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The ARES E-Letter

March 21, 2018
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE

In This Issue:

 *  Puerto Rico/Red Cross Mission "Force of Fifty" Member Named Hamvention(R)
    2018 "Amateur of the Year"
 *  National Hurricane Conference Note: Amateur Radio Session is 10:30 AM
    Next Tuesday
 *  ARRL Board of Directors' Actions, Reports on ARES Enhancement
 *  Florida County Honors its ARES Group
 *  Media Hits: Emergency Communications in Rural Maine
 *  2018 National Preparedness Symposium Will Promote Whole Community
    Preparedness Through Unity of Effort
 *  Letters: Clarification on NIMS, IS Course Changes Last Issue
 *  InfraGard: ARES Collaborates with FBI in Los Angeles
 *  2017 ARES Annual Report

____________________________________________________________________________


ARES Briefs, Links

Radio Amateurs Pitch In to Help as "Hat Trick" of Major Coastal Storms Hit
Northeast (3/20/18) -- Amateur Radio volunteers with WX1BOX at the National
Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts, and various ARES groups had their
hands full during March, as Mother Nature's hat trick of nor'easters brought
severe weather conditions and a lot of snow to the northeastern US. The storms
caused the Cape Cod ARES team to extend activations for SKYWARN, WX1BOX, and
regional shelter operations. "This has been a very active period of significant
 severe weather for the region after a relatively quiet stretch from late
January through the end of February," observed Rob Macedo, KD1CY, the Eastern
Massachusetts Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator for SKYWARN.


Other News:

MARS Team Provides HF and Amateur Radio Communication Training on USNS Mercy
(3/02/18)

ARRL Seeks Emergency Communications Course EC-001 Mentors (3/15/18)


Puerto Rico/Red Cross Mission "Force of Fifty" Member Named Hamvention(R) 2018
"Amateur of the Year"

The Dayton Hamvention(R) Awards Committee selected Valerie Hotzfeld, NV9L, of
Crescent City, Illinois, as the 2018 "Amateur of the Year." First licensed in
2006, Hotzfeld has been active in ARES(R). In 2017, she traveled to Texas after
 Hurricane Harvey to help rescue small animals. Hotzfield was subsequently
deployed to Puerto Rico with the American Red Cross for 3 weeks as part of a
group of volunteer Amateur Radio operators, facilitating critical
communications after Hurricane Maria.

"Serving the Community" is Theme for Hamvention(R) 2018

The venerable Dayton Hamvention is May 18-20 this year, at the Greene County
Fairgrounds, Ohio. The theme is "Serving the Community," and numerous forums
related to public service will be scheduled. Many will be of special interest
to ARES members. The ARRL is offering a Public Service track of programs on
Friday and Saturday.

"Getting Started in Public Service Communications," an introduction to public
service communication training and emergency preparedness, will take place on
Friday at 9:15 AM, moderated by Ken Bailey, K1FUG, the ARRL Emergency
Preparedness Assistant and Continuing Education Program Administrator.

"Building Partnerships," with ARRL Emergency Preparedness Manager Mike Corey,
KI1U, and FEMA Community Partners Specialist, External Affairs, Sarah Byrne as
co-presenters, will begin at 11:50 AM on Friday. Acknowledging that
collaborative and mutually beneficial partnerships are key to successful
disaster and emergency response, this session will explore how Amateur Radio
public service groups rely on such partnerships when serving their communities.
 Corey and Byrne will address how to build and grow partnerships of different
levels of complexity across a wide range of interests and organizations -- from
 Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs), to other nonprofits and
commercial entities.

For forum updates, check the Dayton Hamvention(R) website frequently. See you
in May at Dayton!


National Hurricane Conference Note: Amateur Radio Session is 10:30 AM Next
Tuesday

The National Hurricane Conference will be held next week at the Hilton Orlando,
 Florida, 6001 Destination Parkway. A robust agenda of meetings and seminars
will be conducted, with the Amateur Radio Workshop on Tuesday, March 27, at
10:30 AM, not 1:30 PM as reported in last month's issue. The theme of the
workshop is Tropical Systems and Disaster Communications.

There are numerous other sessions and programs of interest to radio amateurs
that will be held over the course of the week. For a daily meeting agenda, and
descriptions of seminars, click here.

The Amateur Radio Session presenters and attendees will discuss involvement
when tropical systems impact coastal areas of the Atlantic and cover the
historic Amateur Radio response to the impacts from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and
 Maria on the Caribbean Islands, US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico including
the ARRL "Force of Fifty" mission. Representatives and presentations are
expected from the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC (the National Hurricane
Center Amateur Radio station), the Hurricane Watch Net, the VoIP Hurricane Net,
 the Canadian Hurricane Centre, the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network
 (SATERN) and ARRL HQ. A moderated Q & A session will be conducted also.

Amateur Radio presentations will be recorded and live streamed via Youtube.
Livestream links below:

http://www.nsradio.org/stream
http://www.voipwx.net/files/stream.htm


ARRL Board of Directors' Actions, Reports on ARES Enhancement

The policymakers of the ARRL met in January, passing a number of actions of
interest to ARES and other public service operators. The Board awarded the ARRL
 International Humanitarian Award to 2017 hurricane operators, noting the 2017
Atlantic hurricane season was one of the harshest in recent memory, especially
in the Caribbean islands including the ARRL Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands
 Sections and that the local Amateur Radio licensees in the area were pressed
into immediate service before and during the devastating storms. The Board
recognized the efforts of the local Amateur communities continue to support the
 relief and recovery efforts even now, with ARRL leadership in each section
continuing to perform extraordinary service. The Board conferred the award
jointly on the local Amateur Radio population of Puerto Rico, served by ARRL
Section Manager Oscar Resto, KP4RF; and the local Amateur Radio population of
the US Virgin Islands, served by ARRL Section Manager Fred Kleber, K9VV.

The Board also noted that radio amateurs across Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin
Islands, the Caribbean islands, south Florida and Texas, performed outstanding
service during the hurricane season for their communities, friends, and
families with thousands of hours spent providing critical support
communications. The ARRL Board of Directors recognized their outstanding work
and service, commending them all.


Update on Public Service Enhancement Group Efforts to Enhance ARES Program

ARRL Great Lakes Division Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK, as chairman,
presented an update on the current work of the Programs and Services
Committee's Public Service Enhancement Working Group and entertained
discussion. The working group is currently developing a series of guidelines
that will become part of the ARES program. The ARES registration service for
groups across the country is up and running with over 400 groups registered in
the first few weeks since its activation. During its deliberations, the working
 group solicited input from topic experts across the country as well as several
 ARRL Section Managers. A peer review group of experts continues to be involved
 in this project. Organizing a better system of communication with the field
organization will be an emphasis of the PSEWG moving forward. -- ARRL


Florida County Honors its ARES Group

Recently, the Osceola County, Florida, Board of County Commissioners proclaimed
 February 12-18, 2018 as Osceola County Amateur Radio Emergency Services Week.
The county is in central Florida near the Orlando area, and has some 270,000
residents. Osceola County ARES has been providing communications assistance to
the county since at least 1998 when the area was hit by devastating tornadoes.
Through this proclamation, the Board expressed their appreciation for all the
support and assistance ARES has provided over the decades, in times of need.
Readers can view the presentation by the following link. It is toward the
beginning of the meeting, within the first few minutes. -- Joe Reilly, N4ZIQ,
ARRL ARES Osceola County Emergency Coordinator


Media Hits: Emergency Communications in Rural Maine

Two segments that were broadcast on WABI TV (Bangor, Maine) have been receiving
 much interest in the largely rural state. The second segment covers the
Amateur Radio community's contribution to emergency management's radio
communications needs, and cites the efforts of Karl Richards, KB1YCF, and
Richard (Beau) Beausoleil, N1REX, in particular. Click on the following links
to view. -- Thanks, Steve Hansen, KB1TCE, ARRL Maine Section Emergency
Coordinator

Emergency Communications in Rural Maine -- Segment One

Emergency Communications in Rural Maine -- Segment Two


2018 National Preparedness Symposium Will Promote Whole Community Preparedness
Through Unity of Effort

FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) will host the 2018 National
Preparedness Symposium from May 21-24. The symposium provides federal, state,
tribal, territorial, and nongovernmental training and exercise officials the
opportunity to discuss current and future training and exercise programs and to
 share case studies, lessons-learned, and smart practices. The theme is
"promoting whole community preparedness through unity of effort," with a focus
on promoting a culture of preparedness.

The goal of the symposium is to provide the tools, knowledge, and network to
improve training and exercise programs that build and sustain capabilities for
a more secure and resilient nation. Attendees will have the opportunity to
identify at least one element they would like to implement, modify, or validate
 in their training and exercise program, and they will take away workable
improvements that can be used immediately and successfully. The symposium also
provides a platform to communicate changes to current capabilities and
introduce new FEMA policy.

The event will be held at the National Emergency Training Center, Emmitsburg,
Maryland. Applications for registration must be received by April 9, 2018. To
apply and for more information, visit
https://training.fema.gov/nationalpreparednes... or contact the EMI
National Training Liaison Dan Lubman at daniel.lubman@fema.dhs.gov.


Letters: Clarification on NIMS, IS Course Changes Last Issue

In your article in last month's issue, "Letters: NIMS Updated - IS Core Courses
 to be Revised; AUXCOMM, COMT Courses", there is a discussion of the US
Department of Homeland Security-Office of Emergency Communication (DHS-OEC)
AuxComm course, Communications Unit training and the OEC-developed COMT
(Communications Technician) course. The article then offers "Some 2018 dates
for COMT, COML courses." Your link takes the reader to the NWCG (National
Wildfire Coordinating Group) COMT classes, not the DHS-OEC classes. The NWCG
COMT is not the same as the DHS-OEC COMT, and is generally not open to Amateur
Radio operators off the street. (The NWCG COMT course has some prerequisites
and generally requires a nomination from a fire or law enforcement agency.)
--Thanks, Jim Rooney, N4JJR, District Emergency Coordinator, ARES (Douglas and
Elbert Counties, Colorado); Douglas County Incident Management Team (NWCG INCM,
 COMT, COML-t, and All-Hazards COML-t); Colorado Team 1 (COMT), Jefferson
County All-Hazards Incident Management Team; Rocky Mountain Type 2 Blue Team
(COML-t)


DHS-OEC COMT Position and Course

The All-Hazards Communications Technician (COMT) Course introduces public
safety professionals and support staff to various communications concepts and
technologies. This includes interoperable communications solutions, Land Mobile
 Radio (LMR) communications, satellite, telephone, computer and data
technologies used in incident response and planned events. Participants receive
 core competencies required for performing the duties of the COMT in an
all-hazards incident. The course is instructor-led training that supports
learning through discussion, lecture, and active participation in multiple
exercises. The course provides a realistic, hands-on approach to mastering the
tasks and skills of a COMT. It is designed for local, regional, tribal and
state/territory emergency response professionals and support personnel in all
disciplines who have a technical communications background. The five day (40
hour) workshop is taught by experienced instructors who have both practitioner
and Communications Unit experience. The course features facilitated lectures,
student exercises, and hands-on lab work to explain processes used for
successful establishment and operation of the technical communications
resources supporting an incident or planned event. Prerequisites include a
public safety background with experience in field operations; basic public
safety communications technology knowledge; knowledge of local communications
systems, frequencies, spectrum, plans, and contacts; completion of FEMA
Independent Study courses IS-100b, IS-200b, IS-700a, and IS-800b; and a
supervisor's recommendation. Workshops are limited to 15 attendees.

Contact your local, county and state emergency management agencies, especially
their education and training departments, for possible COMT course offerings in
 your area.


InfraGard: ARES Collaborates with FBI in Los Angeles

ARES members in the ARRL Los Angeles (California) Section are being invited to
join InfraGard, a public-private partnership managed by the FBI with the
purpose of sharing information concerning protection of our nation's critical
infrastructure. Communications is one of those critical elements, and ARES is
recognized as playing an important role.

Applicants for InfraGard membership will undergo an FBI background
investigation and, once cleared, will receive a membership document, regular
e-mailed security briefings, access to the secure InfraGard Internet site and
invitations to a variety of training sessions. (The passing of the background
check may incidentally prove useful in a variety of served-agency engagements
where absence of a background check might otherwise delay or preclude ARES
member involvement).

InfraGard membership is not mandatory, but ARES leadership encourages all
members to consider submitting applications.


Membership in InfraGard Los Angeles

The InfraGard vetted membership consists of thousands of subject matter experts
 across 16 critical infrastructure sectors. Members are from business,
academia, government, law enforcement and the military, dedicated to support
the mission and protection of the nation's critical infrastructure.

Members gain an understanding of the threats posed by criminals and foreign
adversaries, and receive information and tools consistent with the most current
 best practices. Applications are accepted online only. -- ARRL Los Angeles
Section News

_______


ARES Annual/Monthly Reports can be found here, organized by date, with a link
to download a PDF of the full report.

Archives of the ARRL ARES E-Letter going back to the original issue (September
2005) are available for download.


2017 ARES Annual Report

The 2017 ARES Annual Report is now available online. Last year showed a
continued trend in improved reporting with 87% of ARRL Sections submitting at
least one report during the calendar year. There were a few changes to
reporting last year. First, new forms were used. ARRL Field Service staff
standardized the current field organization forms to make back end processing
easier. Second, severe weather and SKYWARN activations were put into their own
category. And third, the value of a volunteer hour was updated; the new value
of a volunteer hour is $24.14.

______


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____________________________________________________________________________


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---
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