Emergency Communications

Hello to all…

A reminder that the monthly ARES Net for August is rapidly approaching. The monthly ARES Net for August is today, Monday August 1st, 2005, at 8:30 PM on the MMRA Repeater system. This is after the RACES Nets earlier in the evening.

Make the 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. Thanks to all for your continued participation!

We will have several interesting announcements for the net this evening and we look forward to everyone’s participation.

Thanks for your continued support of ARES!

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://users.rcn.com/rmacedo

The Southeastern MA ARA, on behalf of Eastern MA ARES and CEMARC, the Council of Eastern Massachusetts Amateur Radio Clubs will host a chicken BBQ to express its thanks to all those who have assisted ARES and CEMARC. [Details]

Eastern Massachusetts ARES and CEMARC, the Council of Eastern Massachusetts Amateur Radio Clubs is pleased to announce that the Southeastern Massachusetts Amateur Radio Association will be hosting a Chicken BBQ on behalf of the two organizations. This BBQ is largely a social event for ARES members and CEMARC representatives and to express thanks to all those who have assisted Eastern Massachusetts ARES and CEMARC over the last several years. The BBQ will be Saturday August 20th, 2005 and begin at 11 AM with a 60-90 minute presentation on ARES and CEMARC accomplishments with video and audio clips from recent events. Food will be served between 12:15 and 12:30 PM. Scott Szala-W1EV, who runs activities for the SEMARA Club, will be putting together his Eastern Massachusetts ARRL Section famous Chicken BBQ, which has been the staple for lunch at past Emergency Communications Workshops done at the SEMARA Club and is the best Chicken BBQ you will ever have in the section!

Directions to the SEMARA facility can be seen at the following link:
http://www.semara.org/direct.htm

Pre-registration is required for this event and it will be limited to roughly 50 people due to the capacity of the SEMARA facility. To pre-register, please contact the following:

Eastern Massachusetts ARRL Section Manager:
W1MPN-Mike Neilsen Email: w1mpn@ema.arrl.org

Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator:
KD1CY-Rob Macedo Email: kd1cy@ema.arrl.org

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the SEMARA Club Saturday August 20th, 2005!
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 #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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Due to the 4th of July holiday falling on a Monday this year, the Massachusetts RACES Nets will take place at their regular times but on the 2nd Monday of July or Monday July 11th, 2005. Therefore, the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net will also move to Monday July 11th, 2005 at 8:30 PM on the MMRA Repeater System. Don’t miss a night to take care of participating in your Emergency Communications duties by checking into the RACES and ARES Nets. Once again, the Massachusetts RACES Nets has been moved to Monday July 11th, 2005 and the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Net has been moved to Monday July 11th, 2005 at 8:30 PM due to the 4th of July falling on a Monday this year. Thanks to all and hope to hear everyone on the nets!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 #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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Eastern Massachusetts ARES participated on June 4 in “Operation Atlas”, a federally sponsored anti-hijacking exercise held at Boston’s Logan International Airport. This was its second federal exercise this spring.

Operation Atlas is the Department of Homeland Security’s code name for the Boston Logan Airport Drill where a United Airlines plane was hijacked and brought down to Logan Airport by military fighter aircraft. Various federal agencies, especially the Department of Homeland Security agencies practiced the skills required of them by the DHS mandate. The American Red Cross provided Mass Care and Disaster Mental Health Services per their charter through FEMA and DHS mandate. EMA ARES provided direct communications support to the Red Cross at their Waltham and Boston chapters, with net control support being provided away from the incident at the EMA ARES Incident Command Post in the town of Bridgewater, MA. In addition, Amateurs from Western Massachusetts ARES lent support operations to the Northeast Service Area Headquarters, which is co-located with the Central Massachusetts Red Cross Chapter in Worcester, Massachusetts.“Operation Atlas gives Eastern Massachusetts ARES its first agency tied exercise within its home section since the Democratic National Convention mobilization of July 2004,” stated EMA SEC Robert “Rob” Macedo, KD1CY. He continued stating that “The eyes of many agencies will be on how ARES supports the Red Cross so it will be important to execute our role as well as possible and learn from an experience that we may not have again for several years. Eastern Massachusetts ARES earned high marks for the support given to the Red Cross, Salvation Army, the city of Boston EOC, and the National Weather Service for the DNC mobilization.”

EMA SM Michael P. Neilsen, W1MPN, stated that 14 EMA amateurs responded to the scene, donating 140 person-hours of effort including driving time. Using the National Association of Amateur Radio guideline of $10/hour equivalency that translates to over $1400. Add $280 of out-of-pocket privately owned vehicle expenses represented by an average of 50 miles traveled per volunteer to their mobilization sites, for a total of $1680.

Neilsen, himself a participant, stated that “the ARES mobilization was professionally planned and executed. We continue to demonstrate a high state of readiness for an actual disaster response.”

Satisfaction on the part of the Red Cross could be summed up by comments made by David Belsky, Gov’t liaison lead. “I’d like to take a moment to extend my thanks to you and the ARES team for the excellent work done before and during Operation Atlas. I know that the Red Cross RAT [Rapid Action Team] appreciates your efforts towards making this exercise a success. I received many compliments on the team’s performance during the course of the day!”

The Massachusetts Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross has requested Eastern MA ARES to assist in the Operation Atlas-Boston Logan Airport Drill on May 7, 2005. The drill is being conducted by the Department of Homeland Security.

Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers in Connecticut in this week’s massive TOPOFF 3 exercise drew high praise from the American Red Cross, as reported on the ARRL Web’s on-line article, High Praise for Amateur Radio Follows ARES’ TOPOFF 3 Performance. Augmenting the Connecticut ARES volunteers were several ARES members from Eastern MA, including Section Manager Mike Neilsen, W1MPN.

Connecticut Section Manager Betsey Doane, K1EIC, paid Neilsen “and his dedicated, professional team” high complements for their participation in TOPOFF 3. “This was a great example of how two ARRL sections can work together,” Doane said. “It was a real pleasure having them on board.”

ARRL Connecticut SM Betsey Doane, K1EIC (left), and Eastern Massachusetts SM Mike Neilsen, W1MPN, interviewed by a newspaper reporter from Norwich.

There will be a MARS Exercise on Saturday April 9th, 2005. This exercise is being held for MARS stations to practice gathering tactical and formal message traffic and have that traffic turned into “EEI’s” or Essential Elements of Information.

On Saturday April 9th, Liaison frequencies that will be utilized for the MARS Emergency Exercise will be 7243 during the Day, 3943 in the evening along with nets on the 146.97-Paxton Repeater at 10 AM, 2 PM, and 6 PM. This information was given through a NTS RACES Traffic Message written by Bob Mims, Region II RACES Radio Officer and Southern New England Army MARS Coordinator.

This is an opportunity for Eastern Massachusetts ARES and NTS to continue its partnership and cooperation with MARS. Recently, the ARRL has expanded its partnership with MARS and we are continuing what the national organization would like to see completed across the country. Please support the exercise and bring some tactical and formal traffic that MARS can transfer into EEI’s for their exercise.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://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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Rob Macedo, KD1CY, ARRL Section Emergency Coordinator writes:

****Eastern MA ARES to Stand Down from Standby Mobilization for Possible Flooding****

Luckily, the heaviest rainfall past west of Southern New England, some flooding did occur in parts of the area and there was even strong winds and wind damage in parts of Southeastern New England but the region was spared major flooding and problems from this latest Spring storm and ARES can standdown effective immediately.

****EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS ARES STAND-BY ACTIVATION REQUESTED FOR POTENTIAL WIDESPREAD RIVER AND STREAM FLOOD EVENT IN OR CLOSE TO THE EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS SECTION BEGINNING AT 7 PM SATURDAY LASTING THROUGH SUNDAY****

****FORMAL SKYWARN ACTIVATION WITH OPS AT NWS TAUNTON TO COMMENCE AT 4 PM EDT****

****FURTHER UPDATES OR STAND-DOWN MESSAGE TO BE POSTED AS NEEDED****

Chuck Cooper, K1CHC writes:

There will be an Eastern Mass ARES EmComm Workshop on Saturday April 2 at the Ipswich High and Middle School for anyone interested. Workshop will run from 9:00 AM until around 3-4:00 PM.

Please pass the word among the Regions or to any organization that would be interested in attending.

I can best be reached via cell phone at 978-265-5749.

Home phone 978-356-2826
Office Phones 978-356-4343, 978-356-6645
E-mail: detectives@town.ipswich.ma.us, coopsail@rcn.com

73,

Chuck Cooper
Ipswich Emergency Management Director

Eastern MA Section Emergency Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY writes:

The ARES Exercise scheduled for Saturday March 12th, 2005 has been cancelled. The reason for the cancellation is that we have had numerous ARES and SKYWARN Activations for what has been a very active winter in Eastern Massachusetts. The latest activation on Monday Evening February 28th into Tuesday Morning March 1st had numerous Amateurs up through the night monitoring coastal flooding, reporting snowfall and reporting damage and power outages from the heavy, wet snow that fell over the region. [Full story]

The ARES Exercise scheduled for Saturday March 12th, 2005 has been cancelled. The reason for the cancellation is that we have had numerous ARES and SKYWARN Activations for what has been a very active winter in Eastern Massachusetts. The latest activation on Monday Evening February 28th into Tuesday Morning March 1st had numerous Amateurs up through the night monitoring coastal flooding, reporting snowfall and reporting damage and power outages from the heavy, wet snow that fell over the region. Luckily, damage was not significant enough to result in shelter operations in the areas most affected by damage and power outages, which was Southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod and the Islands.

This exercise scenario will be utilized at another time, potentially for the Fall SET in the October-November timeframe. A scenario had been drawn up for this exercise in advance and will simply need a frequency plan and some minor edits and the exercise will be fully planned.As far as further exercises, Eastern Massachusetts ARES will have a remote support role in the TOPOFF exercise that will be occurring in Connecticut the week of Monday April 4th through Friday April 8th. Most ARES personnel in the section will be asked to support that remote function in some form and further details will follow in later postings. In addition, the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section will be attempting to organize an ARESMAT to support Connecticut ARES with a team sent into Connecticut to perform the various functions Connecticut ARES has requested. Those that we select for the ARESMAT team will be done by invitation only with the invites being sent by myself or the DEC for the appropriate area contacting specific individuals to see if they are interested in supporting the ARESMAT. There shall be no self-deployments into Connecticut for TOPOFF as if you have not been properly registered and have credentials, you will not be allowed to participate and could result in serious legal consequences if you show up without going through the proper process. Also, during the week of the TOPOFF exercise, MARS will be having an exercise on Sunday April 9th and further details on that exercise will follow in later postings.

After the exercise in early April, a Statewide Hurricane Exercise will be done on the first Monday of June 2005. This is typically a MEMA Region II exercise but this year, it will be expanded to be a statewide exercise. Further details on this exercise will also follow in later postings.

This is shaping up to be another active year for Eastern Massachusetts ARES in 2005. If you have any questions or feedback, please contact your local EC/DEC or myself with those questions or feedback.

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://users.rcn.com/rmacedo 1

Eastern MA ARES is requesting ARES members and teams prepare for participation in a section wide exercise on Saturday, March 12th from 10 AM-1 PM. This scenario will focus on the aftermath of an ice storm. [Full story]