMAT – the ARES Mutual Assistance Team concept. An ARESMAT is a group of hams dispatched by a neighboring or distant ARES group in response to a call for assistance. They are supposed to be equipped to be self-sufficient so as to not become part of the problem. They are supposed to know what their mission is, where to go, who to contact, and how long they’ll stay before ever leaving home. The reality is that some or all of these things may not be true.

The plan calls for the requesting Section to set up one or more volunteer reception centers at or near the best point of entry to the disaster area. We have identified several, which are listed in the SET plan under Layer 2. ARES groups across the Section would participate in an HF “resource net.” ECs or their designees would send formal messages to the Section official on the net requesting specific resources. He or she would then coordinate with the reception centers to send in appropriate resources as they become available. The HF resource net would operate separately from the regular Section Traffic and Coordination Net, which will continue to do its regular job of moving agency and public message traffic and coordinating the activities of various nets and hotline circuits.

When an ARESMAT team is exiting the state, we would ask them to stop by the reception center on the way out to let the reception center know they were leaving the area. If that was impractical for any reason, they could check into the resource net or contacting the reception center via 2m FM on the way by. We know this will not always be possible, but this is a way to help ensure the safety of ARESMAT responders.

The SET plan asks each group with a potential reception center to simulate opening one from a field location, kind of a mini-Field Day setup. All it has to be is one HF NVIS station on 75m for the resource net, and a 2m station for local communications.

——————

I do hope you can join us.  I also hope this invite and information will reinvigorate the ARESMAT plan discussion.  We still have the draft plan and would be happy to recirculate to SECs for consideration.

73,

Wayne

Wayne W. Santos
N1CKM
SEC
NH ARES
n1ckm@arrl.net
n1ckm78sec@gmail.com
603-856-5459
Twitter: #n1ckm78
www.nh-ares.org

Henry Brown, K1WCC writes on the Falmouth Amateur Radio Association Facebook page:

Emergency Preparedness Fair today, Saturday, October 1

From 10 AM to 2 PM the Falmouth LEPC is presenting its annual Emergency Preparedness Fair at the Gus Canty Building on East Main St. in Falmouth. Falmouth Hospital ARES will be there with a display-hope you get to stop by. We will be actively recruiting for our upcoming Tech License Class.

Eastern MA Section Emergency Coordinator Marek Kozubal, KB1NCG writes:

We will be resuming our monthly ARES Net in October. The monthly ARES Net for October is Monday the 3rd, at 8:30 PM on the MMRA Repeater system. This is after the MEMA Nets earlier in the evening. 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

Make this first Monday of the month, “Emergency Communications Night” and check into your local RACES Net and then check into the ARES Net on the MMRA Repeater System. We look forward to your participation and remember, we are always looking for Net Controls to run the ARES Net.

As part of our relationship with MARS and our own situational awareness gathering we will be asking for any known infrastructure issues that you are aware of. The information must either be personally observed, or obtained “over the air” via amateur radio. Items considered to be infrastructure include but are not limited to: electrical power, water, medical facilities, sanitation, communications, and transportation. Examples of failure would be: small or large area power failure, water main breaks, hospitals’ ER closed, sewage issues, TV/radio station off the air (including public safety), interstate highway or major road closed. No known issues are just as important as reporting failures.

Additionally we are interested in relay of any weather information from airport ATIS/ASOS stations that you can directly receive via radio. These stations broadcast continuously in the 120.000 – 138.000 MHz frequency range using amplitude modulation. Information from the ATIS should include airport, temperature, altimeter (barometer), wind, precipitation, and visibility.

A list of stations with their frequencies and a map can be found at: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/asos/?state=MA

A brief introduction to ATIS can be found at: https://www.ivao.aero/training/documentation/books/PP_ADC_ATIS.pdf

A more detailed introduction to ATIS/ASOS can be found at: http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/brochures/ASOS-book.pdf

We will have several interesting announcements for the net that evening and we look forward to everyone’s participation. Updates will be posted via email and on the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Web Site at http://ares.ema.arrl.org

Thanks for your continued support of ARES!

Marek Kozubal, KB1NCG
EMA Section Emergency Coordinator

Hi fellow Hams,

The South Shore Hospital Amateur Radio Club has been asked to provide communications support at a 5K race / walk on the morning of July10 at South Field in Weymouth (the former South Weymouth Navel Air Station).

This proceeds from this race will benefit a local Weymouth child who is suffering from GM-1.

We are in need of Amateur Radio volunteers to assist the SSHARC members in providing coverage along the race course. All that is needed is a handheld with a fully charged battery programmed to our club’s 2 meter repeater. We are seeking both the experienced “race volunteer” and those who would like to try their hand at public service.

If you have never volunteered for a public service event please come join us on July 10th for what will without a doubt be an emotionally rewarding experience. This is an excellent opportunity to partake in a low stress event and “get your feet wet”. To Volunteer please respond to this email and provide the following:

Name:
Call Sign:
Phone #:

Greatfully,
John O’Neill, K1JRO President
John Barbuto, KS1Q Vice-President