open meeting arrl east bay section ares ® october 2013
TRANSCRIPT
Open Meeting
ARRL East Bay Section ARES®
October 2013
ARRL East Bay Section ARES®
John Rabold KS6M
Section Emergency Coordinator,ARRL East Bay Section
Mission Statement
ARRL East Bay Section ARES®
supplies volunteer communications services
to its served agencies
in support of their public-service responses to
critical incidents.
Mission Statement Definitions
Served agencies of ARRL East Bay Section ARES (“EB-ARES”) are entities ... that serve the public during critical incidents
AND that the ARRL or EB-ARES have agreed in
writing to support with volunteer communications services at such times
that may be government, non-government, for-profit, or not-for-profit.
What distinguishes EB-ARES from similar emcomm programs?
ARES is an ARRL program EB-ARES serves multiple served agencies EB-ARES requires written agreements with
served agencies approved by the ARRL and signed by the ARRL Section Manager
EB-ARES seeks to collaborate with other programs
Leaders and Members
The EB-ARES Full Member designation Announced in November 2010 Implemented in September 2013 Requires course training
ARRL Introduction to Emergency Communication (EC-001)
FEMA EMI IS-100, 200, and 700 Signifies a higher level of training and skill to
served agencies and ARES leaders
Leaders and Members
EB-ARES Membership Status: October 2013 Full Members: 27 Associate Members: 82 Total Members: 109
Leaders and Members
EB-ARES Leaders Almost all now meet the training standards for
EB-ARES leaders at the Emergency Coordinator (EC) level and above
Full Member training and designation FEMA EMI IS-800 and 802 ARRL Public Service and Emergency
Communications Management for Radio Amateurs (EC-016)
Leaders and Members
The Emergency Coordinators (ECs) are the core of ARES activity
A community's EB-ARES EC Coordinates the ARES activity of all EB-ARES
members who live there Supports all EB-ARES served agencies that
have operations there Manages some larger responsibilities by
appointing assistants (AECs)
Served Agencies
New served agencies American Red Cross Blood Services Northern
California Region (9/2012) Kaiser Foundation Hospitals
Oakland/Richmond (3/2013) In discussion with several prospective served
agencies Participated in exercises with prospective
served agencies (11/2012 and 5/2013)
Served Agencies
Lessons learned: Served Agency Messages Intra-agency: EB-ARES can be on both sides Inter-agency: We can't do the job if the other
agency is not supported by Amateur Radio! If not supported, offer support to that agency If supported by another emcomm program,
collaborate with that agency and emcomm program to ensure effective communications
Opportunities and Challenges
Relevance Member Skills and Equipment Exercises
Relevance
"ARES is full of mostly well-intended, mostly untrained people in silly hats, with radios, producing mostly good effect, mostly by accident."
The challenge is to get the call to be useful to an agency during an incident. That will not happen if the agency believes that ARES will not be useful in that incident.
Member Skills and Equipment
Learn how to send and receive voiced messages: a basic emcomm skill
Learn more efficient (faster, more accurate, more useful) messaging techniques
Candidates Packet NBEMS using MT63 and other modes Winlink 2000
Adds a computer and an interface device to the basic emcomm station
Member Skills and Equipment
The Rim Fire (2013)
“During the activation, Fresno County ARES used [NBEMS] fldigi and flmsg ... to pass traffic from the shelter and the Red Cross headquarters. 'We found that the faster speed and wider signal [resulted in] fewer errors,' Pruitt said, adding that the Red Cross 'was very impressed' with their ability to send and receive traffic in the Incident Command System general message form (ICS-213), filled out and printed.”
http://www.arrl.org/news/ares-races-volunteers-conclude-rim-fire-activation
Exercises
Inside Amateur Radio With the general public With the served agencies
Exercises: Inside Amateur Radio
Contesting HF contests for Generals and up VHF/UHF contests
All hams are eligible Even a single-band HT is useful Could be made into challenging message-
passing exercises Require local coordination and promotion to
create critical mass … but require only that! EB-ARES ECs, AECs, and members can
initiate local activity
Exercises: With the general public
EB-ARES ECs, AECs, and members can initiate local activity
CERT National Night Out (each August) Great California ShakeOut Public service events
Provide an important public-safety service Show the public what we can do Give the public what it wants
Exercises: With the served agencies
They can participate in our exercises ARRL Field Day ARRL Simulated Emergency Test (SET)
We can participate in their exercises We can design exercises jointly Learn how to execute served agency
communications most effectively EB-ARES SEC, DECs, and ECs will do this
What can an interested ham do?
Join ARES and other ham radio emcomm programs Earn the EB-ARES Full Member designation Learn how to send/receive messages by voice Consider upgrading your emcomm station Learn to use more-efficient messaging techniques Participate in exercises already available Encourage your EC to make more exercises available Look for opportunities to meet EB-ARES served
agencies
ARRL East Bay Section ARES
Find ARRL East Bay Section ARES at
arrleastbaysection.org/ares
Twitter: @EB_ARES
ARRL East Bay Section ARES
John Rabold KS6M
Section Emergency Coordinator,ARRL East Bay Section