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The ARES E-Letter

March 16, 2016
Editor: Rick Palm, K1CE

In This Issue:

 *  Amateur Radio Sessions at the National Hurricane Conference, Orlando,
    Next Week
 *  Communications Support for the "Greatest Free Show on Earth"
 *  Wisconsin's Sawyer County ARES/RACES Receives Donation from Ski Race
    Foundation
 *  Letters: W1HKJ fldigi Suite's flmsg
 *  Florida Amateurs Take Part In Severe Weather Awareness Day
 *  Letters: Mass Alert Systems
 *  Boston Marathon Communications Committee Seeks Amateur-Volunteers
 *  Biennial Radiation Drill Supported by Southern Florida ARES
 *  Tech Tips: Crimping Tools
 *  Letters: Solar Panels
 *  Maryland-DC ARES Statewide ARDF/SAR for Missing Person


ARES Briefs, Links

Special Deputy John Krawczak, KJ0P, of Minnetonka, Minnesota, was recently
presented the 2015 Hennepin County Sheriff's Distinguished Service Award and
the 2015 Minnesota Sheriff's Association Volunteer Of The Year Award. Krawczak
is a member of the Hennepin County Sheriff's Office Volunteer Services
Division on the Communications Response Team. Twenty radio amateurs are
members of the team that provides public safety and amateur communications
support in emergencies/disasters and community events.

The Puerto Rico Emergency Management Agency (PREMA) and other agencies will
participate in a communications drill simulating a tsunami incident, along
with radio amateurs in supporting roles. The exercise is slated for tomorrow,
March 17 at 10 AM local time.The Puerto Rico ARES organization will be active,
and registered on www.tsunamizone.org where more information can be found. The
aim of the exercise is to test the reliability of communication systems and
protocols between centers of tsunami alerts and to help emergency management
agencies to improve their preparedness in the event of an alert. Since 2010,
Amateur Radio operators have played a role in the exercise, executed in
conjunction with the Puerto Rico Seismic Network (RSPR), the Caribbean Warning
Tsunami Exercise (Caribe Wave), FEMA, the Puerto Rico Emergency Management
Administration, and NOAA.

ARRL Officials at Michigan Communications Conference: The 2016 Michigan
Statewide Interoperability Communications Conference held at Great Wolf Lodge
February 22-25 in Traverse City, Michigan, featured the state's auxcomm
protocols, with amateurs playing a significant role in many presentations and
discussions. From the conference summary, "In an emergency, every link in the
chain is critical and those links must be firmly connected. That means every
agency, every leader and every employee needs to be on the same page and
committed to our shared strategic vision of interoperability."

Armed Forces Day 2016 Communication Test to Include Direct Military-Ham
Contact on 60 Meters (3/1/16); ARES Groups, Individual Hams Support Army and
Air Force MARS Communications Exercise (3/1/16); ARES Team Leverages Radio
Services, Local Media, Internet in Missouri Flood Watch (2/22/16)


Amateur Radio Sessions at the National Hurricane Conference, Orlando, Next Week

Amateur Radio capabilities will be presented at the 2016 National Hurricane
Conference, which will be held next week in Orlando, Florida, at the Orlando
Hilton hotel. The conference theme is to improve hurricane preparedness as it
has been in past years. All Amateur Radio sessions are free, and all will be
held on Tuesday afternoon, March 22, 2016 from 1:30 to 5:00 PM. Here is the
session breakdown:

NHC Session #1 - 1:30 to 3:00 PM: Dr. Rick Knabb, Director, National Hurricane
Center will discuss the importance of Amateur Radio surface reporting. Bob
Robichaud, VE1MBR, of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, will present on hurricane
meteorological topics and an overview of Canadian Hurricane Centre operations.
Julio Ripoll,WD4R, Assistant Amateur Radio Station Coordinator will present on
National Hurricane Center station WX4NHC operations.

NHC Session #2: 3:15 to 5:00 PM: Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, Hurricane Watch Net
Manager, will present an overview of the net, use of personal weather stations
and backup power/antenna. Rob Macedo, KD1CY, Director of Operations, VoIP
Hurricane Net and ARRL ARES Eastern Massachusetts Assistant SEC, will discuss
net operations, and best practices in SKYWARN tropical systems reporting. Ken
Bailey, K1FUG, ARRL Assistant Manager of Preparedness and Response, will
present the ARRL Beginner's Course in Ham Radio Hurricane Preparedness.
Finally, a Q&A session and door raffle prizes will be offered.

Amateur Radio presentations will be recorded and live streamed. The livestream
for 2016 will be on You Tube. Livestream links will be as follows:

http://www.nsradio.org/stream

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


Communications Support for the "Greatest Free Show on Earth"

Mardi Gras is an annual celebration in New Orleans that's tied to the
Christian tradition of Lent before Easter. Sixty-four parades with up to 50
floats each are enjoyed by locals and nearly 1.2 million visitors over the
course of 2 weeks leading up to Mardi Gras day (literally, "Fat Tuesday," the
day before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday). The multiple daily events of the
Mardi Gras celebration have been called "the world's largest planned natural
disaster." Eric Pickering, KE5BMU, is the City's Deputy Operations Chief in
the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness (NOHSEP),
and his team is responsible for responding to unplanned events that are real,
likely, or feared.

Of course, a communications infrastructure failure is high on the list of
likely disasters that can be mitigated with planning and practice. And so
Pickering began working closely with two local hams, Rafael Shabetai, W5BAI,
and Cedric Walker, K5CFW. Together they re-activated a station in City Hall
that had been built for NOHSEP by Bob McBride, AE5RN (SK) and began planning
for an expansion into the NOHSEP mobile command post bus. The three had two
goals: involving local hams who could serve as the "eyes and ears" of NOHSEP
in a disaster or emergency, and ensuring that a robust backup communications
network was trained and prepared to take over if the state-wide primary
trunked 800 MHz network stopped working.

Because New Orleans residents still vividly remember the wrath of Hurricane
Katrina in 2005, it's easy to convince them that the goals of operator
preparedness and equipment readiness can mean the difference between life and
death. After Katrina, the trunked public safety network and all cellphone
voice capability shut down. The only remaining communications channels were
via ham-operated VHF and UHF repeaters. And so Pickering, Shabetai and Walker
decided to create a repeater-based training exercise, centered around Mardi
Gras when so many residents/hams are out and about and likely to be carrying
their H-T radios anyway.

Of the 64 parades in the New Orleans area, 29 follow a similar 3.7 mile route
down St. Charles Avenue and along Canal Street in the Central Business
District. Three first aid stations along the route are in operation during the
parades, and arrangements were made to credential ham volunteers to give them
access as bases of operations. Three repeater owners (Southeast Louisiana
Emergency Communications Service W5MCC, Jefferson Amateur Radio Club W5GAD,
and the Greater New Orleans Amateur Radio Club W5UK) granted access to their
machines for the duration of the Mardi Gras exercises. A mobile command post
along the route serves the many city departments that keep the parade route
safe and clear. An operating position in the mobile command post bus was set
aside for net control, and a street sign next to the bus' parking place served
as a convenient temporary mast for a dual-band vertical antenna. A transceiver
from the City Hall station was temporarily relocated to the mobile command
post, but next year a dedicated transceiver and antenna will be installed.

With operation locations and equipment in place, the team's next task was
recruiting a cadre of volunteers. Pickering made a successful recruitment
presentation at the W5GAD club meeting. The Assistant Section Emergency
Coordinator Matt Anderson, KD5KNZ, plus ARES Emergency Coordinators for New
Orleans Joel Colman, NO5FD, and neighboring Jefferson Parish Nick Frederick,
W4NDF, all stepped up to recruit operators for both field and net control
positions, and all three volunteered as operators. It was decided to limit
operations to the weekend immediately before Mardi Gras day, and to Mardi Gras
day, as these dates have the biggest parades with the highest attendance. Ten
volunteers participated, and check-ins from other hams along the parade route
added to the numbers compiled by each net control shift. No emergencies were
handled, and we were fortunate that the city's regular emergency communication
infrastructure did not need a backup.

The ham community demonstrated that it could serve NOHSEP professionally and
reliably. This was the first year of an organized effort to bring hams into
the NOHSEP operation, and it was incomplete because many parades were not
covered. With the success of this year's demonstration and the goodwill that
was generated, it will be possible to mount a bigger recruitment effort and
provide coverage for more of the 64 parades that make Mardi Gras the greatest
free show on earth. -- Cedric F. Walker, K5CFW [The author is Professor
Emeritus, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tulane
University].


Wisconsin's Sawyer County ARES/RACES Receives Donation from Ski Race Foundation

The American Birkebeiner Ski Race, known as the Birkie, is North America's
largest cross-country ski race. Held in northwest Wisconsin, the race is 33
miles long, starts in Cable, and ends on Main Street in downtown Hayward. This
was the 43rd year for the Birkie and 10,500 skiers came from the US and
Canada, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, Japan and many other
countries.

Eighteen years ago the Birkie Foundation asked the Amateur Radio community to
help with communications along the race course and amateurs from a five-county
area around Hayward in Sawyer County have been doing it ever since. There are
nine medical and nine food stations along the race course that provide medical
help to those who need it, with the food stations providing power drinks and
refreshments to the skiers. Amateur Radio operators are at these stations to
relay information regarding medical issues (dropouts, injuries, etc.) and food
station needs (low on supplies for skiers, etc.) back to a net control
station, which gives the information to the Birkie office during the event.

This year the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation donated $2,500 to the Sawyer
County ARES/RACES group to purchase and maintain two new amateur VHF repeaters
in Sawyer County. With this donation, Sawyer County ARES/RACES is able to
replace two old repeaters and the accessories for them. -- Wally Kruk, N9VAO,
Sawyer County ARES/RACES, Wisconsin, Emergency Coordinator


Letters: W1HKJ fldigi Suite's flmsg

Many digital mode operators familiar with flmsgthink of it as a forms utility
for use only with fldigi. However, it's also a great cross-platform,
stand-alone program. We have used it to prepare and move forms (ICS,
radiogram, etc.) within our EOC by thumb drive, shared drive and mesh network.
Our county officials can put flmsg on their computers and send the files to
the radio room without any need for transcribing or cut and paste. We also
send flmsg files as attachments to email and radio-email messages and they may
also be placed on store-forward bulletin board systems. Additionally, amateurs
have been working with W1HKJ to make the flsmg ICS-213 form FEMA compliant and
completely compatible for use within the National Traffic System (NTS). The
text can be transported within NTS via voice, cw and digital modes using the
standard radiogram format as a "wrapper" for the file. NTS-Digital can also
handle flmsg files as attachments to radiograms. -- Steve Hansen, KB1TCE, Knox
County ARES/RACES-CERT, Owl's Head, Maine


Florida Amateurs Take Part In Severe Weather Awareness Day

The Lake Amateur Radio Association (LARA) of Lake County, Florida, and its
ARES group were invited to take part in the county Public Safety Department
Emergency Management Division's Severe Weather Awareness Day Exposition held
at the Lake County Fair Grounds in Eustis, Florida on Saturday, February 20,
2016.

The purpose of Severe Weather Awareness Day is to acquaint the citizens of
Lake County with the need to prepare for severe weather events such as
hurricanes, tornadoes, floods or forest fires. The Lake County Emergency
Management Division invited various disaster relief groups to display their
emergency equipment that could be used in such events.

Along with the LARA and Lake County ARES organizations, present were other
groups such as the Lake County Sheriff's Office, Lake Emergency Medical
Service, Lake County Fire Rescue, Southern Baptist-Disaster Relief, Salvation
Army, and the Red Cross. These groups brought had their officials available to
explain their organization's roles. Tours were also conducted.

LARA had their communication trailer on display along with a booth where ham
volunteers explained their role in assisting professional responders in the
event of an emergency. LARA and Lake County ARES members were glad to be
included by the Lake County Emergency Management Division and be given the
opportunity to tell the general public about their roles in disaster relief.
-- Ted Luebbers, K1AYZ, Lake County, Florida ARES PIO


Letters: Mass Alert Systems

Our ARES unit researched various mass notification (alert) system vendors for
a system that would work for us. After two no-cost trials, we have gone with
One Call Now, and their basic pay-as-you-go package for $90 for 1000 "credits"
- each notification call or SMS text counts as 1 credit, so our 70 member ARES
group with a total of 122 contact numbers would be 122 credits per
notification, giving us eight phone and SMS notifications.

For my first test, I sent Winnipeg ARES Emergency Coordinators, AECs, PIO and
two special tech savvy members (eight in total) an alert exercise message with
request to meet me on the air on a local repeater. It didn't work well -- I
only heard from one of the eight: The recipients were leery about answering
calls from 1-877 numbers. I now have the system set up to display the "local"
number for my ARES pager. For a wider audience test of Winnipeg ARES members
who knew I was looking at a mass notification system vendor and that I was
targeting a specific day for a test (a provincial holiday in Manitoba), I used
the messager to distribute a draft exercise plan. As a result, for the actual
test notification/on-air exercise net, I heard from half of the Winnipeg ARES
membership (many were away for the long weekend).

A group leader gets a report from the provider for each notification, and can
log in and see a detailed report of which recipients answered and when they
did so. I have made my AECs and PIO "messengers" so they each have a discrete
log-in and can transmit a notification.

This system sure beats our cumbersome, suboptimal, time-consuming telephone
tree fan-out protocol. -- Jeff Dovyak , VE4MBQ, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada ARES


Boston Marathon Communications Committee Seeks Amateur-Volunteers

The Boston Athletic Association (BAA) begins its Boston Marathon volunteer
communications work with the slogan "Volunteers Run This Event." Indeed, the
Amateur Radio community has a role in nearly every aspect from Start to
Finish. Preparations are in high gear as Amateur Radio continues to serve in
this extraordinary event -- we need you! Each year around 300 communications
volunteers organize, plan, train and serve the BAA, some 30,000 runners,
10,000 volunteers, and their communities. Registration for Amateur Radio
volunteers remains open with assignments available for new volunteers who have
a passion for public service, and for experienced hands at this longstanding
event. Registration is easy and one-stop. -- Brett Smith, AB1RL, BAA
Communications Committee Volunteer Coordinator


Biennial Radiation Drill Supported by Southern Florida ARES

Every two years the St. Lucie (Florida) Nuclear Power Plant is required to
hold an exercise that is chiefly evaluated by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The purpose of
these exercises is to test and evaluate the responses of plant personnel, law
enforcement agencies, emergency management officials, and communications
personnel. This year, the exercise took place on February 24. The scenario
involved overloaded communication systems normally used by the public,
rendering them unusable. ARES would provide radio communications among the
county EOCs and other critical assets/support locations.

ARES teams came and participated from St. Lucie, Palm Beach, Martin, Indian
River, and Brevard counties. Operators successfully employed the UHF
repeater-based Statewide Amateur Radio Network (SARnet) for most
communications as well as an HF net on 7.245 MHz. The dual nets backed each
other up for redundancy/reliability for the ARES mission of supporting each of
the EOCs.

SARnet is a network of linked UHF voice repeaters that serves the State of
Florida. The state Department of Transportation (DOT) network that connects
these amateur repeaters is a stand-alone carrier class microwave network. The
use of this dedicated bandwidth provides a network much more likely to remain
operational during a severe weather event like a hurricane.

All ARES communications tests and requirements were successfully passed and
met, with the use of the dual nets for backup capability being noted and
praised by the evaluators. Martin County ARES also had a display of Go-Kits
that illustrated what they do upon activation. It drew a good audience and
plenty of questions from the responders. The FEMA representative visited ARES
EC Steve Marshall, WW4RX, who discussed the kits and answered questions about
SARnet and a map of its coverage and implications for its usage.

The excellent performance of these county ARES teams could not have been
possible without the leadership and efforts of their county ECs, their
respective net control operators, all other ARES operators and their
assistants, and their respective county Emergency Management personnel. Thanks
also go to the other amateur operators who kept the SARnet and HF frequencies
clear for the duration of the exercise. -- George P. Geran, KK4AXV, Brevard
County Assistant EC; Willie Thompson, KB5FKG, Indian River County Assistant
EC; Steve Marshall, WW4RX, Martin County EC; Charles Benn,
WB2SNN, Palm Beach County District EC; and Steve Lowman, N4SGL, St. Lucie
County EC


Tech Tips: Crimping Tools

A few years ago when Powerpoles started to emerge as the standard connector
for ARES and RACES applications, it was time for me to change out my Molex
connectors. Having no initial success in finding a die set for my Paladin
CrimpALL tool, I noticed that DX Engineering was not only selling a crimp
tool, but also individual die sets for PowerPoles, RG-8, RG8X and uninsulated
and insulated wire connectors. After an exchange of e-mails with DX
Engineering staff, I ordered the PowerPole die set. DX Engineering was not
sure if it would fit my crimp tool but offered to accept its return if it did
not. Eureka -- it fit perfectly as if Greenlee manufactured it! Subsequently,
I purchased the RG-8 and RG-8X die sets for UHF and BNC connectors.

If any readers owns a Paladin/Greenlee 8000 series CrimpALL tool, they can be
safe in ordering the dies discussed above from DX Engineering. I am in no way
connected with DX Engineering, just a satisfied customer.-- Joseph Walc,
W4EEI, Asheville, North Carolina


Letters: Solar Panels

When looking at solar panels, there are three basic technologies: Amorphous,
Poly-Crystalline, and Mono-Crystalline. Amorphous panels are common for small
panels because they are inexpensive and can be cut to any size, but they wear
out more quickly and/or not very efficient. They are usually a deep brown
color. I recommend avoiding them. Poly-Crystalline is a good technology and
should be the minimum acceptable.They are typically bluish tint and usually
have a fractured pattern. Mono-Crystalline are the best. They last a very long
time and have the best efficiency.These typically look black and usually have
cells that look like rectangles with two clipped corners. There are some
flexible panels, but their efficiency is usually not very good. For my heavy
deployable go-kit, I use a solar package similar to the USA STOCK 100 watt 12
volt Folding Solar Panel with one or two 50 Ah batteries, depending on the
circumstances. -- John Bloodgood, KD0SFY, Pikes Peak (Colorado) ARES


Maryland-DC ARES Statewide ARDF/SAR for Missing Person

The mission presented to ARRL Maryland-DC Section ARES: Find a radio beacon
and save a life. It started on Friday, February 26, when an autistic adult was
discovered missing. By Sunday, Section Manager Marty Pittinger, KB3MXM, and
SEC Jim Montgomery, WB3KAS, received an e-mail from Joe Cotton, W3TTT,
explaining the serious situation: "I was called last night by a member of the
Northwest Citizen's Patrol, a partner with Project Lifesaver. An autistic man
was discovered missing by his caretaker on Friday morning, two days ago."
Cotton asked Pittinger and Montgomery if their organization had the means to
locate a Project Lifesaver radio beacon leg bracelet, issued to incapacitated
adults for rapid location, response and safe return. The local Project
Lifesavers point-of-contact in Baltimore needed help.

Pittinger, Montgomery and Cotton, with the CEO of Project Lifesaver,
coordinated action using brief e-mail correspondence and telephone chats to
define search criteria and share technical information. Contact was also made
with local law enforcement agencies handling the missing-person case in order
to set a protocol/format for Amateur Radio operators reporting to the police
departments.

ARRL Atlantic Division Director Tom Abernethy, W3TOM, was consulted and a plan
was created and coordinated to handle this rather unique request. Section
officials contacted local clubs to secure phase doppler radio direction finder
equipment, and acquired the beacon frequency, radio range, and tone
signatures. The goal was to activate the entire Maryland-DC Section's ARES
statewide to perform a QTH-QTV ("stand guard," or listen on frequency) from
every Amateur Radio operator's home station to detect the beacon and relay its
location to local police. Amateur Radio mobile assets
might be needed to determine the beacon's precise location.

Once permission to activate was secured, Section Manager Pittinger issued an
"Activation Announcement" to SEC Montgomery, who alerted and activated all
ARES members to initiate the search plan/protocol. Pittinger then informed
Project Lifesaver coordinators and police that the state-wide ARDF search was
underway.

The Maryland Port Authority identified the missing autistic man at Baltimore
Washington International Airport, and MDC ARES was told to stand down.

Pittinger concluded "We were grateful to learn that the missing man was
located and that we were given the opportunity to assist in a massive safety
of life search." He said "Our knowledge, experience, agility and huge presence
across Maryland and the District of Columbia show our ability to serve
multiple agencies and organizations jointly, seamlessly and rapidly as an
organized team." -- ARRL Maryland-DC Section

____________


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