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ARES® Briefs,
Links The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Hurricane Center (NHC)
amateur radio station WX4NHC will be on the air for its Annual Communications
Test Saturday, May 28, 2022 from 9 AM-5 PM EDT (1300Z-2100Z). This event marks
the 42nd year of amateur radio public service at the NHC. The purpose of the
event is to test WX4NHC amateur radio equipment and antennas at the center,
as well as center operators' home station equipment, antennas, and computers
prior to this year's hurricane season, which starts June 1 and runs through
November 30. WX4NHC station assistant
coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R, said, "The event is a good opportunity
for amateur radio operators worldwide to practice providing emergency
communications during times of severe weather. We will be making brief
contacts on many frequencies and modes, exchanging signal reports and basic
weather data (sunny, rain, temperature, etc.) with any station in any
location." WX4NHC will be on the air on HF,
VHF, UHF, 2- and 30-meter APRS and Winlink (subject lines of messages must
contain "//WL2K"). Ripoll said "We will try to stay on
the Hurricane
Watch Net frequency 14.325 MHz most of the time, with an
option of 7.268 MHz, depending on propagation and conditions. However, we
will be operating on different frequencies depending on QRM; you may be able
to find us on HF by using one of the DX spotting networks such as the DX
Summit." The operation will also be conducted on the VoIP
Hurricane Net at 4 PM-5PM EDT (2000-2100Z): IRLP node 9219/EchoLink WX-TALK Conference node 7203. WX4NHC operators
will also make a few contacts on local VHF and UHF repeaters as well as the
Florida statewide SARNET system to test station
equipment. QSL cards are available via WD4R.
Please send cards with a SASE. Please do NOT send QSLs directly to the
Hurricane Center address, as handling will get delayed. Due to security
measures and the COVID-19 pandemic, no visitors will be allowed entry to the
National Hurricane Center. For more information about WX4NHC,
please visit the station's website. The US Department of Defense
hosted this year's Armed Forces Day (AFD) Cross-Band Test on Saturday, May 14. QSL card information is
available from US Army MARS. The AFD Cross-Band Test is a two-way
communications exercise between military and amateur radio stations: amateurs
listen for stations on military operating frequencies and transmit on
frequencies in adjacent amateur bands. Twenty-four military stations
participated in this year's event. More information is available at Department of Defense MARS.
[See K1CE for a Final below for your editor's experience on
this test.] Winlink Thursday administrator Wayne Robertson, K4WK, reported
that Winlink Thursday participation for May 5, 2022 "might be a record, with 757 entries, and 95
percent accuracy." Winlink Thursday (WLT) has
been an enormously successful training event over the past few years,
introducing radio amateurs to the digital hybrid email/radio system that has
become a critical tool for communications in emergency and disaster
situations for emergency management at all levels. More information can be
found at the EmComm Training
Organization (ETO) website. The recording of the ETO All Hands Meeting held
on May 9 is now available: The password is T5!FHHRD Labor and resources donated by
volunteers and organizations may help local and Commonwealth agencies save
taxpayer money by offsetting local costs
under FEMA's Public Assistance Program.
Individuals and organizations often donate resources to assist with disaster
response activities. FEMA does not provide Public Assistance funding for
donated resources. However, FEMA allows the applicant (local and Commonwealth
agencies and certain private nonprofits, including houses of worship) to use
the value of donated resources (non-cash contributions of property or
services) related to eligible Emergency Work or categories A and B (debris
removal and emergency protective measures) to offset the non-federal cost
share of eligible projects and direct federal assistance. See FEMA's Fact Sheet.
- Thanks, Craig Fugate, KK4INZ This just in at press time: North
Florida Amateur Radio Club (NFARC) officer Gordon Gibby, KX4Z, reports that the FEMA Region 4 (Alabama,
Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, and
Tennessee) and Region 6 (Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Louisiana and Oklahoma)
Emergency Communications Coordinating Working Groups (RECCWG) are planning a cyber attack exercise on June 1, 2022. Several major
metropolitan areas will be cited as the "affected areas" and both
CISA SHARES and amateur radio Winlink will be used
to provide ground truth information back to the appropriate sources. "We radio amateurs are only a
portion of this wide-ranging exercise that includes (and thus compares)
multiple federal/state communications reporting systems," said Gibby. "It is a fairly simple collection of 'ground
truths' for a simulated cyber-attack on a limited number of high population
centers," he said. "The Winlink response is
requested from both CISA SHARES personnel and radio amateurs." The
exercise involves creating a single message in a specific Winlink
template addressed to specific recipients, not unlike the ETO's Winlink Thursday exercises. The message can then be sent
using Telnet (internet) or any desired radio technique (e.g., ARDOP, VARA,
PACTOR). This is an excellent opportunity for amateur radio operators to
provide critical information from their home locations, and ARRL ARES will be
involved. - Thanks, Gordon Gibby, KX4Z,
CISA SHARES and NFARC; and Steve Waterman, K4CJX, DHS CISA SHARES Auxiliary (Winlink Admin), FEMA R4 RECCWG auxiliary communications
Committee, Tennessee Emergency Management Agency COMU, Winlink
Administrator, Winlink Development Team, ARSFI Board
of Directors June 2022 Pacific Northwest Exercises - Six Ways to Play The Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ)
is an area 70 to 100 miles off the west coast of North America stretching
between Cape Mendocino in Northern California and Nootka Island in British
Columbia where three tectonic plates are moving eastward and gradually
slipping beneath the North American Plate. When, not if, the next full-length
"megathrust" rupture of the CSZ fault occurs, it will likely be the
worst natural disaster to hit the United States. The Amateur Radio Service
should be prepared for communications in the aftermath of a magnitude 9.0+
earthquake, an immediate drop (subsidence) of coastal shoreline areas from 4
to 13 feet (with twice-a-day high tide flooding for decades), a tsunami
exceeding 30 feet in height, flooding of Pacific coastline beaches up 100
feet in depth, liquefied soils in tidal flats and river estuaries, and
landslides along steeper slopes and reactivation of older deep-seated
landslides. To prepare for this very bad day,
response efforts continuing for weeks to months, and a recovery period
stretching into years, six preparedness activities are taking place in the
Pacific Northwest in June 2022. Activity #1: Washington EMD
Workshops The Washington Emergency Management
Division (WA EMD) will hold two single-day virtual discussion-based workshops
as their "Cascadia Rising 2022" (CR22) engagement, focusing on days
5-8 of the incident. According to email from the EMD, "This exercise
series is hosted by Washington Emergency Management Division and is open to
all Washington tribes/nations, state agencies, political subdivisions,
emergency management agencies/organizations, local jurisdictions,
non-governmental organizations, non-profit and volunteer organizations, the private
sector, and federal partners." A Critical Transportation (ESF #1)
workshop will be on Monday, June 13, and a Mass Care Services (ESF #6)
workshop will be on Wednesday, June 15.There is no
Operational Communications (ESF #2) component to these discussions as one of
the exercise planning assumptions for this scenario is that all commercial
communications will have been restored by the start of day 5. Some amateur
radio operators are scheduled to be involved in the discussion groups, but
not in communications roles. Radio amateurs in Washington who
wish to participate in the CR22 workshops should contact the Emergency
Manager of their local jurisdiction for registration details. The Washington
EMD will conduct vetting of all participant applicants. Activity #2: WSDOT Functional
Exercise The Washington State Department of
Transportation (WSDOT) will hold a "Cascadia Rising 2022" (CR22)
functional exercise on Wednesday, June 15, and Thursday, June 16. Due to the
massive scale of a CSZ rupture incident, volunteers will be needed to
supplement WSDOT staff in performing post-incident assessment of the critical
transportation situation. For this exercise, amateur radio participants will
travel to bridges on state and federal highways in their local area, perform
"Level 1 Post Earthquake Bridge Inspections," and transmit a
"Bridge Damage Report Form" to WSDOT. If your ARES/RACES/ACS/auxiliary
communications group would like to participate in this CR22 exercise: • In the WSDOT Southwest Region
(Clark, Cowlitz, Klickitat, Lewis, Pacific, Skamania, and Wahkiakum counties)
contact Steve Aberle, WA7PTM, wa7ptm@arrl.net. • All other counties contact Mike
Montfort, KB0SVF, kb0svf@arrl.net. Activities #3 & #4: NTEMC
Full-Scale Exercise The National Tribal Emergency
Management Council (NTEMC) will hold a "Thunderbird and Whale 2022"
(TW22) full-scale exercise on Thursday, June 9, through Sunday, June 19. The
name change from CR22 to TW22 was made to honor tribal oral histories about
the struggle between Thunderbird and Whale, which generally describe the
effects of an earthquake and a tsunami.The
exercise will cover FEMA Response Phases 2A, 2B, and 2C, and all
Community Lifelines will be activated. Tribes in multiple states (AK, WA, OR,
ID, CA) and perhaps BC will be involved. Federal partners include USDOT,
USGS, CISA, DOI, BIA, USCG, NOAA, US CBP, FirstNet, and FEMA Regions 8 &
9. State partners include Oregon Health Authority, WA Dept. of Agriculture,
and WA Dept. of Health. Local and community partners include NGOs, food
banks, several airports, and many others. As this exercise kicks off on
Thursday, June 9, simulated situation reports (SITREPs) will be collected
from amateur radio stations in the affected areas. This will be on HF in
order to reach out beyond the disaster area. Although SITREPs will be taken
and collated in Eastern Washington, many signals may hop over them, so relay
stations from throughout the US and Canada will be needed. All radio amateurs
are welcome to participate. If you are interested in helping in this portion
of the TW22 exercise, contact Frank Hutchison, AG7QP, ag7qp@arrl.net. The backbone of ESF #2
Communications for TW22 is ham radio, which will be supporting nearly all
other ESFs. Portable HF and/or VHF/UHF stations will be needed in many
locations throughout Oregon, Washington, and Northern California. This
includes radio support for agencies participating in the exercise as well as
tribes. The protocol for participation
with a tribal nation is that they must first extend an invitation to a
non-tribal amateur radio group. The NTEMC is in contact with the tribes and
is helping to facilitate those invitations where needed. If your
ARES/RACES/ACS/auxiliary comms group is interested in participating in this
portion of the TW22 exercise (should it be invited by a tribe), or you are in
the Puget Sound region and can assist with radio communications at the NTEMC
EOC (in the Woodinville area) or for a partner organization (at various
locations), contact Ray Smith, KD7AVP, ray@ntemc.org. Activity #5: Washington DART/EVAC
Functional Exercise Several Disaster Airlift Response
Teams (DARTs) and the Emergency Volunteer Aviation Corp (EVAC) will hold a
"Thunder Run 2022" (TR22) functional exercise on Saturday, June 18,
testing the "West Coast General Aviation Response Plan." These groups
will use general aviation aircraft to fly 17,000 pounds of food from a supply
depot at the Walla Walla Regional Airport to two distribution hub airports in
the Puget Sound area of Washington. In addition, the Aero Club of BC (BCAERO)
from British Columbia, Canada, will fly 30,000 pounds of food initially into
Bellingham International Airport (as the customs/drop-in point), and will
then assist other aircraft flying supplies to airfields in the Puget Sound
area. Some of the destinations will involve the use the seaplanes which were
evacuated from Lake Washington at the start of the exercise. Amateur radio support will involve
tracking aircraft arrivals, supply manifests, and aircraft departures and
then passing that information on Winlink. If you
are interested in participating in the TR22 exercise, contact Dee Williamson,
KE7CFM, ke7cfm@arrl.net. Activity #6: Oregon DART
Functional Exercise The Oregon Disaster Airlift
Response Team (DART) will hold a "Whale Run 2022" (WR22) functional
exercise on Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19. General aviation aircraft
will be used to fly 10,000 pounds of food from a supply depot at the Walla
Walla Regional Airport to three distribution hub airports in the Willamette
Valley of Oregon. From those hubs, food supplies will be flown to destination
airports near tribal populations in Southwest Washington, Oregon, and
Northern California. Amateur radio support will involve
tracking aircraft arrivals, supply manifests, and aircraft departures and
then passing that information on Winlink. If you
are interested in participating in the WR22 exercise, contact Ralph Garono, KA8ZGM, ka8zgm@arrl.net. The NTEMC and DART/EVAC exercises,
which are separate but in sync with each other, are endeavoring to be as
close to a real-life scenario as possible, with only a very few
artificialities to facilitate exercise play. These are fairly
complex exercises and amateur radio communications will be the
showpiece of ESF #2. -- Steve Aberle, WA7PTM, Assistant Director, Northwestern Division Former FEMA Administrator on The Importance of Ham
Radio in Disasters [Blogger Brian Haren,
W8BYH, served over 23 years of active duty with the US Army Corps of
Engineers as a geospatial engineer and today works as the Geospatial Services
Manager for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta. He
is an ARES Assistant Emergency Coordinator and is an active Army MARS and
SHARES member. Haren is the author of the Georgia
ARES Situational Awareness Web Map and writes about amateur
radio and related topics on his PRC-77.com blog. His
summary of, and comments on, a presentation made by former FEMA Administrator
Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, are reproduced below with permission. - Ed.] "On April 9, the Coastal Plains Amateur Radio Club in
southeast Georgia hosted a presentation by former two-term FEMA Administrator
Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, titled 'The Importance of Ham Radio in
Disasters.' The club subsequently posted the
video of the meeting and made it available on YouTube. "I have to say, Mr. Fugate
hit it out of the ballpark: He provided the best insight and
guidance I've ever heard regarding disaster communications and amateur radio
support. When I watched the video I came away with a
full page of notes that I've distilled here: · Focus training on low
probability/high consequence events -- hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes,
etc. · ARES and auxiliary
communications are not the same, and ARES still has a primary role at the
local level. · ARES #1 mission needs to be
making sure the local EOC can talk to the state EOC. The #2 mission is making
sure that the local EOC can talk to its subordinate fire and EMS stations
and, by extension, its local medical facilities (hospitals, critical care
centers, etc.) · One of the first consequences of
any disaster is that all commercial comms systems will be overloaded,
particularly cell circuits. The cell sites may be up and functioning, but the
demand will overwhelm them. · All comms systems, regardless of
how well they are hardened, have multiple points of failure. It's not
uncommon for EVERYTHING to fail. In fact, it happens with alarming
regularity. · Any comms infrastructure reliant
on IP -- cell phones, VOIP, internet, etc. -- is particularly vulnerable.
Even commercial SATPHONEs at some point tie back to an IP-based ground
system, and the connections will fail. · AT&T's FirstNet is IP-based
and is not well hardened (he wasn't very complimentary of the whole FirstNet
concept). · Supporting local shelters with
communications really isn't all that important. Most of them will have all
the comms they need. · Focus on developing digital mode
expertise. Digital can carry more traffic, more accurately and under more
adverse conditions, than voice. · Repeaters will fail and 2-meter simplex will run into coverage issues
very fast. Focus on HF. · Most emergency managers at all
levels have no idea what digital capabilities ARES can bring to the EOC. Some
have heard of Winlink, few know what it really is
or what its capabilities are. Almost none have heard of FT8, JS8, etc. · In a disaster, antennas are more
vulnerable than radios. Have spares. · Backup power -- YES! Generators
fail with alarming frequency. · Risk. FEMA reimbursement rules
don't cover privately owned radio gear if it gets damaged or destroyed while
supporting a declared emergency. The point here is to push your local EMA to
fund the necessary gear and have the ARES operators fall in on it. "Craig's strong focus was on
the use of HF for both local and long-haul communications -- get the local
EOC talking to state ASAP and don't rely on anything that has a high risk of
failure (like repeaters). His perspective is interesting - he's seen too many
commercial and government communications systems fail during real world
disasters, particularly IP-based systems. "We can distill Craig's
guidance down to one simple statement: EMAs at all levels need
point-to-point communications systems that don't rely on any infrastructure. This
is the key role that ARES is best suited to fill at the local and state
levels, and that needs to be our primary mission and training focus. "I consider this
presentation, the lessons learned it discusses, and the advice it provides,
to be a critical guide to future ARES and auxiliary communications mission
definition and training. Craig's advice is both invaluable and unassailable.
If there was a way I could force every local and
state emergency manager to sit down and watch this video and absorb the lessons,
I would." ARRL San Diego Section -- Mountain
Endurance Race Rescue On Saturday, May 14, 2022, the air
temperature had climbed above 90 degrees and runners were dropping out of the
rugged Pacific Crest Trail 50-mile, 10-hour
mountain endurance race in droves when reports came into a remote aid station
of a runner in distress a mile up the trail. The lead ham at the aid station,
J Rollins, KM6NUY, handed an FRS (Family Radio Service) radio to the non-ham
aid station captain who then sprinted up the trail to the distressed runner
to evaluate his condition. Attempts to cool the runner failed, so the aid
station captain used the loaned FRS radio to ask the ham team to summon EMS.
With no cell phone service in that remote area, this request for aid was
relayed from the aid station by radio operator Caleb Rollins, KN6ODW, through
a Mountain Empire Amateur Radio Club (MEARC) 2-meter repeater in Campo,
California, to the event net control near Buckman Springs, California, where
net controls Gary Holmes, KM6LKP, and Lori Palmer, KE6ZLV, coordinated the
emergency response. A few minutes after placing the call for aid, the
responding medics called to ask for driving directions because they could not
use the GPS latitude and longitude provided to find the location on the side
of a mountain, far from marked roads. Local resident Craig Williams, W6CAW,
provided driving directions for the responders. During the emergency, back at
the aid station, Mark Warrick, KM6ZPO, and Julie Warrick, KN6AOC, continued
to track runners passing through the aid station and explained ham radio to
inquisitive onlookers while other hams dealt with the emergency. With the
help of EMS, the runner made a full recovery. Lessons learned included the value
of using FRS as a communications link for non-hams, depth on the bench, and
the need to tabletop with emergency responders before an event. -- Thanks,
Rob Freeburn, K6RJF, San Diego, California; and
ARRL San Diego Section Manager Dave Kaltenborn,
N8KBC ARRL West Texas Section - Hospital
Use of Amateur Radio ARRL West Texas Section Manager Dale
Durham, W5WI, writes: April 6, 2022 -- "Over the past couple of months,
we have learned of several hospitals wanting their staff to obtain ham radio
licenses to enable the staff to operate amateur radio equipment placed in the
hospital during emergencies. In consultation with retired FCC Legal Counsel
Riley Hollingsworth and by reviewing Federal regulation 47 CFR Part 97 in Section 97.113 Prohibited
Transmissions, Exceptions, we find that the regulation does allow amateur
radio licensed hospital staff limited use of the amateur radio equipment for
tests and drills ONLY. The regulation spells out the parameters of the
limited use. This limited use does NOT allow amateur radio licensed hospital
staff to use the amateur radio equipment during actual emergencies. Amateur
radio licensed volunteer groups like ARES are the best alternative to
providing emergency communications for hospitals and other NGO
agencies." (Thanks, Duane Mariotti,
WB9RER, Kaiser Permanente Amateur Radio
Network Coordinator) K1CE for a Final: Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test--Pure
Fun for a Good Cause I had the honor, pleasure, and
privilege of participating in the Armed Forces Day Cross-Band Test this past
Saturday, working station NSS at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland,
inside/outside the 20-meter amateur band. The split operation had NSS and
other military stations transmitting outside the amateur bands, with radio
amateurs transmitting in the adjacent amateur frequency band. In addition to
the excitement of working the Naval Academy station, it gave me the
opportunity to learn how to program my HF radio for split operation. ARRL has promoted the
participation of military and amateur radio stations in the AFD event for
more than 50 years. In the August 1950 issue of QST, it was noted
that "232 persons made perfect copy of the 'Greeting to Amateurs'
broadcast at 25 w.p.m. over 13 military frequencies and have received a
Certificate of Merit signed by the Secretary of Defense, the Honorable Louis
Johnson." _________________________________________ [Correction: In the last issue's
article, "Trending in Event Communications," by Erik Westgard,
NY9D, the second bullet point should have read as follows: "Dashboards
and databases - faster real-time data access and decision making. Peter
Corbet, KD8GBL, wrote a medical tent capacity front end to our database."
- Ed.] ARES Resources · Download the ARES Manual [PDF] · ARES Field Resources Manual [PDF] · ARES Standardized Training Plan
Task Book [Fillable PDF] · ARES Standardized Training Plan
Task Book [Word] · Emergency Communications Training The Amateur Radio Emergency
Service® (ARES) consists of licensed amateurs who have
voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment, with their local
ARES leadership, for communications duty in the public service when disaster
strikes. Every licensed amateur, regardless of membership in ARRL or any
other local or national organization is eligible to apply for membership in
ARES. Training may be required or desired to participate fully in ARES.
Please inquire at the local level for specific information. Because ARES is
an amateur radio program, only licensed radio amateurs are eligible for
membership. The possession of emergency-powered equipment is desirable, but is not a requirement for membership. How to Get Involved in ARES: Fill
out the ARES Registration form and
submit it to your local Emergency Coordinator. ARRL Resources Join or Renew Today! Eligible
US-based members can elect to receive QST or On the Air magazine in print when
they join ARRL or when they renew their membership. All members can access
digital editions of all four ARRL magazines: QST, On the
Air, QEX, and NCJ. Subscribe to NCJ
-- the National Contest Journal. Published bimonthly, features
articles by top contesters, letters, hints, statistics, scores, NA Sprint and
QSO parties. Subscribe to QEX
-- A Forum for Communications Experimenters. Published
bimonthly, features technical articles, construction projects, columns, and
other items of interest to radio amateurs and communications professionals. Free of charge to ARRL
members: Subscribe to
the ARES Letter (monthly public service and emergency
communications news), the ARRL Contest Update (biweekly
contest newsletter), Division and Section news alerts -- and much more! Find us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. ARRL offers a wide array of products to enhance your enjoyment of amateur radio. Donate to the fund of your choice --
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