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The ARES E-Letter
November 15, 2017
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE

In This Issue:

 *  Major DOD Exercise Held; MARS, Amateur Radio Local Components Active
 *  Case Study: ARESMAT Mutual Assistance Planning at Its Best in Oregon
 *  MESH Training Held in Utah Focuses on Emergency/Disaster Communications
 *  Spotlight on Vermont Emergency Management's RACES Program
 *  K1CE For a Final: First Contact

____________________________________________________________________________


ARES Briefs, Links

Emergency HF Net Convened in Colombia in Wake of Landslide, Flooding (11/8/17);
 CW Gets the Message Through in Wake of Hurricane Irma (10/27/17); American Red
 Cross Hails "New Partnership" with ARRL Following Puerto Rico Deployment
(10/31/17); Communications Interoperability Training with Amateur Radio
Community Set (10/24/17); California Fire Situation Improves (10/18/17); "Force
 of 50" Volunteers' Puerto Rico Hurricane Recovery Mission Ends (10/18/17)

__________


For Monthly ARES Reports and Stats: ARES Annual/Monthly Reports. Check to see
if your Section's ARES activity is included. If not, check with your Section
Emergency Coordinator.

___________


ARRL Partner Roundup

SKYWARN Recognition Day, Saturday, December 2

SKYWARN(TM) Recognition Day (SRD) will take place this year on Saturday,
December 2 from 0000 until 2400 UTC (starts on the evening of Friday, December
1, in US time zones). During the SKYWARN Special Event, hams will set up
stations at National Weather Service (NWS) offices and contact other radio
amateurs around the world.

Participating Amateur Radio stations will exchange a brief description of their
 current weather with as many NWS-based stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15,
 10, 6, and 2 meters plus 70 centimeters. Contacts via repeaters are permitted.

SRD was developed jointly in 1999 by the NWS and ARRL to celebrate the
contributions SKYWARN volunteers make to the NWS mission -- the protection of
life and property. Amateur Radio operators, which comprise a large percentage
of SKYWARN volunteers, also provide vital communication between the NWS and
emergency managers, if normal communications become inoperative. [The National
Weather Service and ARRL have been formal partners since 1986].


2018 Broadband Summit

APCO's 2018 Broadband Summit will be held May 1-2 in Arlington, Virginia. The
annual event provides a forum for technology experts, policy leaders, industry
partners, wireless service providers and public safety professionals to discuss
 timely issues affecting the deployment of the FirstNet nationwide public
safety broadband network. [APCO International is made up of Emergency Medical,
Law Enforcement, Fire and other Public Safety Communications personnel whose
primary responsibility is the management, design, maintenance and operation of
communications facilities in the public
domain, and has been an ARRL partner association since 1996].


Add a Red Cross First Aid Kit to your Go-Kit; Get Training

A First Aid Kit is a must for any ARES member's go-kit. Buy one from the Red
Cross here; they would make excellent gifts this holiday season. Get Red Cross
training in CPR, First Aid, AED use, and Basic Life Support (BLS) here. Scroll
down for expert training in your area. [The American Red Cross and ARRL have
been formalized partners since 1940.]


By the Numbers: CAP Flies Missions for Hurricane Ravaged Areas

22 Civil Air Patrol (CAP) aircraft flew 496 hours on 236 sorties over Puerto
Rico and the US Virgin Islands after hurricanes Irma and Maria devastation. 239
 personnel from 21 CAP Wings and Regions worked on the mission. 62,721
photographs were taken and provided to emergency management agencies in the
local communities and FEMA to help them focus recovery efforts. [The CAP is the
 US Air Force Auxiliary and has had a formal cooperative agreement with ARRL
since 2005. Members of ARRL and CAP share common goals of serving the public
through radio communications. Members of both organizations engage in regular
training to prepare for emergency and disaster communications.]

_______________


Major DOD Exercise Held; MARS, Amateur Radio Local Components Active

The US Department of Defense (DOD) conducted a "communications
interoperability" training exercise November 4-6, once again simulating a "very
 bad day" scenario. Amateur Radio and MARS organizations took part. The
exercise began with a simulation of a coronal mass ejection event impacting the
 national power grid as well as all forms of traditional communication,
including landline telephone, cellphone, satellite, and Internet connectivity,"
 Army MARS Program Manager Paul English, WD8DBY, explained.

During the exercise, a designated DOD Headquarters entity was to request
county-by-county status reports for the 3,143 US counties and county
equivalents, in order to gain situational awareness and to determine the extent
 of impact of the scenario. Army and Air Force MARS organizations were to work
in conjunction with the Amateur Radio community, primarily on the 60-meter
interoperability channels as well as on HF NVIS frequencies and local VHF and
UHF, non-Internet linked Amateur Radio repeaters.


Madision County, Florida ARES Conducts Exercise Net

As an example of a county ARES program's participation in the DOD's Comex 17-4,
 the rural Madison County (Big Bend region of Florida) ARES group conducted a
net on the Lee repeater (145.19 MHz) on Saturday, November 4, from 9:34 AM to
9:40 AM EDT, asking check-ins to provide real-time, current conditions when
responding, to simulate collection of infrastructure status and damage reports
from as many counties in the coverage area of the repeater as possible. A net
was also conducted on the UHF Statewide Amateur Radio Net (SARnet, see below)
from 9:40 AM to 10:15 AM during that same time period to gather county reports
from other parts of the state as indicated. There are 67 counties in the state,
 and it was a goal to see how many were able to report via the system net and
Amateur Radio.

After the exercise, Madison County EC Pat Lightcap, K4NRD, commented that "on
our local net we had information provided on Madison, Suwannee and Columbia
counties." "Then I went to the UHF SARnet and acted as net control to get
responses from as many additional counties in Florida as possible," he said.
Reps from 16 counties reported the status of their infrastructure; "we had not
announced the net ahead of time and simply began it with only a preamble to
explain the information that was desired," Lightcap said. "After calling each
of the 67 counties, I ended the net at 10:15 AM and sent my report for
forwarding to DOD." This was an exercise to simulate the assessment of the
national infrastructure after a strong and destructive solar storm.


How SARnet Works

SARnet local UHF (70 cm) repeaters throughout the state are connected by a
microwave radio network operated by the Florida Department of Transportation.
The key to why SARnet works so well is that instead of using the Internet, it
uses dedicated bandwidth on a private microwave network. When an operator
keys his radio, and talks into his local repeater, thanks to the statewide
connectivity, he automatically talks through all network repeaters throughout
the entire state. The network voice radio usage models that the FDOT is trying
to investigate are short, efficient communications between users (think
professional public safety radio transactions). Thus, long rag chews are not
appropriate -- during long conversations, an operator is activating SARnet
repeaters all over the state for an extended period of time, subjecting all to
them.

____________________________________________________________________________


Case Study: ARESMAT Mutual Assistance Planning at Its Best in Oregon

Wednesday, July 12, saw firefighters deployed into southwest Oregon's
Kalmiopsis Wilderness to put out a small half-acre wildfire. The problem was
that it was on a steep slope and flames were carted downhill by falling logs
and brush to the Chetco river. It was just the beginning of the Chetco Bar Fire
 that ended up as a conflagration that consumed almost 200,000 acres, six
houses, forced thousands to evacuate homes and put communities from Brookings
to Cave Junction at severe risk. ARES/RACES leadership and members prepared to
deploy and serve as emergency response communicators under Incident Command,
and to possibly invoke established mutual assistance agreements and protocols,
an investment that helps a county, district and section's ARES resources match
the expanding needs of served agencies in the face of a growing disaster
situation.


Oregon ARES/RACES Mutual Assistance Team Planning

As the fire emergency grew, Oregon ARES District 5 Emergency Coordinator Dan
Bisssell, W7WVF, reported a "depth of response capability," but also planned
for a possible mutual assistance need and call-up. "Curry County ARES/RACES had
 made a great effort to upgrade equipment, training and organizational response
 for Operation TRITON 32," a full-scale three-day disaster response exercise
that ultimately involved hundreds of personnel from more than 40 agencies to
prepare and enhance response capability for local, county, state and federal
agencies in the event of an earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. DEC
Bissell said the county, Oregon's southern-most county, should be able to make
an effective first response, but "next, there are a half a dozen ARES/RACES
members in the Port Orford area with portable HF/VHF/UHF phone and digital
capability who can serve as a second shift for relief for the first group."
"The EC there has kept them in the loop and they are prepared to respond,"
Bissell said.

If repeaters went down, there is a longstanding relationship with Josephine
County ARES/RACES with the effect that they would provide mutual assistance and
 respond with their three portable repeaters as needed. Coos County Emergency
Management consistently supports its ARES/RACES group and communications
trailer deploying into adjacent counties as needed. The two county groups know
each other and have worked together in exercises. Curry County also has mutual
support agreements with Del Norte and Humboldt counties south of the border in
northern California. They share repeaters and participate in each other's
monthly training.

If greater mutual assistance was needed beyond the capability described above,
DEC Bissell reported that they were prepared to first call up Douglas and
Jackson Counties' organizations for more help, and then, if even more resources
 were needed, "we would have to go to the ARRL Oregon Section for them, an
indicator that the situation would have become immense. The US Forestry Service
 was the lead agency in the Unified Command, and the entire operation was to be
 managed under the Incident Command System (ICS) - "we would have been told how
 to integrate and operate," Bissell said.

Ultimately, no ARES or ARES/RACES operators were deployed. With the rapidly
expanding fire and response, the US Forest Service's ICS sign-in unit was
overwhelmed and was unable to process them. ARES continued on standby for a few
 weeks but were never activated.

But, the takeaway was this was a case in point in "knowing and respecting one
another (county emergency managers and ARES/RACES leaders and members) before
an incident is critical," Bissell said. The emergency managers and ECs, and the
 US Forestry communications official have all worked together before so when
the request for radio operators (RADOs) went to the county emergency managers
and from the emergency managers to the ECs, response was quick and positive,"
he said.

Oregon ARES respects its RACES relationship with the county emergency managers.
 ARES does not self activate, but is activated by the county emergency
managers. This works well, provides for insurance coverage, and assures that
the counties know where their resources are. The emergency managers are
comfortable with receiving/sending ARES operators across county lines and were
aware of ARESMAT plans in this event.

"This level of cooperation is built over time," Bissell said. District 5 has a
weekly HF net and periodic all day District meetings. People all know each
other, share successes and failures, share contact information, agree on phone
and P2P Winlink frequencies for inter-county communications, etc.
"Instinctively, the response is to work together."

ARRL Oregon Section Manager John Core, KX7YT, added: "Our DECs and state ARES
personnel work with the county emergency managers during these ARESMAT events.
Concurrence between the county managers involved is needed before the ARES
teams get deployed across a jurisdiction."

"During the August solar eclipse, discussions between county emergency managers
 and cooperation between ARES units, DECs and state leadership resulted in a
Multnomah County ARES team of 10 operators being sent to Grant County in
eastern Oregon where support was badly needed," said Core, as an example of the
 section's mutual support protocols.


The ARESMAT Concept

Although no ARES personnel were deployed for the fire, the message is clear:
The Oregon counties' mutual assistance planning and protocols are exemplary of
the Mutual Assistance Team (ARESMAT) concept that recognizes that a neighboring
 county, district or section's ARES resources can be quickly overwhelmed in a
large-scale disaster. ARESMAT is discussed in detail in the ARRL ARES Field
Resources Manual, downloadable here. ARES members in the affected areas may not
 be sufficient in number or preoccupied with mitigation of their own personal
situations and consequently may be limited in responding in local ARES
operations. Accordingly, communications support must come from ARES personnel
outside the affected areas. This is when help may be requested from neighboring
 counties or even sections' ARESMAT teams under mutual assistance agreements.

____________________________________________________________________________


MESH Training Held in Utah Focuses on Emergency/Disaster Communications

A MESH Training seminar was held on Saturday, October 28, at the Miller Public
Safety and Education Building, Sandy, Utah, conducted by MESH pioneer David
Bauman, KF7MCF. [Amateur Radio MESH is an over the air computer network of
nodes with broadband capabilities conducted on the amateur microwave bands for
high-speed networking in various modes - television, imaging, text and others.]
 Session 1 covered Basic MESH -- what is it, how does it work, and what can it
do. Session 2 addressed Advanced MESH -- How to make AREDN (see below) work in
the real world; and the three issues that AREDN has that will bring the network
 to a screeching halt, and how to solve or get around them. Session 3 covered
tools and programs to help set up and run MESH, the three step method to make
sure a link will work, and what can you do on the MESH pipeline. A MESH
equipment show and tell was presented, with examples of hardware, and also
hardware available to be purchased on site.

Bauman said "we always seem to be lucky enough to fill the room, and attendees
hung around asking questions and getting equipment." "We provide MESH Go-Kit
starter equipment at lunch money prices along with the training," he said. "The
 seminar was a success." Basic Go-Kit equipment is now in the hands of over 100
 hams in the Salt Lake Valley and surrounding areas.

Bauman reported "now what we are doing is training them in the use of the
hardware and software that we will use in an emergency/disaster response
deployment; several MESH training sessions have already been held, with more to
 come."

The MESH group is currently working on a project to link the Mayor's office and
 Emergency Communications Center (ECC) of a small city to their three fire
stations, the Police dispatch center, and the local hospital with a high speed
digital MESH network, "you might say our own private ham Internet," Bauman
said. "This is the third local city that has shown interest in using MESH
deployed by hams to back up and augment their existing emergency communication
avenues with high speed digital capability."

The group has been asked to demo the system to the city council and Mayor at an
 upcoming meeting. Bauman said "we will demo high speed file transfer of
messages (used by the Red Cross to send Well Messages from shelters) to a
collection point and then upload them to an HF radio system and network." "We
can transfer pictures and other files, along with real time video and audio,
even a repeating streaming audio or video message to tell hams signing on how
and where they are needed, and what to do."

VoIP and the above mentioned capabilities are available on laptops connected to
 the group's network, and also the ability to use real old style phones (some
of the city residents are much more comfortable with a simple old style phone
with a number to call for the Police, Fire and the hospital rather than a push
to talk radio).

The group's demo will show officials that they can use real-time video,
pictures (of damaged roads, overpasses, or buildings for the City Engineer), or
 of injured individuals at a shelter for the hospital to assess/triage) and
text messages and live audio one to one, one to all, or to just a select group
(Police to all fire stations, for instance). "We can show them how the E-com
center can monitor all conversations, text messages, and file transfers and
even e-mail inside our network, and outside also, if somewhere on the network
we can tap into a satellite Internet link when regular Internet access is
down," Bauman said. Several hams are spearheading this effort: Jerry Spillman,
W0HU; John Hurst, KF7NQW; Grant Gardner, KC7HOU; Robert Jelf, KG7OHV; Charles
Gray, KE6QZU; Edward J. Sim, N7RTA; Brad Rupp, AC7BR; and David T. Bauman,
KF7MCF.

This is the same group that for years has been using high speed digital
networking to augment the packet system used by hams for the local Wasatch 100,
 arguably the toughest 100 mile race in the country - a race up and down over
mountains. This is not only extremely difficult for the runners, but setting up
 line of sight radio communications in rugged mountains is very challenging.
"Our team made it work!," said Bauman.

____________________________________________________________________________


The Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network (AREDN)

From its literature, the AREDN(TM) Project's focus is on emergency/disaster
response communications. It seeks to provide hams a means to implement this
technology in practical ways to support local and regional emergency
communications needs. To that end, the project's objectives are to enable hams
to put up a mesh node with minimal expertise and effort; configure the mesh
network automatically so that advanced network knowledge is not needed; use
low-cost, reliable commercial equipment; define standards for internetwork
integration; support those in the process of designing and implementing
emergency/disaster communications networks; and refine the software to make
implementation easier, more reliable, and more manageable.

____________________________________________________________________________


Spotlight on Vermont Emergency Management's RACES Program

The Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES) is a volunteer organization
of Amateur Radio operators who are certified as registered with an emergency
management (civil defense) agency to provide essential communications for that
agency in times of local, regional or national emergencies/disasters. Created
in 1952 during the Cold War to serve civil defense, it has evolved over the
years to become an auxiliary communications asset in natural
emergencies/disasters, supplementing state and local government operations. In
time of war, the rest of the amateur service could be ordered closed, leaving
only RACES operators to communicate for specific purposes, on limited
designated frequencies.

____________________________________________________________________________


Vermont Emergency Management (VEM) RACES

The VEM RACES program works to establish a comprehensive emergency
communications network using the talents of the state's amateur community. The
primary mission of the program is to provide health and welfare, and emergency
communications during disasters or significant failures of telecommunication
systems. The VEM's website reports enhancements to the VEM-RACES system that
continue to strengthen its mission and capabilities to provide registered
operators and multiple modes of communications to the areas the agency serves.
In accordance with this mission, its RACES membership has increased to over 200
 registered operators. Currently, VEM has also established 40 fixed RACES
stations around the state, and the capability of deploying 15 mobile Command
Center stations throughout the state. These stations are installed at the
Vermont Emergency Management State EOC, 16 Vermont Hospital-based EOCs, 11
Department of Health Offices, Vermont Army National Guard Joint Operations
Center, National Weather Service - Burlington, 14 VEM-RACES/CERT Trailers,
VEM-RACES Mobile Communications Trailer, Vermont Agency of Transportation
Operations Center and 10 District Offices.

VEM-RACES communication capabilities are additionally expanding to utilize
PACTOR III digital communications technology providing HF based email and
Internet capacity between emergency centers within Vermont and New England.

The program's developers and administrators have published an array of
excellent informational and training guides for current and potential
participants and benificiary agencies: VEM RACES Brochure, RACES Health Care
Network, RACES VTrans, and RACES Field Operation Guide. -- Vermont Emergency
Management

____________________________________________________________________________


K1CE For a Final: First Contact

I recently purchased a Tytera TYT MD-380 70 cm digital/analog FM handheld radio
 to give DMR a try. At $89, it was certainly affordable to experiment. The
radio and mode are not really intuitive to operate, and the manual, frankly,
was not of much help. But, the handheld came bundled with all necessary
accessories, including a programming cable and software to be installed on my
laptop, and all I really needed was to review a couple of YouTube videos to get
 started.

I was able to program in my local DMR repeaters -- one is on top of the 10
story hospital building where I work -- and then program in the TalkGroups I
wanted to use. It works kind of like D-STAR's DPlus reflector system, but
seemed to me to be a bit more efficient to use. As with any new mode, it's
always good to "read the mail" for awhile, before transmitting, and that's what
 I did to get the hang of the culture. That strategy worked and I was able to
seamlessly make my first contact with a ham up in Maryland on the North
American talkgroup. It worked like a charm, and with the digital voice quality,
 and quality speaker of my new radio, it sounded like the operator was sitting
right next to me.

While the availability of DMR is not a reason to sell your analog equipment, it
 is a good mode to have as another arrow in your emergency/disaster response
quiver. At $89, it's worth a try.

____________________________________________________________________________


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---
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