ARES Exercise for Saturday March 12th, 2005 Cancelled/Future Exercise Updates
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. [
Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O writes on mass_races_ares_skywarn@yahoogroups.com:
An exercise for the Eastern Massachusetts Section has been scheduled for Saturday March 12th, 2005 from 10 AM-1 PM. All ARES teams across the section are urged to participate in the exercise. The scenario will be finalized and announced within the next couple of weeks. [
SEC Rob Macedo, KD1CY writes:
Rob Macedo, KD1CY writes:
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is planning to include Amateur Radio in its emergency plans, according to Boston ARC Vice President Blake Haskell, K1BTH. Haskell met recently with representatives from Boston Emergency Management Agency and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The hospital is working on installing an antenna and feedline from the roof to a small room that would be used by amateurs in the event of an emergency. 
Eastern Massachusetts ARES will conduct a limited ARES Simulated Emergency Test on Saturday October 30th, 2004 from 10 AM-Noon. This drill is being constructed to add-on to a medium difficulty drill that Cape Cod ARES has put together for their group. The original Cape Cod ARES drill had been designed around an immunization scenerio with the CDC (Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention) involving flu vaccinations; however, it was cancelled by the CDC due to a lack of vaccine. The drill scenario for the Cape was changed at the last minute by Cape and Islands DEC Frank O’Laughlin, WQ1O. 
Eastern Massachusetts ARES will be doing a limited ARES Simulated Emergency Test for Saturday October 30th, 2004 from 10 AM-Noon. This drill is being constructed to add-on to a medium difficulty drill that Cape Cod ARES has put together for their group. The reason the notice is out late is because the original Cape Cod ARES drill which was suppose to be an immunization drill with the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for flu vaccine but it was cancelled by the CDC due to a lack of vaccine so the drill scenario for the Cape had to be changed at the last minute by Frank O’Laughlin-WQ1O. Special thanks to Frank for doing this as quickly as he did so that an exercise would still take place this coming Saturday for his region and we could add-on a regional component to it. Also, everyone should remember that even though its a drill, real emergency communications events could happen with far less than a week’s notice and we need to be able to react to all situations. The drill will also help to practice that as well.Purpose of the drill
In Brief: